The Epitome Living Smart Home planning guide
Setting out to build the home of your dreams is a big decision.
We know that within that initial big decision there are hundreds - perhaps thousands - of other big and small decisions you’ll have to make to take your dream home from foundations to finished.
You’ll have considered some of the decisions to make:
Where do I build?
Which architect do I go for?
What’s my budget?
Others will be completely new territory.
Perhaps you’re already considering the benefits of smart technology for your home and that’s how you’ve made it to our website. Or perhaps smart technology falls into the completely new territory category for you.
Whichever stage of the consideration process you’re at, we want to help you understand what smart technology is, how it can benefit you, and the next steps to take if you want it for yourself.
We recently wrote a blog explaining the practical ins-and-outs of smart technology which you can read here, if you wish.
Dream
When you dream about moving into your new home, what does the building look and feel like? Is it calm and quiet? Cosy and comforting? Or perhaps bold, bright, and brimming with life?
More importantly, how does it make you feel at the end of a long day?
Lighting, temperature, soundscapes, and visual features all have a part to play in making a house feel like a home. Smart technology systems that control the above, designed specifically with your dreams for your space in mind, are what make your house feel like your home.
Practically speaking, smart technology systems connect sensors and other hardware to software that automates the functions of a building.
That looks like lights coming on automatically as the sun sets, radiators heating up as the temperature falls, or blinds closing when it’s time for bed.
The smart systems we design are wired into the infrastructure of your building, making them more reliable than alternatives you can buy online, and essentially invisible to the eye. They’re seamlessly elegant, as we say.
Our smart technology gives you full control of every function of your home, so it can look and feel exactly how you want it to at the touch of a button. And if you’re environmentally conscious, the extra level of control allows for easier energy management, particularly when it’s integrated with your HVAC choices and/or solar panels.
Budget
Budgeting for your build is one of the most important elements of getting started and staying on track. Decisions about what to prioritise and what to pull back on will differ for every person.
Budgeting for smart technology in your build will need to come early in your line of decision making. We can retrofit a system for you later down the line, but it’s not what we advise when the privilege of building allows you to control exactly what goes into your home from the ground up.
You’ll get more from your system if your smart technology cabling is installed at the same time as your electrician is doing their first fix. At this stage, we’ve designed your technology plan alongside your architect’s plans, honouring all the design intentions for the build set by you and by them.
Our pricing is dictated by your wants and needs. If you don’t listen to music, we won’t push you to install a whole-home audio system. If car charging is important, though, we’ll ensure that its control and management is as easy as possible.
And how much does a smart home cost in Northern Ireland in 2025?
Budgeting recommendations for full-service Epitome Living projects are as follows:
£5,000 will fit a single-purpose or single room smart system.
Whole-home systems including a wider range of automation sit at around £50,000.
Luxury packages with the full range of automation and add-ons like home cinema installation can reach £500,000.
These figures simply give a steer - your dreams dictate your budget.
Communicating with us about those dreams - both for the initial build phase and for the future of your home - is crucial for us understanding exactly what you’ll need from our technology design.
Other services available from us include cable plans and smart home panel build and supply. These are often more suitable for remote projects (for us that’s anywhere south of Dublin) and industry partners like electricians who can do some installation themselves.
Engage
So you’ve decided that a smart home is right for you and are on your way to breaking ground. Now what?
Once your planning permission is granted, it’s time to talk to your smart technology provider (we hope that’s us, but if it’s not, your chosen partner will be grateful we told you this).
For your life and home to be enhanced by smart technology, it’s incredibly important that your technology partner knows the whole context of your build, your dreams for it, and what’s important to you about your lifestyle.
The more information we have from you, the more personalised your designs can be.
If you do decide to go with us for your project, you can contact us via email at info@epitomeliving.com, give us a call on 028 3881 0102, or send us a WhatsApp at this link to kick off a conversation.
You’ll initially talk to our director Scott, and he’ll book you in for a meeting at one of our showrooms to talk through your smart home dreams.
This is a listening phase for us, and a chance for you to share your expectations and ask questions about how our technology works, looks, and feels.
At this stage you can also interact with the products that form the foundations of your system. By that we mean the switches that control it, and the app that links them.
After your consultation, we’ll map everything we recommend installing for your personalised smart technology system onto your floor plans and follow up with you with our proposal.
There’ll be a contract to sign once you’re happy, and you’ll pay 10% of the cost.
And that’s that: another decision made for the build of your dreams.