Although at first it sounds a little James Bond, Home Automation is really about gaining simple control over some of the important aspects of your home, such as heating, lighting, security, communications, energy use and of course, entertainment. By bringing these, usually discreet systems together under the supervision of a control system we can deliver real benefits and convenience.

For example, by integrating the gate entry system with the communications system, CCTV system, lighting system and entertainment system we can have all the telephones ring when someone pushes the bell at the gate. We can also trigger the CCTV system to switch to the gate camera, wake up certain TVs and display the camera image on the TVs. Speak to the person at the gate on your cordless phone and if you wish to grant access, push a button to let them in. Not only does this mean you don’t have to have dedicated video handsets in each room but the event is captured on CCTV and can be viewed remotely. The drive can be lit to welcome your guests or the security lighting triggered to encourage them to leave. You can even be notified on your mobile and open your gates remotely.

Lighting control systems naturally save energy by dimming lights to the level required whilst creating stunning lighting effects and simplifying control. The same occupancy sensors we use to turn off lights when a room is unoccupied can also be used to isolate heating in that room, having a major effect on overall energy consumption. Blinds can also be triggered to keep heat in or block heat out depending on internal and external temperature.

Have your system gently nudge you out of bed in the morning. Your morning alarm can be a sequence of events to welcome you to the day. Imagine… the heating comes on at 6:30, at 6:55 the lights slowly ramp up over a five minute period, at 7:00 the radio comes through the speakers in the ceiling, and at 7:05 the blinds open and the radio begins playing in the en suite. Welcome to a new day !