10 Home Automation Ideas to Get Your Smart Home Started
Home automation presents the newest frontier of technology and human interaction. At the touch of a button, a simple voice command, or even based on time of day or other environmental factors, smart home equipment can make your life easier and more efficient. Protect your home, keep an eye on your property, and set up automated entertainment environments that enhance and enrich your experience. To get you started, I’m going to walk you through 10 home automation ideas that can streamline your home and your life in truly powerful ways.
1. SMART HOME SECURITY SYSTEM
What It Is: Smart home security systems provide next-level protection for you and your family against unwanted intruders.
Why You Need It: Any smart device will need to connect to your home wifi network via a hub, and smart home security systems are no different. Once connected to the internet, these devices allow you to observe and check your home or other property at any time, no matter where you are in the world with an iPhone or Android app.
Most smart home security systems give you the ability to monitor windows and doors with sensors and catch unwanted visitors with motion detectors. With more robust, interconnected systems, you can really keep an eye on the whole house, using an automatic door lock and interior/exterior lights, smart doorbell, smart garage door closer, a security camera, and even alert sirens.
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (with app)
- Smart home security system hub
- Motion sensors
- Door and window sensors
- Other optional add-ons: surveillance cameras, smart lights, sirens, smart locks, etc.
2. OUTDOOR SECURITY LIGHTS
What It Is: In the same way that smart home security systems provide extra vigilance for your property, outdoor security lights trigger whenever motion is detected nearby (or other environmental variables) to alert, provide light, and warn intruders.
Why You Need It: Outdoor flood lights that flash on when motion is detected have been around for quite some time. What many people don’t know is that there’s so much more you can do with outdoor security lights than simple motion detection. With today’s smart lights, you can set up parameters that cause the lights to turn on whenever you choose.
For example, you can have the lights turn on whenever a door opens in your house. Alternatively, position the lights next to the front door to have them turn on only when that specific door is opened.
Another option comes by way of something called geofencing. A geofence (also written as geo-fence) is a virtual boundary created around specific locations, such as a home or other property. With a geofence in place around your house, you can set the lights to turn on whenever those boundaries are crossed. That way, the next time you get home from work, your lights will already be on and waiting for you.
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (with app)
- Smart lights hub (some brands don’t require this)
- Smart lights made for exterior use
- Motion sensors
3. SMART GARAGE DOOR CLOSER
What It Is: Smart garage door closers are more than just a cool home automation idea that saves time; they can literally save your life by opening the garage door in the event of an emergency.
Why You Need It: With a standard garage door opener, you can open and close the garage door when in the direct vicinity of your home. Smart home garage door closers take this concept several steps further by allowing you to control the garage door from anywhere in the world, set up automatic openings that result from a specific trigger, or even connect the garage door to your other smart home technology.
Building on the traditional version, smart garage door openers have the ability to recognize your location and shut the door if you’ve accidentally left it open. This means that you can open the garage door and mow the lawn without worrying about it closing down behind you and potentially locking you out of your own home.
Another cool feature of smart garage doors is their connectivity. In other words, you can connect your smart garage door opener to your smart lights and geofence. This way, you can have the house lights turn on whenever you open the garage, which opened when you passed the geofence of your property.
Feels like the future has arrived, doesn’t it? It certainly does to me!
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (with app)
- Smart garage door opener/closer
- Optional: smart home lights, smart carbon monoxide detector
4. WARMING/HEATING (SMART THERMOSTAT)
What It Is: Unlike the static thermostats of old, smart thermostats give you the power to control your home’s temperature from wherever you are and intelligently respond to weather conditions on their own.
Why You Need It: Have you ever wished that your home’s air conditioning unit would react to the weather? Do you wish you could set the thermostat temperature before you get home, or even have it set to a certain degree for different times of day? Then you need a smart thermostat in your life.
These have become incredibly popular in recent years because people realized how truly transformative they can be and how much time and energy (and cost!) they can save in the long run.
In practice, housewarming (or cooling) has many different applications, but it all comes down to keeping your home the optimal temperature while also saving you money. For example, you can set your smart home thermostat to a specific temperature when you wake up in the morning, a different degree mark when you leave for the day, and yet another temperature when you arrive home in the evening.
In the same way, as the seasons change and outdoor temps fluctuate, you can set triggers for the thermostat to bump the warming up or the cooling own. In colder weather, the system can know to make the house a bit warmer; on hotter days, the smart home thermostat realizes it needs to create a cooler indoor environment.
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (with app)
- Smart home thermostat
- Central air conditioning
- For a similar effect in apartments or homes without central air conditioning, you can use window units and fans, but the setup/process is a little different.
5. END OF NIGHT
What It Is: This isn’t so much a system as it is the ability to use all the available systems to make your home safer and more comfortable at the touch of a button or the command of your voice.
Why You Need It: Consider this scenario… You have smart home door locks, smart home lights, and a smart home security system. At the end of each day, you naturally would like to have the doors locked, the lights turned off, and the security system armed. The problem is that these are all on separate systems and require distinct actions to be enabled. Well, not anymore!
