The easy way to create a smart home with help from tradies

You don’t need to spend a lot of money and time to incorporate smart technology into your home. Here’s how to do it with help from tradies.

Creating a smart home with coordinated controls for lighting, multiroom audio and heating and cooling required an expensive renovation.

But many of those functions are accessible through affordable, consumer-friendly products. Home tech essentials such as multiroom audio systems, that once required expensive equipment and lots of cable, are now easy to put in place with help from tradies.

Jason Charles of Charles Bros Building Contractors said professionals can use technology to create a very personal space in your home.

Consider items that seem most useful for your lifestyle — a smart dimmer, thermostat, speaker or a security camera.

“We can secure a workstation for your home office by adding data and security points for your desktop computer,” he said. “In the lounge room, an electrician can install a home theatre and set up a home automation system to make every movement smoother, like turning off the lights or starting the movie.”

It’s important to consider items that seem most useful for your lifestyle — a smart dimmer, thermostat, speaker, security camera or something else — and add other things later if you find the first device helpful.

Mr Charles said security cameras are also easy to install and worth the investment.

“You can even go to the next level by connecting your security cameras to your phone for monitoring, or replacing locks by touchpads for a full remote security system,” he said.

There are social distancing measures in place but tradies are still able to lend a hand. People can still post jobs online through the hipages platform and tradies can continue to accept jobs.