Home automation is a solution that allows you to increase comfort at home. There are many consumers who choose to purchase products and appliances prepared for this smart function.
However, home automation is not a completely new concept. For at least a decade we have had tools and systems that allow you to control some devices placed within the walls of the house.
Thanks to the spread of new tools such as Google Assistant or Alexa, the concept of home automation becomes the prerogative of everyone and above all, it is able to solve many home situations. For this reason, thanks to a single app, it is possible to have control of everything electronic directly from your smartphone, even if you are away from home.
In this article, we will analyze everything you need to transform the home into a real center of interconnected products.
Smart speaker
Smart speakers are famous voice assistants like Alexa so to speak. As for home automation, they are the tools of the future. These can control different household appliances, light bulbs, and home robots. They use a wifi network to work, so these appliances will only need to support this situation.
The speakers, however, can also be used in different ways. They are useful for turning on security cameras or turning off the lights in a room at home, without having to use a traditional switch.
Smart speakers have made life easier for many people by making improvements in the home. Choosing one means never going back to tradition.
Today, Google Home and Amazon Echo are the best-known devices. Their characteristics are different but they all fulfill the purpose for which they were created, to facilitate domestic life.
The new smart speakers are also beautiful to look at. In fact, you can see a refined design that allows easy placement within an environment.
Smart lighting
When it comes to home automation, it is necessary to address the topic of lighting. This is usually the first goal that comes to mind when talking about the subject.
It must be said that home automation is a system that was created precisely to ensure greater savings in energy resources in the home, including the electricity that feeds the lights.
As we have already seen, this is possible thanks to smart devices. Thanks to the smart speakers it is possible to control the light in a completely intelligent way, attentive to consumption, and even fun.
Advances in the field of lighting have made it possible to find and use energy-saving light sources, alternatives to traditional ones.
Finding them on the market is now very easy. To use them in a connected way, however, they must be interconnected and controllable, in order to be part of a smart home system.
Smart lighting devices are smart bulbs with the feature of remote controllability, both for switching on and off.
It is also important to mention the hub, which is very important in this field. It is a central control system that is purchased either with bulbs or individually. With the hub connection, you can control the lighting by downloading the dedicated app. On the market, there are smart bulbs that rely on this control system and others, however, that do not.
It is important to know that the hub is essential when you want to connect several bulbs together. But thanks to the systems of Google Home or Amazon Alexa it is possible to manage the lighting of the house with a simple voice command, without having to get up or worry about opening the appropriate app. Thanks to dedicated tools there is the possibility to adjust the lighting, decreasing its intensity, or increasing it.
Not only that, but the programming function is also available. Through the dedicated app, you can choose how and how many lights to turn on or off.
Smart sockets
An intelligent socket is essential for a home automation system. This, compared to a normal electrical outlet, has slightly larger dimensions. Its function is that of interposition between the wall and the plug of an appliance to be connected to the home automation network.
Smart sockets are comparable to real switches. They are able to manage the power supply to the connected device. Thanks to the sockets it is possible to use app or voice commands.
There are also wifi sockets to connect to the wifi router or modem through a simple app, useful for checking what is electronic in the house, even when at work or on vacation. Each smart plug uses a dedicated application for iOS or Android.
For each emergency, a physical button is made available that allows switching on or off. The peculiarity of these sockets is that they do not suffer from electrical shocks or a drop in the wifi connection.
Some smart sockets provide for real-time consumption monitoring. This is useful to understand how much a certain device consumes and if there is power saving, this too is reported in a precise and timely manner.
Each smart socket can be configured with smart speaker systems.
Thermostats and smart heating
Improving your comfort condition at home is very important. For this reason, home automation can come to the rescue with intelligent thermostats. These are able to catalyze the consumption of energy, useful for heating the house.
A smart thermometer can bring great improvements from every point of view. It is used to communicate with other household sensors in every place, it perceives the habits of the inhabitants and in this way, manages the heat and environment in the best possible way.
Installing a smart thermostat is really simple. Often it can also be done independently, it will be enough to be only familiar with electrical work.
The intelligent heating also allows improving the home environment comfortable adding of individual thermostats in each room. In this way, it will be possible to control the situation of heat or freshness in every single space. This situation is also manageable from a distance.
Surveillance cameras
Home automation is also useful for surveillance camera systems, in order to make the home safe as well. These technologies are all interconnected with the other home automation systems in the home.
The cameras are able to protect your home from any intrusions or break-ins from outside. Thanks to the interconnection we respond in real-time with the need, creating a sort of synergy with other devices.
The external video surveillance system also provides for the installation of sensors for doors and windows, recognizing any attempted break-in and recording the video. Everything is reported in real-time to the owner who will receive notifications on his smartphone indicating the danger. At this point, it is possible to raise the alarm and report the danger to the police.
The video surveillance systems can be integrated with other sensors capable of detecting various dangerous situations such as gas leaks, water leaks, and unusual smoke.
Television and soundbar
One of the most important innovations is that relating to the use of smart TVs and soundbars with voice systems. In fact, it is possible to replace the remote control simply with your own voice passing through a compatible smart speaker.
Some of the well-known devices that support these functions to date are Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, LG, Samsung, etc.
The soundbars, on the other hand, are devices capable of enhancing the audio performance of TV and stereo, they have become controllable through the Alexa system. Today it is, therefore, possible to choose products capable of supporting voice control. In this case, just connect it to the home automation network and choose how to best modulate the sound.
Cleaning products
Appliances suitable for cleaning at home are essential to maintain a well-sanitized and clean environment, increasing its comfort. The question that arises, however, is whether these can be connected to the home automation network.
It is necessary to do a little mention of the robot vacuum cleaners and floor cleaning robots. The new models are equipped with smart technology in order to carry out cleaning operations independently. Some of these are able to work through the network and, therefore, manage the house cleaning automatically.
Conclusion
Entrusting your home life to a home automation system is convenient from every point of view, as we have seen.
It is a series of innovations capable of increasing the level of safety, making fun experiences enhanced to the maximum, and above all, guaranteeing greater energy savings from an electrical point of view. With voice commands, then, everything is made even simpler and easier to manage.
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Author Bio:
Digvijay Rajdaan is Sr. interior designer at Design By Lavassa. He is an award-winning interior designer of residential and commercial spaces. He strives to design unique interiors that will have a positive impact on his clients’ lives.
