Smart home automation is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Devices communicate with each other and function without manual control. Stuff just happens—like in the otherworld. All you have to do is to buy a device that’s easy to install.
If you’ve already armed yourself with the basics of home automation, dive in with me.
Whether you’re just looking for the latest automatic devices for daily routine or looking to beef up your home security or install smart home technology to make your home futuristic and more convenient…this article has you covered.
Here are smart home automation ideas you’ll love…
Top 5 Home Automation Ideas For A Smart Home
- Home Security Ideas
- Smart Home Entertainment Ideas
- Practical Home Automation Ideas for More Convenience
- Automated Climate Control Systems
- Smart Lighting Ideas
Home Security Ideas
Security automation is a smart way to beef up security in your home. This happens at different levels, and you can get an assortment of functions from a security company, or using various devices:
Home Monitoring
How about your home detecting an emergency event and sending a signal to the monitoring center whenever an intruder enters your home? Once notified, they deploy their team to your home and do what’s needed (in my case, my monitoring center is my neighbors that get notified, and they may or may not be police officers and folks that understand the business end of a baseball bat). And, to make security even tighter, don’t forget to arm your alarm. You’ll have different modes for different situations, including night, away, and home. You can arm your exterior doors and windows and even activate motion sensors downstairs if your bedroom is upstairs.
RELATED: Smart Home Automation Basics
Smart Locks
Have you ever made a U-turn on your way to work or spent the day wondering if you really locked the door on your way out? Smart locks lock down once you’re out and can always confirm on the app. In some cases, you can use voice commands via Google to “secure the Batcave”, and all your doors lock themselves and the garage door is checked to ensure it’s secure.
Smart Water Sensor
If you’re worried about leakage around the house when you’re away, you can place smart water sensors (I personally use the Govee WiFi Water Sensors) in places like the sink and bathroom and connect the sensors to your smart home hub to receive notifications whenever moisture is detected. I’ve also installed a Smart Water Valve that will automatically shut off my main waterline if any of my Govee sensors detect a water leak and I’m notified of an event. Cool huh?
Smart Home Entertainment System Ideas
If entertainment is a big part of your life, or you love entertaining, read on. Some of the benefits of entertainment automation include:
Turning The TV On And Off Automatically
If you’re a parent or guardian, you know how addictive TV can be for kids and teens and how grumpy they get when you touch the TV remote. Let the smart hub do the job of turning off the TV when TV time’s up, at dinner time, or bedtime.
No Messy Cables
Too many cables, some running all the way from the living room to the bedroom can be an eyesore. A smart home entertainment system allows you to connect devices wirelessly. No extra ports or ugly cables.
Entertain From Anywhere!
It can be tiring to move speakers from one room—or worse, outdoors and back. A smart outdoor entertainment system will make your work easy. You just need fast internet and a protected outdoors (to keep your electronics safe). With this system in place, you’ll just be streaming music from the living room.
LEARN MORE: Home Automation FAQs
Practical Home Automation Ideas for More Convenience
- Everyone loves comfort and convenience. Any innovation that can help us achieve things faster or effortlessly is welcome. After all, it’s not the Early Stone Age period.
- Automatic temperature control – Cool or warm up your home automatically from anywhere to save money, reduce your energy footprint, and cut energy costs. You can also enable your thermostat to switch to energy saving-mode whenever the windows are open. All you need: window sensors, a smart thermostat, and a smart hub.
- Waste reminders – “I’m sorry, I forgot.” Is that you every other week? Trash reminders help keep track of waste collection schedules. You’ll be reminded to put out your bins from garage flashlights to E-mails and alarms. You need smart lights and a smart hub for the light option or a simple free app if you prefer emails or push messages.
Automated Climate Control Systems
You’ll notice that some of these fall under other categories in this article, but these are some of the really cool smart home ideas for climate control.
Smart Fireplace
It’s winter. You’re snuggled in your blankets in the bedroom and afraid the spot you’ve warmed for two hours will get cold if you move. With a smart fireplace, you won’t have to lift a finger. You’ll just tell Alexa or Siri to turn on the fireplace because smart fireplaces are controlled remotely or via virtual assistants. All that stands between you and this is a simple installation and pairing.
