It’s no stretch to say that all homes will be smart homes fairly soon. Most people already have smart TVs, as well as washing machines, fridges, microwaves, and other appliances that connect to mobile apps. Taking the leap and connecting all aspects of your home to the internet is something you won’t regret.
It’s not just a sense of inevitably that should lead you to upgrade your home. There are great benefits to turning your home into a smart home. These include added security, with new innovations providing huge updates to traditional technology.
Many homeowners are worried about the internet speed they need to run a smart home. Most people now have speeds of at least 10 mbps, which allows them to stream video without lags. However, does this change if your entire home is connected to the wifi? If so, how fast do you need your internet to be?
How important is speed in a smart home?
To answer thiszquestion, it is necessary to consider exactly what your smart home needs in terms of internet speed. It is easy to assume that you need high-speed internet so that your smart home functions without giving you any trouble. The reality is that, depending on the smart devices you are using, you don’t necessarily need all that much speed.
For things like smart locks and smart lights, the amount of bandwidth used to connect them is minimal. Even if you have a slow connection, these devices are going to work without harming your general connectivity.
However, things like smart cameras that connect to the wifi use a lot of bandwidth and require significant speed. This is because they are constantly live-streaming footage. While you can turn the resolution low, you will still need a few mbps free.
Will your smart devices impact internet speed?
In today’s world, we use the internet for everything, whether it is working from home or watching TV. As such, high speed internet is necessary at all times. Having smart devices connected to your wifi will impact your speed. As mentioned, some devices use minimal bandwidth, but if you have connected multiple wifi cameras around the house, you may find yourself struggling with other online functions.
It is important to avoid a situation where your devices are essentially fighting for the same bandwidth. Your connection should accommodate all your devices working at the same time, with some extra bandwidth to spare.
What speed do you need?
Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. If you have a smart home with high-bandwidth devices like cameras, what kind of internet speed do you need? Of course, the more bandwidth the better, but not everyone can afford speeds of hundreds of mbps.
If your current bandwidth is providing what you need with a little bit extra to spare, you will need to add to your speed, depending on how many devices you have. You will be best served by adding at least 5 mbps to your internet speed for every ten smart devices. You may need more if those devices are heavy bandwidth users.
There are ways to upgrade your home to a smart home without too much extra speed. Instead of splashing out on the best wifi cameras, get cameras that do the job at a low resolution. You can minimize the amount of bandwidth they use by doing so.
Ultimately, the more expensive your smart home upgrades are, the more expensive they’re going to be to maintain. Turning your home into a smart home is a great idea, but you do not need the best devices available. If you don’t want to splash out high monthly fees on the fastest internet connections, you should go for devices that require as little bandwidth as possible.