How does living in a smart home feel? As fans of smart homes themselves, we can say that it’s really fantastic. Our front door locks itself every night. Our home security system opens when we leave and disarms when we’re almost home, our coffee machine begins brewing coffee minutes before we wake up, and the lights in our living room and balcony switch on at sunset and off at daylight ends.
Since home automation is an advanced technology. It can initially be intimidating to someone who hasn’t used it for as long as we have. But believe us—automating your house is easier than you might think, especially with our help.
What Is Home Automation?
The technology known as “home automation” enables viewers to program and initiate automated features for household appliances. Schedules, regulations, or sequences could be used for such. For example, you can program lights to turn on at a specific time using scheduled automations.. Using rules, you can make your devices respond to certain actions of yours or scenarios. (For instance, activate lights when a door is opened). Additionally, you may use sceneries to group household appliances together such that, when the scene gets started, each one does a particular activity. This implies that you can use a single button to operate multiple gadgets.
In addition to making life easier and simpler, home automation can lower your cooling, heating, and electricity costs. With Internet of Things devices like security cameras and systems, home automation can also result in increased safety. But first, let’s explain what the Internet of Things is.
Internet of Things vs. Home Automation
In a more general sense, an Internet of Things, or IoT, device is any gadget that has an internet connection and can interact with other gadgets.. Normally, that’s your laptop, smartphone, or tablet. However, IoT devices in smart homes can take a number of shapes. Your smart TV, for for example, is an IoT. So are your smart locks, smart thermostats, smart lightbulbs, and other such devices. In essence, an IoT device is any gadget that has an internet connection and can interact with other gadgets.
On the other hand, automating a home item is known as home automation. Because it can be controlled with schedules, even a thermostat that can be programmed qualifies as a home control device. A home automation gadget is anything that can be controlled by automation.
IoT devices and home automation have a lot in common. Most home automation devices are also IoT devices, but that doesn’t mean all of them are. For instance, similar to IoT smart locks, Bluetooth smart locks can be run from an app and connect to your smartphone; however, because they aren’t internet-connected, they are not home automation devices.
How Does Home Automation Work?
In order for a network of devices to interact and automate your house, they must be connected. Usually, everything is coordinated by a central device. That may be a smart display or speaker that has Siri, Google Assistant, or Alexa built in. With the appropriate controller app loaded, it might potentially be your smartphone.
Even though almost all home automation systems nowadays need an online connection, non-internet-connected home automation devices are still relevant. You need a hub in order to integrate them into an internet-connected home automation system. They link to a hub using a separate communication technology, such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, X10, or Matter, and the hub then connects them to the internet.
Home automation works on three levels:
Tracking: Tracking enables customers to use an app to remotely check in on their devices. For instance, a smart security camera’s live stream might be watched by anyone.
Controlling: Control refers to the user’s ability to operate these gadgets from a distance, such as panning a security camera to view a larger area of a home.
Digitization: Last but not least, automation refers to programming gadgets to activate one another, such as a smart siren that sounds anytime an attached security camera detects movement.
Home Automation System Components
Some mobile applications link straight to a router, which then connects straight to an Internet of Things device, but other home automation systems need gateways. Since a data center is essentially an extra expense on top of the cost of the IoT device itself, it is obviously preferable to have none.
Remote Control
It completed over a voice assistant or a mobile application, is the unique aspect of home automation.
- Mobile Tool: Whether it’s turning off the lights outside or opening the smart garage door for a neighbor, the mobile application lets users operate their gadgets in real time. Schedules, sceneries, groups of IoT devices, and device settings may all be customized through the app. For example, you can set the lights in your living room to the ideal shade of blue. Since the bulk of the IoT devices we’ve tested include apps for iOS and Android, they work with most smartphones and tablets.
- Voice Agents: Consider voice-controlled devices to be a topping on the cake if home automation is the main course. Voice-activated assistants allow you to control devices with your voice, such as setting a timer on a smart speaker while your hands are busy with kitchen tools, disarming a security system as you enter the house, or playing back the video from your doorbell on your Echo Show device. Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri are the three voice assistants that are compatible with the majority of IoT devices.
- Amazon‘s speech assistant: Alexa, is included into the Echo Show and Echo Dot devices. The speech assistant Alexa is found in the greatest number of smart home appliances made by businesses like Cove, Ring Alarm, and SimpliSafe.
- Google Advisor: As you might expect, the Google Advisor is the company’s bot for speaking. Despite having smaller “skills” or “actions” than Alexa, Google Assistant has been shown to be the most accurate voice assistant when it comes to comprehending and providing appropriate answers to questions. You’ll need a smart speaker or smart screen to use Google Assistant; start by reading our reviews of the Nest Mini and Nest Hub.
Control Protocols
IoT devices need a control protocol to connect to the Internet and to one another; if IoT devices were people, consider the protocol to be their common language. Similar to Earth, gadgets can communicate a few different languages, or protocols, such as:
- Wi-Fi: The most widely used control protocol, Wi-Fi allows your Internet of Things device to connect to the standard Internet that is offered by your ISP. Although an additional hub is not necessary for this, be aware that it may cause your online browsing speeds to decrease, particularly if you have numerous IoT devices configured simultaneously.
- Z-Wave: Don’t want to mess with your home’s Wi-Fi? Z-Wave is a wireless technology that won’t interfere with your Wi-Fi; rather, it operates on low power at 908.42 M-h-z in the U.S and Canada.5
- Bluetooth: Lastly, Bluetooth is another mesh technology that enables users to automate systems and control and monitor Internet of Things devices.
Most people will only need Wi-Fi-enabled gadgets, but for more sophisticated smart homes, you may want to go to a mesh network like ZigBee or Z-Wave.