In a market of rapid-fire tech innovations, we cut through the noise to find out what you need to know about smart home design right now.

What’s your least favorite household chore? Whether you hate changing the HVAC filter, unloading the dishwasher or resetting the circuit breaker, chances are, one day your home might be able to do it for you. That’s the idea behind today’s smart home technology, along with the opportunity to live healthier, safer and more sustainably. Yet widespread smart home adoption has been slowed by consumer wariness of pricey devices that may complicate our lives and encroach on our privacy.

Right now, the technology driving IoT, or the Internet of Things—the system of connected, online objects in our daily life—is ahead of our usage. “A lot of people just want a basic switch to turn on the light or a remote to turn on the entertainment system,” says Atlanta-based custom home builder Michael Ladisic of Ladisic Fine Homes, who installs automation systems in many of his clients’ high-end homes. “Sometimes these products get too sophisticated.”