When you’re in the zone working from home, trivial matters around the house can be super distracting. In an automated home, this isn’t the case.
Simply call out to your voice assistant of choice and it’ll turn the lights on, change the temperature of the room, or shuffle your favorite playlist without you having to move a muscle.
Sold yet? Below are 28 home automation ideas that’ll set you on the path to enhanced comfort, efficiency, and security.
What things can you automate in a home?
You can automate all electronics described as ‘smart’ by using a mobile app or voice assistant, open-source or bought at retail.
Lighting fixtures, home entertainment systems, home security devices, heating and cooling technologies, motorized shading systems (motorized window shades and blinds), media distribution, display and storage solutions, and more can be automated.
What’s the best home automation system?
According to Analytics Insight, Amazon Echo leads the way in home automation systems, with a 26.4 percent market share as of September 2021.
Echo is a control hub that communicates with other smart devices in the home or workplace through voice recognition technology (Alexa).
Aside from what’s available on the market, it’s also possible to DIY home automation systems using open-source applications and technology (find out more about home automation using Raspberry Pi).
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Smart Security Automation Ideas
Home automation can help safeguard your property even if you’re on the other side of the globe. Here are four home security automation ideas you might want to try.
1. Automatic door lock
Smart door locks empower you to automatically lock the front door when sensors detect you are a few feet from the front entrance. No more losing your keys.
You can also link the automatic door lock with advanced geofencing technology (an RFID or GPS technology that creates a digital or virtual geographic boundary).
Geofencing creates a boundary around the property. If the user enters or exits the space, all locks will respond accordingly.
2. Leaks Notification
Nothing is worse than returning from work to a house gutted by fire or water-damaged by a broken pipe.
Intelligent leak sensors let you monitor gas and water leaks and receive notifications before things escalate.
They make a perfect solution for families going on extended vacations, or leaving a property unoccupied for a long time.
Heading on vacation? Keep an eye on things at home with Alfred
Vacation season introduces additional home security risks, as houses are left totally unoccupied for an extended period of time. No one wants the bliss of a vacation to be spoiled by burglary. Avoid unnecessary anxiety by using an AlfredCamera device.
If you’re heading on your holidays sooner rather than later, you don’t need to panic buy expensive hardware to monitor the house. Simply install AlfredCamera to an old phone, tablet, or computer and it’ll transform the device into a security camera in minutes.
Get started now to protect your home while you’re away.
3. Making Escape Easier in Case of Fires or Carbon Monoxide Detection
Home automation lets you unlock doors and turn on lights automatically if sensors detect dangerous levels of carbon monoxide or excessive heat in your house.
Security cameras, which can be scheduled or respond to motion, will also help mitigate disaster and allow you to exit the house safely.
Some security cameras support alarm detection, meaning they can send notifications and start recording if they detect a fire alarm going off.
4. Instruct The Delivery Person
Home security cameras are also useful for ensuring packages get delivered on time and are left in a safe place.
You can schedule the camera to monitor a doorway based on the mail schedule, or leave it to its own devices via motion detection.
When notified of movement, check in on the camera’s live feed and talk to the delivery person on the other side of the camera, so that you can instruct them on what to do.
5. Camera Patrol
Security cameras with motorized panning can be automated to conduct a ‘patrol’ at set times throughout the day. This is one of the best ways to take advantage of the rotating ability some cameras have.
Periodically, the camera will do a 360-degree sweep of the area, so that everything in the vicinity of the device is kept an eye on.
What are some DIY home automation ideas?
‘Automation’ refers to anything that operates automatically. That means even basic scheduling of processes can be considered a form of DIY home automation.
Alfred Premium makes DIY home automation simple, allowing AlfredCamera users to easily monitor their homes by scheduling motion detection.
Schedules can dictate when the camera monitors throughout the day and throughout the week, thereby not only saving energy but also making push notifications much more relevant to the user.
Find out more about how Premium can deepen your home security experience.
Smart Lighting Automation Ideas
A mainstay of modern smart homes is intelligent lighting fixtures. The following 8 ideas will help you maximize the benefits of smart lights in the house.
1. Automated Illumination Controls
Manage lighting fixtures’ brightness levels with your mobile device. You can set the bedroom lights dimmer than those in the living room or turn them off while still vacant.
Kitchen lights should be brighter during food preparation and cooking, and dim or turned off when not in use.
2. Sunrise Alarm
Ditch the annoying alarm clock and program your smart lights to wake you up with a soft, sunlight-like glow.
