Blog

What is a Smart Home and How Can Home Automation Solutions Help You?

April 18, 2018|fsstechnologies

Home automation solutions are no longer the ideas of science fiction. These intelligent home systems can save you hundreds of dollars through energy conservation, and they can provide state-of-the-art security to protect your home and the loved ones inside of it. 

What is A Smart Home?

 
A smart home is equipped with lighting, heating, and electronic devices that can be controlled remotely by phone, computer, or voice. Consider the benefits: you never have to worry about running home to open the door for your children after school or wonder if you remembered to turn off the lights. You can easily control the situation through your phone.
 
Standard automations include lights, door locks, thermostats, security products, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and cameras, but there are tons of other options. Thanks to the recent boom of tech-enabled consumer products, you can automate everything from brewing your coffee to feeding your pets.

What is Home Automation?

 
A home automation solution is a platform on which your devices, appliances, and electronic devices are networked together to give you the ability to control them in a way that best fits your lifestyle.
 
Home automation systems can be wired or wireless, and there are numerous home automation protocols available, including  UPX, X10, Z-Wave, ZigBee, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and more. Some of these protocols use radio waves to communicate, while others use your home’s existing power lines. Some home automation protocols are built on open standards, so any manufacturer can create products that will work with it.
 
There are pros and cons to every system, but the single, largest downside to a wired home automation solution is that it’s controlled from one central location.
 
With the mobile world we live in today, wireless systems are the go-to for home automation and security solutions and what the technology developers and manufacturers are putting the most emphasis on. The key to ensuring reliability and security is careful planning. You must be strategic about designing your system from the get-go to end up with a smart home that works for you.
 
Professional installers are vital in helping you develop a plan for what you want to automate and how your appliances and devices should communicate with one another.
 
For instance, when you leave your home for the day and set your security alarm, do you also want the lights turned off, and the thermostat turned down? If you are at work during the day and you need to let a repairman in, do you want security cameras in your house to turn on and the front door to unlock? When you are at home, do you want to be able to turn off lights downstairs and turn on your security system using voice commands from the comfort of your own bed?
 
Other important considerations for home automation installation is a careful site analysis of your home. Thick glass or concrete walls in certain parts of the property can block signals. Are there physical barriers on your property that must be considered? What is the range the signals must travel? What are the data rates required?

The Most Common Smart Home Solutions

 
The most common smart home solutions include lights, door locks, thermostats, and security products, like smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and cameras.
 
With lighting, there are many options to consider. You can have bulbs with built-in microphones that automatically turn on if they hear your doorbell or burglar alarm. There are bulbs that can put out invisible infrared light during the night to enable night vision cameras in your home to see further. Voice-activated lighting is extremely popular, and there are even lighting options that are just plain cool, such as lights that change color in rhythm to the music you’re playing. Rock on!
 
Smart door locks also offer a host of features. You can lock and unlock your door remotely, even if you’re halfway around the world. You can give digital keys or assign codes to friends or family who regularly access your home. You can even set time limits on these codes, so they only work during specific hours of the day or days of the week. Hands full of groceries? Perhaps you want your door to unlock automatically when it senses your key within a certain radius of the door. There are smart locks that can fit over your existing deadbolts, locks with keypads, locks with app-enabled entry, and even smart locks that still allow you to use your key.
 
Heating, ventilating, and cooling our homes is critical for comfort but also accounts for a large portion of our living expenses. Today, smart HVAC technology means you can have the best of both worlds. Smart HVAC goes far beyond what the programmable thermostat can do. If integrated into a home automation solution, it can adjust the temperature settings based on your alarm. Or, if you choose geofencing technology, it can sense whether you are home and adjust accordingly. There are even sensors so sophisticated now that you can be alerted if your hot water tank starts to leak or a water line in your home breaks. Talk about peace of mind if you’re gone for an extended time!
 
Finally, how many of us have had the experience at least once in our lives of being hundreds of miles away on vacation and suddenly feeling a pit form in our stomachs because we’re pretty sure we left the back door unlocked? Worry no more because security automation is smarter than ever. Home security is one of the primary reasons people choose a home automation solution. Not only can you lock and unlock doors from your mobile device, but you can also choose to install security cameras, so you can log in at any time to get a live feed from your home. If someone knocks on the front door or rings the doorbell, automate an alert sent to your phone. You can even see who is on your doorstep and talk to that person from anywhere. 
 
