Cars (Part 2)

In the last blog post, I talked about cars and control of some of their systems. To recap, the idea of manually doing things like remembering to turn off the radio in a modern car is laughable, because so much is automated. Do you know what else is laughable? Buying a new car and then having to go out and buy speakers for it. Or buying a sat nav for it. Or a Bluetooth handsfree kit. We used to have to add those things, but now we expect them or at least know we want them at the time of buying.

For now, let's think about technology directly:

So, we spec a new car with the equipment we want and we expect there to be a certain level of technology in a used, but relatively new car. In our homes, often we tell ourselves that we don't want technology, in some vain attempt of a simpler life. What happens next? We go and add it on later. We get little Bluetooth speakers that sit out on countertops and get in the way when cleaning. Or, we get WiFi extenders that offer sub-par performance, and actually make things worse for our home networks in the long run. Our smart lighting isn't all that smart if it relies on a cloud-based solution to work fully.

A couple of problems exist here. One is simply not knowing the best solution for the problems that we've created for ourselves. That's an example of when it is best to hire a home technology professional to guide you and do it for you. The second problem is the denial of wanting these solutions in the first place.

If you're building, think about what tech you really rely on now.

Chances are you want rock-solid, whole-house WiFi that you don't have to think about. You won't get this from your ISP (BT, Sky, Talk Talk). If it's free equipment, just remember it's free for a reason.

Even if not initially, someday you'll want smart lighting. You probably won't want to have to use an app or be reliant on an internet connection to get your lights to come on.

Are you just planning to get a normal heating time clock and worry about energy efficiently later? Maybe installing a 2 zone (with hot water) Nest thermostat solution isn't as simple for you to do yourself as Nest might suggest. Just ask my last customer!

DIY can lead to a great sense of achievement, but sometimes it's great to just have our home work for us.