Home automation is gaining popularity because intelligent technology has a significant impact on the lives of their owners, increasing the comfort and safety of their homes. So what smart home features are attracting users?

The reasons to make your home smart

A study by RMIT Centre for Urban Research cites safety, productivity, and pleasure as the most popular reasons for using intelligent home systems.

Safety and economy

Users of the technology have indicated that they want to take care of and protect their home and its inhabitants. Thanks to security systems:

• They did not have to pay for repairs from the neighbors downstairs because the water leakage sensor gave a signal in time when the water pipe burst and the electrovalve blocked the water supply.
• Their house did not burn down because the fire system was activated.
• They were not robbed because they have a good multi-level security system.

Moreover, all of this additionally allowed saving a lot of money.

Comfort and productivity

A popular reason for installing a smart house is its ability to create improvements that reduce the physical or emotional effort of completing daily tasks around the house. Automated control of lighting, heating, doors, and curtains is becoming the norm. Those who are accustomed to using such systems doubt they will feel as comfortable without smart technologies.

Engineering solutions also increase the productivity of smart home owners through multitasking and coordination. Survey participants note that the time savings that the system provides allow them to focus on things that were more important and improve efficiency.

Pleasure

Living in your smart home offers many opportunities to experiment with different devices and, according to survey participants, brings a lot of joy and fun into their lives. Intelligent lighting and voice control are the main sources of this experience, allowing them to create a mood-enhancing atmosphere at home.

Some of the respondents have created a relaxing and pleasant atmosphere in their home, which can usually be found only on vacation or in a SPA. Home cinemas, audio systems, swimming pools, indoor and outdoor entertainment areas have become part of this “vacation” pleasure.

The brain of a smart home

Technically advanced controllers provide information processing and control of specific elements. Power supplies and UPS give uninterrupted power supply, information is transmitted through IR transceivers, relay modules turn on and off household appliances, dimming modules regulate the smoothness of lighting.

The overall management of all smart home devices and features is carried out via remote control panels. There are stationary and portable models. Portable video panels are the most convenient due to their mobility and the ability to visually control the necessary processes. A PC, tablet, smartphone, and similar devices can also perform the control panel function.

You can manage the gadgets in your dwelling and carry out general control from anywhere in the world using the internet. Through the controller, the owners can program the execution of the tasks (scenarios) that they need. Scenarios can be simple — turning on the air conditioner when a certain temperature is reached, or complex — turning on the TV while closing the curtains and adjusting the local lighting.

On the one hand, you give the central controller of the smart home the management of routine, day-to-day operations such as controlling the lighting, humidity, or temperature, preparing for a home cinema, and more important functions such as burglar alarms, video surveillance, and fire safety. At the same time, you reserve the right to make decisions when the intelligence of the smart home is not enough, to intervene in the support management process from anywhere in your home and beyond.

Components of intelligent home

All features of an intelligent home come down to solving a single problem — ensuring maximum automation of all equipment and engineering systems of your home. In fact, this allows getting a lot of free time, saving the user from a lot of everyday problems and additional spending. You no longer have to fix breakdowns in communications, adjust the operation of electrical equipment manually, and constantly monitor the lighting and temperature conditions in your home.

Lighting system

It controls individual lamps and their groups, sets the desired operating mode, adjusts the degree of illumination. Using the remote control, you can turn off currently unused light sources and, conversely, turn on in the right places. Some of the best systems allow to remotely creating the illusion that the owners are at home by setting the scenario for turning on the lights in some rooms.

Lighting systems can do the following:

• control all light sources in the dwelling from a single control panel,
• create control scenarios depending on time, date, specific event,
• adjust switching on and off lamps,
• adjust brightness percentage,
• save the resource of lamps,
• switch on the lamps when entering and switch off when leaving the room.

Climate control

The system controls equipment designed for air conditioning, ventilation, heating, purification, humidification. Coordinated operation of all devices in a given mode is ensured. It is possible to install a thermostat with voice or remote climate control in the apartment.

System capabilities:

• control of heating and air conditioning gadgets via a single control panel,
• regulating of climate control devices depending on the season, time, date, a specific event,
• availability of temperature and humidity sensors, depending on the readings of which certain mechanisms that regulate the climate are triggered.

Home cinema and multiroom

The system controls devices for playing video and audio signals (TVs, Blu-ray players), as well as related equipment: blinds, curtains, lighting in the viewing room, creating a special comfort when watching movies.

The multiroom system is responsible for the condition of all audio and video equipment throughout the apartment. With its help, you can watch TV shows and movies, listen to music and radio channels anywhere in the house that is equipped with the necessary set of equipment.

System capabilities:

• control of all AV equipment in the house via a single control panel,
• control of the home cinema system by pressing one button,
• smooth control of lighting on and off,
• turning on and off AV equipment depending on the date, time, specific event, triggering of sensors.

Safety system

The multifunctional system quickly responds to all alarms in the dwelling, provides remote control over events occurring in the house, turns on the alarm system, and controls fire safety, as well as security in the field of public supply systems.

System capabilities:

• security and fire alarms, which can be turned on automatically after the owners leave the house,
• control from the remote control or cell phone,
• notification to a remote computer or mobile phone about emergency situations,
• protection of several zones,
• access control to the premises, including remote control,
• alarm system to prevent water leaks and flooding,
• an alarm system to prevent electricity and gas leaks.

In a perfect world, the developers of the best Google, Amazon, Apple, or other smart home systems are striving for the ability to simultaneously control your multi-room audio/video system, manage the process of washing clothes in the home laundry, control the games of your children in the nursery, and, without leaving your home, manage your business in real-time. And do it all from anywhere in the house, from a single control panel. Thus, you will be able to combine all the functions of a smart home into a single whole.