Home Automation Favourites

Automating your home with “smart” home automation products can make your life safer, easier, and more comfortable. And now smart home devices are more affordable and easier to install than ever before. Here are a few of my favourites.

Temperature 

When it comes to keeping your house comfortable temperature-wise, home automation has been a massive game changer. Not only can you control smart thermostats with the push of a button, or a simple voice command, but now you can also easily control your electric floor warming system as well. I often install Schluter®-DITRA-HEAT in bathrooms, and the new DITRA-HEAT-E-RS1 smart thermostat (part of the Schluter®-DITRA-HEAT floor warming system) offers third-party integration with popular voice and home assistants, like Google Home, Apple Home, and Alexa. Not only can you control it remotely, but it offers multiple energy- saving functions, including geofencing which turns up the heat when you’re coming home, and detects when you’re away. You can also create Scenes to apply specific settings based on your activities, like “Morning Routine” or “Gym”, to get just the right amount of heat under your feet. When it comes to comfort, this is a no-brainer.

Locks

Smart locks are great for the average homeowner, but for a vacation property landlord they’re pretty much a necessity.  Gone are the days of meeting a renter at a random coffee shop, or god-forbid, leaving the keys under a rock. With smart locks you can lock or unlock the door remotely, but also, you can remotely assign codes to different people at different times, meaning you’ll know exactly when specific people are entering or exiting the premises. And you can cancel the codes at any time if you want to revoke access.

For parents, smart locks mean you know when your kids are coming and going, and you don’t need to worry about them losing their house keys and getting locked out.  Some smart locks even allow you to set the lock to sense when your smartphone is nearby, so it automatically locks the door when you leave and unlocks it when you get home.

Lights

Turning the lights on and off isn’t exactly a challenge, but from a safety perspective, smart lighting systems are worth having. You can switch lights on before you arrive home in the evening so you don’t have to fumble around in the dark, but also, having lights turn on and off throughout the evening can trick potential burglars into thinking someone is home even when the house is empty.

As you can see, these days home automation goes far beyond the ability to turn things off and on remotely. Home automation now means that you can control almost every aspect of your home with a simple voice command, and in some cases your home can essentially predict your behaviour and respond accordingly. Whether it’s smart locks, smart lighting, smart switches, or smart temperature control, the right home automation can make your life safer, easier, and more comfortable.

For more information about Schluter’s DITRA-HEAT-E-RS1 smart thermostat, please visit www.schluter.ca 

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