About a Smart Home

Lately, we have heard such a combination of words as «smart home» more and more often. However, few of us know what exactly it is. Meanwhile, this brand new concept makes our daily life incredibly easier and helps to control all the appliances remotely. Let’s speak about what it is in detail.

As a rule smart home is thought of as a way of household automation by means of uniting all the domestic machines and electronics into a common eco-system. Such a system is expected to have its own brain – a program, a device or a service to maintain control.

Traditional arguments in favor of a smart home system are: it defends your territory from any intrusion, leaks, and fire. It provides a great economy of resources – you will be able to pay less for utility bills. Other opportunities are lighting and climate control either from inside the house or from any spot on the globe. Diving deep into details, this mechanism can be divided into three levels, which can be incorporated either separately or in addition to each other.

Three Levels of Smart House Ideas

The most simple and available level integrates such home automation ideas as cameras, sensors of water, smoke, opening and closing the door, and adapter sockets with Wi-Fi. To equip the house with them you don’t need auxiliary infrastructure during the building or repairing. It will be enough just to place the sensors according to the instruction and set the necessary programs via the hub – a common mini-server that looks like the router. This center helps to manage the sensors and the current situation via the smartphone from any point with a connection to the internet. The most obvious examples of this are the possibility to check whether you switched off the iron, look after the elderly relatives, or imitate your presence in the apartment.

The second and more advanced level is when all the above-mentioned and other home automation examples are implemented already during the repair and finishing works. The functionality remains, but aesthetics is added. This variant is more suitable for big houses where the electronics partially replace a human, for example, opens the curtains or blinds as the host approaches or activates a necessary mode of climate control. The key advantage of this reproach is getting rid of too many devices for remote control. The entire mechanism is set with help of the only smartphone or other units.

The final level which is considered to be the best in home automation is when the home becomes smart not locally, due to connection to the centralized home web, but globally, within the frames of its development and design. Here we are speaking about the internet of things (or IoT). For its reliable work communication networks of the fifth generation will be actively developed in the near future. Every element in such a house has its personal access to the internet and is interconnected with the others. The domestic machines can analyze their own work, share data with each other, learn the habits of the host, or connect with services.

What is Smart Home Automation

Now let’s try to determine the bright sides. If we describe the features of it in one word, this word would be «convenience». Life can flow on autopilot when all the elements of the system are connected.

What does an ideal wake-up look like? Let’s say, an alarm clock gives a signal to the lights in the bedroom to turn on. Then the kettle starts to boil water for tea or coffee immediately in the kitchen. The radio gradually turns on and the calendar checks what has been planned for the day. You are ready to get off to a running start!

That’s only the tiny example of cool home automation ideas. In fact, there are no limits. For this purpose, we gathered here for you several ways of how to arrange things. An interconnected house is still a new domain that gives rise to many questions.

9 Cool Smart Home Ideas

Here we proceed with the enumeration of options helping to utilize your smart home the optimal way

1. Set the Lighting

In everyday life, there is a constant possibility to get into unpleasant situations connected with lighting. For example:

• You could leave the house with the lights on.
• You could fall asleep with the lights on.
• You could bump into things at night in the darkness.
• You could have too much light or too little light for a certain situation.
• You could attract unwanted visitors due to insufficient exterior lighting.

Each of these points can lead to wasted electricity, increased expenses on utility bills, and other negative consequences. Fortunately, all of them can be solved due to automation.

An optimal solution is to set the programs for lighting beforehand. You can make them switch on and off (as well as to different lighting intensities) at particular times of the day. Your bedroom lights could turn on gradually with your alarm. Your living room lights could switch off automatically at 10 pm. Your garden lights could be launched by a motion detector at night.

2. Watch the Lights Remotely

The second of automation ideas logically derives from the first one. Under some circumstances, it is obvious to manage the level of lighting directly. But don’t forget that your personal presence in the house is not obligatory to watch the light.

Moreover, you are not forever tightly bound to the programmed systems. There is always a possibility to correct them manually using your phone or another remote device, such as a smart assistant. So, you can be a magician of each and every smart bulb in your house using just your smartphone. Feel free to switch them on and off, or increase and decrease the intensity. That amounts to ultimate versatility and personalization.

As long as your mobile phone is connected to Wi-Fi, you can view and alter the lights. Away from home on the weekend and unsure whether you turned everything off? Log into your phone and check. Any issues can be put right.

3. Conduct the Music in Each Room

Everyone who enjoys playing music in their apartment will adore this point of smart ideas for home. Using smart speakers, you can stream and listen to music in every corner of your house.

