Your summerhouse daydream may see you getting away from the intrusions of the modern world, finding a space to shake free from the trappings of technology. Whenever you think about spending time in your new garden building, you might envisage a gentle breeze rustling the trees, the hypnotic sound of a wood pigeon, or the soulful call of the blackbird. Your summerhouse could be a place where you can truly get away from it all.
While you certainly don’t need to be online to relax and enjoy your garden building, the addition of Wi-Fi could actually enhance your experience and enable you to spend more time than ever enjoying your outdoor haven. Below we explore the benefits of bringing Wi-Fi to your summerhouse, how it’s done, and what it could add to your experience.
Get connected
The Internet of Things is a growing phenomenon, and few households are now without devices that can communicate with us and share data with others. The number of connected devices is expected to grow by 18 per cent in the next three years bringing a total of 27BN devices into our lives thanks to the growth of 5G connectivity. Many of these devices bring us greater convenience, more entertainment, and better opportunities to create and enjoy our personal space at home.
Let’s look at some of the connected devices that might enhance your summerhouse experience.
Switched on
When you’re online there’s a world of entertainment available to you on a range of devices from your smartphone, tablet, and laptop to a smart TV or even a home cinema. You may simply want to relax in your summerhouse and catch up on the latest box set episode, watch the news with a coffee, or scroll through some Instagram reels. Perhaps you prefer to settle down in a comfortable chair out there and watch the latest blockbuster on a weekend evening. Your summerhouse could be the perfect location to set up a movie night for the grandchildren.
Time for tea
The Great British Cup of Tea is best enjoyed in a bucolic setting with a fantastic view of your garden. Install a smart kettle and your refreshment needs will the catered for with precision. Command your smart home hub to boil the kettle at just the right time so you can enjoy your gardening tea break or set the temperature short of a full boil, so it doesn’t scald your finest coffee. Keep your milk cool in a smart fridge and it will tell you when the contents are reaching their expiry date so you can make sure you always have fresh milk every time you take a break.
Fitness focus
Perhaps you have plans to set up a home gym or yoga studio in your summerhouse. With Wi-Fi up and running, you will be better able to use wearable technology such as a fitness tracker or smart watch to keep track of your BMI, heartrate, oxygen saturation, and skin temperature.
If you plan to set up a Peloton in your summerhouse, you will need a minimum connection speed of 10-15 mbps download and 2.5 mbps upload to access the touchscreen and save your personal performance data.
Gardening with ease
With Wi-Fi in your summerhouse, you can control the latest gardening aids from a comfortable position and keep an eye on the kit as it completes the chores for you! Watch as a robot lawnmower tracks across the grass and control the direction of your smart lawn sprinkler to check for optimum coverage that you can adjust with the flick of a switch.
You can even oversee the growth of a smart herb garden, and watch it respond to changes in temperature and moisture. A weather station that is internet enabled can provide you with hyperlocal temperature readings. While your gadgets do the donkey work, you can keep an eye on the nest cam in the corner to see how many times your resident blue tit returns to feed its young.
Work it out
Perhaps your summerhouse is set to become the venue for a home office where you can organise a dedicated space of your own away from the distractions indoors. If this is your vision, Wi-Fi will enable you to connect your laptop or home PC, participate in Teams and Zoom meetings and tackle your emails. A Wi-Fi enabled printer is an essential element of any home office.
Party vibes
If you’re planning to entertain friends and family in your garden building, the addition of Wi-Fi opens the door to a vast range of music from your smart speaker. Change the atmosphere from day to night with smart bulbs that can be altered to create the perfect mood. With an automated pool cleaner, you will always be ready to invite friends over for a dip and a refreshing drink. A smart thermostat enables you to control the warmth in your summerhouse in winter so you can prepare for a Christmas gathering well before your guests arrive, leaving more time to heat up the mulled wine.
How to extend Wi-Fi to your garden building
If you are persuaded that connecting your summerhouse to the internet could bring life-enhancing benefits, let’s look at how it can be achieved. Home Wi-Fi is not usually sufficiently powerful to extend to your garden without taking additional measures. Below we review the main options.
Wi-Fi extender
Purchasing range extenders to create a hotspot or bridge between your main domestic router and your summerhouse is a cost-effective way to take connectivity outdoors. Simply plug in the Wi-Fi extender in a position inside the house that is closer than your main router. This will amplify or ‘bounce’ the signal creating an additional Wi-Fi network. This solution will only reach about 30m from the router, and you may need at least one repeater in the chain. Incorporating a Point-to-Point wireless link system will establish a more reliable connection and is ideal if your garden building is located some distance from the house.
Powerline network
A stronger means of extending Wi-Fi to your summerhouse is via powerline networking. This requires the installation of a dedicated electric cable from the house to the garden building that transfers internet data via powerline adaptors. The first adaptor is installed in your home and linked to the main router via an ethernet cable. The second is located in the summerhouse and plugs into to a connected device. You will require mains electricity to be installed in your summerhouse to take advantage of this solution.
Ethernet cable
As an alternative for reliable and secure connectivity option, you could connect the house and garden building via an ethernet cable, which should be a CAT6 in quality as a minimum, extending from the Wi-Fi router to a connected device inside your summerhouse. It is recommended to have an ethernet cable installed alongside a mains electric connection so that both can be buried in the same shallow trench.
Connect with Scotts
If you’re interested in some of the ideas we have discussed, either for ways to use your summerhouse or the benefits of installing Wi-Fi in your garden building, talk to us about how you envisage using the space and we will be happy to help you make a plan. We always recommend talking through your vision with our expert design team who can help you to cover off all the bases and ensure that you have fully thought through the logistics before we get to work.
Contact us via our website and we look forward to hearing from you.