Home Automation Information

We are all used to using switches and knobs for turning the lights on and off and for dimming them.

Imagine what it will be like to perform all of these functions automatically from any part of the house. This is now possible with home automation.

You can control the lighting in any way you like and even schedule the lights when to turn on and off. This brings a range of superb benefits.

Home Automation and Lighting for a More Comfortable Home Environment

You come home after a long day at work. Imagine being able to simply press a button and all the lights in the living room plus the TV will be turned on automatically. You just need to sit in your favourite armchair and relax.

You can pick from a variety of lighting modes to create the ideal atmosphere with home automation. You can have all the lights in the room turned on if you want to work.

You can make the living room more romantic with dimmed lighting. You can automatically switch all outdoor lights on for a great garden party.

It is possible to turn the lights on and off with voice commands. This is particularly useful for elderly and disabled people.

You can even set the lights to be turned on automatically at a specific schedule when you are not at home. This is an effective measure for keeping burglars away.

It's also possible to have a special panic button for turning all the lights in the house on, if you suspect that a burglar has broken in your house.

Another option is connecting the lighting to the fire sensing system in your home. That way, should there ever be a problem, you will get not only a sound alert, but a visual alert as well.

Home Automation for Saving Energy by Controlling Lighting

Leaving the lights on when you are not in the room can increase your electricity bill considerably, especially if you have a big home. When your home is automated, you will not have to worry about wasting energy ever again.

You can simply set the lighting so that each and every lamp goes off the moment the last person leaves the room. Home automation is a thing of the present and not a thing of the future.

You can automate your home and enjoy all of these benefits every day.

To learn more about home automation, or to request a free consultation, contact us at Intelligent Environments today.

 

The concept of home automation emerged at the time electrified homes were introduced.

However, the automation of all systems in the house, lighting, heating, air conditioning, entertainment, security and many more, was not possible until recently.

Now with the advancement of technology, any house can be automated.

This makes it possible to save considerable amounts of energy in the short term and in the long term.

Control All Energy-Using Systems and Appliances with Home Automation

With home automation, you can turn the lights in the entire house and in the garden on and off with the push of a single button on a remote control irrespective of your location in the building. You can choose from a variety of modes such as dimming as well.

Around 7 per cent of the entire energy you use in your home goes for lighting. You will save considerably in the long term if you lower this percentage by half.

The average household uses the most energy, 38 per cent, for heating and cooling. Home automation allows you to turn the heating and air-conditioning on an off easily and quickly with the push of a button at any time.

You can control the temperature in your entire home without having to get up and turn the knob of each radiator manually. The really great thing is that you can control the insulation that comes from the curtains, blinds and louvers.

Shut all blinds automatically on a hot summer's day or open them fully to make the most out of the winter sun.

You would not want appliances to remain turned on when not in use. This can save about 8 per cent of your electricity bill. Of course, it is much easier to be able to turn them off remotely than to have to go to each appliance and do it manually.

Automatic Scheduling of Home Systems with Home Automation

You have the opportunity not only to turn systems and appliances on and off automatically from a single remote control. You can schedule their use in any way you like.

You can time the operation of the heating and cooling systems, of the lights, appliances and blinds. For instance, you can set the heating to go off or to be reduced considerably around the time you go to bed.

Or, you can have the blinds shutting down automatically as soon as sunlight gets through the window.

You can use home automation to maximise the energy efficiency of your home and enjoy this benefit for years to come.

To get a free consultation for your home, contact us at Intelligent Environments today!

 

Take Advantage of all the Uses for Lighting with Home Automation

You can enjoy a lot of activities outside if you have the right setting, lighting and facilities.

Now you can make the most out of these with home automation.

Indeed, you can automate not only the indoor, but also the outdoor environment of your home.

The benefits of this are many and different.

Home Automation for the Perfect Outdoor Lighting and a Gorgeous Garden

You do not have to turn each set of outdoor lights on manually, but rather can do this automatically by hitting a button on a remote control. You push a button and your patio is lit before you even go outside.

If you are busy preparing an outdoor party by the pool, you can easily turn the underwater lights on while you are still in the kitchen. You can even schedule when the lights turn on and off.

Automatic light dimming is perfectly possible with home automation. You can readily choose the ideal amount of light for a romantic dinner or for a relaxing evening in the hot tub.

If your kids want to play outside, you can make sure that the outdoor area is as bright enough in the evenings.

