What was considered science fiction in Hollywood films of the 70s and 80s of the last century has today become standard in more and more families: remote control of the house and its devices. By networking building technology with centralized control via smartphone or tablet, a house or apartment becomes a smart home. And if you want, you can monitor and control your home from anywhere in the world via the Internet. The main goal of these systems is to make the operation of the devices more convenient for residents. But modern home automation can do even more. Thanks to intelligent control your home becomes safer and you can save on energy costs. Find out below how you can have a smart home through home automation.
SMART HOME FOR MORE COMFORT
Dim the lights on the couch? After getting up, do you go to the hot bath? Never forget to close the garage door again? There are many ways to make your life more comfortable with home automation. Thanks to smart devices with centralized control, it is no problem to turn on the heating with a simple tap on your smartphone on the way home, so that the living room is cozy and warm when you get home.
In addition to direct control of individual functions, fixed time sequences can also be set using appropriate programming. Every day at the set time you open the bedroom shutters, turn on the coffee machine in the kitchen or turn on the heating just before work.
It becomes even more exciting when individual intelligent elements of home automation, such as roller shutter motors, heating thermostats or LED lights and sockets, are connected to each other via radio or cable control via software. This allows you to specify individual scenarios. For example, when the sun is shining and the outside temperature exceeds 25 degrees, not only does the lawn sprinkler automatically turn on, but the living room curtain also opens and the fan in the bedroom turns on. For a pleasant evening for two, with just one click you lower all the shutters, dim the light in the room and play your favorite music from the stereo system.
SECURITY THROUGH SMART HOMES
Smart home systems not only increase comfort, but also create greater security for residents. By automatically opening and closing the shutters at slightly different times, it is possible to simulate presence from the outside, even if the inhabitants of the house are on holiday away from home. Lighting, the stereo system or the television can also be included in this security concept to use the simulation of presence as a deterrent for potential thieves.
There are also intelligent surveillance systems that transmit the doorbell with video images directly to the mobile phone via the app on the smartphone. This means you can activate the intercom system with one click while on the move if you want to talk to the visitor. Plus, with IP cameras you can keep an eye on your home 24 hours a day, even when you’re away at work or on vacation. You can access real-time camera images from your tablet or smartphone.
And if the best wife of all worries once again whether she actually turned off the iron before going on holiday: no problem, with a radio-controlled socket you can certainly turn off the iron even on the other side of the world. Or a battery-operated water detector immediately detects the bursting of the dishwasher’s water pipe and sends an SMS to your smartphone. With home automation, major damage can be avoided from the start.
SAVE ENERGY WITH SMART HOMES
Thanks to sophisticated control of heating, ventilation and lighting, home automation can realistically save more than 10% of energy costs. For example at night and when residents are away. In a smart home, for example, the heating is automatically reduced to the necessary minimum. Battery-powered wireless sensors register on a window when it’s opened, and smart control automatically turns off the heating thermostats in the room so the heat doesn’t literally go out the window.
But it’s not just thermal energy that can be saved. When the last tenant leaves the house, home automation automatically turns off the lights, the stereo system and all other electrical devices at the same time. For example, washing machines and dryers can be controlled so that they only run on the cheapest electricity rate. This way you can save a lot of money month after month and home automation will ensure that your purchase costs are amortized.
SMART HOMES COST LESS THAN YOU THINK
Until a few years ago, intelligent home automation required complex wiring. This quickly translated into a five-figure euro amount. Nowadays things are easier and cheaper. In addition to the wiring you also have the option of a radio system. Here the sensors (command transmitters) and actuators (receivers) communicate with each other wirelessly. Regardless of whether cable or WLAN, information from all elements and devices included in home automation flows into a central control unit, the so-called gateway.
A Smart Home solution via radio is available as an entry-level package, for example for the intelligent control of roller shutters and lights, already installed for around 1,500 euros. A cable system is generally more expensive, but less prone to failure. Our advice to you: Be clear about which elements are particularly important to you and invest initially only in this basic equipment. You can then gradually expand the home automation according to your wishes. If you want to remain flexible, rely on an open system that is not tied to any one manufacturer, but can be easily combined with modules from other manufacturers thanks, for example, to Bluetooth or WLAN technology.
Ask your regional construction partner for advice.
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