It’s that time of year where the Christmas decorations are starting to make their way from storage lockers into homes and stores. And it won’t be long till Michael Bublé’s sultry voice lets us all know its going to be a White Christmas while dads fire up their braai’s, kids splash in the pool in the 30-degree heat and mom fixes her first gin and tonic the second the clock strikes 12PM.
What does this all have to do with automation you may ask? Well, everything really. If you have been actively making your home smarter over the year, the holidays are when you get rewarded that much more. Let’s take a look at our 5 favourite automations, some upcoming specials and more.
Our 5 favourite automations at the moment
We have to say at the moment, because automations are like wishes, once you have made that wish and your problem no longer exists you move on to the next one. I had a joke about ex’s there, but I am not sure it works. Anyway, back to business, what are we loving right now?
Considering its November 2021 and we are moving into what looks to be a very hot summer, with load shedding and fuel price hikes we all need to pay attention to power consumption, weather reports, the bar fridge and lazy weekends.
- Power monitoring with load shedding notifications and automatic power consumption scenarios.
Let’s address the elephant in the room first, you might not be able see Eli at the moment, since the power is out and no lights are working, but if you are lucky enough to have an inverter system in your home you are going to love this.
Yup that’s right, with this simple device (depending on what you already have) you could monitor the power consumption from your inverter, and based on a number of factors like weather, load shedding and consumption automagically have your inverter change modes. This will not only make sure you use the maximum of solar and battery saving you money, your Home Assistant will notify you about the load shedding schedules and when load shedding starts in your home of office.
- Welcome home lights
We live in the year 2021 and it’s just not okay to come home to a dark house in the evening.
Get home late? No problem, once you drive into your driveway the outside lights flood the walkway to your front door. Followed by the rest of the house lighting up as you unlock and open the front door. Why stop there? Have a good night button next to your bed that turns off all the lights around the house and set a timer on the TV.
- Control the internet
Kids who stare at a screen that is showing another kid playing Fortnite or a YouTube celebrity that is commenting on other YouTube videos. Yup we all know about this situation and the honest truth if you are still reading this, you have left two or three times to check your Instagram feed for no real reason either. Setting social service blockers so your family don’t become zombies to the scroll is most certainly one of our favourite automations. Make dinner time tech free again!
- Smart Camera Feed
Having a security camera or a few of them is a real good thing, they serve as a deterrent, provide proof that it was actually you who scratched the car in the driveway and gives us a warm fuzzy feeling that we can check in on our homes wherever we are in the world. They can be used for so much more though, what about person detection with a push notification to your phone? Or notify you if the dog got out and humping the next-door neighbour’s poodle. Or if your mother-in-law arrives you can get a notification to make a quick escape out the back. Just kidding this is pure speculation, the point we are trying to make is that using object detection and push notifications the smart camera feed is in our top 5 automations for sure.
- Scenes
Last but certainly not least, scenes can set a mood, change the atmosphere in a room and basically make your life rad. A dinner bell could be voice activated, which then sets the lights in the dining room on, kicks off some smooth jazz on the Sonos speakers, stop the internet for the children and send a notification to all devices its time to come eat. For all the romantics out there, I’m sure you know where we going with this for business time in the bedroom.
And there you have it, our most favourite 5 smart automations for November 2021