What is Home Automation? Home Automation Ideas.

       

Home Automation or Smart Home Control is a term which is used to describe a home where multiple tasks related to home and devices are done in smarter way, with intelligence and often automatically. Typically in every home we have lot of devices and we perform lot of tasks manually. And for these tasks we have to be in home itself to perform.

Smart Home Control refers to controlling your home devices in a smart way instead of using the conventional way. Here are some of the features and Home automation Ideas:-

Automating manual Steps: In a typical home in order to switch on the lights, you have to reach to the switch board to press the button. A smart home control enables you to do such tasks using a remote or a smartphone.

Combining Multiple Tasks in one click or button press: Typically during the night time you perform various tasks manually like switching off the indoor lights, switching on the outdoor lights and locking of main door. In a smart home control these tasks can be combined into one and can be executed by a single button press.

Performing logic based tasks you can configure your home devices to perform tasks based on some logic. E.g. A Smart Sprinkler system can check the weather details for a day and if the weather forecast for the day is rainy, then on that day smart sprinkler does not water your garden.

Scheduling of Tasks: Smart home control enables certain tasks to be performed automatically at the specified time. e.g. you can configure the home outdoor lights to switch on in the evening and switch off in the morning time specified by you.

Comfort + Cost Savings: These are the two important points which are making home automation popular. As lot of steps are automated, it gives you comfort in managing the home without you getting worried about the plenty of tasks which you have to do daily. Cost savings comes into picture when lights and devices are only on when they are really needed. This results in power saving. A smart Thermostat which detects your presence switches off all the configured devices and lights, when it detects that you are no longer in home.

Use of Sensors for Smart home control: Sensors or IoT sensors helps in determination of the current external factors and enables certain decisions to be taken on the basis of it. e.g. A motion sensor can detect your presence in a room and can automatically switch on the lights and switch it off when you leave. A light sensor can detect when the light intensity is low and switch on the light when required. A moisture sensor attached to a smart sprinkler can tell whether there is a need to water your lawn.

One device can control another device: Often it is required that our devices talk to each other and perform automated tasks. E.g. A fire alarm in your home on detecting a fire can instruct the configured devices to be switched off automatically.

Ability to control from anywhere: This is an important aspect of the Home automation. You can control your home no matter where in the home you are located, and in most of the cases you can control your devices when you are away from home using the smartphone or web based interface. While leaving from office for home, you can switch on the Air conditioner of your home so that by the time you reach home, the temperature is as needed.

What all can be controlled:-

The list is quite big. Here are some of the commonly home automation devices in smart home control

• Lights (Indoor and Outdoor)
• Entertainment Devices
• Windows
• Door Locks
• Garage door
• Refrigerator
• Thermostat
• Air Conditioner
• Appliances
• Fans
• Sprinkler

Home automation control an IoT?

       Home automation is indeed a form of Internet of Things as it makes the devices connected and in many cases provide the control through internet. Home automation devices also use Sensors, which is an important aspect of the IoT.