Have you ever wanted an automated smart home but been put off by the high costs and complex technology? Creating a functional and personalised smart home doesn't necessarily involve exorbitant technical capabilities and costs.
This guide will see three simple steps to transform your home into a custom smart home with Tapo products. Their range of surveillance cameras, light bulbs, and smart plugs is intelligent, simple, and integrated into a single app!
What is a Smart Home?
A smart home is where Internet of Things (IoT) devices are connected to the Internet and communicate to create an integrated home system. They make life easier and optimise energy consumption.
In a smart home, you can create routines that automate various actions. It might include turning the coffee machine on at dawn, starting the irrigation system at night, turning the lights on or off at the desired time, and ensuring your property is safe through camera surveillance.
Smart homes have many advantages compared with traditional homes. While smart speakers and security systems are currently the most in-demand solutions, IoT touches many aspects of home life. You can manage your appliances and lighting systems remotely, monitor your home, send alerts for suspicious activities, and save on your energy bills.
Advantages at a glance:
• Automation and Comfort
• Energy saving
• Safety
• Personalisation
• Total control of your home
3 simple steps
The first step in turning your home into a smart home is ensuring that a wireless network covers your home.
Second, you need to connect all the smart devices to your home network.
Finally, you need to manage your smart home simply and intuitively. It will give you complete control of your smart home no matter where you are.
These steps do not involve complex technical manipulations and exorbitant costs as one might imagine. Tapo offers a range of convenient smart home products that are easy to install and manage, integrated into one app.
1. Reliable WiFi Connection
First, it's essential to ensure you have wireless coverage in your smart home. Consider whether it's necessary to extend it with a range extender, a powerline, or a mesh system. TP-Link offers various solutions to optimise your wireless network connection with the most suitable product for your needs. Once you've created a wireless network for your home, you are ready to install your smart home devices.
2. Install Smart Devices
Surveillance cameras, light bulbs, and smart plugs are integral to creating a smart home. Home security is at the top of the needs for most approaching the IoT world. Smart WiFi cameras are the easiest and cheapest way to control your smart home from anywhere. Smart bulbs allow you to customise the best lighting for every smart home occasion. Many appliances in your house can be turned into smart devices simply by connecting them to a smart plug.
Let's find out the features and benefits of all these smart home devices.
Smart WiFi Home Cameras
It's essential to monitor your home for safety when away from home. It is also helpful to watch pets or children when we have to leave the room they are in temporarily.
Tapo's smart home WiFi surveillance cameras have many features:
• Advanced Night Vision – High-definition shooting even at night
• Safe Storage - Video storage on MicroSD Card up to 256GB (the Tapo Care Cloud subscription service is available now)
• Live View – View and share movies saved through the app in real-time
• Sound and Motion Detection – Notifies you in real-time when the camera detects movement
• Sound and Light Alarm – Trigger light and sound effects to frighten away unwanted visitors
• Two-way Audio - Communicate with a loved one near the camera.
• Voice Control – Free up your hands with voice control (when associated with a smart speaker)
The Tapo smart home series offers various models with Full HD and HD resolutions. Among indoor cameras, the Tapo C110 has a fixed frame, and the Tapo C210 features a pan/tilt motion, allowing you to rotate the camera horizontally and vertically. For outdoor cameras, we have the Tapo C320WS, which has a high-sensitive starlight sensor that captures higher-quality images even in low-light conditions.
Installation is super easy. Just connect the Tapo smart home camera to the power outlet and home WiFi. You can monitor your smart home directly from your smartphone through the Tapo app, no matter where you are. You can also control it using voice commands by pairing it with a smart speaker.
Smart WiFi Lighting
Smart home WiFi lighting allows you to create an ambiance tailored to you by setting brightness, temperature, and even light color. It can be controlled from an app or with voice commands.
The Tapo smart home series offers various lightings products: The Tapo L530E bulb allows you to quickly create scenes and everyday life by setting brightness, temperature, and color, with a range of 16,000,000 shades. The Tapo L920-5 light strip allows you to immerse yourself with dynamic light effects and sense the infinite move feeling via its Sync-to-Sound mode.
