Now that you are dazzled by all of the possibilities of what can happen with home automation, you may be wondering, why should you do this in the first place?
The benefits of home automation expand well beyond the fun factor. Of course, you could make a case for this being the way of the future too. But, realistically speaking, there are key reasons why you need to make the decision to install these systems into your home.
You may have your own benefits and desires when it comes to home automation, too. For each person, the experience is their own.
Let’s break down some of the obvious benefits that automation offers to you.
The reason that many of the home automation products have been developed is that of convenience. People love being lazy, and in short, that’s just fine when it comes to automation options.
Do you remember when you were younger not having a remote control for the television. Yes, there was a time when you actually did have to get up to turn the channels. As difficult as that was, the television remote was one of the first automation tools and by far one of the most used automation tools today.
Convenience with home automation goes farther than this, though. You’ll gain the ability to do more, faster and easier.
For example, you can heat your home, run a bath, dim the lights, warm your bed before you make it up the stairs and so much more. A popular choice is that of the bathroom and shower models which will actually get your bathroom heater and shower running five minutes before your alarm clock goes off to wake you up. Yes, no more cold showers and cold bathroom floors!
Convenience is the reason most people do turn to home automation and even why some businesses are using it for their needs, too. What things do you do daily that you would love to avoid? What short cuts would make your life a bit better, even if just minimally?
More than likely, there is a way to make that situation better with the use of home automation.
Although convenience may be why you are considering using home automation, there is likely to be some safety benefits available to you as well. Depending on the types of products that you purchase, you can secure your home, with or without the help of an alarm system.
Consider the options. To help protect your home from predators, you can secure motion detecting lights to surround your home. Not only will they turn on when they detect any type of movement in an area where there shouldn’t be, but they can alert you to this, too.
You can set it up to alert you with an email to your work account or you can have an automated recording call you to alert you.
If you work nights or don’t like coming home to a dark house, you can configure your lighting system to turn on as you are approaching. Even from down the street, your home is well light, comfortable and there’s no way anything is lurking in the shadows without your knowledge of it.
Safety is important inside the home as well. If there is something that’s gone wrong and there’s water in the basement, an alert can be sent to you. Or, if the temperature of the home falls to a certain level, that too can be alerted to you.
Home automation really puts you in charge of your home’s safety. Without much cost and much trouble, you can set up your home to be safe from the moment you get up to the moment you fall asleep and beyond.
Set up alerts to contact the police if there’s a glass break. Set off warnings that will alert you, the police, the neighbors and even the other appliances in the home of a fire.
Not only do you want the home automation tool to alert you of the problem, but you want it to take it one step farther too. You want it to detect motion, turn on the lights, alert you by email, and even contact the police if the home is violated.
This system of movements is not something that can easily be done without a high end security system that is monitoring your home day in and day out, which comes at a very costly price.
But, home automation elements like this are rather affordable and they can be easily installed in just a few hours. Your home can be safe for you and the people you love in minutes. That is a worthwhile benefit and definitely a reason for you to begin implementing this technology into your home.
Believe it or not, home automation can save you money as well. There are several ways that it can, actually. For example, by fine tuning the way that your appliances work, you can get the most benefit from them, but you also get the benefit of using them only when you need to.
Why should your home be heated to a perfect 72 degrees F when you aren’t home to enjoy it? That’s wasted energy. You can use home automation to help with this by programming it to turn on the heat or air conditioning a half hour before you get home.
Don’t stop there, either. With the same programming tools you can get your hot water heating for your shower in the morning. Preheat the oven for dinner (you’ve already gotten it together in the refrigerator.)
By programming your home automation system to do the things that you want to only when you need to use them, you can save yourself countless dollars along the way. Your electric bills, gas bills and other costs can be considerably lowered when you harness the ability of automation to use programming benefits. Where are you wasting money without using it?
What’s more is that adding automation to your home is an excellent way to increase the value of your home should you ever decide that it’s time to sell it.
There is no doubt that the techie in you wants to play with these tools. It is fun to use them when others are around too. You look like you have had your home designed around these needs, which is no small cost, of course. Impress your guests or just enjoy using them yourself.
Imagine their surprise to hear you tell the voice recognition system to turn on the music program that you’ve put together. Or, you may be able to impress them with dimming the lights with a remote control followed by the television turning on to play the movie that everyone has come to watch.
Yes, there is no doubt that one of the benefits of tapping into home automation comes from the ability to have some fun with it. You don’t have to have anyone near you to feel the satisfaction that comes from using these units.
There are many ways that you can program your home automation system to work for you, in your way. If you are concerned about the options you have, just consider the various types of automation that are already at your fingertips.
In later chapters, we’ll get into the ways that you really can dress up your home with home automation.
As you can see, there are benefits to using a home automation program in your home. Although you thought this was something that was in the distant future, and although you thought it was too costly to do this, you may have been mistaken.
Home automation is here to stay. Use it to make your life more convenient. Use it to make your life enjoyable. Use it to increase the value of your home should you ever decide to sell it. Still, there’s much more to realize with the use of these tools.
In the coming chapters you’ll see a number of different ways that you can add some automation to your life. Just try to stop yourself from enjoying all that it has to offer to you.
Really, there is no reason not to consider investing in this type of automation. Now, are you ready to learn about your options?
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