Place a speaker in every room and switch songs, albums, playlists, and volume settings with the help of a smartphone or a smart assistant.

Each person in the house can play the music in accordance with their preferences. Or, you can turn the same song on different volumes in different rooms. Another option is to set your smart speakers so as they play the song at certain hours of the day. It can become a perfect opportunity to play your beloved track as an alarm signal for a magical waking up. The most widespread brands of smart speakers nowadays are The Echo Dot, Echo Plus, and Sonos One.

4. Track Access to Your Territory

Security is above anything else. This is the reason why security systems are often the first concern for those who are only starting their way in the world of smart technologies. There are plenty of ways to increase the level of safety with them. The most popular example is tracking access to the house.

Smart locks allow you to open and close the doors in an instant, using your phone. You no longer have to turn back every time you hesitate if you locked the door. Due to new technology, you can arrange it remotely. One more of the new home automation ideas is to organize alerts for every case when somebody reaches the door. A pop up with notification appears on the screen of your device each time, so you can keep an eye on the situation.

What else should be mentioned is automatic unlocking when you are within the sight. Besides you can create temporary codes for family and friends for quick access to the house. They work as time-limited door keys, so you are able to give entry permission to others if necessary.

5. Set Motion Sensors and Access Points

The next automation idea which improves security is motion sensors. Again, you can utilize them in many ways. As a rule, homeowners set them up on front and back doors. The message comes whenever anybody sets them off. If you are absent at the house, it could be linked in with an automatic alarm system.

The scheme is: a potential invader sets off the sensor, which sends a message on your phone. Then you push the button to turn the alarm inside or even call the relevant authorities. Consider having sensors in the garden as well. You may connect them to the interior lights and electronics. An invader who suddenly sees the lights and working TV in the house decide against breaking in as begins to think somebody is at home.

A decent variant of an outdoor motion sensor is The Philips Hue Dusk-to-Dawn.

6. See Who is at the Door

Installing video doorbells is perhaps the best home automation field option for those who are tired of getting up to the door every time the bell rings. You just receive a notification on your mobile phone whenever anybody comes. Now you can see who it is without a need to get off the couch.

Then you come to a decision whether to open or not. This mechanism serves also as an extra security level to your house. It’s like a personal surveillance camera for your door. Accessing the camera from your phone means you can monitor who’s there regardless of where you are. You are free to be on the other side of the world (where the internet is available) and see who pays you a visit.

You may consider Ring Video Doorbell 2.

7. Have Your Cleaning Done

To tell the truth, nobody likes doing the housework. That’s why every method to ease the daily routine is a positive movement with no doubt. Everyone who hates the vacuuming process will appreciate such of smart home automation ideas as smart vacuum cleaners. These clever domestic machines make every cleaning better.

They need only a bit of straightforward programming, and they are ready to work. Set to start at a time of cleaning, they learn your floor plan and get to work automatically. Moreover, now vacuum cleaners are also equipped with cameras. That means they double as surveillance devices. You can log into the footage from your phone to see what’s happening. One of the chosen devices of this category is the Roborock S5.

8.Have Your Cleaning Done

To tell the truth, nobody likes doing the housework. That’s why every method to ease the daily routine is a positive movement with no doubt. Everyone who hates the vacuuming process will appreciate such smart home automation ideas as smart vacuum cleaners. These clever domestic machines make every cleaning better.

They need only a bit of straightforward programming, and they are ready to work. Set to start at a time of cleaning, they learn your floor plan and get to work automatically. Moreover, now vacuum cleaners are also equipped with cameras. That means they double as surveillance devices. You can log into the footage from your phone to see what’s happening. One of the chosen devices of this category is the Roborock S5.

9. Easy Product Orders with Smart Fridges

Smart fridges promise to make all the operations with food easier. For instance, internal cameras allow you to monitor when you’re low on certain products. Check the quantity of this or that food in your fridge right in the supermarket! As you’d expect, these are not all the advantages. You can:

• Check and adjust the temperature of separate compartments and drawers remotely
• Turn the ice maker on or off
• See when you need to change the water filter and so on.

Many refrigerators of this kind feature the house automation ideas like touchscreens on the front. Utilize it to leave messages, view inside the fridge without opening it, watch TV, create lists for shopping that sync to your phone, etc.

To Sum Up

The internet of things is set to become a trillion-dollar industry that’s going to conquer the world. Connecting our everyday items and appliances via the internet promises to revolutionize the way we live.

We sincerely hope that you’ll choose your best home automation ideas which are definitely going to make your life better.