This was written in July 2020. Home automation moves quickly, and these were the five directions we expected to matter.
New products arrive in home automation almost weekly. Advances in software and cloud technology mean more of a house can be controlled, monitored and automated than could be a few years ago, and the people who have done it mostly report that the convenience is worth it.
Here are five trends worth watching, and what each one actually adds.
Five trends in home automation
1. Voice control
Undoubtedly, voice assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google assistant have already taken the world by storm. It is expected to see more electronics with voice control embedded in them. Smart televisions can already be controlled with these assistants. This year we will see voice control expanding to other devices, most importantly cars. Manufacturers are already working on making cars compatible with different voice assistants.
2. Wellness
A healthy lifestyle is one thing people are going lengths to achieve nowadays. An increase in equipment and sensors lets you monitor the quality of indoor air in the house along with light, temperature, humidity, UV light and many more parameters. Moreover, smart wearables monitor your sleep and that information can be used smartly. White noise is played through home speakers which makes sleeping easier and peaceful. Smart technology for disabled people is also trending this year.
3. Security
The smart lock is the headline product here. These locks open on a biometric check, a fingerprint or a retina scan, or on voice control. They remove the problem of a key being copied or lost, and they record who came in and when. No lock is impenetrable, and a smart lock still needs a physical override and a power failure plan, so specify both.
4. Increased connectivity
A trend that is topping the charts is increased connectivity. Having so many smart devices which are not connected does not seem practical enough. Hence, keeping in mind this problem, companies are coming up with a hub that allows centralised management and control over connected devices. In this way, managing everything will become easier and your home will become smarter in the true sense.
5. Smart doorbells
Haven’t heard this one before, have you? Smart doorbells are the name of the game this year. They come with pre-buffer motion activation. They are nothing like the traditional peephole from where you can see who is at your door. They start recording when somebody comes within a few feet of the door, and the live feed and the recording both appear on your phone.
All five of these need power and data in the right places, which means deciding them before first fix. Our in-house MEP team sets the containment out with the electrical design. Tell us what you want the house to do.
Published 30 July 2020. Written by the NU Projects studio, edited since for house style and accuracy.