What does a sluggish night in on the sofa, returning home to an ice block and wasting electricity in an unpopulated room all have common? They are crying out for smart home automation. Before you say it, it’s not a fad, it’s the future and despite a few initial teething problems the smart home is blossoming into quite a catch, even for stout traditionalists.
The main premise of the smart home is to make the homeowners daily routine fluid, convenient and cost effective. First to hatch within the smart home nest are products that coincide with our nearest and dearest necessities, with lighting and heating the most prominent subjects within modern automated controls. These ingenious developments have helped to transform some of our core and most important applications from regular time consuming machines into instantly accessible machines, extended with further control and modification for the user.
So Who Are The Consumers At The Heart Of ?
Although the smart home excitement has its obvious admirers from the Trekkie-esque technology enthusiasts its appeal can be benefited across a large demographic; from the lazy to the busy and the old to the young, all walks of life can embrace this operation. Unless you’re a straight up technophobe and find new inventions offensive, there really isn’t any reason to hate on smart home automation – apart from the spending money part, which in reality shouldn’t come as a surprise because nothing comes free and certainly not innovative home gadgets.
So who is the leading market for smart home products? Well as briefly stated before, its audience is broad and diverse but the early success of the smart home would suggest it has struck a real chord with hectic family households and swanky new builds. These particular groups are noticeably different and you could even go as far as saying their reasonings are too. The busy family home seeks smart automation for its convenience factor, whereas contemporary new builds look to fill their interiors with state-of-the-art accessories for a more aesthetically pleasing and luxury service.
As daunting as new technology can sometimes be, one of the most attractive factors about smart home technology is that most of the devices replicate already existing applications, in both appearance and at some degree function as well. The only difference being you can control your devices using a smart app (on the phone or tablet) or designated remote controls provided by the smart brand.
So What Scenarios Could Smart Home Automation Help You With?
You’ve forgotten to turn the lights/heating off but you’re out of the house. No need to travel home! Simply log into your smart home app to access control over your appliances.
It’s winter and you want your home to warm up before you get back. Again, log into your app but this time instead of switching off the sockets, turn on the heating to make the home toasty before your return.You want your heating/lighting to come on at designated times. You can pinpoint the exact dates and times of when you wish your heating or lights to turn on. These modifications can include or exclude certain rooms and certain heaters at precise times.
Timing is key for the family home. With busy schedules that run on set times, including dropping off the kids to school, driving to work, picking them up, arriving home, dinnertime, bathtime and bedtime – having your electrical appliances set up and working in tune with your routine can be a weight off your aching shoulders.
You want to use less energy. If used correctly smart home automation products can help to reduce the amount of energy you use, simply by prioritising what is powered and at what times. However energy monitoring with smart products can go a whole lot deeper as some brands sell energy monitors to provide real time displays of the energy you are using. This can be a great feature for making positive changes to how much energy you use at home.
You are injured, ill or slumped out on the sofa watching TV. If the main light is overbearing and you wish to turn it off or dim it down but you can’t or don’t want to move from your position you can use the smart app or remote control to control the dim or completely switch off the lights from the comfort of your sofa.
You are scared your children will meddle with the controls. Not to worry because most smart home automation controls have child lock settings built in, this means your scheduled operations will not be affected and your children’s own safety will remain intact with sockets and other electrical accessories completely locked until an authorised adult unlocks the system.
So What Does The Future Of The Smart Home Hold?
The bigger picture focuses on every electrical device within the home, which will soon share the ability to communicate and interact with one another. This could be the kettle turning on at a particular time to signify the toaster turning on too, meaning morning coffee and toast combines for a speedy breakfast service. This sort of integration will open up the doors for a fully functioning fluid home – that dances to the beat of your drum, whatever the tune may be.
Conserving energy is another big feature, as design teams across the world work together to try and find solutions for the most efficient home. Plans are in the offing to use power grids to harness energy and provide electricity to homes, with even those without access to the grid being able to share power with neighbouring properties.
Home entertainment will also see ground breaking changes as technicians implement augmented, virtual and mediated reality to produce larger than life interactions and performances from television screens inside the home. When playtime is over and it’s back to work the future home will be well prepared for connecting the massive influx of work-from-home employees. The stay at home office will be well prepared to host advanced communications between the entire work force.
Although smart home automation is still somewhat finding its feet among general consumers it’s got a bright future and is continuing to evolve. We’ve turned a significant corner from the marvels of a lighted kettle and for anyone who is fearful of the smart home intrusion try not to fret because it’s availability, functionality and responsiveness makes it suitable all types of property.
Written by Thomas Bray – Content/Marketing manager for online electrical wholesaler, Direct Trade Supplies.