Learn How Home Automation Services Can Benefit Your Day-to-Day Routine
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Managing your home’s technology sometimes can be a hassle. From making sure every outdoor light is turned off as you head out for work in the morning to finding the right remote for your TV, you might not always have the time – or the patience – to deal with your home’s technology. This is why a home automation solution is so appealing to many homeowners throughout the state of New Jersey. You don’t have to use a remote or a light switch or a drawstring to control your home anymore. It can happen automatically. And our team at Bravo AV can help. In this blog, we explore the benefits of home automation and how they add convenience for your day-to-day lifestyle.
Scheduling Automated Scenes As we mentioned above, you might not always remember to make sure every outdoor light has been left off before you head to work – or that your TVs have been turned off and that your shades have been lowered so your home doesn’t suffer from unnecessary energy consumption during the day. It’s a small nuisance, but it does have an impact on your home’s monthly energy bill. Likewise, you might have a routine of making sure every light is turned off before you head to bed – but what if your home’s lights could turn off automatically, without you ever going room-to-room and wasting your own time? With a home automation solution, you can schedule for these occurrences to happen automatically – without you needing to touch any button. Our team can help you achieve this – not only through the installation of automation technology throughout your home but also through helping you program these commands. For example, from your system’s control application on your smartphone or tablet, you can create scenes such as the ones mentioned above and designate a specific time for those scenes to occur every day. Perhaps you know that direct sunlight hits your living room’s windows between the hours of 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. every day. Instead of remembering every day to lower the blinds at that time, you can schedule for your shades to automatically lower every day at 3 p.m. – and for them to raise after two hours. You also can schedule automation commands based on sunrise or sunset – for example, every day at dawn, you can direct every outdoor light at your property to automatically turn off. Below is a video detailing how you can create a scene through a Savant home automation platform, our partner for New Jersey home installations.
Custom Notifications Another way that home automation can benefit your lifestyle is through automated alerts regarding your home that can be sent either directly to your personal smart device or your email. These alerts can range from something as simple as whether your child has turned on a TV past their bedtime or something as important as your home’s indoor temperatures or humidity levels spiking beyond your preferred levels. In those cases where your automation system detects abnormalities before you even realize it, you can take proactive measures to keep your home and your family safe. But you also can receive notifications regarding your home’s lighting systems – for example, when a light downstairs has been turned on during hours your family typically is asleep. When something like this happens and you are instantly alerted to the event, you can quickly take action. Perhaps it’s just one of your kids finding their way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It also could be something more sinister. Directly from your control interface on the device you were alerted from, you can view live security cameras and door-lock status and quickly evaluate whether authorities need to be notified (which you also can do directly from your application’s interface).
Personalized Control
As we hinted at in the section above, a home automation solution can include far more than just automated tasks. In fact, you can experience total control of your home’s technology systems through one universal interface. For every room that is connected within your home automation infrastructure, you also can manually manage the media, lighting, shading, security, temperature and more through your control interface.
This means that you no longer have to scramble to find the correct remote to turn on the TV in your living room or have to get up from bed to turn off the lights at night. You can manage each of those tasks from the control application on your smartphone with just a couple taps of your screen. You even can create thermostat schedules, adjust the temperature of your pool and turn on the Jacuzzi jets – all from your home automation system’s user interface. At Bravo AV, we love helping New Jersey homeowners add convenience to their lifestyles through the benefits of home automation.
Mornings can sometimes feel like a race to the finish line. You have to fit in your daily routine and, perhaps, help get your family out the door as well. A hectic AM sets the tone for a hectic workday. Maybe it’s time to make a change and move toward a simpler morning. One method is smart home automation. In this article, we’ll take a tour of a typical weekday morning in your Somerset or Morris County NJ home as it would be with automation. To learn more, continue reading.
Automation in Your Bedroom
We’ll start our tour where your morning begins: the bedroom. One of our favorite aspects of smart home automation is the ability to create scenes. Scenes are a collection of settings that allow multiple smart technologies to work together in sync with your lifestyle. A “Wake-Up” scene, for example, can be scheduled to start every morning at the time you need to be awake. Here are a few ways to use smart technology:
A whole home audio system allows you to listen to your favorite sources--whether that be streaming services, vinyl records, or your personal MP3 collection--in every room. As part of your “Wake-Up” scene, you can use your favorite tunes as an alarm.
If your favorite song isn’t enough to perk you up, how about using the sunlight? At the same time that your alarm goes off, your motorized shades automatically open up to let in the sun. Your internal clock is very sensitive to light. So, use automation to maintain darkness with heavy drapes or blackout curtains while you sleep, that then reveal the natural light you need for that morning energy boost.
Speaking of light, you’ll also want to incorporate your electric light in the wake-up process. As a part of your morning scene, use lighting control to program not only your bedroom lights to turn on, but create pathways of light to your bathroom or kitchen. That way you can easily move right through your mornings.
Automation in Your Kitchen
The kitchen is often where the family meets, and that can get a little hectic. How can automation help manage this space? Here are a few examples:
Although sunlight can help you wake up, the morning light can also produce more extreme angles than at other times of the day. That can mean glares coming in through your kitchen windows. Use a light sensor to monitor the light and automatically adjust your motorized shades to offset the changing light. You can prepare your breakfast in a comfortable setting without any hassle.
One great use of your morning is to catch up on the latest news or relax with a favorite TV show or music. As you sip your coffee, prepare your lunch, or eat breakfast, your kitchen can transform into an entertainment zone with hidden technologies. Televisions can be placed in mirrors or behind a piece of art and speakers can be installed into your walls invisible to the eye. Your entertainment only comes out when you want to use it so that it doesn’t take up too much space. Therefore, you can easily multitask or make a little “me-time” in the morning.
If you’re ready to improve your AM and make your life a little simpler, it might be time for smart home automation. Bravo AV can provide the highest quality equipment and expert installation. Contact us today to get started.
For additional resources, please visit our page on Savant Home Automation with articles like this on everything you need to know. Additionally, you can check out our photo gallery to explore our previous work.
Bravo AV is proud to be an HTA (Home Technology Association) Certified Installation Firm and professional A/V experts. Tom Curnin, the owner of Bravo AV, is a CEDIA Professional Designer, a certified THX Level 1 home theater professional and a member of the Home Acoustic Alliance trained to Level II. You can contact Tom directly at (908) 953-0555 or through email at tom@bravoav.com.
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