What Can I Automate in My Home?

What can you automate in your home? Everything.

With the right technology and expertise, there's no limit to the functionality you can achieve in your smart home. All you need to do is decide what you want to achieve and the best way to do it.

Here's what you need to know to plan your smart home.

What can you achieve with smart home automation?

Just about anything that runs on electricity can be automated in a smart home. First, you need to decide on the functionality outcomes you want so you can choose the best systems to achieve them.

Here are some of the most useful and popular home automation features:

1. Automatic lights

You can use sensors to turn on lights when someone enters a room. This can be especially useful in hallways and staircases, where light switches may not be conveniently located.

You can also programme lights in more advanced ways. For example, you can have your lights turn on very dim after 10pm and slowly ramp up to only 30 per cent brightness. This can help make getting up during the night less disruptive to your sleep.

2. Automatic door locks

Sensors can detect your smart phone when you arrive at your home and automatically unlock your front door or open your garage for you.

Unlocking your front door or garage can also activate a variety of other systems such as lights, music, and heating. These systems can also recognise different people and who can each have customised settings.

3. Smart security cameras

Smart security cameras can automatically detect motion outside your home and notify you on your smartphone and send you live images so you can assess the situation for yourself.

4. Automatic blinds

Sensors can detect the temperature and brightness in a room and automatically close or open your blinds to optimise the temperature and reduce your need for heating and cooling.

On a hot day in summer, your blinds can close automatically, or on a sunny day in winter, they can open automatically to make the most of the sun and reduce the amount of heating you need.

5. Automatic heating and cooling

You can programme your heating and cooling to turn automatically at certain times or temperatures as well as having them turn off automatically if sensors detect nobody is using the room.

The first step is deciding on the features you want to achieve. Along with everything mentioned above, there are all kinds of security, entertainment, and energy efficiency features to choose from.

After that, you need to consider the best way to achieve your smart home automation goals. You should consider:

DIY solutions

Off-the-shelf smart devices have become very popular in recent years. There is a lot you can achieve with a virtual assistant such as Google Home and smart devices such light bulbs, speakers, and cameras.

This is where a lot of people want to start when they think about home automation. However, there is a big difference between virtual assistant products and a complete home automation solution.

There are limitations to what you can achieve with DIY products, and you may find you need to replace incompatible systems in the future if you choose to expand the automation features of your smart home.

Google home

Home automation specialists

Getting advice from a home automation specialist is the best way to ensure your project goes smoothly and get the features you want to achieve.

Your home automation specialist can advise you on the kinds of features that are possible and recommend the best products and systems to achieve them, ensuring that all systems are compatible with each other and your desired outcome.

Why choose ITA

Here at ITA, we're experts in all things smart home automation. New products and devices are coming out constantly, and we stay up to date with all of them so we can give you the very best advice.

We can work with you to determine the best options for your goals, home, and budget. No matter what you want to achieve with home automation, we can help.

Find out more about home automation or call us on 03 9761 8700 for expert advice.