You can schedule the sprinklers but automation, meaning your plants will always get the right amount of water and you will always enjoy their bright colours. This can also help save you considerable amounts of water by lowering your utility bill.

Home Automation for Outdoor Energy Saving

By controlling the lights and the garden sprinklers, you will save a lot of energy. You can also automate the pool pump and the pump of your Jacuzzi.

This will allow for even greater savings apart from preserving the mechanical parts of the pumps. It is certainly beneficial to enjoy all the comforts brought to you by modern technology and to save money at the same time.

These are just some of the main benefits of outdoor home automation. With the right system in place, you will be able to enjoy music, TV and movies outdoors just by using a simple remote control. Your entertainment is guaranteed.

To learn more, or for a free consultation, contact us at Intelligent Environments today!

Effective Ways for Saving Energy with Home Automation

Are the home security measures which you have taken sufficient?

It seems that in many houses in New Zealand they are not. The statistics show that around 60,000 home burglaries occur every year.

Now you can have effective protection all the time with home automation. It allows you to use each and every measure you have already taken to protect your property and your loved ones even more effectively.

Home Automation for Keeping Burglars Away

Did you know that in some 60 per cent of all burglaries the wrong-doers actually get inside the house through an open window? It is common for people to forget to close a window especially on warm days while they are in their garden.

With a home automation system in place, you will be able to shut any window in the house irrespective of your location on your property. You just press a button and you can have the peace of mind that your home is secure.

You can also shut the blinds or louvers for even more efficient protection.

You will never leave any door of your house unlocked. The same applies even to the garage door. When your home is automated, you will be able to lock and unlock all doors remotely.

Light sensors around the house usually work quite well to keep burglars away. However, it is not always possible to cover the entire perimeter around your home.

With a home automation system, you can have the outdoor lights and certain lights inside the house turn on automatically at set intervals. This feature can be used every night and especially when you are away from home.

Home Automation for Making the Most Out of Existing Security Systems

Many modern homes have burglar alarms. However, in many cases, before the police arrive, the burglar runs away with the loot.

You can prevent this by setting up the home automation system to lock all doors and windows when the alarm sounds off. Another thing you can do is to get an alert directly to your phone. The possibilities are endless.

You can connect any security cameras that you have on your property to your TV. That way, you will not have to take any recordings directly from the cameras.

If you hear a strange noise, you can simply turn on the television set and see what is going on. That way, you will be able to take adequate measures right away.

These are just some of the main things that home automation can do to make your house better protected. The possibilities are endless.

For more information, or to get your free home automation consultation, contact us today!

Make Your Home Outdoor Area the New Favourite Spot with Home Automation

There are so many gadgets and systems designed to provide the ultimate entertainment in the comfort of your own home.

With home automation, you can use these even more effectively than before to have the most fun when you are alone, together with your family or with friends.

You can create a real movie theatre or a genuine disco or recreate the environment typical for a symphony concert.

Home Automation for the Best Movie Experience

You can create the ideal environment for watching a movie with the hit of a single button on a remote control. You just need to set up a movie watching mode for your smart home. In this way, the blinds in the TV room will shut automatically, the lights will dim just like in a movie theatre and the home theatre system will be turned on. You can activate this special movie mode from any room of the house.

You can have an audio system integrated in your home. It is based on the same principle as the car audio systems, but it is much more sophisticated and complex. Operating it, however, is fairly simple. You press a button and you have classical music playing in all the rooms of your home. You can set different tunes to be played in the different rooms as well.

In general, the settings for every part of the house can be different. That way, each member of your household will enjoy their favourite music without anyone fighting over the audio system in the living room. Home automation can deliver the best entertainment anytime anywhere in the house.

Home Automation for Parties

With the possibility to play music in every room and outdoors, you can have the best party ever without having to buy the most powerful audio speakers. In fact, you can have different music themes in the different rooms. You can set the ideal volume automatically so that your guests will enjoy talking, having a nice meal and dancing. You can be certain that your neighbours will never complain about loud noise coming from your house during parties that you organise.

There are other home automation features that will contribute to a great party as well. You can create the ideal light setting for the event. You can close or open the curtains with a single button on the remote depending on what you need. You can turn the garden lights and any fountains on for a more whimsical atmosphere.

For more information or to get a free consultation please click on the button below.

 

Home Security Taken to the Next Level with Home Automation

You should feel safe and perfectly comfortable in your home.

