Home Automation Tips

How the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of automation in homes, hotels and other contactless solutions.

The COVID-19 Reality

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Social distancing, online meetings and minimal contact have become the new norm and the world has only just about digested this as the new reality. Saying ‘no’ to meeting in person, pulling your hand away when someone extends to shake it as a greeting would’ve seemed extremely impolite seven months ago. The world has gone through some really rough changes and everyone’s life has changes in one way or the other. Break-ins and crimes during these troubling times have been on the rise in parts of the world where the daily wage workers have been hard-hit.

With this change in everyone’s lifestyle, people have become more aware and precautious to not contribute to the pandemic’s spread (we hope you have too!).

The Problem With Frequently Touched Surfaces

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The American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published a guideline detailing how to clean and disinfect your households. An excerpt from the article :

Community members can practice routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces (for example: tables, doorknobs, light switches, handles, desks, toilets, faucets, sinks, and electronics with household cleaners and EPA-registered disinfectant that are appropriate for the surface, following label instructions.

The understanding is that the coronavirus and other viruses/germs can live on surfaces for a few hours or days, but the exact duration is debated and varies based on the environment and surroundings. Still, the general consensus is that keeping surfaces clean is required.

A few of the areas highlighted by the CDC’s guideline – light switches, doorknobs, electronics. We don’t realise it but these are surfaces touched ever so frequently by the members of the household, visitors, domestic help. Another key area are elevators and the plethora of buttons on them that get touched by visitors coming from all over the place – a dangerous and potential source of infections.  

Interaction with these areas that can actually be avoided entirely with home automation and contactless solutions.  

Home automation has varying perceptions in markets around the world. To some markets, it’s still a luxury. To other markets, it’s an essential for the adults to keep an eye on their homes while they are out earning a livelihood. Right now, both markets are noticing the importance of home automation to achieve what was just discussed earlier – social distancing, minimal contact and maintaining security.

When someone’s at the door, you need to physically go and open the mechanically operated lock. When someone rings the bell, they’re touching the surface of the switch – they have no choice. When you’re away, you need to keep an eye on your home owing to the rise in crimes.

Where Home Automation Solutions Help

Lighting Controls  

Turning lights on and off is a daily and routine task that can be automated or at the bare minimum made contactless. With the help of Toyama’s Smart Lighting Controls, you can control your home in a myriad of ways.

• IR Remote : We have also kept in mind that there are people such as the elderly that prefer to stay away from technology. This is for them to have their own personal remote to add convenience as well as keep them from touching lighting controls.
• iOS, Android, Desktop, Web and Linux Apps : A convenient app on your own personal device such as a mobile phone or laptop that allows you to control the whole house. And everyone in the house gets the app too, on their own personal devices. This allows them to be able to perform routine tasks manually or via an automated schedule, and not have to touch the switches. Only you touch your phone, but keep it clean!
• Voice : An ultimate touch-less experience. Every action or trigger that you can do with the app, you an do with your voice. It really ensures a contactless experience while allowing you to go about your day.
• Touch : Don’t. Our beautiful glass touch switches have this option as a fail-safe but this can be the last resort.

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Scheduling and automation

Routine tasks such as turning on certain lights ten minutes before sunset, turning on the garden sprinklers at a certain time of the day, closing the curtains at the night and many more tasks left to your imagination can be automated completely. This not only provides a degree of extremely satisfying convenience, but also keeps your hands free from touching the many surfaces that require manual operation that can otherwise be automated easily. Do all this and more with Scene Controllers.

Door Lock Controls

Tend to your guests by installing a Video Door Phone, and smart door locks to let authorised visitors in. This ensures social distancing while they sanitise their hands. You can even choose not to open the door and interact with a person through the video door phone whom you have no information about, as this is the safe thing to do. You are unsure who they are, where they’ve been, what their social distancing habits and hygiene practices are – but they might be a visitor you need to let in. Use the video door phone to solve these troubles while maintaining a distance.

