A Non-Techie Living in a Smart Home: What's it like?
"Imagine waking up every day and realising you’re the least ‘smart’ thing in your home. Blow to the confidence? You bet." – My wife
Introducing my wife, Ranita. She's here to give you a non-techie's perspective on living in a smart home.
In all seriousness, as someone with (let’s call them) baseline tech abilities – living in a smart home has definitely been a learning experience. For those of you starting out with smart tech and without a computer science degree, consider me your reassurance: it's both easy and worth it.
With eyes wide open, here’s what you’re getting yourself into…
1. You’ll Forget That Your Smart Home Still Has Light Switches
One evening my husband came home to find me sitting in the darkness, in the fetal position.
The internet was down and “Alexa, evening mode” wasn’t working.
I’d temporarily forgotten our lights had real switches.
Lesson:
The best smart tech is so seamless it just becomes part of your routine. So seamless, in fact, that a dodgy NBN connection can feel like a system-wide shutdown.
2. Smart Tech is Plug-&-Play (Mostly)
If you plan to use your smart devices the way the box intended, setup is almost always plug-and-play.
Case in point:
We recently gifted the IKEA Smart Home Hub and switches to my father (fellow non-techie). He added, removed, and reconfigured his setup without needing help.
Meanwhile at our place, the same IKEA hub has been hacked to do things IKEA probably never dreamed of — thanks to my husband. 🙄
Either way, it's easy to get smart quickly.
3. It’s Easy to Control Your Smarts
I’ve got a handful of apps that keep our smart home humming – all from my iPhone.
Sure, most of the control happens via Alexa voice commands, but I also have apps like:
- Ring (for the doorbell)
- Sensibo (for the air conditioning)
- And a few others I tap maybe once a week
They're intuitive. No coding needed. And with a shared family login, everyone in the house (even kids) can get involved.
BONUS: You’ll Laugh at Confused Guests
I once walked in to hear our family guests loudly yelling, “Alexis, turn on the TV!”
Two things:
- Who is Alexis?
- Our TV wasn’t voice-controlled.
I let them struggle for a good five minutes before handing over the remote.
Worth it.
I hope you enjoyed this small glimpse into smart home life from a non-techie point of view.
If you’re curious to learn more about smart home tech, you’ll love the rest of the blog.