Home automation can help you greatly with this.

It will provide you with the most comfortable setting in any room at any time.

It will also save you a lot of time and effort. It will even help you save energy.

Home Automation for the Ideal Temperature in All Rooms

Most people need to set the temperature in their homes at least a number of times a day by using the control knobs of the heating radiators or the air conditioner. This is a daunting task.

Furthermore, the room can get either too hot or too cold. This will not only give you discomfort, but raise your energy bill unnecessarily.

With home automation, you can set the ideal temperature in all rooms of the house using a single remote control. You do not have to be in the room to do it.

You do not even have to be in the house. During the winter, you can easily maintain the perfect temperature throughout the day and make the rooms warmer in the evening when you come home.

In the summer, you can turn the air conditioner on an hour before you come home from work.

Home Automation for More Effective Insulation

Did you know that the largest amount of heat from the home is lost to the outdoor environment through the windows? That is why it is essential to have curtains and/or blinds that are designed to provide good insulation.

The problem is that you cannot open them and close them every time when needed throughout the day. The issue is even more serious when you have a big house with plenty of rooms.

With home automation, you can close and open curtains automatically. You can shut and open blinds with the hit of a button as well. You can even integrate any louvers into the smart home system.

Operating any and all curtains, blinds and louvers in the house with a single gadget is perfectly possible.

You can use the universal remote to open the bedroom window and the curtains in the morning so that fresh air and light come in. If the day is cold and you need to keep the room warm, you can readily shut the window and close the curtains to retain the most heat inside.

Your presence in the bedroom is not required. You can perform all of these actions while watching TV in your living room.

Apart from making your home more comfortable with home automation, you make it more energy-efficient as well. To learn more, or for your free consultation, contact us at Intelligent Environments today.

 

Home Automation - Enjoy the Perfect Home Entertainment with Home Automation 

Just think about the things which you normally do to make the home environment more comfortable and safer.

You turn on the lights, the heating or the air conditioning and the television set when you come home.

With home automation, you can have each of these things done automatically by pressing a single button on a remote control.

Set Your Own Home Automation Modes

You can combine different actions that the smart home can perform at the same time to give you the home environment that you want. You can create all sorts of modes depending on your needs and requirements.

You can create modes for every event.

If you often do work in your study, you can readily create a mode for its preparation. You can have the lights and the computer switched on automatically.

Similarly, you can integrate the turning on the heating or the air conditioning system.

You can create the ideal environment for watching a movie with a single movie mode. With the push of a button, you can have the lights dimmed, the blinds shut and the home theatre system switched on.

You can also devise a special party mode which you can use when you invite people in your house. Turn the lights and music on automatically in all areas where your guests will be.

Special home automation modes can be used not only for making the home more comfortable, but also for making it safer. When you go to bed, you can use a special mode for shutting all windows and blinds, locking the doors and switching on an alarm.

Home Automation Voice Commands

It is perfectly possible to control all the functions in your home with voice commands. This offers an extra level of convenience to those who do not like the idea of having to carry a remote.

The voice command control is particularly useful to individual with disabilities and the elderly. It also helps when you have kids at home and you do not want them fidgeting with the remote.

With voice commands home automation literally becomes live. It will do everything you want. You just need to say it. This will not only make your life easier. You and your loved ones will feel even more comfortable and safer in your home.

There are many benefits to owning a home automation system. To learn even more, or to get your free consultation, contact us today!

 

Create the Most Comfortable Home Environment with Home Automation

You will benefit from greater comfort, safety and entertainment in your house with a home automation system.

You will save energy and water effectively. While focusing on these major benefits, many homeowners miss to consider the smaller ones which are quite valuable as well.

You can readily set your imagination free when it comes to the capabilities of a smart home.

Home Automation for Fresh Coffee in the Morning

You simply need to have your coffee maker integrated into the automation system and you will be able to "order" fresh coffee the moment you wake up in the morning. You simply need to press the remote control button with this function while you are still in bed or in the bathroom and the coffee will be made in the kitchen. The fresh aromatic beverage will await you when you go to the kitchen to have breakfast.

Why limit yourself to just fresh coffee? You can integrate the toaster and even the microwave into the home automation system. That way, you will always have freshly roasted breed and warm porridge in the morning. You can always reheat the food you cooked yesterday for lunch even when you have work in the other room.

