Home Inspection for Your Smart Home

Today’s smart homes come with additional considerations when having a home inspection. In addition to assessing the traditional systems of a home, a smart home system adds another layer which requires its own considerations during a home inspection.

What do you love most about the smart features in your home? They can help you with so many of the otherwise redundant tasks in your home, and in some cases help keep you safe. And yes, we inspect these too.

Smart homes usually have some, or all, of the following features:

Smart Home Hub

Some homes have varying pieces of smart equipment, perhaps from unrelated systems, and others were installed with a full system that includes a smart home hub. These hubs allow for the control of all of the devices within the home. Making sure that a hub, when present, functions properly is key.

Smart Locks

For several years smart locks have been available to be installed on any residential door and are one of the most common components of a smart home. Some of these use touchscreen technology, some use bluetooth and proximity in connection with a mobile phone. Some can alert owners when someone enters or tries to open the door without knowing the code or using a proper method. Testing these locks by using an existing code or mobile app makes sure the lock is functioning properly.

Smart Thermostats

Even older homes are having smart thermostats installed more and more often, and they are pretty standard in newer construction. Many of these can be controlled by mobile phones or have custom schedules set for heating and cooling. Some also have built-in function to test their accuracy.

Smart Lighting

Having an ability to control lighting in your house either through a remote or a mobile app, or through voice activation, can allow you to turn off lights in rooms you forgot before heading to bed, or possibly even allow you to mimic some natural movement in your home while you are gone on vacation. Making sure these systems are responsive helps make sure they are working properly.

High-Tech Appliances

It is increasingly common for new appliances to have smart technology features, and when assessing the overall condition of these newer appliances, one of the first thing a home inspector checks is the touch screen. Things such as extreme temperatures can cause these screens to degrade and become unresponsive over time.

Extended Smart Home Functions

Some smart home systems have additional functions such as detecting water leaks through the use of moisture sensors, test the HVAC efficiency in different parts of the home which may help find drafts, and even cameras with night vision that could help find things like a mouse sneaking into the house.

Maintaining Smart Features

It’s a relatively new concept that your home may need software updates. Knowing where to find information on update smart home systems can allow homeowners to avoid future problems with out-of-date software. Knowing how and when to change batteries in those systems that require it, and how to test after replacement, can also help keep the systems running smoothly.


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