With an “End of Night” setting in place, you can simply have your smart home be, well, a whole lot smarter. You can set up a simple command on your smartphone that triggers all three of these different systems to work in unison. With a voice command or button tap, your locks will engage themselves, the lights will turn themselves off, and your security system will arm itself.
Long gone are the days when you needed to get up in the middle of the night to make sure you’d locked all the doors and turned out all the lights. With an “End of Night” trigger in place using an app like IFTTT and a little voice control, you can let the house take care of itself for once (or forever). Once you tell your friends and family about this cool home automation idea, you’ll be the envy of the whole block, guaranteed.
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (IFFFT app or similar)
- Smart home lights, locks, and security system
- Optional: any smart home technology with time-related triggers
6. COMING HOME
What It Is: Much like “End of Night” setups, “Coming Home” triggers engage many of the same features and provide similar benefits, by creating a home environment to your specific preferences every single day, without any extra work on your part.
Why You Need It: Remember way back when we talked about not having to climb out of bed to get your home ready for the night? Well, now I’m going to tell you how to do the same thing when you come home each day.With a smart home security system, smart door locks, smart lights, smart thermostat, and a smart garage door opener/closer, you can quite literally have your house set up perfectly for you when you arrive home from work.
Here’s how it works… You set up a geofence around your property. Connect your smart home devices to trigger when you pass the virtual fence line. Once you get home, your garage door is opened (and/or doors are unlocked), the security system is unarmed, the lights are turned on, and the thermostat registers an updated temperature.
This works for practically any of the wide range of smart home connected devices on the market. If there’s something you want automated when you get home, simply connect it to this trigger and let the tech do the rest.
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (with app)
- Geofence
- Any of the following: smart home lights, locks, security system, thermostat, garage doors
7. AUTOMATIC LEAK DETECTION AND MITIGATION
What It Is: Automatic leak detection and mitigation systems can recognize when pipes are frozen or leaking, stop it in its tracks, and alert you to the situation immediately.
Why You Need It: If you live in a location prone to freezing temperatures or if your pipes are old or in need of replacing, you need an automatic leak detection and mitigation system.
In addition to the old standbys of visual confirmation and calling a plumber, you can simply install smart home tech to do the job for you. Smart home leak detectors, in combination with water shut off valves, can stop water damage from wreaking havoc on your home before you even get a chance to notice something was wrong.
With these devices, you can use a smartphone app (much like the other smart devices on this list) to keep track of leak or flood alerts and even turn off the water remotely. Water damage gets incredibly expensive incredibly quickly.
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (with app)
- Smart leak detector
- Smart water shut off valve
8. OPEN GARAGE DOOR IN CASE OF CARBON MONOXIDE
What It Is: Combined with a smart carbon monoxide detector, smart garage door openers can be triggered to open in the event of gas detection.
Why You Need It: Remember how I said earlier that smart garage doors can save your life? Well, it’s true! Carbon monoxide poisoning is dangerous and deadly, but there is something you can do about it.
With the latest tech in hand, you can easily connect a smart carbon monoxide detector to your smart garage door closer to enable automatic opening whenever CO is detected in your home. That’s a real lifesaver!
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (with app)
- Smart garage door opener/closer
- Smart carbon monoxide detector
9. START MUSIC AUTOMATICALLY WHEN YOU TURN THE LIGHTS ON IN A ROOM
What It Is: Another cool home automation idea is triggering music to play whenever the lights are turned on in a specific room.
Why You Need It: If you have a game room or area of the house where you entertain or relax, you might want the ability to listen to music in that space. On top of this, you can remove one extra level of effort by having the sound be automated in conjunction with the room’s lights.
In essence, this works identically to the other triggers listed here. All you need to do is set up the lights in a particular room to engage the smart speaker set up in that same room. When the lights are turned on there, the music begins to play automatically.
With smart speakers gaining popularity and capabilities and the proliferation of music streaming services, you can have virtually any music you choose set to play when you turn on the lights in a given room. On top of everything else, it’ll certainly impress your guests!
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (with app)
- Smart lights
- Smart speakers
10. AUTOMATIC SPRINKLERS THAT WON’T WATER YOUR LAWN IF IT RAINS
What It Is: Automatic sprinklers can detect when it has rained and skip a scheduled lawn watering to conserve water and save money.
Why You Need It: How many times has this happened to you… You’ve dutifully set the sprinklers to water your lawn at a certain time, only to have the weather suddenly develop into a rainstorm, giving your lawn a double dose and taking money out of your pocketbook.
If you’re like a lot of people, my guess is this happens far too much.
To solve this problem, simply install smart home automatic sprinklers in your yard. These have the unique capacity to recognize when it has rained and skip a regularly scheduled lawn watering session.
This way, you can conserve water (especially important if you live in an area suffering from drought) and save money on the water bill at the same time. It’s a win for everybody.
What You Need:
- Wireless internet (wifi)
- Smartphone (with app)
- Smart sprinklers
As you can see, home automation presents numerous opportunities for efficiency and ease at home. These 10 home automation ideas will do more than just get you started. If you implement these cool home automation ideas, you’ll be well on your way to having the smartest house in the neighborhood and an effortless home experience. Just make sure to mention this article to your adoring fans when they stand and stare in your front yard…