Smart Thermostats
If you’re keen on energy conservation and energy cost and want automatic optimization of your home’s heating and cooling, smart thermostat technology is a must-have. My favorite is my Nest thermostat. Most of these devices take voice commands through Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and others, and, with a good one, you can even warm or cool your home on your way from the airport. Some thermostats have home and away mode sensors as well! So they turn on when you’re home and off when you’re gone.
Refrigerator/Freezer Door Alarm
Modern refrigerators come with this function. You get notified whenever your refrigerator is ajar or not properly shut, mainly within a couple of minutes. You can install a sensor on your old refrigerator to trigger the alarm if the door stays open for a given period. All you need to do is install it and connect it to your smart hub.
Washer And Dryer
Yep, I’ve got one of these too. How many times do you throw your dirty laundry and forget it. Next thing you know, you have clothes that smell of mildew or worse, clothes that shrink because you forget to pull them out of the dryer after “x” amount of mins. My LG washer and dryer notify me when a cycle is complete. Yeah, that just happens!
Control Bathroom Humidity
If forgetting to turn on the fan—to get rid of the thick, humid air in the bathroom—is one of your pet peeves (or bad habits), it’s time to invest in a fan that automatically turns on and off. Then, all you have to do is automate the fan.
Smart Lighting Ideas
You probably have the basic smart lighting in place already. Here are a few other lighting automation ideas you’ll love:
Automatic Dimming, Brightening And Turning Off
You can program your lighting system to dim at bedtime, brighten up in the morning, or turn it off. You can also turn off all the lights at once via an app.
Sunrise Alarms
A sunrise alarm will brighten gently as the day breaks just as the sun does. It’s less jarring than usual—phone alarms and alarm clocks. Syncing to the sun’s light helps you wake up more naturally. And, if you don’t mind nature sounds, you can also select to have birds chirping or the sound of waves in the background.
Security And Safety Lights
You can set an alarm to turn lights on automatically, for pathway lights to turn on automatically when you approach, and even have motion sensors trigger your outdoor lights. Better yet, you can create automation that uses multi-colored light bulbs to simulate a TV being watched in your living room. Another automation is being able to use your digital assistant in a moment of panic “Hey, Google BatSignal NOW!” and all the lights at Wayne Manor turn on. The best part is, that you don’t need any wiring; you just turn on the functions on your smartphone.
Convenience and Night Lights
With this, your bedside light will shut off automatically. Motion sensors will turn on your bathroom or kitchen lights when you walk in and off when you walk out, as will your garage lights when you open your garage.
Smart Light Bulbs
There’s a wide selection of smart bulbs to choose from to lessen your energy footprint, cut energy costs, secure your home, light up your home for different occasions, and even notify you of important things. You’ve probably come across color-changing bulbs—that’s not new. Some take the color-changing a notch higher; the light bulb just changes color when an email from a specific address comes in.
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Is Smart Home Worth it?
Every buy might not be a smart buy, but a smart home is totally worth it. The possibility of having to overhaul your home automation systems only increases if you don’t consider important smart home factors before buying or installing. Follow the guiding principles of home automation and check this list:
- Security – Smart home tech should be secure. I can’t insist on this enough.
- Convenience – It should make your life easier and add to your user experience.
- Versatility – You don’t want to have to stick to one brand. A home tech product needs to be versatile, with the ability to support various platforms—IFTTT, Alexa, HomeKit, Google, etc.
- How easy it is to configure – You need to know if you can (and how to) configure it.
- Best brand – Always find out which brand has the best product.
- Usefulness – Before buying any device, ask yourself, “Is this necessary?” “Do I need this feature?” and “Will it change my life?”
- Compatibility – What’s your big plan? You want to ensure a smart product fits with the other devices you already have. If you have Google Home devices, find products that are compatible with Google Assistant.
There’s a plethora of home automation innovations and technologies out there, and there’s nothing wrong with leveraging home automation and available technology to automate everything you can. Make your life better, take some tasks off of your hands and reduce your energy footprint and bills.
