When it comes to smart homes in general, it is no surprise that the majority of the gadgets you own will require some sort of connectivity to be used to their maximum potential. Your wifi network is the center to your smart home, and the stronger it is, the stronger your smart devices will perform.
While it is nice to have the fastest network possible, the standard smart home doesn’t require a high speed connection unless you have too many devices transmitting data all at once. In reality, the way to actually answer the question, “How fast does the internet need to be for my smart home?” is answered by how you intend to utilize it.
The Cameron County smart home builders of Smart Home Constructions LTD want to help out with a little bit of information we’ve picked up along the way regarding your internet connection to better determine how much bandwidth is actually needed for your current, or future, smart home.
How Internet Connection Speeds are Measured
Megabits per second (Mbps) is the standard way of measuring how fast your internet connection is, where one megabit is equal to 1,000 kilobits. But faster speeds exist such as Gbps–gigabits per second, where one gigabit is equal to 1,000 megabits.
On the other hand, bandwidth refers to how much data is transferable from one point to another within a certain period of time. Think about a water hose. The more water a hose can deliver into an empty pool, the faster it will fill up. A garden hose may get the job done eventually, but a fire hose can accomplish the task much quicker.
When looking for an internet provider for your smart home, it’s important to take into consideration the amount of bandwidth and Mbps you will need in order to run your smart home. For example, sending a tweet requires less bandwidth versus streaming a movie in high definition.
Factors To Consider
You don’t need to have incredibly fast internet speeds to effectively use your smart home devices.
Smart thermostats, smart locks, lightbulbs and even devices such as Google Home or Amazon Echo only require tiny amounts of data since they are on a command basis and don’t require a lot of streaming data usage.
However, if you installed devices that use a camera, you will need an internet data package that offers more Mbps–or Gbps if available–and a decent amount of bandwidth. Security cameras, video doorbells, and any other visual monitors are what eat bandwidth, especially if recording in high definition.
The good news is, you can always adjust the settings on those devices and program them to stream and upload at a lower resolution to conserve bandwidth for your other smart devices. The image quality may suffer, but it’ll be beneficial in the long run, especially if your internet package is restrictive of data.
A Good Rule of Thumb
To ultimately determine how much bandwidth is required for your smart home, it all comes down to the number of devices you have and if any of them record video. If your internet service only runs just enough to handle a smart home, then take these two things into accountability:
- Add 5 Mbps to your internet service plan for every 10-12 non-video recording smart devices.
- Add 10 Mbps to your internet service plan if you have devices that records, streams, and uploads video.
Are you currently thinking about building a home soon? If so, why not make it into a smart home? Contact Smart Home Construction today at (956) 428-6607 for more information on how we can build the home of your dreams.