Home Automation for the Best Hot Tub Experience

You crave for nothing else but to get inside the outdoor hot tub after a stressful day at work. However, you are too tired to turn the pump and the water heating system on. The automation system can really be of great use in such cases. You simply have to use the remote to turn the pump and the heater on.

You can even set a special mode for turning these on even before you arrive in your house. That way, you will have the opportunity to relax in the warm water immediately. You will not have to get even more tired in order to get the relaxation that you need.

Leaving a large amount of food in your pet's bowl in the morning is certainly not good for its diet and consequently for its health. Now you can feed your pet automatically and remotely from literally any place. You just need to integrate an automatic feeder into the smart home system.  You can choose the meal times of your pet. You can give him/her the right amount of food every time so that he/she gets enough energy without putting extra pounds on.

Home automation will bring to you many other small benefits that will make your life easier and much more pleasant.

For more information or to get a free consultation please click on the button below.

Home Automation - Automate Your Home Any Way You Like

Home automation is so much more than dimming a few lights, or playing music in several rooms at once.

Many of today’s homes use a number of different technologies to provide the facilities the family’s lifestyle demands:

Home Automation / Lighting: Most homes have specific lighting requirements to create various ‘moods’ throughout the house and garden. If a lighting control system is available, ‘scenes’ can be programmed to provide automated lighting for different situations e.g. ‘romantic dining’ and ‘homework’ may light the large table in the family room in very different ways!

Home Automation / Security: Few houses these days are without certain security features: ranging from basic movement sensors that trigger outside lighting to more elaborate features such as ‘panic’ buttons beside the bed that trigger immediate ‘safe pathway’ lighting for exiting the house in an emergency; security systems ranging from standard intruder & fire alarms, to those incorporating cameras, CCTV and access control of exterior doors and gates.

Home Automation / Blinds/Drapes: It is quite common for drapes, blinds and louvres to be automated in some way. Rather than ‘pulling the blinds’ a button on a remote control or keypad can close all the blinds before the film starts!

Home Automation / Entertainment: TV and Audio Visual requirements have become ever more complex: High Definition, distributed TV, Apple TV, Sky TV, Freeview, BluRay, Media Players, Media Centres, HDMI cabling, Cat5, Cat6, Multi Room Audio, iPods, iDocks, iPhones, iPads, or other smart devices . . . the list goes on. Each family’s needs are different: some are content to have TV distributed to a few rooms and have just a couple of sources from which to choose their music; others demand the full spectrum of what’s available throughout the house, and want to ensure their system is upgradeable when the next generation equipment emerges!

Home Automation is about linking together the different technologies that are important to your family.

With a modern home automation system all the various components such as security, lighting, air-conditioning, heating, irrigation, blinds/louvre control and audio visual systems can be pulled together to work in one integrated package.

Imagine a house that cools itself on a hot day, closes the blinds when sunlight is too bright and plays your favourite song as you walk into the house through doors that open automatically for you. Today, home automation is no longer the domain of science fiction.

While early home automation motorised manual devices, today’s home automation systems put the control of the entire house at your fingertips. Home automation is a multi-million dollar industry which allows homeowners to integrate the management of their home’s security, lighting, heating, communications and entertainment into a single, user-friendly system.

Home Automation & Safety

Safety is the single most important benefit of home automation. A typical installation allows a user to control the environment and security of the house and its surroundings on a handheld device. This device links to wall panels which enable a homeowner to conveniently monitor and control external devices such a swimming pool covers, smoke detectors, locks on access points like gates and garage doors as well as burglar alarms.

One of the important benefits of home automation is that it provides local interface devices in each room, so that individual occupants can control the environment in their rooms. These interfaces also serve as an intercom which allows communication throughout the house. The system also allows a user to control over lighting, temperature and appliances configured into the home automation grid.

Energy Efficiency Advantages of Home Automation

A significant feature of home automation is that the system can be programmed to use power, water and gas more efficiently. For example, home automation can be programmed to turn off power in the unoccupied areas of a house.

With homeowners going green on energy use, home automation systems are available with Energy Management software which provides information and is able to regulate about the amount of energy used in a home. While this leads to lower costs, the efficiency gained by reducing the waste of water and power help to reduce the size of a house’s carbon footprint.

Home automation is a convenient and efficient solution which provides safety and convenience at a reasonable expense while being of benefit to the community and environment.

Home Automation - Linking Technologies