Smart apartments need smart tech that works together to serve the user. Make it easy to manage and easy to use together and there you go, Bob’s your uncle.
Designing a good smart apartment has to start with the primary system in which the smart technology is connected. This is especially important when it’s serving an entire apartment community. There are various types of smart apartment providers that use a variety of connection types to complete their system like WiFi, or more reliable, efficient types like LoRaWAN. We’re obviously a little biased towards LoRaWAN with our IoT solution, but it’s important to evaluate what is best for your community.
The next important part in designing your smart apartment is the edge devices that can be connected to your system. Typically on the management side, the best practice is to make sure your residents are equipped with the best basics you can provide, then leave the rest to personally install and design themselves. Those basics include:
-A reliable, fast WiFi connection
-Smart thermostat
-Smart door lock
It goes without saying that all these smart technologies require a certain level of cooperation apps on mobile and desktop devices for users to wirelessly control. This is another place where a solution specially designed for multifamily communities comes in handy. With multiple devices that communicate and work together, the number of apps needed should be consolidated down to be as user friendly as possible.
When designing a smart apartment, it's important to have some goals in mind–especially when you're building with your residents' best interest in mind. With the wide variety of options available to customize for each property, having overarching goals will help bring the issues you are trying to solve to light.
Potential Cost and Energy Savings
With a smart thermostat installed in every unit, renters have more control over creating thermostat schedules so that it's only being used when needed. Also, renters have remote control to access and change temperatures whenever and wherever they need.
Self control with apps
Having an app with a smart apartment system nowadays is a must. A system without remote capabilities won’t compete against one that does. With this goal, it is also just as important to have user centered design around UI and UX. If an app does not look good and flow well to anticipate users’ next moves, then it is less helpful than if it didn’t exist.
Offering a deserving service
Desirable apartment amenities have moved away from solely being fancy pools, gym access and more. Instead renters are focused on digital amenities around being provided a service. These smart apartment systems are SaaS (Software as a Service) systems that benefit renters daily lives around their work, families, party hosting and more. It is a much deeper connection that affects their home and not just the apartment community as a whole.
In my book, having a smart apartment that stands out goes two ways. First, it is a solid system as a whole that is reliable and desirable for renters and property staff. Second, it provides renters additional options.
On the system side, as we spoke about above, the connection type that the system works off of is extremely important. In several smart home providers this retrofitted connection is centered around WiFi, which can conflict with separate WiFi connections around a property that provide internet to renters, and some other potential conflicts. On the flip side, a more efficient and longer range connection like LoRaWAN can provide a much smoother system experience.
On the second note, a good smart apartment system should offer the ability for renters to add little extra smart touches to round out the basics that apartment properties provide.
There are lots of smart apartment solutions out there, and it is important to evaluate how these solutions affect renters and they can benefit them as well. Quext IoT is a great starting point for any apartment community.