Trends in Building or Environment Automation

Building or environment automation may seem like something that’s only for the well-to-do or the high-tech geek. After all, when would you ever do more than put your lights on a timer or set your thermostat to kick in when your house gets too chilly. These days, building or environment technology is capable of far more. Imagine this scenario.

You’re on your way to the airport to catch a flight to the vacation of your dreams when you suddenly start to wonder if you turned off the iron. What are your options? Until recently, you had two choices: head back home and risk missing your flight, or get to your flight on time and worry that your house would burn down in your absence. If you had the foresight to leave a key with a neighbor, you could make a call and ask them to run over and check to make sure the iron is off, which is a little more convenient, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to call your house and tell it to cut the power to the outlet you’ve left your iron plugged into?

Today’s home automation technology makes that possible – and that’s barely the tip of the iceberg. With the right wring/pre-wire setup and smart home technology, your house is capable of doing many common, time-consuming tasks without any input from you. Here are just a few of the most popular – and very affordable – trends in smart home building or environment automation.

Let There Be Light – or Not

Lighting automation has been around for decades and may be the best known and most widely used segment of home automation technology. You can set your lights to go on or off based on a wide variety of inputs. Want the kitchen light to turn on when the garage door is opened? A wiring specialist can set it up to do that automatically. Hallway lights can be set to respond to motion, light, time or a door opening. You can set your bathroom lights to turn on automatically when someone enters and off when the lighting system senses no one is in the room. You can even create “mood profiles” for every room in your house and control them from a remote control, your home computer, your tablet or your smart phone.

Audio/Video Automation

Audio/video controls run a close second to lighting. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that only ten years ago, recording your favorite television show automatically was a complicated process. Today, you can set up and run your DVR remotely from anywhere in the world – and even access your recorded programs from a hotel room on the other side of the country. Beyond recording, there’s a whole world of ways to access your entertainment from any screen or sound system in any room in the house.

From the serious to the frivolous, building or environment automation is here to stay. Whether your concerns run to family security or you just want to turn off the lights automatically when your movie starts, your house can be programmed to do that. Talk to a custom audio video and home automation specialist today and find out how.