Gates & Garage Doors

While driving into your home, you may need to open your gate or garage door – which naturally lies outside your house. Gates in particular are frequently touched by delivery personnel, visitors, domestic help, etc. Add smart gate openers to be able to open/close with a voice command or an app command. This allows you to stay put in your car while also keeping your hands free from touching potentially contaminated surfaces.

Multiple Remotes In App

A single TV remote is used by multiple members of the household. Most households have multiple remotes, for the TV, air conditioning, entertainment systems, etc. All those IR remotes can go into your app using IR blaster and everyone has their own WizHom app on their mobile devices to control the systems in the house with, thus decreasing contact where possible.

Motion Sensors & Door Contact Sensors

Motion sensors can be installed and armed to detect unwanted and undesired movement. You would want to keep your house safe and secure by arming these sensors automatically by scheduling them. This would give anyone complete peace of mind while asleep at night, or away from home knowing that even the slightest of unwanted movement triggers an immediate alert. Door contact sensors can be used for a lot of different purposes including energy saving purposes, but a door contact sensor also allows you to check if all the main doors of the house are closed before leaving the house or going to bed.

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Where Contactless Solutions Help

There are contactless solutions that can be (and have increasingly been) implemented to prevent contamination of surfaces. One of the most common surfaces that are interacted with by all sorts of people round the clock are elevators and elevator buttons. They’re crucial to get from one floor to the other if the building is large or for physically challenged individuals. And it’s just convenient to not take the stairs. The workarounds people have been coming up with are using toothpicks and other disposables, using the buttons as it is (yikes!) or just not using the elevator at all.

Contactless Elevators

Here at Toyama, we’ve come up with a Contactless Elevator Solution, ELSafe that come in two variants to fit into almost any existing elevator (both serial and parallel operated elevators). The gist of it is this, a person wanting to use the elevator merely scans a QR code and presses a button on their phone. That’s it. A simple and effective solution to completely avoid touching one of the most frequently touched surfaces in a building.

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Where Hotel Solutions Help

Hotels have taken a catastrophic hit in bookings but they are primed to come back as business travel is picking up and people are aching to get out of their homes and go on vacations. Hotels are visited by people from all corners of the world who travel through airports and aircrafts with other passengers from around the world. Hotels are practicing stringent disinfecting routines to regain business.

A key component to minimise contact for hotels is contactless entry into the room and contactless control of all the lighting and heating in the room. Hotel Automation solutions allow for such control of room devices with voice control.

Toyama Controls has had the pleasure of working with some of the biggest hotel groups in the world such as St. Regis, Taj Group Of Hotels, Conrad, Hyatt, and more. We provide our own factory-customised solutions for all kinds of hotels to cater to their guests.
With strong focus on energy saving and guest comfort, we keep the guest in mind and don’t want to leave the guest to figure anything out. While also saving the hotel a considerable amount in monthly electricity bills. Our more recent focus has been to provide a complete contactless experience for guests for their own safety and safety of the next guest.
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Our solutions are simple, effective and intuitive. They’ve always been safe but now, that’s more important than ever. At Toyama, we’re focused on constantly evolving, adapting and serving the customer. Our obsession for perfection and customer satisfaction has led us to build new products for the home, hotel and commercial sectors to cater to the need of the hour. We’ve always contributed to the convenience and happiness of customers’ lives. But now, we’re humbled to also be contributing to their safety.

Stay safe.

Smart home devices can effectively save energy and help reverse our carbon footprint. Smart home solutions enable us to remotely operate our home appliances or office infrastructure

Climate change is real and has been the reason for soaring temperatures and rising sea levels. Unless we make necessary changes to our lifestyle, global warming will continue to cause damage to the Earth. Here are some ways in which smart technology can help us reduce our carbon footprint:   

Smart Homes Save Energy: 

With smart technology, we can make an effort to reduce our carbon footprint and reverse the damage caused to the planet. 

