Road to Smart Homes in India: Concept Demystified

The ‘Smart Home’ concept is making a buzz in the Indian real estate sector with many residential spaces creators of spacious homes surfacing this concept in their projects. However, it is a western coined concept that has been widely considered across India. It lets owners have a life full of luxury, comfort, energy efficiency, security and convenience. According to Seedwill Consulting, Gurgaon smart homes caterers to a minor share of only about 3-4 per cent of the total residential spaces. But with increased demand for housing and higher per capita incomes, the Realty market for these structures is definitely witnessing a surge.

Concept Decoded

Ever thought about why it is even termed as ‘Smart Homes‘? More or less the depiction of a ‘Smart Home’ is that it consists of various smart installations that let you have control on the functioning either via your home or from a remote location. The establishment of this control network allows a user to have control over the appliances installed through electronic means. The appliances include TVs, PCs, audio systems and video setups, heating elements, lighting sources and air conditioning setups as well as surveillance camera systems.

Technology Drivers

‘Smart Homes’ take in the installation of automation devices that are designed in typically four protocols configuration based-on specific task for communication with each other. Moreover, these devices should be made compatible with the internet, cell phones. Mentioned below are the four protocols:

1. Z-Wave protocol
2. UPB Protocol
3. X10 Protocol
4. EnOcean Protocol

Also, homeowners or residents can also add devices or hardware that uses the same network protocol as per their usage and budget to suffice the increasing needs.

Highlighting Features:

There are a lot many highlights that the ‘Smart Homes’ usually offer to the homeowner to have access to within the premises of their smart structures.

• Main gates can be accessed via electronic means to guard your home entrance
• Secondary doors opening and closing automatically or manual mode on your arrival or exit
• Lights turning On/Off/dimming as per your needs.
• Automatic water cutoff or start from motor flowing from a tap-based
• Easy access to different devices to control lighting, your entertainment systems, the room temperature, your home appliances, your home security systems etc.

Benefits of the Setup

‘Smart Homes’ are really advantageous to the elderly age group of a home. The built-in system can trigger alerts for various tasks that are scheduled on a timeline. In case of any, injury the nearby medical facility is alerted. Moreover, if an elderly aged group requires urgent aid or in case of a health emergency they just need to press a soft panic key at their panel screen.

Developers End and Price Range

Smart Homes are now a new normal and developers are incorporating the western concept to built thoughtfully designed smart homes in all major cities of India like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. Some of the major residential Realty developers offering the ‘Smart Homes’ concept across India are Shoba Developers, Prestige Group, Lodha Group, Wadhwa Group, Hiranandani Developers, DLF, Supertech, VGN Developers, Puravankara Projects, Marvel Realtors etc. Inclusive of all installations of the devices while building a smart home it will cost nearly Rs.1.5-2 crore to the home buyer or an end-user to reside in such a project.