What if this summer you wouldn’t have to worry about watering your lawn, cleaning your pool, keeping your home cool, etc. Sounds too good to be true? Well, the good news is – it isn’t.
All you need to do is to make your home smart or, in case you already live in a smart home, just smarten it up a bit. We’ve already written about how you plan your home automation project and what do you need to start it if you’re more of a DIY type of person.
When deciding to automate your home, for many people the main issue is how to begin. How much will it cost? Will the investment pay off? How can I decide what to automate at all? The good news is that with a pinch of imagination you can automate almost anything in your home without breaking the bank. In fact, summertime is the perfect entry point into the smart home world, as already with small upgrades and tricks your summer can be much more carefree and fun.
To give you some hints, in this article, we point out 5 ways how your home can help you make summertime more convenient, comfortable, and energy-efficient. Or to put it in one word – SMARTER.
1. Let the garden water itself
Keeping your lawn green and healthy during the hot summer days can be harder than it may seem, especially because turning on the sprinklers is probably not the first thing on your mind on the warm summer evenings, is it?
If you’re not one of those who find watering their garden extremely relaxing, you’ve probably already invested in an irrigation system. The next (and the best) improvement you can make in your garden this summer is to make your sprinklers smart. By installing a smart sprinkler controller, you can keep your lawn and garden green and groom throughout the summer without any worries. You will be able to control watering your lawn remotely via a smartphone app from anywhere, without the need to bother your neighbors or relatives while on holiday. If you want to go completely carefree, you can set the schedule for your sprinklers to go on and off automatically every day.
What’s more, if you have a house with a large garden and your irrigation system has more valves, you can divide it into irrigation zones and control the amount of the water regarding on how much moist the individual plants in different zones need. If connected to the moist sensor, some of the controllers even adjust the time of the irrigation according to the soil moisture and help you save on water.
Need some more advantages? There’s plenty left. But if we point out the one situation that can cause you the most problems, that would definitely be the water runoff. Believe us, as we write this from our own experiences, you DO NOT want to forget to close the water and let it run all night. It will not only shock you when you’ll see what kind of mess it can cause in your garden; your water bill can shock you even more. However, you can easily avoid this by making your sprinkle valves smart and set them to turn on/off automatically.
Drawbacks, you ask? There are absolutely none. It’s simple, effective and you can save on water a lot.
2. Impress with a smart pool
A pool is always a great addition to your home; it will increase the quality of your (summer) life for sure. If you are thinking about buying a pool this summer or if you already have one, why waste time for the maintenance instead of taking a refreshing swim in it? Thanks to the smart pools, you’ll be able to jump into the refreshing water right when you return from work on a boiling hot summer day.
The good news is that smart pools have become way more affordable in the last years than you may think. Here are some suggestions on how to upgrade your existing or a future pool into a smart one and not only let it do the hard work for you but also make it look like a pool, worthy to stand next to a million-dollar villa.
We recommend you start with the basics – clean and fresh water. To keep your water free of bacteria and algae throughout all summer, you should make the pool pump smart first. There are plenty of options on the market that enable you to do that, but one of the easiest and quickest solutions would be installing a smart pool pump controller next to the pool pump engine, connect the device into your smart home network and you’re all set to control the pool from your smartphone, whether at work, on holidays or at a business trip. If you’re more on the forgetful side, smart pool solutions also enable you to set them to work automatically and the pool pump will start at the scheduled time every day.
As you have probably already figured out to that point, above all else, smart pools are very convenient and can also help you to save a lot on your pool’s energy and water costs. You can, for example, automate your pool cover and close/open it remotely, which slows evaporation and helps you save the water, retains the heat, and keeps the water clean. This also saves you time on cleaning the leaves and insects. Is the summer storm approaching? No need to rush home, as you can close the cover remotely via your smartphone and protect the pool when at work, shopping, or picking your kid at school.
In case you fancy a BBQ pool party, you can impress your friends with smart pool lights and set the mood, as you can control the pool lighting based on which direction the evening is going. Start with the chill out colors in the late afternoon. When it’s time to make the atmosphere a little livelier, grab your phone, put your pool in funky colors and get the party started.
3. Keep your home naturally cool with smart shades
With the summer approaching, so are the hot days when it feels like the whole city is melting in the heat. You probably know the feeling when you’re returning to an overheated home after a day at work. Instead of enjoying a half an hour of well-deserved relaxation, you have to cool down your home to a comfortable temperature first.
Leaving the air conditioner on all day to return to a nicely cooled home is not energy efficient at all and, above all, unnecessary. A good shading system can easily help you keep your home naturally cool and pleasant even during the hottest summer days, so you don’t need to run your AC as much. If you have already invested in a motorized shading system, a small additional investment to make them smart can bring a huge difference to your home.
By automating your motorized shades, blinds, or rollers, you can not only control them remotely, in case you forget to close them in the morning; you can also schedule the position and tilt of your smart blinds to automatically occur throughout the day, according to the position of the sun. In this case, you can still have natural light in your home and at the same time, you don’t let a lot of heat inside.
Besides obvious convenience, smart shading system can also help you protect your home. Is the summer storm suddenly approaching and you’re not at home? Close the automated blinds/shades/rollers using your smartphone to prevent damage to your home.
Going on vacation and want to simulate your presence at home? Change the position of your shades via your smartphone a few times a day or set a schedule to do it automatically.
4. Party time, romantic night, or safety? Smart lighting is a must-have
Summer nights have their power and so do smart lights. Especially, if we’re talking about a warm summer evening, with a BBQ smell in the air, a nicely chilled glass of wine in your hand, and friends gathered in your garden or on the terrace. With RGB LED smart lighting you can color your terrace in an almost unlimited number of lively shades that will help you uplift the mood and make the evening even more special.
If you’re planning a more romantically colored evening 😉, here’s the magic secret – smart dimmers can speak romance. You can create the fairytale mood on your garden with warm shades and without much effort, as choosing the color of your smart lights is at your fingertip. When the time is right, DO NOT ruin the moment; dim the lights from your smartphone, so you don’t have to leave your beloved one’s hug just to flip a switch. 😊
It’s no secret that making your home smart can also greatly contribute to its safety. In fact, smart lights can play a significant role in making your home more secure. When on holidays, you can, for example, set the schedule to switch on the indoor or outdoor lights automatically when you want them to. This way you can not only make your house or front yard look beautiful but also makes your home look like it’s not empty while you are enjoying your evening cocktail in the tiki bar on the other side of the world.
5. Enjoy the summer breeze with a smart ceiling fan
Imagine yourself sitting in a swing chair, with a light breeze blowing in your face. No, you’re not under the palm tree in a tiki bar anymore, but on your terrace with a ceiling fan creating you a nice summer breeze and helps you make afternoon heat more bearable. If your ceiling fan is smart, you don’t have to leave your comfortable chillout position to switch on the fan and create a stream of fresh air.
Smart ventilation can help you control the climate in your home and keep the air in your apartment fresh. What’s more, if you use your smart ceiling fan together with AC, this will help you blow the cold air from the AC around your home, cool it down faster, and make it more energy (and cost) efficient.
Believe us, on hot summer days, smart ventilation solutions will be a priceless acquisition in your home, not only because it will help you get through the stuffiest days, but also because it will bring much more comfort in your home and can help you reduce your electricity bills. Like most smart home solutions do. 😊
To sum up, there are almost limitless options on how you can automate your home to help you get through summer more comfortably. You can spend your vacations completely carefree since your home (with a little bit of preplanning) will basically take care of itself.
So, what should be your next steps towards the (more) carefree summer? We suggest clicking here to read more about how AI can transform your home. 😊