Smart home devices can effectively save energy and help reverse our carbon footprint. Smart home solutions enable us to remotely operate our home appliances or office infrastructure and time their use according to our needs. We can turn off devices remotely when not in use. We now have access to a wide range of smart home automation solutions that can save energy and positively impact Earth.               

Smart Paper Free Environment: 

Switching to a paper-free environment by making use of smart devices can help us reduce our carbon footprint. Some industries still follow traditional documentation using tons of paper, which is cumbersome, time-consuming and affects the environment by increasing the carbon footprint. 

By switching to smart devices, documentation and tracking become hassle-free.  Switching to a paperless system helps us reduce the carbon footprint, further reversing the damage caused to Earth.  

Smart Meters: 

Smart meters do more than provide electricity bills. They analyze the power consumption on a daily basis using smart technology powered by artificial intelligence. Smart meters help save energy by identifying devices that are having higher energy consumption. 

Smart meters help us reduce power consumption by taking the necessary steps.

Smart Plugs:  

Power-hungry devices like the geyser, and air conditioning increase our power consumption. Smart plugs turn off these devices when not in use. We can use smart plugs on devices like the TV, Computers or other home appliances which consume electricity while plugged in but not in use. This way, we can use energy efficiently while reducing our carbon footprint. 

Smart Lighting:

Lighting is one of the areas which consume a significant amount of energy. Be it homes or offices, we can use energy-efficient lighting solutions. Smart lighting solutions help us control lighting remotely and schedule it based on our needs while saving energy. We can also control the intensity of light depending on our the time of day or if other people in the space want different light settings. 

It’s high time we switch to Smart technology, which is constantly evolving while helping us reduce the carbon footprint. 

A quick overview on DIY Home Automation vs Professionally Installed Home Automation to help you decide.

As home automation continues to get increasingly popular, you may be wondering if it’s finally time to get on board. To achieve this transformation of your home into a smart home, you could certainly do it yourself, or avail the services of a professional end-to-end service provider. There are obvious merits to both approaches, to be explored in the rest of this post. 

There’s also the question of what exactly does _home automation_ mean to a customer. It’s thrown around pretty loosely, kind of like _the cloud_ was thrown around in the late 2000s. 

Home automation to one customer could simply be the ability to control their lighting through an app. To another – more informed customer – it could be setting up intricate rules and automations that combines lighting, heating, security, comfort.

Depending on your intent, you’ll want to make an informed decision between a DIY approach vs a professionally installed approach.  Here’s a simple guide for anyone looking to automate their homes, to help you decide what is the right fit for you. 

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DIY

What are DIY Solutions

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It’s fun and exciting to buy, mix and match devices as per your requirement. There has never been a   more wider selection of smart home devices to tinker around with and integrate to your home on your own. DIY solutions are almost always start with an end-device such as an RGBW Bulb from Philips or WiFi-based plugs to be able to control/schedule your appliances that are connected to a socket. These devices are usually controlled with an app provided by the manufacturer of the device, or optionally through an Amazon Alexa device or even a Google Home. But they come with certain obvious limitations. 

Before you begin going down this route, ask yourself. Are you technically capable of managing the electrical wiring and the networking, or are you just planning on figuring it out?   
Advantages

• Cheap : The main advantage of DIY solutions is that it’s cheap and affordable. Over the years, there have been reductions in costs, thus lowering the barrier to entry. 
• You only pay for what you need : You just want to schedule that one appliance or a couple of lights to turn off every night or turn on along with your morning alarm? Just buy the plugs and bulbs to match your requirement – nothing more, nothing less. This allows your cost to be completely under control and keeps your setup modular.
• Quick: Installation usually takes anywhere between 10 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on whether there is any additional wiring or networking to be done. A professional installation can take an entire day or maybe even two depending on the complexity of the networking and wiring. 
• Can be extremely powerful if you know what you’re doing : Enthusiasts who like to tinker around with DIY devices or build their own devices can write scripts to talk to and manage an army of IoT devices to do highly customised things. One can basically do whatever they want provided they know what they’re doing, and know how to read technical documentation of other open platforms. Powerful automations with local or cloud self-hosted systems and servers can be fun to setup for enthusiasts. 

