Home automation basically refers to automatic and electronic control of various household appliances, features, or activities. In other words, instead of having to get up all the time when you want to adjust the controls on some devices, you can easily do this and more using the internet. You can control features and utilities in your home and your own convenience and one way or the other, you would find your household bills reducing significantly. 

Home automation allows you to control devices in your home from anywhere in the world provided you have a compatible device that is connected to the internet. This term occurs a lot around isolated programmable devices such as sprinkler systems and thermostats, however, home automation encompasses all of it. In homes where nearly everything including appliances, light, heating, and cooling systems as well as electrical systems is linked to a remotely controllable network, this may be referred to as home automation too. 

Approaching it from the aspect of home security systems, it would typically include your alarm state, surveillance cameras, smoke detectors, locks, your doors, and windows, as well as any sensors that are linked to them. 

When it comes to home automation, there are a number of commonly asked questions and this article seeks to answer most of these inquiries. 

How Does Home Automation Work?

Home automation consists of a network of hardware, electronic interfaces, and communication that work in conjunction to integrate devices that you use every day with one another through the internet. 

These devices each have sensors and are connected via WiFi which is why you can use your smartphone to manage them even when you’re a significant distance away from home. You can remotely lock your front door, turn on the lights, or turn down the heat when you feel like you’re home is heating up irrespective of your location. 

A home automation system is made up of three main components: sensors, controllers, and actuators. 

• Sensors: true to their name, sensors simply monitor and detect changes in conditions around such as temperature, daylight, or even motion. Depending on your preferences, you can always customize your home control systems settings. 

• Controllers: these are the devices that are used to receive messages and notifications regarding how automated features in your home are faring at any point in time. They typically consist of your devices or gadgets including tablets, smartphones, and personal computers. 

• Actuators: these may be motorized valves or motors that actually control the mechanism or functions in home automation products. They are programmed in such a way that a remote command coming from the controller can activate them. A light switch is a good example of an actuator as well. 

Benefits of Home Automation

The main aim of home automation is to save you any stress, matter of fact, it is intended to curb unnecessary trips to manually use a device’s controls. In addition, your home functions would become very streamlined. Here are some of the benefits of home automation and smart home systems that you may relate to: 

• Comfort: Using home automation, you can literally transform your home into a comfort zone. For instance, you can start with pre-programming your thermostat to maintain a constant temperature that you’re most comfortable with, smart speakers can welcome you with soothing music once you walk in the front door. Depending on the time of the day, you may also decide to brighten or dim your lights. 

• Remote Access: You have access to your home from anywhere in the world and you can easily alter settings when you need to. By simply hooking up your mobile devices such as your smartphone, tablet or laptop, you can keep an eye on your home at all times. 

• Convenience: You can time your devices to go off at a particular time and you can always alter these settings or control your devices without getting up from your seat. In addition, even if you’re halfway across the world, you can still lock that door that you forgot to or turn off the lights that you left on. This feature is especially great for security systems. 

• Energy Efficiency: Home automation allows you to monitor your power usage very carefully. For instance, you can always cut back on your power bill by reducing the length of time for which your lights remain on. Also, an act as simple as reducing temperatures when you exit a room can help you save a whole lot. 

• Protection: Devices such as pressure sensors, carbon monoxide monitors, smart fire detectors, and a number of features that accompany home automation can help avert potential disasters in your home. 

Some Great Home Automation Products 

If you’re looking to buy home automation products, home security cameras that can work with a smart home system is definitely a great idea, and here is a couple:

1. Motorola FOCUS89 Full HD Wi-Fi Indoor Camera

The Motorola FOCUS89 easily occupies the position of one of the best indoor cameras on the market. Video clarity is, with resolution up to 1080p HD. 

At any point in time, the camera covers a 90-degree angle, however, to cover a larger area, the camera comes with a 360-degree pan. This way, you can remotely control the camera to cover every angle within its area of view. And this can be done easily from a Hubble enabled tablet or smartphone   

The camera can be tilted digitally and to take an up-close look at anything, all you have to do is zoom in thanks to the zoom feature and your smartphone supports all of these functions too. 

The privacy mode feature enables you to shut it off when you’re home so that you can carry out your regular activities without a camera constantly watching your every move. Thanks to the night mode feature, the darkness is not a sufficient excuse for you to not know what is going on in your home. In addition, the true color filter allows you to view lowly lit areas. 

A high sensitivity microphone supported by a two-way talk feature, and you can converse with your loved ones or soothe your fussy baby. And of course, you can stream live footage from anywhere in the world. 

This camera supports microSD cameras up to 32GB and you have the alternative of cloud storage too. When you store on the cloud, you can access your videos from any device once you sign in to the cloud. Using your voice, you can activate the camera. It supports Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. 

Finally, and the icing on the cake, you get real-time notifications when sound or motion is detected. If you decide to upgrade your Hubble plan and unlock the SmartZone feature, you can set up virtual boundaries and choose targeted areas within your home.

1. Motorola FOCUS71 Wi-Fi HD Indoor Camera

The Motorola FOCUS71 is an indoor camera and comes with WiFi for various functions. For instance, you can carry out encrypted video streaming with resolution as high as 1080p HD on your compatible smartphone or tablet. 

The Night vision function guarantees that you can keep an eye on your home even at night and the true color filter is of course in the picture to help you see lowly lit areas clearly.  

With a 90-degree wide angle of view, the camera covers a significant area without even rotating. The digital tilt and zoom features help you change camera location and get an up-close picture of whatever you want to see. 

This camera can be mounted on walls and it comes with a base that allows just that. Therefore, you can either mount it on a wall or set it down on a great surface anywhere in your home. 

The high sensitivity microphone and speakers permit you to speak and have people on the other end hear you clearly. In addition, the two-way talk feature enables them to talk right back. 

This camera supports micro SD cards up to 32GB and you can opt for cloud storage as well. This way you can keep storing footage on there since you can easily access it from any device once you sign into the cloud. 

The Hubble for Motorola Monitors app allows you to view a live feed at any time you want. All you have to do is open the app and you’re good to go. 

Also, the SmartZone boundaries feature allows you to focus more on certain areas in your home and focusing less on others. Motion or sound detected in these areas is sent as notifications to your compatible device in real-time. 

With automation in play, you can always set the camera to start recording without lifting a finger. The Motorola FOCUS71 works with Google Assistant and Alexa, so you can always have them switch on your camera for you. 

The Bottomline 

Most homes these days have a smart home automation system and would, therefore, prefer devices that they can easily control for home automation. 

These indoor cameras are state of the art and autism d as well. A perfect compliment to any automated home.