What is a Smart Home and Smart Home Automation?
Smart homes are residences equipped with a network of connected devices and appliances. These devices are controlled remotely by a home automation controller, known as a smart hub. The controls include voice activated commands, sensory interactions and touchpanels that send signals.
Smart home automation makes your home more convenient, accessible and navigable. You know you need one if you’re looking to-
- Save energy
- Simplify household tasks.
- Secure your home with 24/7 surveillance and monitoring.
- Enjoy time off with your loved ones with smart home entertainment systems.
Smart home automation comprises smart speakers, lighting, thermostats, motion sensors, security cameras and doorway and gating control. These devices can be installed in strategic locations around your home and can be operated using its corresponding smartphone application.
How does Smart Home Automation Work?
Smart home automation is an interconnected network of hardware and software that communicates via mobile, wired or wireless networks. The devices have sensors that can be managed from a touchpad or app installed on your phone.
The three main elements of a home automation system are sensors, controllers, and actuators.
A home automation system lets you turn on or off the lights according to your preferences, time of day and schedule. For example, you can time it to go off when you exit one room and turn on as you enter another room. The lighting can also be controlled to turn on to light up unlit areas, thereby giving you increased visibility into your surroundings.
Similarly, you can activate your air conditioning or heating based on the outside temperature and your scheduled arrival. You get to come home to a space that’s at the perfect temperature and ambiance for you.
Home automation isn’t limited to only lighting and temperature, though.
You can activate locks, motion detectors and surveillance for those times that you’re away from the house, getting instantly notified if there’s unusual activity!
What are the Benefits of Having a Smart Home?
Smart homes maximize your comfort and convenience. This is more so if the household has members with different needs. Some benefits include :
- Better device management: You can manage all your devices from a central application on your smartphone.
- Safer homes: Being able to activate your security and lighting to go on or off at certain times or as per your schedule will help you keep track of movements.
- Energy efficiency: Your home stays energy efficient by giving you precise control over the heating, cooling, blinds and lighting of your home. You can even get efficiency recommendations to ensure you’re not wasting electricity.
- Remote control of home functions: You can activate your temperature or door control based on your scheduled arrival. If your smart home renovation extends to areas with high-traffic such as the kitchen, you can also turn on the oven or coffee maker to get meals started.
- Usage insights: In a smart home you get insights into what features and functions get tapped into the most, and by whom. You can keep track of how often you watch TV (and what), when to activate smoke detectors and much more! The activity log also indicates usage frequency spikes, letting you review and adjust your preferences.
Why are Smart Homes Useful?
Smart homes are useful because they let you gain greater control over your devices and appliances. This makes it easier to run your home comfortably and conveniently. You can design your home automation to grow at scale, meeting both immediate, and long-term needs.
Smart homes allow homeowners to monitor the domotics within homes remotely.