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Disadvantages 

• You have to actually do it yourself : What the device promises is almost always true and it’s exactly what you expect! But you actually have to set it up yourself, and properly, to fully take advantage of your brand new smart device. 
• Getting everyone used to it : More often than not, in case of devices such as smart bulbs, you’d replace your existing ‘dumb’ bulb with a smart bulb. You have the complete convenience of operating it through your phone or through a smart assistant. But getting everyone to do this, instead of manually turning off the switch, is a challenge. And when they do manually turn it off, you can’t control the device through your app/voice anymore until the switch is physically turned on. Manufacturers have found ways around this but that involves a compatible smart switch to replace your existing switch. Things get complicated real fast and you’ll have to order more compatible devices. 
• Multiple apps : An app to setup / manage the bulb, another one for your smart plug, and yet another one for those thermostats. It quickly becomes a mess hopping from one app to another to do things. Of course, the basic elementary functionalities of all these devices can be accessed through the Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant app, provided it is compatible, but there’s always a tradeoff like the colours you can pick on your bulb, or the other useful features the manufacturer has provided. At this point, it’s no longer fun and the learning curve for the people who aren’t as enthusiastic as you will be a lot higher and they’d just rather not have a smart home at that point. 
• Non-guaranteed support : When the device is cheap, expecting first-class priority support for it is unrealistic. More often that not, you’ll have to check the device’s FAQs or forums to seek help from other users. A lot of the time, the support may even be non-existent as these devices are frequently a white-label Chinese product i.e., a Chinese manufacturer that provides their product to a company with the company’s logo.
• No advanced capabilities : On their own, these smart devices have a limited set of functions that they can perform. To truly take advantage of them, they almost always need a hub to orchestrate multiple devices and their actions. These advanced actions include lights flashing in your garage when someone rings the doorbell, adjust the lighting in the room based on the natural light available and tying that with your smart shades, and many such interesting implementations. DIY hubs are available in the market, but selecting compatible devices  (and the right protocol like Zigbee, WiFi, considering the ranges, etc) can get confusing real quick. Having said that, only someone such as an enthusiast can build extremely powerful automations using open APIs and commands and custom scripts – not for your average consumer.
• Non guaranteed privacy : When devices are cheap, you’re usually providing the manufacturer or company with valuable personal data. This data can be used to assess your habits, your routines, and can be used to understand a lot about individuals’ behaviour at home. This data can be sold to third-parties. More information regarding how cheap products cost users their privacy can be found in this article
• Questionable durability and aesthetics : When DIY home automation devices are priced the way they are, a key tradeoff is the durability and longevity of the device. To cut costs, the material used usually won’t survive the test of time. The aesthetics of such devices are usually not customisable as they are mass produced. The aesthetics of these devices are also dependent on how well you install them and where you place certain devices, or your beautiful space can quickly become a mess of wires and devices!

Options

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A typical DIY system would look like – a few smart bulbs, a few smart plugs, a smart door lock, cameras and maybe even a thermostat. All of this controlled and orchestrated by a smart assistant like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, but provided everything is compatible with either of them or you’d be shuffling between the manufacturer’s apps. Just make sure the devices that you are purchasing are compatible with the assistant of your choice. Smart bulbs from Philips Huedon’t need any introduction – quick and easy to install and sets the mood in your space in no time with wonderful colours and tuneable whites. Smart plugs from TP-Link can be handy when you want to quickly be able to wirelessly control any appliance that requires to be plugged into a wall socket.
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Professionally Installed Home Automation

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What

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A professionally installed system allows you to experience the best of home automation, tailored to your imagination – and certainly even expand it. You can just ring up a professional installer or manufacturer such as Toyama Controls & Systems or Control4 and you’ll have a professional come over to do everything for you. The possibilities are endless and the entire system is guaranteed by the installer. If there’s anything that you wish to add or service or clarify, there’s a single point of contact for all your queries instead of browsing through forums and YouTube comments to expand or service your DIY setup. The drawback? It’s not exactly cheap. But the underlying reason and advantages are obvious.

