How to Smarten up your Home Environment.

Most homes have some form of heating and cooling, and nothing feels better than coming to a home that is warm and dry in the winter and cool in the summer. However most of the time you get home it is either too cold or too hot and you have to turn these devices on to get the home right over the next hour or so.

At Smart Installations we have plenty of products that will turn your home into a wonderfully comfortable place when you want it to be. We can even convert most of the existing air conditioners from static to smart devices, saving you thousands of dollars in replacement costs.

Below we go through the type of controls and heating sources and how they can be combined to bring you the best of both worlds.

Types of controls.

Time Controllers

These ensure that heating or cooling devices turn on and off at certain times, usually when you are absent or present from your home or office. Timers are robust and straightforward to set but have the disadvantage of being quite rigid once set.

Thermostat

Thermostats are the on and off functions of your heating or cooling device by a set desired temperature. These are more effective when used with timers. Most simple electric heaters use these two controls.

Remote

These are controls that can turn heating or cooling remotely, usually via an app through the internet, allowing you to control any device no matter where you are. They typically have the functions of remote on and off, timers, thermostat setting and variable temperature. If you have an older static air conditioner, we have devices we can retrofit to 90% of all models to turn them into smart air conditioners that can do remote control and geofencing.

Geo-fencing

This is where the system can tell from your phone or smartwatch where you are and if you are inside the geofenced area, turn on your air conditioner to enable the home to be at a comfortable temperature. It can also see if you leave a geofenced area and turn off your air conditioning.

Time of Use ELECTRICITY costs

One other way of reducing your energy costs is to move your home power to an energy retailer that has TOU tariffs. This means your power is charged in ½ hour blocks that matches the electricity market. This combined with a Smart Home automated system, you can control the output of your air conditioning or heaters to ensure that you maximise the best value of electricity consumption, thus reducing your power bill.

Home Automation

This is the most technically advanced as the heating and cooling are linked into the Home automation system. It has the same controls as all of the above, but with the added features that it can be scheduled to combine with other functions. Example, when you set your alarm, it will automatically turn off your heating and cooling. You can also link all your heating and cooling devices together, regardless of the type to ensure they are working in the most efficient way.

Types of heating



Air conditioners

This is now the most common heating source for modern homes. With an excellent energy efficiency rate and a high output, they can warm a home better than any other electrical source. The downside of air conditioning is the controls are very simplistic and manual. How many times have you left home and unsure if you have turned off the air conditioning?

By adding in some automation control, you can ensure that you have full control of your environment. Remote control and Geofencing is very useful and allows you to monitor and control your air conditioning right from your phone or smartwatch.

Electric heaters

Electric heaters are still the most common heating option for bedrooms, halls and bathrooms. With today's eco heating ranges they are safe to start remotely and usually come with a time clock so you have some form of control.

These are ideal to remote control via a smart plug or an inline controller connected to an app or into your Control4 network. While time clocks give you some form of control, they are very crude and can cause you to either waste energy by heating when you don’t need it or leave the room cold when you do. Also, Smart systems can be set to times by the day week month, remote activation or even geofenced.

Gas heaters

There is now a range of gas fireplaces that can be controlled by home automation systems. Like air conditioning, you can connect them to remote control and geofencing interfaces which will ensure your home is warm and toasty when you arrive.

Wood fires

While there is no direct control over a wood fire, there is the ability to remotely open and close curtains and windows, allowing you to ensure all the heat is retained in the house. Some places have a combo of aircon and wood fires. With this combo you can interlink them to allow for the aircon to heat the home before you get there then as the wood fire comes on turn off to save electricity.

CENTRALISed systems

While less common in New Zealand, that are becoming more popular. These systems can be controlled just like an air conditioner with the added advantage of being able to control each room with remotely and allow geofencing and TOU tariff control.

Underfloor heating

Again, like air conditioning this can be controlled with thermostat, remote and geofencing. However, the best method is through TOU tariff control. As underfloor heating holds the heat for an extended period, this allows better control of the power consumption when the prices move up and down.

Whatever your home climate control need are, here at Smart Installations we have multiple options to automate your system and improve your personal environment.