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Automating your home helps you with your everyday life, it relieves you of your duty to your daily chores. It could also help with security and peace of mind, it can even leave a good impression from your guests. There are quite a few things you can do to automate
your home. It is not always about turning on something through an app. Automating literally mean setting something automatically. How can you apply Automation to your home?
Here are 3 simple things you can do and how:
- Probably the most popular at the moment is turning on the lights via app & timer. For example, turn on the table lamp from 6 to 11 pm. In the same way, you can control almost anything with a plug. I say ‘almost’ because some electrical equipment will still need some human intervention to power up, like a TV. So think about it before buying. The new thing these days is app-controlled lights like Philips Hue or Wasserstein Smart Bulb. These can also talk to the likes of Amazon’s Alexa, Google home and others. The older way, and I think is still good enough for most people is to have a plug timer that can do weekly schedules. For your patio, the easiest is to just purchase a bulb with a dusk-dawn sensor.
- Bathroom Automation, usually seen in public toilets, typical things you can do are:
- Install a PIR sensor to the lights, it detects presence as you walk in and turn on the lights for you. You will need an electrician for this.
- Infrared tap. I like this idea as it never fails to impress your guests. But because it doesn’t have physical control, you would need an inline thermostatic mixer to achieve the ideal temperature.
- IR Flusher Control. I don’t know how many manufacturers do this, but I know Grohe makes them. It basically flushes when you turn away from the toilet.
- Micro Irrigation. I use this for my plants that need constant watering. This one is very useful to me because I do not have time before I go to work, and too tired when I get back. I hate doing this chore that is why this is my favourite one. One of the reputable brands out there is Hozelock, but there are many others that are as good. It is pretty straightforward when controlling, but it takes careful planning on how you want the routes to go to. Making sure they look tidy enough and also making sure the amount of water is not too much for a specific plant, therefore there will be a lot of adjusting and trial and error before you can get it right. I will post something in the future to tackle this topic.
The best scenario
Of course, the best scenario is that everything moves in sequence and to the right time and to the right amount, using one system. Imagine the sequence of scenario:
- You are about a mile away from your home, and your system knows your coming. It bumps up the heating to 24 ºC
- You pull up your garage and presence sensor knows you arrived. It turned on the garage light, disarm the security system, unlock the door inside the garage and turn on the lights in the hallway at 60%.
- After dinner, you pressed a button and turns on the stairs and corridor lights all the way to the master bedroom and bathroom.
- You then tuck in and at a press of a button by the bed and it turns off all the lights in the house but leaves the nightlight on your path to the bathroom and armed the security system. The temperature drops to 20º C.
This is very doable. It may sound like a perfect scenario, but it would need some fine-tuning to make sure there aren’t any security issues.
How do I apply Automation to my home? It is very possible to retrofit all these in your existing homes, but if you are interested in these things before refurbishing your home, make your intention known to your Interior Designer or Architect.
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