Guides
Plain-English guides on cost, prewire, Wi-Fi in concrete homes, platform choices, hurricanes and condo rules. Written by the EZ Volt team from Miami projects, updated as the products change.
A whole-home smart system for a 4,000 to 6,000 square foot Miami home typically lands between the mid five figures and the low six figures, depending on how many rooms, shades and camera positions it covers and whether it is prewired during construction. Single systems start in the mid four figures.
Read the guidePrewire is the cable, conduit and boxes installed before drywall so every future system has a path. The checklist below covers what to run to each room, what the rack room needs, and what to leave as empty conduit. Done right, nothing in the house ever requires opening a finished wall.
Read the guideConcrete block, impact glass and stucco over metal lath absorb and reflect Wi-Fi, so one router cannot cover a Florida home. The fix is several ceiling-mounted access points connected by cable to a central switch, placed from a floor-plan design, plus separate networks for cameras, IoT and guests.
Read the guideControl4 is the most complete single platform for lighting, shades, AV, cameras and security at a sensible cost, which is why it is our default. Lutron is the best pure lighting and shade system and pairs with Control4. Savant excels at AV-centric luxury homes. Crestron suits very large estates with a dedicated programmer. The right choice depends on scope, budget and who will support it.
Read the guideA hurricane-ready smart home keeps its network, cameras and controls running on battery and generator power, protects every system from surges, lets you close shades and check cameras from anywhere, and recovers on its own when power returns. Most of that is design, not extra equipment.
Read the guideSmart home installation in a Miami condo is entirely possible, but it runs through the association: contractor registration, insurance certificates, work hours, elevator reservations and rules about anything visible from outside. Motorized shades, lighting, audio and a proper network are the systems that pay off most in a high-rise residence.
Read the guidePanelized lighting puts every dimmer in a panel in the rack room and leaves the walls with engraved keypads, which is the right choice for new construction and gut renovations because it costs the least when the walls are open and gives the cleanest result. Wall dimmers (Control4 or Lutron wireless) are the right choice for finished homes and small scopes, and the two can share one system.
Read the guideRing and Nest are fine for a front door and a driveway on a budget. For whole-property coverage in Miami, UniFi Protect wins on local recording with no monthly fee, wired PoE reliability through outages, 4K low-light video, marine-grade hardware options and integration with the same UniFi network and Control4 system that runs the rest of the house.
Read the guideA second home should be able to tell you it is fine, let the right people in without you, and get ready before you land. That takes a monitored UniFi network with cellular failover, water and climate sensors that alert your phone, local-recording cameras, access codes per person and a Control4 arrival scene, all on battery backup so a power blip in July does not take the house dark until December.
Read the guideThe water side of a Miami home is its least protected approach and the hardest place to keep a camera alive. Good coverage means cameras at each end of the seawall looking along it, a wide camera over the dock and boat lift, low-light sensors for the dark water, marine-grade housings and mounts, PoE over a buried conduit and local recording that continues through an outage.
Read the guideSend us the plans or describe the house. A system designer replies within one business day.