Features of Tapo smart home bulbs:
• Multicolor - Easily design scenarios for your daily routine or activities by customizing brightness, light temperature, and colors–with 16,000,000 hues to choose from.
• Dimmable – Dimming ranges from 1 per cent to 100 per cent
• Preset – Save your favorite lighting as a setting for future movie nights
• Schedule & Timer - Create schedules and count plans to turn on/off with the brightness/color you set
• Away Mode - Turn the lights on or off randomly to simulate someone being at home
• Sunrise & Sunset Modes – Automatically activate your light according to your time zone
• Remote Control - Control the lights via the app remotely
• Voice Control - Manage the lights with voice commands as Tapo works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant
• No Hub Required – Connect the smart bulb to your home WiFi
Features of Tapo smart home light strips:
• Multiple Color & Effects – Control 50 separate color zones and bring vibrant joy to your life
• External Protection – Easy maintenance and extended lifespan thanks to PU coating
• No Hub Required - Connect to your smart home's secure WiFi network. No need for a hub or extra equipment
• Flexible Installation - Cut it to whatever length you want and attach it to any surface with the 3M adhesive
• Preset for Convenience - Save your favorite lighting as a setting for future events
• Schedule & Timer - Create schedules and count plans to turn on/off with the brightness/color you set
• Sync-to-Sound – Bounce to the beat of your favorite tunes. Coordinate the vibrant colors to your songs and fill your life with energy
• Away Mode - Simulate someone being at home to frighten away unwanted visitors
• Connect It Your Way - Use it with your smart assistant, a hub, or connect directly to the Tapo app. Control the Light Strip however you want
• Voice Control - Use simple voice commands to control your light strip with Alexa or Google Assistant
Smart WiFi Plugs
Smart plugs give you complete control over the connected devices, even when away from home. You can check if everything is off or on wherever you are and manage your devices remotely, which truly turns your house into a smart home.
Multiple features are accessible to control via app or voice commands:
• Schedule – Preset a schedule to manage devices automatically
• Timer – Create countdown timer lists for connected electronics
• Energy Monitoring – Monitor real-time power consumption and energy spend via the Tapo app (currently only available for specific models)
• Voice Control – Manage your smart plug with voice commands via Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant
• Away Mode – Automatically turns devices on and off at different times to give the appearance that someone is home
• Compact Design – Mini-sized to avoid blocking adjacent sockets (currently only available for specific models)
• Easy Setup and Use – No hub required, set up quickly and manage easily through the free app
• Remote Control – Instantly turn connected devices on/off wherever you are through the Tapo app
There are so many devices that can be connected to a smart home Wi-Fi plug, such as:
• lamps;
• fans;
• mobile device chargers;
• dehumidifiers; and
• air fresheners.
Tapo offers various models of smart plugs for your smart home, including the very compact Tapo P100. It has an unbeatable price, but it also comes in a 4-piece kit that is very useful and instantly makes your home smart. The Tapo P110 can monitor real-time power consumption and energy spending via the Tapo app to save smarter by managing your appliances for when electricity is cheaper.
3. Control your smart home from one app
Among the advantages of choosing a single ecosystem for your smart home, the first is managing your entire smart home from a single app. The Tapo app allows you to view and control all the Tapo smart home devices installed in your smart home. It's also possible to create automated actions and scenarios that integrate the features of multiple devices. For example, by applying the "goodnight" scene, all the smart lights in the house can be turned off. At the same time, the surveillance cameras are activated, and the smart plug connected to the lamp in the children's room can be turned on.
Tapo app features:
• Step-by-step instructions for installing your smart home devices
• Remote monitoring and control of your smart home devices
• Firmware updates
• Manage the smart home devices together with family members
• Create scenes
• Pairing smart home devices with voice assistants
Download the Tapo app for Android or iOS.