It’s a friendly solution to mimic natural sunrise, stimulating your circadian rhythm and helping to start your day on the right foot.
3. Sunset Lighting
Much like the sunrise alarm, many smart lighting fixtures are capable of the opposite of waking you up: helping you wind down and get the sleep you deserve.
‘Sunset’ routines can be set to align with your evening routine, gradually diminishing the amount of light and changing its hue over an extended period of time to aid the body’s natural circadian rhythm.
4. Automatic Lights Off
It’s tedious to manually turn off light switches in all rooms, particularly if there’s lights on in multiple rooms..
Smart lighting fixtures connect to a home automation hub you can speak to or communicate with via your smartphone. Snuggled up watching your favorite TV show? Turn off all the lights in a second.
4. Geofencing Illumination
Aside from locks, geofencing all works well with smart lighting. , By tracking your proximity to the allocated area, you can have all household lights turn on even before you switch off the ignition in your car. Check out this article about geofencing to learn more.
5. Night Lights for Babies
Some rooms or sections in the house do not require continuous bright light during the night. For example, the bathroom, kitchen, and hallway lights can shine less brightly when you sleep.
Having this kind of control is especially useful for newborns. As they age, the amount of light they like will probably change. Brightness can change when movement is detected, before dimming again after a set period of inactivity.
6. Garage Lights
Although your car’s headlights can assist, driving into your garage at night can still be tricky.
Park pain free by automating the garage lights to turn on automatically as you approach or open the garage door.
7. Landscape Lighting
You can program the smart home system to turn on landscape lights at full brightness at sunset to create a stunning scene for the home.
If you wanted, you could have the landscape lights turn on automatically at a specific time to help you conserve energy.
Raspberry Pi Home Automation
Raspberry Pi is a series of single-board computers originally designed for teaching children computer science. Since then, they’ve been adopted widely elsewhere, including by hobbyists interested in an open-source approach to home automation.
A Raspberry Pi model armed with an SD card, power adaptor, and an Ethernet cable can be used alongside different open-source home automation applications, one of which is the aptly-named ‘Home Assistant’.
Home Assistant interfaces the Raspberry Pi with your phone, so you can add things like lights and thermostats to be automated from the palm of your hand. For those interested in an open-source approach to automation, a Raspberry Pi is a good place to start.
Smart Thermostat Automation Ideas
The US Department of Energy recommends smart thermostats for their ability to reduce energy costs by up to 8%.
These devices optimize heating and cooling systems, tracking patterns, monitoring room occupancy, and notifying homeowners of household thermoregulation concerns.
Here are several ideas to maximize smart thermostat automation.
1. Geofencing Thermoregulation
You can program your smart thermostat to adjust the house’s temperature settings when you leave and arrive.
After all, the US Department of Energy recommends adjusting the thermostat by seven to ten degrees Fahrenheit from normal when nobody’s home. Come home to a warm house as you pass the threshold of the geofence.
2. HVAC Filter Change Notification
Your home’s HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) system relies on a filter to remove dust, pet dander, pollen, and other air impurities. This component requires periodic replacement.
Unfortunately, the HVAC filter’s placement can make it too tedious to check its integrity daily. A smart thermostat can sense when an HVAC filter change is necessary and notify you about it.
Trying to keep your home at the right temperature without burning a hole in your wallet? Check out our article “Normal House Temperature for Babies, Pets, and Everyone Else in the Home.”
3. Price Threshold Thermoregulation
Did you know that some intelligent thermostats allow you to program “if this, then that” (IFTTT) commands?
You can set the thermostat to maintain a constant room temperature for a predetermined time frame based on prevailing electric prices.
The thermostat activates this feature if the electricity price breaches a pre-set threshold, helping you to avoid skyrocketing energy prices as much as possible.
4. Monitor Humidity for Plant Care
Plant parents know how important humidity levels are for houseplants. Too dry, and tropical plants will wilt and brown. Too humid, and the cacti will start to struggle.
Smart thermostats can monitor humidity levels in the home. Receive notifications when humidity reaches a certain threshold in the home to keep the environment just right.
Automate air purifiers to dehumidify the air once it reaches the threshold, or automate smart humidifiers to start puffing the air when it gets too dry.
5. Landlord Property Management
Landlords can manage heating across their properties with much greater ease by using smart thermostats.
Restrictions can be easily automated, while both landlord and tenant can avoid any surprise costs by keeping an eye on the price in real time. Schedules can be easily instated to keep holiday homes at the right temperature.
