As smart home devices grow larger, the lifetime of their batteries and the robustness with which they communicate has become an important limitation on usability, which has made low-power communication technology an important area of industry research. In this paper, we provide a systematic review on low power communication technologies for the smart home, considering four aspects including basic technical properties, the performances of typical technologies, the system optimization methods, and future trends. Power management concepts are discussed in the context of power requirements, power limits, networking features, protocols supportability, and techniques for optimizing the networks. The study aims to clarify existing networking structures as well as possible ways of optimization, providing theoretical support and practical guidance to improve the communications efficiency, reduce device overall power consumption, and improve the reliability of systems used in a smart house.