As you can see, a smart home can make your life much easier, but proper home automation installation is critical for building a smart home that fits your lifestyle.
 
Are you ready for the future? If so, making life easier through technology is our goal at FSS. Let us help walk you through the possibilities for your home automation solution.

Contact a Security Expert Today

Explore Our Other Blogs

Hero-afterbreaki-min

What to Do After a Break In

No one ever wants to be victimized by a burglar, but the fact is that many will encounter a theft or break-in at some point in their lifetime. A recent study by Bankrate shows that there are over 1 million burglaries in the United States each year, with a new burglary happening approximately every 26…

Continue reading
FSS_DecBlog_VideoVer_Hero-min

What is Video Alarm Verification?

Updated June 2023. Video alarm verification is a tried-and-true technology that is an underused component in residential and commercial security systems. Video alarm verification adds an extra element to your overall security by partnering your security system with an alarm monitoring center. When an alarm is triggered, video alarm verification allows monitoring center employees to…

Continue reading
Hero-carbon-monoxide-detector

Everything You Need to Know About Carbon Monoxide Detectors

What is a Carbon Monoxide Detector? Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas or liquid that is poisonous to humans. Detectors are designed to identify carbon monoxide leaks and warn those in your home or business. This advanced warning can save lives as it allows you to get outside as fast as…

Continue reading
Blogs-LowesIris-min

Lowe’s Iris Line Goes Under

Many consumers are seeing red with the recent news that big-box retailer Lowe’s is shutting down service to its Iris smart home platform. Lowe’s launched its Iris cloud service in 2012 so it could sell its own smart home products to the public. Customers with an Iris smart hub, the heart of the network, could…

Continue reading
2020-01_FSSTechnologies_blogs_internet-speed_hero

How Your Internet Speed Affects Your Security System

Internet speed is a precious commodity in today’s connected homes. Internet speed is responsible for how quickly or slowly data moves from the internet to the application on your computer. Things like your mobile phone, television, computer, gaming system, and even appliances use the internet. And your home security system probably does too. The average…

Continue reading
2019-12_FSSTechnologies_blogs_simplisafe-review_hero-min

The Only SimpliSafe Review You Need to Read

What is SimpliSafe? SimpliSafe is one of several do-it-yourself home security systems on the market. The challenge with any DIY home security system, in our opinion, comes down to the customer experience. SimpliSafe’s customer support offers minimal assistance to ensure you adequately install and troubleshoot your system. While they do provide an 800-telephone number, the…

Continue reading
2019-12_FSSTechnologies_blogs_cost-monitoring-vs-break-in_hero-min

The Cost of Alarm Monitoring vs. the Cost of a Break-In

Property crime in the United States is costly. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, property crimes in 2018 resulted in an estimated $16.4 billion of losses. The Cost of Crime Larceny-theft is the most common of all property crimes, accounting for 73.4 percent. Larceny-theft is defined as the unlawful taking, carry, leading,…

Continue reading
emergency-action-plan-hero

What is an Emergency Action Plan?

The purpose of an Emergency Action Plan is to inform employees of what actions they should take if an emergency occurs at work. It’s required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and it can be critical in preventing the loss of property, or lives, in a crisis. If an emergency alarm went off…

Continue reading
fire-alarm-pull-stations-hero-min

Where Should Fire Alarm Pull Stations Be Located?

While they generally go unnoticed until a moment of need, a fire alarm pull station is an integral part of a business or large residential building’s fire alarm system. What Is a Fire Alarm Pull Station? As opposed to a smoke detector or sensor, human intervention activates pull station alarms and is the catalyst for setting off…

Continue reading
2019-06_FSSTechnologies_blog_video-doorbell-privacy_hero-min

Video Doorbell Privacy Issues

Video Doorbells In the News Video doorbells are one of the hottest home security tools on the market today. We agree. Once you have a video doorbell, you’ll probably wonder how you ever lived without it. Check out our blog on How a Video Doorbell Works to learn more. However, like any technology on the…

Continue reading
24h emergency
Secure My Space
chat with us