Demystifying Smart Tech: A Quick Glossary for Installers
This article by Ryan Bromley, Co-Founder of Kubu Smart Security 🔒 was first published in Total Installer Magazine September 2024 Edition.
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As the fenestration industry evolves, the integration of smart technology into windows and doors is rapidly becoming the new standard.
For installers, this shift presents a dual challenge: keeping up with technological advancements and clearly communicating these innovations to homeowners.
To navigate this landscape, it’s essential to understand the key terms that define the future of smart fenestration. With changes happening daily, it’s easy to get confused, so I thought I’d break down the most common terms, helping you stay ahead of the curve and ensuring your customers get the best possible experience.
Smart Locks
Let’s start with smart locks, one of the most visible and recognisable advancements in home security.
Developed purely for a home’s entrance door, a smart lock is not what we’d traditionally call a ‘lock’ — it’s a device that can be fitted to your customers door that automatically turns the cylinder to lock and unlock a door using a mobile device, keypad, fingerprint or other input device.
This means homeowners can secure their doors with the tap of a button, even when they’re miles away, and can access the home without the need for a traditional key.
For installers, smart locks represent a decent upsell, and an opportunity to offer modern security devices to those customers interested in modern tech. The downside is that they can be quite expensive, awkward to fit, and a lot of consumers don’t like the look of them – meaning the market is quite small.
Smart Sensors
Smart sensors are little devices that are discreetly integrated into door AND window hardware, providing real-time status updates directly to the homeowner’s smartphone, without altering the appearance of the customer’s home.
Designed to cover the whole home, Smart sensors are the key to transforming ordinary windows and doors into smart, connected security solutions. They are low maintenance and offer many additional features like tamper detection or attack alerts, making them a valuable addition to any security-conscious home.
Imagine being able to check whether all windows are locked or receiving an alert if a door is tampered with — from anywhere in the world.
The ability to provide security info around the whole home, and being pretty inexpensive (whole home coverage for a similar price to just one Smart Lock), means that Smart Sensors are an attractive proposition to a wide range of consumers, from tech savvy first time buyers to elderly relatives.
For installers, fitting smart sensors is straightforward, requiring no additional work or calibration—just install and forget.
Smart Enabled (and other similar phrases)
A term that’s often misunderstood, “smart enabled” refers to the fitting of door and window locking hardware that is equipped to integrate with smart technology, though it doesn’t include the actual smart sensors.
This distinction is crucial for both installers and homeowners.
Smart enabled products are prepped for smart integration, meaning homeowners can easily upgrade to a fully smart solution at a later date without needing to replace their doors or windows. This upgradeability is a selling point for Installers, as they are offering flexibility and future-proofing for the products they fit.
As an installer, understanding this concept allows you to guide customers through the smart journey, offering them options that suit their current needs while allowing room for future enhancements.
Smart as Standard
When we talk about Smart as Standard, we’re referring to products that come fully equipped with smart technology included in the price.
This means there’s no need to upsell or explain the difference between smart-enabled and fully smart products—everything is included from the start.
The analogy here is simple: just as smartphones are now simply “phones” and Smart HD-ready TVs are now just “TVs,” smart windows and doors will soon become the standard expectation in homes.
This approach not only reduces confusion but also ensures that customers are getting the most advanced security features without having to make additional decisions or purchases.
The Evolution to Smart Fenestration
The shift towards Smart as Standard is already happening across the industry, with more and more fabricators and installers adopting this approach to meet growing consumer demand.
By fitting sensors as standard, these companies are setting themselves apart in a competitive market, offering a value-added service that’s increasingly becoming an expectation rather than an option. For installers, this trend represents a significant opportunity. By aligning with manufacturers that offer Smart as Standard, you can position yourself as a forward-thinking installer, ready to meet the demands of a market that’s quickly moving towards smart homes.
At Kubu, we coined the term ‘Smart as Standard’ to help lead this transition, ensuring that the industry moves forward in a way that benefits everyone—from fabricators to installers to homeowners.
The role of the installer is pivotal in this transformation, helping to deliver a new era of home security that’s both cutting-edge and accessible to all.
If the last few years have told us anything, it’s that the integration of smart technology into fenestration isn’t just a trend—it’s the future, with pretty much every hardware company now looking at one Smart solution or another.
Some are looking to develop their own systems, while the really Smart ones are looking to integrate their hardware with existing, tried and tested products (like Kubu in fact!).
One thing’s for sure – it’s not going away, so familiarising yourself with the terms can only help you better serve your customers and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving market.
At Kubu, we’re here to support you on this journey, providing all the tools, training and technologies that make it easy for you to offer the best in smart home security.
Be smart. Work with Kubu.