What is Home Automation?

Imagine a home that turns on the lights for you when you unlock your doors, knows when you're on your way home and automatically heats or cools your home for you, or locks your doors for you when you leave for the day. 

With home automation, this is a reality. And better yet, home automation can allow you to transform any home into a smart home, making it a more comfortable, convenient, and safer place to live. 

Here's how it works.

What is home automation? 

Home automation integrates the smart devices within a home, allowing for automatic or remote control of different devices and settings. With a home automation system, your home has the power to adjust the temperature, lock doors, control lighting, or arm your security system, to name a few.

You can also manage your home via your smartphone or even through voice control. A home automation system simplifies various tasks around the house for greater convenience, comfort, and safety.

What about smart home?

A smart home takes home automation to the next level via smart devices that are interconnected through the Internet, working together to complete tasks. Smart homes also feature devices with artificial intelligence that are able to learn your behaviors, transforming sensor information into experiences that match your needs, and simplifying your daily routines.

Smart devices 

In order for home automation to work, you need smart devices. These are products that connect via WiFi or a protocol like Z-Wave. You can control your smart devices with your phone and set them up to perform various functions automatically.

Some of the most common devices that make a smart home include:

Smart thermostats

Smart thermostats like the Vivint Smart Thermostat automatically adjust the temperature of your home based on your personal preferences and your location, offering both comfort and savings. Smart thermostats use geolocation, in-home sensors, and information about your current climate to adjust your temperature accordingly.

Security cameras

While security features like indoor and outdoor cameras aren't required for a home to be considered smart, they're a great addition to help keep your family safe.

When it comes to choosing security cameras, one of the most important features is the ability to detect motion and then automatically start recording. Both indoor and outdoor Vivint security cameras feature motion detection that will trigger recording, so you can watch clips from your smartphone later. You can also access live security footage from your smartphone or tablet anytime.

Smart locks

With smart locks, you can unlock your front door anywhere from your smartphone. Because they use a code and numeric keypad rather than a physical key, smart locks are also excellent security features—no more getting locked out of your home or hiding spare keys. Your smart lock can also integrate with other devices in your home, such as your security system or lights.

For example, with one-touch leaving, all you have to do is press one button on your lock. This one action can lock your door, turn off your lights, and adjust your thermostat to conserve energy.

Smart lighting

Smart lighting can also be part of home automation and is helpful for both security and convenience. With home automation, you can set your front room or entryway lights to turn on automatically when you unlock your door—perfect if your arms are full with groceries or a sleeping child. With the Vivint app, you can also turn your smartphone into a remote control and turn your lights on and off from anywhere.

Smart speakers

Imagine how great it would be to turn off your lights downstairs with just your voice, or tell your thermostat to make the room a little warmer. When your home automation system includes smart speakers like Google Home, you can. These speakers integrate with a number of smart home devices to enable voice control for hands-free control of your home. 

Security system

With a complete Vivint system, your home security products easily integrate with your other smart home devices. For example, you can set your smart locks to lock automatically and your lights to turn off whenever you arm your security system.

Home automation from Vivint

If you want to implement home automation in your home, there are a number of options out there.

With so many smart devices on the market, many people attempt to DIY a smart home system. While this can certainly be done, it can also be difficult, even for the most seasoned DIYers. It also leaves out an important component of home security—24/7 monitoring that contacts emergency personnel if an alarm goes off and you're not home. 

Home automation with Vivint is a breeze. A smart home from Vivint offers a complete and customized smart home with a number of advantages over other companies. These include:

• Seamless integration. Creating a smart home can be tricky. You'll need to find devices that are compatible, and then figure out how to get them to connect on the same network. With Vivint, everything works together exactly how it's supposed to. 
• Professional installation. You can try to DIY, or you can leave it to the pros. All Vivint systems include professional installation, so all components of your system work together without a hitch. Your installers will also answer any questions you may have. 
• Control from a single app. Usually, if you have multiple smart home devices you have multiple apps to control them. That means switching back and forth from a doorbell app to a smart lock app to a security app—unless you have a system from Vivint. With the Vivint app, you can access and control everything in your home from a single app no matter where you are. 
• 24/7 monitoring. What if a smoke alarm goes off when you're not at home? Or your security system is tripped but you don't know where your phone is to call the police? With Vivint, 24/7 monitoring keeps you connected to our professional monitoring center who will contact authorities on your behalf if you can't, so you can focus on what's important—getting you and your family to safety.

See how Vivint can transform your home 

Home automation can transform your home into a smarter, safer, and more convenient place to live—and Vivint can help make it happen.

For a free quote on a customized smart home system, contact our Smart Home Pros today at 800.646.1469.