Home Automation for a Customized Living Space

Select the home automation protocol that allows you to customize and automate your living space.

Creating a smart home that meets your every need is not a new concept, but it is still in its early stages of becoming reality. With the Internet of Things, homeowners are now able to automate large portions of their homelife, from simple things like turning the lights on and off at certain times, to more complicated tasks like ordering toilet paper online at 2 in the morning using voice commands.

When it comes to choosing the best home automation device or system for you, the first step is learning what home automation is and how it works. Once you’ve gained a better understanding of what’s possible, you will be able to identify what you want your smart home to be able to do for you. It’s important to identify which are the most important features for you so that you can design your home automation around your own needs. For homeowners who already have a smart home hub--such as the Amazon Echo or Google Home--it’s possible to connect these popular devices to many of your existing home automation components in order to link your entire home to a single hub.

A Brief Overview of the Most Popular Home Automation Devices

The most popular smart home hubs are the Amazon Echo and Google Home, but they are far from the only ones in the running. With continually advancing technology that allows us to track our steps, pinpoint the locations of our family members, and answer our front doors when we’re not even at home, our standards of living are rising. Smart homes have been a science fiction fantasy for decades, but they are finally becoming a reality in the 21st century.

Many users choose to purchase smart home hubs like the Echo and the Home because they want the added benefits of these connected Internet of Things devices. Being able to use voice commands to get the weather, order household supplies, listen to music, and more, are conveniences that homeowners enjoy, but many people don’t realize that other home automation technology can be easily integrated with these devices to create an even more connected and automated home than ever before.

Just like your cell phone, most popular smart home hubs can be equipped with specialized apps that make it possible for users to automate most of their home, from monitoring the thermostat or turning the lights on and off, to even more convenient options like starting the coffee in the morning or letting someone into the house from a remote location. When shopping around for home automation tools that interest you, ensuring app compatibility will be an important step to integrating your entire home automation protocol.

More About App Compatibility

When it comes to home automation, the options are nearly endless. Home automation tools can be used to manage home lighting, door locks, energy use, thermostat and temperature control, and more. The devices that are used for these specific purposes operate over various protocols, such as z-wave. While most home automation hubs do not operate using this protocol, they can be compatible with it. For example, many popular home automation tools like Morza powered by Alarm.com products which operate through Alarm.com, and Philips Hue products designed to control lighting in the home, come equipped with included apps that allow them to be controlled via smartphone and tablet, and be integrated with your existing smart home hub like the Google Home or Amazon Echo.

If you’re a homeowner shopping around for home automation options, the most important step to ensuring compatibility is checking for apps that cross platforms to work with the systems that you already have in place in your home. If you’re starting from scratch, you will be able to select your components easily, ensuring that you’re starting with devices that all work together. 

Alarm.com Devices Compatibility

Some of the most popular smart home devices sold by BrickHouse Security include the Morza home products which operate through Alarm.com. Alarm.com conveniently offers an app that is compatible with the most popular smart home hubs like the Echo and the Home. This compatibility allows homeowners to integrate smart home devices that would ordinarily be controlled using a smartphone, making it possible for them to use the voice commands offered by the Home and Echo to control the app instead. For example, a user might be able to voice command Alexa, via the Amazon Echo device, to open and control the Alarm.com app.

Benefits of Home Automation

As the popularity and prevalence of automated homes increases, users are looking for more options that unite their systems. After all, the more connected your home automation is, the more easily your home can be controlled, and more importantly, customized to your needs. Users can use home automation for many applications, from simpler uses like using voice commands to turn on lights or play music, to more advanced tasks like scheduling thermostats to adjust the temperature and lights to turn on or off based on the time of day. Home automation can give users nearly complete control over the management of their homes, increasing comfort and functionality of the space.

If you’re considering introducing home automation into your living space, BrickHouse Security is proud to offer a full line of products from MORzA powered by Alarm.com, giving you a variety of home automation options that are easily compatible with some of your favorite hands-free assistants like Amazon Echo, Google Home, and more. Contact the BrickHouse Security team for more information about smart home automation and get started today!