Automation ideas

Let´s start from the beginning, what is home automation? Home automation uses smart devices and pre-programmed routines to simplify your life. Think of it as a set of automated rules that take care of repetitive tasks, making your everyday routine effortless.

These are some ideas for automations we can set up in your smart home:

1. Arm alarm when leaving the house: A single touch of a button when leaving the house turns all the lights off as well as the TVs and other selected appliances, while simultaneously activating the alarm, locking the door, and performing a security check. If anything is wrong, it sends a sound notification and a message to the user´s phone with the alert (e.g., if any door or window is open, one of the pets is in the garden, etc.).
2. Disable the alarm when you are back: similar to the previous automation, the house alarm can be automatically disabled when the system detects a member of the family has arrived. It can also send a notification to your phone letting you know the alarm is now disabled.
3. Motion activated lights: wouldn´t it be nice to move around the house at night without having to touch any of the light switches? Let the house automatically turn lights on and off by detecting your presence.
4. Automated bathroom fans: the fans can turn on automatically when the system detects high humidity in any of the bathrooms and turn off when the humidity is back to normal. A window sensor can be added to the automation so the fans are not activated if the bathroom window is open.
5. Trigger a notification to partner with location: tapping your smartphone on an NFC tag placed inside your car will trigger a notification to your partner with the text “Honey, I’m on my way home,” along with your current location and estimated arrival time based on traffic conditions. And it also works in reverse, which means they can tap the same NFC tag with their phones to send you the notification.
6. Cinema Mode: turn off the lights, close the blinds, adjust the volume, and select the desired channel with a single press of your TV remote control.
7. Open and close blinds automatically: what a better way to wake up in the morning than the blinds letting the sun enter the room like in the movies? Similarly, the blinds can close automatically at sunset.
8. Your robot vacuum cleans the house when you are not home: wouldn´t it be nice if your robot vacuum could clean the house following a certain schedule, but only if you are not home?
9. Holiday mode: routines that are automatically activated when the holiday mode is enabled:
   • Simulated Occupancy Lighting: lights can simulate occupancy in the house by automatically turning on and off at different times of the day when you are not home.
   • Turn heating and hot water off: heating and hot water are automatically disabled during your holidays to save energy, turning back on the day before your holidays will end to pre-heat the house, ready to welcome you back.
   • Notification if people or cars are detected: receive a notification when a specific object (e.g., person, car, dog, etc.) is detected in certain areas of your house, like your garden or your driveway.
10. Get notified when:
    • Leak and smoke detection: receive a notification in your phone and an audible notification in your smart speakers (Google or Alexa) when the system detects.
    • A friend is visiting you: your Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa smart speakers can notify you when one of your friends has parked their car in your driveway by reading their car number plate.
    • The estimated time to your workplace is higher than usual: get notified when your trip to the office will take longer than usual due to traffic, so you can leave early and avoid arriving late.
11. Heating and hot water run during off-peak times: does your electricity tariff have different prices depending on the time of the day? Your hot water, heating, and other appliances can be set to run at those times to reduce your energy bill.
12. Notification when it’s time for your car’s MOT or road tax: ever found out you were driving without a valid MOT or road tax in your car, or even worse, got a police ticket for that? Once you set up this automation, you won´t have to worry anymore, as the system will let you know when it´s time to pass MOT or pay your car’s road tax.

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