Find out why you should link all of your home’s electronics with a home control system.
A home control system connects all the electronics in your house. It means that not only is your phone and your tablet connected to the internet, but your thermostat and your lights too. Connectivity is the most important feature of home automation and it represents an idea known as the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT).
These days there are plenty of off-the-shelf home automation ‘solutions,’ but without a home control system (also known as a hub), you mind find yourself with one app for your lights, another for your heating and yet another for your entertainment. This level of complication defeats the original purpose of home automation by making things more difficult, rather than less.
How an automated home could change everything.
Internet connected devices, sometimes known as smart devices, have three significant advantages over their traditional counterparts. These are convenience, control and efficiency. Smart devices are convenient because, as the term home automation suggests, certain functions can be automated based on your lifestyle, including your home’s security, lighting and heating. Some devices, such as Google’s much hyped Nest Learning Thermostat, even claim that they can learn from your behaviour and respond accordingly.
Smart devices give you control by allowing a more sophisticated level of interaction with your devices. Lights aren’t simply off and on, but on at specific times and fine-tuned to specific levels of brightness. You can remotely control your devices via an app on your phone, allowing you to turn on the heating before you even get home from work. Lastly, these devices are efficient because they go some way towards reducing human error and won’t heat or light empty rooms when they are programmed correctly.
KAV London works with companies who make home automation products, such as Control4, Crestron and Savant. We install a range of different products from different companies, helping homeowners to select the products that best suit their needs and budget. The Control4 business model requires that all installers are licensed, meaning that they are trained and authorised by Control4. That’s why you’ll see the Authorised Control4 Platinum Dealer badge at the top of our webpage.
Why you need a home control system.
Your connected devices work best when they are connected to each other through one central device. This is where the home control system comes in. A home control system acts as a hub that enables you to interact with all of your devices through one intuitive interface, typically an app. It’s helpful, some might say essential, for all of your devices use the same networking protocols, whether that be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Z-Wave. If your devices don’t use the same protocol, then managing them may require a number of different interfaces, which detracts from the convenience of home automation – defeating the purpose somewhat. If it’s not going to give you great control, convenience, or efficiency, then it might be time to reconsider.
It’s possible to start small by automating just one room, or installing a modest home theatre system. But there’s always the opportunity to upgrade to whole home automation whenever you feel that the time is right. Just like a smartphone, a smart home is an experience that you’ll soon wonder how you ever lived without. Our complex installation projects are limited in scope only by your imagination.