Smart home and solar solutions to make your home that much better

When you’re looking to bring your home into the 21st century, there are a few steps that you can take. Developing your house into a smart home is becoming an increasingly common way of moving your property forward and making a change. Find out more about some smart home and solar solutions, along with how these solutions make your home better than it is right now.

<h2>What is a smart home?</h2>
A smart home is a home that uses a series of systems and services, such as motion-sensed lights or automated heating control, to improve someone’s experience in the home. This provides people with more control over their homes, reducing the need for manually completing tasks such as turning the heating on. This makes living your day-to-day life far simpler and also reduces your energy consumption, cutting down on your energy bills.

<h2>What are solar solutions?</h2>
Solar solutions refer to the use of solar power in your home. By adding solar panels to the roof of your home, shed or throughout your garden, you increase the energy efficiency of your home and rely on less power from the grid. If you have more solar energy than you use, you can even sell your energy back to the grid thanks to the Smart Export Guarantee. Whilst the initial cost is high, it pays itself back over time.

<h2>Smart home solutions to implement</h2>
Some smart home solutions you should look to implement in your property include:

<h3>Lighting</h3>
Smart lighting comes in a range of formats. This includes using time-based motion and presence as a means of adjusting the lighting in the property, including turning the lights off or changing their colours. Using smart lighting seems like a small adjustment, but it removes the need for getting up and going to the light switch, all whilst offering you plenty of lighting colours and tones that you don’t get from a standard halogen bulb.

<h3>Heating</h3>
You can connect your heating system to the smart technology in your house. This includes features such as keeping the room at temperature while ever there is someone in the room, and applying smart phone controls to your heating and hot water systems throughout your house. The system will automatically learn your heating schedule, so your house is at just the right temperature when you get home from work. This might sound like a small change, but it’s one that you’ll come to appreciate in the cold and dark winter months.

<h3>Protection</h3>
Smart home solutions do more than just look after the people in your home. They also take steps to look after the home itself. This includes alarms and other access systems. Smart alarms include systems that show a camera view of the front of your property, showing off your doorway when anyone rings the bell. These solutions also make sure that doors and windows are closed and locked at night, removing the risk of people breaking into your home and keeping you and your family secure.