In recent times, smart homes have become increasingly popular among many people. This might be down to the fact that they provide an elevated sense of comfort, convenience, and safety for homeowners.
Many tech heavyweights have joined the race to control the smart home industry. Among those companies include Google, Apple, Amazon, and Xiaomi. Xiaomi is a tech giant from China that is renowned for manufacturing some cost-effective technology products.
The company launched Aqara, which is its smart home line that manufactures smart home products to fit homeowners’ needs. Nowadays, Aqara has become the go-to brand for homeowners in search of convenient and affordable smart devices to automate their homes.
Aqara Smart Home Devices
Here is the smart home devices you need to know about when building an Aqara smart home;
- An Aqara Hub – The Aqara hub acts as the brain of the entire smart home system to control all the other smart devices. For those searching for Homekit-compatible devices, the Aqara hub is one of those devices.
- Aqara Smart Plug(s) – This is the smart device that lets you control all the non-smart devices in your home. Also, the Aqara smart plug ensures energy control and protection against overloading.
- Door and Window Sensor(s)- These Aqara devices are tasked with ensuring that they alert you whenever movement is detected close to your windows or whenever your door is opened. Depending on your preferences, you can have these Aqara sensors sent alerts to your mobile phone or indeed a smart speaker whenever any movement on your doors or windows is detected. You can also connect to your local alarm so that it can generate a siren whenever it detects such movements.
- Aqara Motion Detector(s) – To add to your Aqara-powered smart home is the Aqara motion detector. This smart device can sense whenever someone comes near to it, and it can be integrated with your alarm system or smart lights. For example, when it’s integrated with your smart lights, it can power up those smart lights whenever someone enters your house.
- Aqara Vibration Sensor – The battery-operated Aqara vibration sensor detects vibration, tilt, and drop. Similar to other Aqara devices, it will only work when connected to an Aqara hub.
- Aqara Wireless Mini-switches – These switches, when installed, can serve multiple purposes depending on your needs. For example, you can use it to turn on your light fixtures, plugs, smart speakers, or any other smart devices connected to it.
- Aqara Temperature and Humidity Sensor – As the name suggests, this device keeps your home’s temperature and humidity levels in check. This is to ensure that whenever you’re home, the temperature is in your comfort zone.
- Aqara Water Sensor – This device monitors any water leak and flooding that could occur. Whenever wither is detected, the device triggers an alarm.
Setting Up the Xiamoi Aqara Smart Hub
After you’ve purchased all the products, the next step is to set up all of them together. So how do you do it? Firstly you’ll need to install the Aqara hub which is the brain that controls all the other smart devices.
First up, ensure the Aqara hub is permanently powered on. After you’ve plugged in your Aqara hub, the next step is to download the Aqara Home app. The essence of the app is that it simplifies how you control all the devices.
The Aqara Home is available for free in both Playstore and Appstore for Android and iOS users, respectively. Once the app is up and running, you can press the power button on your Aqara hub and watch it pop up on the Aqara app.
Press connect, and when the two have paired successfully, you’ll see a blue light appear on your Aqara Gateway hub.
When the Aqara hub is connected, you now will need to add various smart devices to your Aqara Home app.
Connecting the Smart Devices
Every Aqara smart device serves an individual purpose that is both unique and important to your smart home. For this reason, ensure that all the smart devices are connected as per the manual provided.
Some of the devices such as door and window sensors can be glued at the back of the door and window, respectively. Most of the Aqara smart devices are small in size, and therefore, can be placed in the tiniest of spaces, and they’ll still function effectively.
After you’ve mounted all your Aqara sensors, and plugged in all the other smart devices in your Aqara collection, ensure that they all appear on the Aqara Home app and that they are all paired.
With Aqara products, you can create endless scenes with them and have them incorporate your daily routine.
Integration of the Aqara Products With Other Smart Home Products
One of the best features of the Aqara smart home products is that they can be easily integrated with other smart devices and platforms.
All Aqara smart products are compatible with Apple Homekit, which means that you can use Siri to give voice commands to your devices and have them respond accordingly. Also, the Aqara smart plug and Aqara hub are compatible with Google Assistant.
You can control the two by giving voice commands to Google Assistant. Lastly, the Aqara humidity and temperature sensor, Aqara hub, and motion sensors can be integrated with Alexa.
If you download the Alexa app and connect it with your Aqara Home app, you can control the smart devices with Alexa serving as the digital voice assistant.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for low-cost smart home products, Aqara is all you need. All their products have a very high-quality and appealing design while also guaranteeing an easy set-up process.
Since Aqara products’ compatibility is based on the Aqara hub, there will always be room for expansion. With Aqara smart products, smart home buyers are guaranteed both safety and convenience in your home.
If, for the longest you have associated smart home products with pulling cables and some awful switchboards, the growing range of Aqara smart home products will make you forget all that.
If you are still feeling a little muddled up and looking for some help, then check out my Smart Home in 8 Weeks course designed to take you from zero to a fully integrated smart home!