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Advantages 

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• Everything is done for you, professionally : A professionally installed home automation system involves a professional coming over to your house, to understand and assess the exact requirement you have. They will try to understand what you have in mind, and maybe even improve on your suggestions and make your idea come to life. Just sit back and relax.
• Guaranteed support : There’s a single point of contact – either the company itself or the partner company that set everything up. There’s no need to hunt down comments on e-commerce sites, different forums or videos.
• A single app to control everything : Everything installed by the professionals is almost always done through and controlled with a single app. That means, you don’t have to go from this app to control the thermostats to that app to control the lighting and then another app to set the mood with scenes. All this happens in a single app. The other advantage is more compatibility between the different devices and services since they’re all managed on a single interface. This allows for some very interesting and creative automations and routines to make your day-to- day life easier.
• Customisability : A manufacturer that does everything in-house such as Toyama Controls has the flexibility to customise the products based on customer requirement. Customisations such as the colour of the glass panels, the text and icons on them allow personalisation and fit into the home to not look out of place, and yet stand out.
• Expandable ecosystem : Despite doing everything from a single app, with a lot of professionally installed systems, you will have the option to add compatible devices from other manufacturers, as in the case of Toyama. Zigbee is a home automation standard protocol and devices that are Zigbee certified are compatible with Toyama’s ecosystem and controllable through the Toyama app or automations. There are other protocols such as Z-Wave, Thread, Bluetooth Low Energy, and WiFi which allow manufactures to provide compatibility with other manufacturers’ devices.
• Support & updates : You can be rest-assured that professional solution providers will guarantee updates to enhance the longevity of your investment. Almost all solution providers push out software updates, but a good solution provider / manufacturer also includes over-the-air firmware updates to fix bugs on the end devices, and even add new features and support. At Toyama, we take updates very seriously from stability, feature and security standpoints.

Disadvantages

• Time : Setting up a home automation system on your own is quick, but professional solutions can take days from coming over and surveying your home, to placing the order, receiving the material and finally even the setup. Depending on the complexity of the setup process, the features requested by the end-users and the size of the space being automated, setting up the system can take an entire day or even more.
• Price : Certainly not in the ball-park of DIY Home Automation prices, professionally solutions are expensive because they’re essentially tailor-made for the house it’s being installed in. The costing is owed to surveying, planning, installation, the high quality materials used in the products, the complete support that’s a call or email away and the privacy and security offered. None of the aforementioned points are applicable to DIY solutions and that’s why DIY is so cheap and professional solutions are so expensive. Having said that, at Toyama we want our home automation to be available to everyone. We have solutions suited for a single room all the way to palaces – we have something for everyone.
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Options

• Toyama Controls & Systems – We provide professionally installed home automation solutions. Lighting, curtain controls, temperature controls, scheduling, RGBW lighting, compatibility with other Zigbee devices such as locks, sensors, etc. And truly automate your home by setting rules such like ‘if the temperature drops below 20 degrees, turn off the fan and close the curtains’.
  We manufacture all our devices, build our systems, write our apps and software completely in-house. This enables us to have complete control over the whole experience, and allows for customisations to suit the aesthetic of your house.
• Control4 – If your home calls for complete integration with a home theatre or if media control is high on your priority list, Control4 is a great option to consider as they provide compatibility with over 13,000 devices. Toyama’s devices are fully compatible with Control4 devices so you get the best of both worlds if you’re looking to go all out. Multi-room audio, complete security involving smart door locks, security cameras, settings he mood with RGBW lighting, complete home theatre control, AI assisted automation, lighting controls, scenario controls, and so much more.
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Verdict

