The Real Cost of a Smart Upgrade: Exposing the Hidden Fees

When you start planning a smart technology upgrade, the first thing you look at is the price of the devices. But that sticker price is just the tip of the iceberg. The true cost of implementing a smart system—whether for a single room or an entire building—is often buried in a long list of hidden expenses that arise during and after installation.

These hidden costs don’t just inflate your budget; they add complexity, extend timelines, and create long-term maintenance burdens.

At Dimi, we believe in transparency. Let’s pull back the curtain on the real costs of traditional smart systems and show you how a different approach can eliminate them entirely.

The Upfront Hidden Costs: A Cascade of Installation Expenses

If you choose a traditional hardwired system, the price of the switch is a fraction of the final bill. Get ready for a cascade of expenses that are rarely quoted upfront:

• Cabling & Containment: You have to pay for meters upon meters of electrical wire, plus the conduit or trunking required to safely contain it.
• Intensive Labor: This isn’t a simple DIY job. You need to hire specialized (and expensive) electricians to run the new wiring. This is slow, meticulous work that adds significant hours to your project.
• Wall Chasing & Finishes: To hide the new wires, your walls have to be cut open. This means you’re now paying for plasterers to repair the damage and painters to re-finish the surfaces to match.
• Disruption & Downtime: All this work is messy and disruptive. For a business, this can mean operational downtime. For a homeowner, it’s weeks of living in a construction zone.

Suddenly, your “simple” upgrade has become a minor renovation project with a major price tag.

The Ongoing Hidden Costs: The Maintenance You Never Signed Up For

To avoid the mess of wiring, many people opt for battery-powered wireless devices. But this approach simply trades one set of hidden costs for another. You’ve just signed up for a lifetime of maintenance.

• The Cost of Batteries: This seems small at first, but across dozens or hundreds of devices in a commercial property, the annual cost of purchasing replacement batteries becomes a significant, recurring operational expense.
• The Cost of Manpower: The real expense isn’t the battery; it’s the labor required to replace it. Your maintenance team will spend countless hours locating devices, climbing ladders, and swapping out batteries, detracting from more important work.
• The Cost of Unreliability: A dead battery means a system that doesn’t work. This can lead to everything from a minor inconvenience at home to a guest complaint in a hotel or a security lapse in an office.

You are forced to choose: a costly, disruptive installation or a future of endless, expensive maintenance.

The Dimi Solution: Eliminating Costs by Design

We designed the Dimi ecosystem to make this painful choice obsolete. Our wireless, self-powered technology eliminates both sets of hidden costs from the very beginning.

• Zero Installation Costs: Because our keypads are completely wireless and require no batteries, you have zero costs for cabling, wall chasing, plastering, or painting. Installation takes minutes, not days, and requires no specialized labor.
• Zero Ongoing Costs: Because our devices power themselves with every press, you have zero costs for replacement batteries and zero costs for the labor to install them. It is a true “install-and-forget” system.

By rethinking the technology from the ground up, we simplified the entire cost structure. The price of the Dimi device is fundamentally closer to the total price. No surprises, no hidden fees, and no maintenance bills down the line.

Ready to plan a project with a clear, predictable budget? Discover a smarter system that saves you money upfront and for years to come.