What is Home Automation?

Home automation is quickly becoming a buzz word in marketing for technology products.  Everything from thermostats, to lights, to alarm systems, and even appliances are now being controlled via our smartphones or our computers.  You’ve probably even seen major alarm and cable service providers pushing home automation systems lately.  Can you turn on a light in your home while you’re at the office? Sure.  How about setting your alarm from the airport when you realize you left the house in a rush and never turned it on?  Of course.  But a properly designed system can do so much more…

So what is home automation?  It is the integration of all the systems in your home into one smart design that works for you instead of giving you more things to do or worry about.  Instead of being able to turn your lights on and off while you’re away from home, how about a lighting system that knows when you are home, because it can communicate with your alarm system and knows when it is armed in away mode for instance.  A smart home would also know what time of day it is and even be able to measure how much natural light is in a room, allowing it to dim and adjust lighting in a room based on all these factors without you having to touch a single button or open an app.  You may have seen some smart locks being sold in stores.  Can you imagine your home knowing who has arrived, and based on the time of day you’ve arrived, setting the lighting mood you prefer, turning your audio system or TV on to your favorite station and arming your alarm in the “stay” mode for you automatically?  This is true home automation.  You may be conjuring up images of the Jetsons and Rosie, their robot maid, cleaning up and cooking for the family, and thinking this is just a cartoon.  Technology has finally caught up to our imagination and allowed some of these things to become reality… Although we’re still waiting for our flying cars.

With so many systems already installed and operating within our homes such as, lighting, HVAC, Audio, Video, Security, etc… doesn’t it make sense to get the most out of what you already have in your home.  We actually want the left hand to know what the right hand is doing in this case.  We can leverage so much information from one system in your home to make other systems feel like they know exactly what you want them to do without you having to tell them.  With so much technology at our disposal, it shouldn’t feel like we have more things to do or check up on, but that’s exactly what it seems to be doing.  A well planned home automation system can make your life easier and less clumsy to get the most out of the investments you’ve already made to your home.  Call First Priority Audio today to let us get the most out of technology for you and your family.