5 Smart Home Design Mistakes Consultants Make.
Solar Panel installation benefits Featuring Home Automation Errors
In our 12 years of home automation, we list 5 major mistakes consultants make when designing smart homes without a sustainable solar energy solutions with innovative Solar Panel and other Home automation systems.
A 2022 research by PWC revealed that there are about 42 million housing units in Nigeria.
From this figure, 31.6 million are substandard, this leaves only about 10.4 million houses standardized..
Because the “smart home” industry is a relatively new concept in Nigeria; it features in mostly modern & standardized homes.
Another 2020 research by Statista showed that smart homes in Nigeria had a penetration of 12%.
This number is bound to grow along with the projected real estate growth of 2.9% because many homeowners and consultants are now opting for smart homes.
At HAUSBA, we believe the future will bring every device working together.
Whether in our homes, businesses, or leisure dwellings, integrating the right smart design becomes an integral part of our very existence.
Smart Homes Design: Mistakes Consultants Make
1) Utility Room
Forgetting to provide a utility room is the first error we see consultants make with smart home design.
A utility room is the “equipment room” for managing electrical and back-up power systems in the home.
This includes Solar power inverters, backup batteries, central lighting panels and uninterrupted power supply system.
This error comes mostly from architects who don’t factor this space into their ultimate designs.
So, it ends up becoming an afterthought nearing a project’s completion, which gets very expensive to rectify.
Most of the time, architects try to salvage the situation by sharing this space with a cooling room. This is a no-no.
Your best bet is to carve out a section of an existing room to be the utility room.
As a consultant, read the 10 home cinema checklist that would help reduce error with your design.
2. AV Room
Another design mistake smart homes companies in Nigeria make is not including an AV Room.
An AV room is a dedicated room within the home most preferable away from electrical panels and power system.
In this room, you keep equipment such as home security and networking systems which could run with an uninterrupted supply of solar energy received from the installed solar panels audio, video, and more.
You should keep an AV room out of sight and protected away from access by unauthorized persons, especially kids.
Also, install artificial cooling below the devices rack to avoid water leakage for a steady room temperature below 26 degrees celsius.
A room size of 2m by 1.5m will accommodate one AV equipment rack. You will need a larger room to add more equipment.
A CEDIA certified AV company is your best option for employing professional design documentation.
We offer FREE AV consultation to partner architects and M&E consultants at Hausba.
Contact us for your FREE consultations today.
3. Staircase & Hallway walls
Where consultants fall short with this aspect of smart home design is the lack of adequate planning.
The staircase and hallway help with access to several portions of a home.
Therefore, we need to hide electrical wires and distribution panels need to eliminate unsightly panels from littering the beautiful walls.
Moreso, having an electrical moving from floor to floor in the bid to access electrical panels during maintenance poses a threat to privacy and security in the home.
All lighting and electrical panels should be in a central utility room in the home.
4. Backup Systems
On two occasions, we have seen consultants forget to provide backup solutions when designing smart homes.
A common backup for the unreliable power supply is installing Inverters/Solar systems using solar energy
The lump sum costs might be daunting at first, but the convenience the client enjoys afterward will be worth the expense.
In addition, we can periodically upgrade these systems for optimum performance.
A backup solution for unreliable internet service is to pair your fiber optic internet connections with Wi-Fi routers.
The rationale is when one internet service fails, the other can make up for it.
5. Beauty Over Functionality
Another design consultants make with smart homes is prioritising beauty over functionality with large windows or glass walls.
We’ve seen many smart home designs where the architects prioritised glass walls or large windows over regular walls. Then, panic when it’s time to install TVs or wall speakers.
While large windows or glass walls are pleasing to the eye, they attract more cons than pros.
There are workarounds for this problem, however, they attract additional costs to the clients.
One popular solution is TVs that emerge from the ceiling or installing drop-down projector screens in place of a TV.
6. Smart home Solar Energy?
Smart technology and solar energy using solar panels can create a self-sufficient household in the future. In the 21st century, there are barely any limits to technology, leading to more opportunities that make lives much easier.
Smart home automation can simplify everyday tasks, but it will still require energy to run. Solar energy can be used to create a loop where the property continues to generate energy from the sun.
Solar panels may also connect directly to smart home gadgets, such as programmable thermostats and light sensors.
Undoubtedly, the world needs to adapt to renewable energy eventually. With the continuous development of solar energy using solar panels and smart technology, homeowners and business owners may fully benefit from what solar power offers in terms of efficiency and cost savings.
As a growing number of people consider installing solar panels, a drastic change in the relationship between utilities and consumers is on the horizon. Sooner or later, the world will no longer need to rely on the grid to power homes.
Conclusion On Smart Homes Design In Nigeria And Mistake To Avoid
Consultants ultimately need to collaborate among themselves.
That way, they can easily flag ahead loopholes of a project’s execution to avoid expensive corrective measures down the line.
Who are these consultants/professionals?
Architects, M&E Consultants, project managers, custom electronic integrators, Manufacturers, and home technology professionals.
Guidance in home technology systems to incorporate their scope becomes vital to the success of any smart home design.
So, it’s critical that you seek the consultation of a certified Smart Homes Companies In Nigeria for the design of the project and emphasize on the installation of a Solar panel for solar energy usage.
At HAUSBA, we offer a range of professional AV award-winning design services.
