Home Automation
It’s easy to fill your days, evenings or weekends doing chores and other activities around the house. According to Ideal Home, we spend an incredible 433 days of our life cooking, 173 days doing our weekly shop and 170 days washing up. And while we can’t automate a lot of activities that we do, there’s a growing number of things that we can automate and do more efficiently using the latest technology.
Automation is also a great way to improve living standards. Automating some tasks might only save us a few seconds or minutes every day but having them done automatically also means we don’t have to worry about getting the tasks done manually - while some tasks without automation might not get done at all!
Below are some ideas on how automation of lighting and blinds and curtains can save you time and improve your quality of life.
Lighting: Automated lighting in your home
Whether it’s making sure the outside lights are on when you come home, having indoor lights come on while you are away as a deterrent or you simply climb into bed and remember you left the lights on in the lounge, life is much easier with automated lighting.
We work with Lutron who provide smart lighting features such as the ability to dim lights when it’s movie time or a Sunset Tracker so that the lights turn on and off at sunrise and sunset. Smart lighting allows you to also control lighting based on a schedule or remotely either by voice or from an app on your phone.
Curtains and Blinds: Automating the closing of curtains and blinds in your home
Running around the home to close all the curtains or blinds might not take that long to do but when it has to be done twice a day, 365 days a year, that time quickly adds up. Forgetting to close the curtains while you are away is also a great way to showcase your belongings to potential thieves!
With the right technology and support from i-Rewire, you need never worry about these issues again. Whilst you could ask the kids to close the curtains, it’s more likely to be done quicker and without any moaning by asking Alexa (or Google). If you are away from home, you can also control them easily using an app.
If that’s still not good enough - there’s an even better solution! Having curtains and blinds open and close on a schedule is a more effective way to ensure your curtains are opened and closed when you want them.
Did you know: Closing blinds and curtains at sunset helps to keep the heat in while opening them up when the sun comes up can help heat a home as daylight and any rays from the sun provide heat into the home.
Setting up groups: Combining automatic lights and blinds in Smart Group
When you group lights or blinds into virtual groups then it’s possible to save even more time while reducing the risk of forgetting to turn a light off or closing a blind.
With smart lighting, you can, for example, turn off all of the downstairs lights with a single action while you could also open or close only the curtains or blinds upstairs simultaneously. Smart automation if it's set up properly, allows you to do this either on a schedule or with the quick flick of a switch.
Is it curtains for manual work?
Somebody once told us that blinds are the greatest invention in the world because, without them, we would all be curtains!
Whether you like the pun or not, automation of your home has many great advantages and can be set up today at a very affordable cost. It’s not possible to automate everything yet in your home but automating tasks such as closing blinds and switching lights on and off is a great way to start.
If you would like to find out more about home automation, get in touch with our Smart Home electricians today by calling FREE
on 0800 788 0629 and we'll get back to you asap.
