Do you want to live like the Jetsons?
Do you remember watching the Jetsons and thinking how incredibly cool it would be to live in a house like that and have a robot maid, Rosie, take care of everything?
Well with the recent technological advances this has become almost a reality.
Have you heard of SMART home or home automation?
If you have not, no worries. I will be explaining SMART home and how it can be brought into a corporate setting to make your life way easier.
First off, let me tell you what automation means. According to Merriam Webster, automation means “automatically controlled operation of an apparatus, process, or system by mechanical or electronic devices that take the place of human labor.” So how can this take place in a house or corporate building?
Think about your daily routine at home or at work.
How many times do you have to turn on lights, adjust the thermostat, answer or unlock your door?
Probably multiple times a day. With automation everything is controlled on your cell phone or tablet making everything literally a finger click away.
Not only can you control your lights and thermostats but you can set a schedule according to time, location or even weather.
Imagine the savings you will receive with less work. Doesn’t that sound grand? Any right minded person would agree.
SMART technology started with the creation of the washer machine in the 1900’s, then in 1975 the first home automation network technology was created called X4, mainly used for electric power transmission wiring used for signaling. In 2014, consumers started using SMART Home technology inside of their houses. Only recently, have corporations started using automation to keep track of multiple locations and make their work lives so much easier. Without having to focus on the little things corporations are able to not only save money, but save time. Allowing employees to focus on what is really important- successfully completing their jobs each day.
Home automation has allowed for consumers to set temperatures to warm up the house right before the alarm clock goes off, and simultaneously start the coffee pot. Anything seems to be possible with automation making life a little bit easier.
Not only can users have SMART Home features where they reside but also at work helping save them from a lot of unnecessary headaches, or a waste of time.
Speaking from personal experience it has made the workplace even better. TechZone Networks fully embraces building automation. Not only are we a reseller/distributor, but we use the products in all of our office buildings.
Building automation has revolutionized traditional security system to include many features like access control, energy management, sensors, cameras and many more features.
Let’s imagine a day in the life, working for a company who has completely automated their processes or even owning that company. You start heading to work at 6:30 AM, at approximately 6:50 AM you are within the range previously set for the thermostat to turn on to a cozy temperature on this cold rainy day and turning on all necessary lights. You park your car, unlock your building and the security alarm starts to count down, you put your security code in and start to make coffee. Your phone sends you an alert that the building has been unlocked including who, which location and what time.
You end up having an off-site meeting and leave the office for the rest of the day. You were the only person at the office, as you came in early to get a head start, therefore when you leave you set the lock and exit the building. When you lock the door or reach a certain location based on your settings the heating and lights turn off.
At 7:45 AM, you receive an alert on your phone that someone just rang the doorbell. You access your phone, view the video of who’s at the door and using the speaker tell them to give you a moment to unlock the door so the package can be placed inside. From your phone, you disarm the building and unlock the door watching him on the security camera. Once the package is inside and he has left, you rearm the building from your phone.
At 8:00 AM, you receive another alert that the building has been unlocked and the system has been disarmed by Andy, another employee. The heating and lights are turned back on for the remainder of the day. Miraculously, the weather changes and the cold rainy day becomes a hot humid day, the smart settings on this thermostat automatically turn the air conditioning on cooling down the whole building.
At 4:30 PM you receive an alert that a window was opened, as there are sensors in the window. You call the office and tell Stephanie to close the window as it will let hot air inside and will ruin the set temperature. Prior to this building being automated, you would have had no clue that a window was open, and it could have been forgotten open allowing for potential intruders, or electricity waste. While you are headed home, you receive another alert that the building has been armed by Vanessa at 5:01 PM.
Without building automation, an employee could have left the building unarmed without knowledge allowing for potential intruders, or the less evil of the two, they could have left the air conditioning on. As that doesn’t sound too bad, imagine the electric bill if it was left on all Friday to Monday when you return back to work. A little mistake like that could cost your company a lot of money.
Now imagine the control you would have and knowledge of what’s going on at multiple locations at the click of a button on your mobile device. You could literally be in the middle of nowhere and still have control of your building.
Building automation is the way of the future brought to you today. It is green, energy efficient, smart and potentially can save you thousands of dollars with its SMART thermostat. The center of this unit is called the “controller”, and the settings can be edited either on your phone or on your tablet. It also delivers you real-time data and access.
All devices, lights, and sensors use Z-wave technology to communicate and transfer this information directly to your phone using the network. It also alerts you if there was a power outage in the area or if someone damages the controller it will still send you an alert of this damage and alert authorities.
There are so many features and options that building automation can bring to your current corporate location, not including ease of mind, and savings. The best part is it can be customized to your current needs and be updated as your company expands.
We really are living in the Jetsons lifestyle with building automation. We literally have our own Rosie, she’s just implanted on the wall.
