The advancing technology has made it possible for homeowners to automate their electronic devices and home appliances by connecting them to the internet. By automating your appliances, you can control them remotely. Home automation is designed to improve your home’s comfort and practicality, allowing you to focus on more critical tasks.
For instance, you will be able to set the time when your lights go on and off without doing it manually. That way, you can go to sleep without worrying about leaving your lights on. You can also schedule your thermostat to turn the air conditioner up an hour before returning home from work so that you don’t return to a stuffy house. Aside from making your life more convenient, home automation also reduces your utility bills. In this article, we tell you how home automation works.
How It Works
Home automation involves a network of home appliances and electronic devices connected to the internet through various communication protocols like Wi-Di, ZigBee, and Bluetooth. With electronic interfaces, you can manage these devices remotely using controllers such as voice assistants, Google Assistants, or apps. Most modern electronic devices and home appliances come with sensors that enable them to monitor changes in temperature, light, and movement so that you can gain information about the appliances.
To make physical modifications to the appliances, you have to trigger their actuators–physical mechanisms such as switches, valves, and motors–that enable you to control the appliances remotely. It is also important to note that home automation is operated on three primary levels.
- Monitoring: this is the ability to check in on your home appliances and devices remotely via an app. For instance, you can view your live feed from your smart surveillance camera.
- Controlling: this means that you can control your appliances and devices remotely. For example, you are planning your surveillance camera to capture a larger living space.
- Automation: it means connecting different devices so that they can trigger each other. A good example is when your smart siren goes off when your armed surveillance camera detects movement.
Setting Up Home Automation
Home automation systems are not difficult to set up, provided you clearly understand how they are supposed to work. Many smart home appliances are already automated. So, they don’t have any specialized skills to set up. However, it is always prudent to hire a trained and experienced technician to set up the home automation systems for you.