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There is no right or wrong option here – it just depends on who you are as a person, what home automation means to you, and how you expect it to add value to your lifestyle. Do you want to set it up once and forget about it? Do you like to tinker around with your system and have it do new things? Do you wish to change things up every now and then? Do you want to maintain/troubleshoot and setup your devices on your own? These are questions you have to ask yourself.
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Here at Toyama, we strive to make our products competitively priced without compromising on quality and end-user experience. Our offering, although falling completely under a professionally installed solution, has a lot of the advantages of a DIY solution. You can customise your requirement and only pay for what you need, and the initial installation can be done with any electrician and only networking done through a Toyama- Certified Professional, thus reducing the time of setup to about 15 minutes per room.
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We provide home automation in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, tier-2 and tier-3 cities. We also have home automation partners in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and more. If this is something you’re on the lookout for but have no idea which category to decide, reach out to us and we’ll help you decide and make your home smart and make the smartness last.

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You don’t have time to do everything yourself anymore. That’s why smart devices like Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod are so popular. They’re designed to help you automate tasks in your house.

Automation is becoming increasingly important for people who need to spend less time on routine household chores. These devices can help you manage your schedule, keep track of your finances, and even control lights and appliances.

Control lights and appliances using voice commands.

You can control your lights and appliances with just your voice. There are tons of apps and devices that will help you get started, but we’re going to focus on one in particular: Alexa.

Alexa is a smart assistant that can help you enjoy all the perks of home automation without having to lift a finger or get off your sofa. With an Alexa-enabled device, you can ask her to turn on the lights in your living room, or set a timer for 15 minutes so that you can take a break from cooking. You can even ask her to play music—or stop it—or turn up the volume on your TV when there’s nothing else on TV at the moment (just remember: don’t try this with Netflix).

The best part about using this kind of technology? It works across any device (computer, phone, watch) that has internet access—and it’s incredibly easy to set up!

Create custom routines with Alexa’s routines, Google’s Actions, or Siri’s Automation 

 If you have a busy lifestyle, it can be hard to keep track of all the little things that need doing in your home.

You might not have time to remember when to turn off the lights when you leave the room, or how often to change your air filter. Or maybe you would like to set up a routine that reminds you when it’s time to check on your plants and water them.

That’s where these three services come in!

Alexa’s routines are activated by voice command, so all you have to do is ask Alexa to activate a new routine. You can also create routines that include more complex instructions like turning off lights, turning on fans, or turning off sprinklers.

Google’s Actions are similar: they are triggered by voice commands and can also be used for more complex tasks such as turning off lights and turning on sprinklers. You can also use them with smart devices such as thermostats and smart plugs.

Siri’s Automation is also similar in many ways: they are triggered by voice commands and can also be used for more complex tasks such as turning off lights and

Have your lights scheduled to turn on before sunset or off at night

We all have a routine in our homes where we turn on certain lights and draw certain curtains as the sun begins to set. Why not use Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri to handle that for you? 

Set the mood with RGB Lighting

 Your body responds to different colour temperatures at different times of the day. For example, during the day, your body prefers white light to mimic the sunny start of the day. The evenings ask for a warmer tone in tune with a sunset. Smart lights and RGB Lighting controls can automate and do this for you by changing the temperature of the house throughout the day to be optimal for your circadian rhythm.

The perfect balance between daylight and artificial light is crucial to your health and wellbeing. This can be achieved with an RGB lighting system that changes colour temperature throughout the day depending on what time of day it is. A smart lighting system will allow you to choose whether you want consistent or varied light throughout your home so that you are able to sleep better at night and concentrate better during the day.