Automating your home can provide convenience, security, and even energy savings. Plus, any smart home device can create a sense of luxury and enjoyment for you, your family, and your guests. From installing high-tech motorized window shades to smart door locks and security systems, there are so many ways to automate your home and make daily life simpler.
If you want to know how to automate your home and are looking for different ideas, products, and services, here’s our list of the best ways to automate your home.
Motorized shades
Installing motorized shades on your windows is one of the best ways to automate your home. With electric blinds from OM Wave, you can regulate temperatures, tilt blinds, adjust lighting from your phone, and pre-program your shades to open and close when the sun rises and sets. While this can act as part of your morning alarm clock, it can also simulate your presence if you’re on vacation.
Smart lighting ideas
If you want to know how to automate your home using smart lighting, here are some of the best smart home products that can bring your vision to life.
Mood changing lights
Whether you’re entertaining, dining, watching a movie, or working in your home office, you can set the perfect mood with smart lighting. Using a remote control, a smartphone, iPad, or smart home device (like an Alexa or Google Assistant), you can completely change the ambiance in your house using pre-set mood lights.
Motion sensors
If you often wander your house at night to grab a drink or use the toilet, there’s no need to turn on all the lights manually. Instead, motion sensors can detect your presence and automatically turn on the lights at night. While this is great for bedtime wandering, it’s also convenient for garages, lofts, or walk-in wardrobes with hard-to-reach light switches.
Entertaining automation ideas
Automating your home can be entertaining as well as convenient! Here are some of the best ways to automate your home for entertainment.
Smart speakers in every room
With smart speakers, you can stream music in every room. You can even change the playlist per room. For example, if you’re having a party, you can have pop music in the kitchen and lounge, with mellow, instrumental sounds in the bathroom. It’ll dazzle your guests and create the perfect ambiance everywhere!
Pre-set playlists for all occasions
When you have smart speakers, you can create playlists tailored to occasions. If you have voice control of your home automation system, you can simply say out loud, “play dinner with friends playlist” to instantly create an upbeat vibe. Or say “play relaxing with spouse playlist” for something a bit more romantic!
Microphones for broadcasting
You can also add microphones to your home speaker system, so you (or your DJ!) can give shoutouts during big parties. You can even set up message broadcasts or sounds when someone new is at the door. So, no more calls from friends saying, “We’re outside, let us in!”.
Get the house party-ready when you’re not home
If you’re planning a last-minute party and you have a smart refrigerator, you can just use your phone to ramp up ice production. If you’re not home, you can even view what’s in the refrigerator and, if you sync your smart kitchen device to online shopping, you can instantly order snacks from the grocery store.
Video/home theater automation ideas
If you have a home theater, the following ideas are some of the most fun ways to automate your home and create an enjoyable (and impressive!) experience for you and your guests.
Create movie lighting
With a smart, high-tech home theater, you can control your lighting or pre-set your preferences. For example, you can make your lights slowly dim when the movie starts and gradually increase when you press pause.
Lock the doors when the movie starts
With full smart home automation, you can sync your home theater to your automatic door locks. So, when the movie starts, it’ll instantly lock the doors to give you peace of mind.
Pre-set volumes
With a smart TV, you can pre-set your volumes and set maximums. So, if you’re watching TV in the home theater, it’ll automatically start the movie at cinema noise levels. Or, if your kids have TVs in their bedrooms, you can set a maximum volume to protect their ears (and the quality of your sleep!).
Automatic door locks
Another smart home product you can install is an automatic door lock. They are convenient, safe, and even enjoyable if you set up your features correctly! Here are some of the best things you can do with these smart products and services.
Unlock doors with your smartphone
Say goodbye to fumbling around for your keys every time you come home (especially after a glass of wine or two!). With automatic door locks, you can simply pull out your phone and use fingerprint or facial recognition to unlock your front door.
Instantly revoke access
If you want to remove someone’s access to your property, like a cleaner, gardener, or ex-partner, you can instantly revoke their access with automatic door locks. You won’t ever need to worry about getting keys back or changing the locks in future, which can save you time and money.
Add access easily
Just like you can revoke someone’s access at the touch of a button, you can easily add access, too. If you’re on vacation and need someone to get into your home, you can do this via your smartphone – without needing to worry about getting keys cut or breaking doors down.
Pre-set a personalized greeting
Automatic door locks can be fun as well as convenient. They can sync up to the rest of your smart home system and automatically turn on the lights, close the blinds, and play relaxing music through your speakers as soon as you walk through the door.
