Advantages of a Smart Home
Building a home for the modern age
Nearly everyone of us now carries a smartphone around with us every day. They are very powerful tools that make life easier, we can find something out straight away from, connect with someone on the other side of the world or listen to any song we please. The next big step forward is Smart Homes and controlling your home from your smartphone. Using new integrated technology, you can gain the advantages of a smart home and start controlling your home from your phone. Now is the best time to start building your home of the future.
Moving into a smart home can be a lot easier than you think! (which we have a guide right here!) With a smart home, you can improve your control over every aspect of how your house runs, increase the safety and make a more efficient home. This means you can reap the advantages of a smart home, leading to saving money, saving energy and lowering your upkeep costs.
Control at the touch of a button
The best thing about turning your home into a smart home is definitely the way you can control your whole house from your smartphone. There are a range of apps you can now download for your mobile device to enjoy complete control of your home, we like to recommend the Rialto app, but obviously use which app either works with your home automation products or you feel most comfortable with. With a smart home app, you can control your home from anywhere in the world. Did you leave for work and forget if you turned the lights on? Went on holiday and left the air conditioning set to come on? Heating the house when you’re away for the weekend? You now have no need to stress, you can quickly and easily turn these appliances off in seconds from where ever you are.
Limitations are a thing of the past, apps are developing every single day. Apps and devices can control almost any aspect of your home. Everything from music, lighting, garage doors, heating, water usage and even order your shopping – all easily and readily controlled by the smartphone in your pocket right now.
Accessibility
One thing the smart home is good for is elderly and disabled people. When everyday tasks can become extremely difficult smart home technology can make life a million times easier for them. Using a smart phone might be out the reach for some elderly or disabled people, but using voice control to change the heating, turn lights on and off or even turn a kettle on means they can greatly increase their quality of life.
As you get more advanced with your smart home technology, you can start to set up more automated systems. As technology keeps moving forward, more and more difficult tasks are becoming accessible through using home automation. For independent elderly members of society who live alone, watering a full garden can be a much larger task than it is for you or me. Through home automation they can activate sprinklers in their garden and water it, improving their comfort and happiness.
Safety
Not only do smart homes and smart home apps allow us to turn the oven off when we went out and accidentally left it on, they also allow us to create a safer home through security systems. Security systems can be installed that allow you to monitor everywhere or wherever you please around your home, this ranges from security cameras to door bells with cameras integrated. Security cameras won’t drain all your energy and cost you a fortune too, they can be set up to go off when activity is detected. New door bell technology means you can now talk to people who ring your bell, and even see them through a camera, this means you can see if someone is just trying your home to see if no one is in, or improve your comfort and let a friend or family member in from your smart phone device.
New smart home technology means you can also lock your doors from your phone. If you have left the house in a rush, you can check and lock your doors from your phone, creating a safer and more secure home for you and your family.
Energy Efficiency
One of the greatest benefits and why a lot of people are now turning to smart home technology is the financial savings. One study done by the US Environmental Protection Agency shown that users of smart home technology and home automation saved anywhere from 10% to 30% on their energy bills. Even over the course of a year, this will show a great increase in savings, so imagine if you used smart home technology for five years.
Saving money with smart home technologies is simple and easy and there are so many ways to start saving. Not only can you turn off lights when your not at home and only heat the house for when you are going to be there, timers and monitors make sure you only use the energy you want, and incredibly intelligent occupation detectors insure these products are only active when users are present.
One thing said again and again is the long term affects of smart home technology and home automation. Although it can be slow to start moving into home automation, when you do come to move home, all your technology such as smart plugs can come with you and turn your new home into a smart home. The technology already incorporated through home automation will improve the re-sale of your home. This means along with the energy saving, you will gain money back through the re-sale of your newly updated smart home.
If you need even a few more reasons to look into building your home into a smart home, we can suggest a few pointers with our own technology. Or if you would like advice or support on smart homes, just contact us.