Through smart home technology, all your devices connect into one system, enabling control from a distance and greatly expanding your ability to take safety measures in advance.
Think of your coffee auto-brewed before you leave for work, or the thermostat set to cut back on energy use while you’re at the office – these are just some of the capabilities of the smart home.
Increased Convenience
‘Convenience’ is a major factor that many homeowners put forward when it comes to installing a smart home automation system. You can arrive home from a hectic day at work and turn the lights on, check-in on your kids or pet using your smart phone, play your favourite playlist and turn on the heater at the same time. You can even have the oven pre-heat in anticipation for you to come home to a delicious hot-meal ! A smart home system can do far more than this. With smart technology, you can communicate with family and friends in real time via intercoms and cameras, positioned around your home, highlighting your pets’ behaviour when you are out or answering the door to anyone who knocks – all accessible on smartphones or tablets. This makes it possible to monitor the house and your family when you are out and away, giving a sense of home-security for any working parents. In the same way, home automation may give an extra advantage to looking after elderly or disabled family members, who may lack the ability to monitor their own living environment.
Reduced Energy Bills
Optimise your home for energy conservation by using appliances and devices powered by smart home technology. Smart thermostats, smart lightbulbs and smart security enable you to optimise energy use in your home, all while making it more comfortable. Most smart home technologies are expandable and a homeowner who plans to relocate in the near future can keep building their system as fast as their needs arise. As a part of everyday luxury, having a quick access to your home from any internet-enabled spot has another advantage as well. If you have to go shopping or have to chase the children and are too tired to call from the train, or if you are working late ones and cannot remember did you close oven doors properly, just a feel of your smartphone and a quick look to a picture from your home will increase your comfort level and drop stress levels!
Enhanced Security
Whether out for the weekend or just plain forgetful, such a technology will totally secure your home. Home automation systems unify different electronic devices into a single network, which the homeowners can control via a central hub or mobile touchscreen. Many home automation products include a camera as a central component of the system, enabling residents to keep an eye on their properties from afar, to unlock doors for house-cleaners and babysitters, or staff who work at the home, and check for the safety of children returning from school, for example. Video motion detection is a common feature in many cameras, so they can detect a person approaching the door, rather than having to press a button, and so can detect burglars, while trying to minimise the number of false alerts produced by animals, for example. Such devices can be voice-enabled with an Alexa or Google Assistant-style home assistant, or even pre-programmed to match a schedule or react to a command linked to a thing in a room (‘turn off the kitchen light’, for example). Such devices would work well with commands like ‘turn off the light at 8am every day’, or once you have a command linked to a specific object in a room, like ‘turn off the kitchen light’.
Increased Value
For the homeowner, smart-home systems allow users to control everything from appliances to thermostats and other features via an interface device, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet or game console. There can be programming routines set up that run commands when certain times occur, or if environmental factors warrant (say, when to raise and lower blinds, and for your watering systems) or hourly programs that can cut energy costs over time (by rationing electrical loads, or unplugging the plugs altogether every hour after a given time frame) – all via this single interface. Smart home technology can simplify and improve your life: from dimming the lights and turning up the air conditioning, to unlocking the front door for friends. It can also provide you with more security and peace of mind. The things that define the smart home – whether it’s Adam Savage’s house, Elon Musk’s house or your very own house – are intelligent (meaning they can respond and communicate within your network on their own volition) and connected. They are things attached to your smart home network, which are most likely Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets that are appealing, fairly easy to use, but also somewhat pricey, and sometimes require an Internet connection to operate on your network. For some people who are not tech-savvy and/or don’t have the appetite for tackling any complexity from your smart home, adding smart technologies could present some challenges; but manufacturers and alliances are working to drive costs down and improve user experiences to deliver this technology to the masses.
