AW Poll: You prefer to use these smarthome devices
The use of smart equipment is increasing at an ever faster rate, partly driven by the lower costs of such smart equipment and the general awareness of the equipment within society. Which smart home equipment does the Androidworld reader use? You will find out all about it in the AW Poll result.
Smarthome equipment
‘Smart furnishing’ a house often starts with a package of smart lamps and ends with curtains that can be opened on command without having to perform an action yourself. Everything that you could ‘smarten up’ now seems to be available in a smart form. Companies where you do not expect smart products to offer these more and more often. Take Hema or Action, for example, where nowadays you can purchase a smart lamp from Tuya for less than 10 euros.
Although the range of such stores is not necessarily unique, low prices of the products do make furnishing a home with smart home products more accessible. What also contributes to the entry of smart products into the home is the ease of use. From the telephone or with a voice command at home, you can have your action carried out in one go without having to get out of the couch.
Disadvantages of smart equipment
Smarthome products can also do more and more tasks automatically without having to give a command themselves. So far it sounds ‘heavenly’, but such products are not without drawbacks. Take, for example, the privacy and security aspects that are questioned, especially with cheaper products. At the same time, the price of a product does not necessarily say anything about the protection of your personal data.
Another disadvantage of smart home products is the uncertain lifespan. Many products use your WiFi connection to be able to perform actions via the servers of the manufacturer. If a company stops support for a product or falls itself – for example in a bankruptcy – then the cleverness is gone. You can prevent this by purchasing products with support from, for example, Zigbee or Zwave, which you can continue to operate if you purchase a separate Zigbee hub, such as the Homey.
AW Poll: what have you got?
Every year we ask for your favorite smart home equipment in our AW Poll. Last Tuesday, the smarthome edition of 2021 was broadcast and this time I will take you through the results of the AW Poll. Comparable to previous years, the Chromecast is in the first place, with 15.7 percent of readers saying they use the Chromecast or similar equipment. Smart lighting ranks second with 12.6 percent of the vote, and remains a popular category. Smart speakers such as Nest Audio also remain popular, with 11.4 percent of readers saying they have a smart speaker at home.
A third and fourth place are respectively given to smart switches such as KlikAanKlikUit or the WeMo switches (9.7 percent) and the smart thermostats such as the Nest Thermostat (8 percent). The smart door lock remains a category that is lagging well behind other smart home products, with only 0.9 percent of readers using such a smart door lock.
What is your favorite smart product at home? And which smart products are you still planning to introduce in your ‘smart home’? Be sure to let us know in the comments at the bottom of the article. Would you like to discuss smarthome equipment with other Androidworld readers? Then surf directly to Telegram and join the smarthome group from and for Androidworld readers.