Smart Sensors (Motion and Multipurpose) Automation Ideas
A smart home can have many types of sensor, including water, motion, door, and window sensors.
Confused as to what you need? Check out the following smart sensor automation ideas to get an idea of what can be done.
1. Door Opening Triggers
Smart sensors are most commonly connected to doors. This can be useful not only for security purposes (getting notified that the door has opened or triggering an alarm when enabled) but also as an alternative to using Geofencing if that doesn’t strike your fancy.
The door opening could be automated to trigger lights turning on, or something as niche as triggering a reminder to take the trash out.
2. Mailbox Notifications
Attaching a sensor to the inside of a mailbox door is another great way to stay up to date about packages while away from the home, particularly if mailboxes are contained in an apartment complex (meaning visual surveillance isn’t an option).
As soon as the mail person opens the box to deposit a package, you’ll be notified, so you can be sure to retrieve the contents as soon as it’s been left.
3. Window Triggers
Burglars and thieves don’t just walk through the front door! Windows are a common access point in break-ins, so it’s wise to monitor their movement with a sensor as well, particularly on the ground floor.
Get reminders to close windows before bed if you’ve left them open, or, for electric windows, simply have it close itself at a certain time.
4. Vacuums
Robot vacuums are a great way for busy folks to keep things clean, but they can be pretty annoying (and terrifying should they randomly come alive in the middle of the night) when left to their own devices.
Instead, try automating them using a smart sensor. For example, when you close the front door after exiting the house in the morning, the vacuum can begin a cleaning cycle.
5. Refrigerators
Smart refrigerators increasingly incorporate all kinds of features, including entire tablet screens in their doors.
A much more common feature of modern refrigerators is a sensor in the door. While sensors have been in refrigerator doors for decades, these simply beeped at you.
Smart sensors can be automated to send notifications to your phone should you accidentally leave the door open, and then be made to shut the door automatically.
Smart Entertainment Automation Ideas
We all love family entertainment in the home, whether that’s an impromptu disco in the kitchen or kicking back on the sofa with a favorite TV show.
Here’s 5 more suggestions on how home automation can improve your home entertainment experience.
1. Music
Free yourself from cumbersome wires and enjoy music anywhere in the house with smart speakers.
You can control your music listening experiences using a screen device from around the house or by giving voice commands.
2. Home Movie Experience
Nobody wants to watch films with the lights turned on.
Create the perfect cinematic ambience by automating the lights to dim or turn off completely when you press the “Play” button on the remote.
3. TV Welcome Home
Wouldn’t it be great if your TV turns on and tunes to your favorite channel when the system knows you are parking your car in the garage?
An automated home lets you do this.
4. TV Bedtime
Scientists recommend avoiding blue light exposure at least four hours before bedtime to help you fall asleep faster and deeper.
A smart TV connected to a home automation hub lets you turn off the TV at preprogrammed times, or it can reduce or completely remove blue light from the image, helping your body stay in touch with its circadian rhythm.
5. House Parties
On certain days of the week, bedtime can wait. Establish a party scene that combines lighting, music and other automations, and at a moment’s notice, the house is transformed into the perfect environment for celebrating.
Elevate parties with LEDs and strobe lights, which can be automated to match the rhythms of the music playing.
DJ the night with the sound of your voice, and when people turn up, the chime of a smart doorbell won’t be drowned out by music.
Play bartender and ask the smart refrigerator for drinks recommendations. It can also instantly notify you if you’re out of ice!
FAQ
What is the future of home automation?
One can only expect home automation to grow. Technology experts say that tomorrow’s smart homes will have more seamless smart home device integration, more intelligent home appliances and gadgets, movement into the virtual world, and increased customization, efficiency, and control.
What is the simplest form of automation?
The simplest automation form is Robotic Process Automation or “software robotics.” This system simulates back-office activities, including data extraction, form fill-ups, file management, and file transfers.
Although intelligent automation hinges on machine learning, intelligent document processing, structured data interaction, and natural language processing, RPA focuses more on frequent and repetitive rule-based tasks, which can be described as more simple.
Conclusion
Home automation empowers people to enjoy life to the fullest, offering convenience, comfort, and peace of mind like no other technology.
These 28 home automation ideas are only a glimpse of the potential of automation in modern homes.
Smart security is among the most important developments for homeowners and renters, because it makes safety measures much more efficient and, therefore, effective.
Recommended reading: 21 Perfect Gifts for New Homeowners