Understanding Smart Home Automation
Smart home automation is a popular trend because of the many benefits it provides. Experts estimate that the adoption of Smart Home devices and tools will grow by 23% from 2025 to 2032. And no wonder, given the proliferation of devices and the ease of adoption.
Most homeowners already hold the key to their smart home in their hands. With an average smartphone, users can control their entire home environment using the touchscreen or even voice commands. Key benefits include comfort, security, convenience, and energy savings as outlined below.
Comfort
Smart Home automations can make your home warm and comfortable by controlling the environment. This includes setting your desired tempurature, adjusting the lighting and window treatments, and controlling ceiling fans. You can even establish a collection of settings called 'scenes" that automatically adjust your home for morning, daytime and evening.
Most smart home tools will also permit you to use the location of your phone to determine whether the heat should be turned up or down, or the entrance light should be turned on as you arrive.
Homeowners can set up automations and shortcuts that allow them to use a one-word command such as "bedtime" to shut off all the lights, lock the front door, close the garage door, and set the thermostat for sleep temperatures.
Security
Security is an area where smart homes really shine. You can set up your doorbell camera to alert you when someone is at your door, even when you are miles away or on vacation. You can open your front door using only your phone or watch, or provide a temporary code so that a family member may open the door with their phone.
You can glance at your phone to determine if someone left the garage door open or set up a routine to ensure it is automatically closed after a certain period of time, or in the evening as part of a bedtime routine.
You can also use cameras to monitor your home whether you are home or vacationing in Cancun. Doorbell cameras are one of the most common devices though many owners add additional cameras for their backyards or back doors.
Security also extends to door and window sensors which can tell you if a door is ajar or fully open, smoke and gas detectors that warn of potential problems, and water leak detectors which can be added to basements and laundry rooms to provide an early alert of any water before there is damage.
Convenience
Simplify and automate your everyday tasks with easy to establish automated routines. These can be as simple as turning on the houselights every day at sunset, or turning on the porchlight if movement is detected in the evening. You could also turn on the landscape lights every evening at sunset, or turn off the porchlight at sunrise.
You can also make more complex routines based on whether you are at home or not. In "away" mode, lights can be adjusted automatically based to make it less obvious that you are away. You can also set your front door to unlock, entry lights to come on, or garage door to open as you arrive home, based on the location of your phone.
You can also monitor and control your home from anywhere.
Energy Savings
Last but not least, you can save on heating and cooling, water heating, and electricy by ensuring devices are turned down or off when you don't need them. Already at the airport on your way out of town? Adjust those settings directly from your phone.
You can also use energy tracking plugs to determine the energy usage, helping you to pinpoint areas of potential energy savings.
And More to Come
Most people don't take advantage of the existing technology to get the benefits I have described above. Not surprisingly, there are more to come as manufacturers make more and more appliances and devices "smart". Samsung is already making refrigerators that monitor the contents and include Artificial Intelligence (AI) to recommend shopping lists or warn you that your are nearly out of milk. Washers and dryers can send an alert to your phone from the laundry room to let you know that they finished their cycle. Ranges can be controlled to preheat remotely using your smartphone. And the potential is there for much more.
Questions about how smart home automation may help you? Please use our contact page to schedule a free consultation.