Sensors play an integral role in any smart home ecosystem allowing you to gauge the home environment, detect any danger and take action if required.
Here’s the lowdown on sensors, what they offer and how they work to make the smart home a truly intuitive environment – Sensors for smart homes
What sensors do
Sensors are the key link between the physical environment of a home and smart capability. Positioned around the home, they monitor areas, gauging temperature, lighting and the motion occurring within that space.
In addition to motion, specific sensors like smoke or flood sensors can also alert you to danger such as flooding or fire.
Connected to a smart ecosystem, sensors then allow you to automatically or manually take action to improve the environment of the home or mitigate any threats
So what type of sensors for smart homes are there?
Types of sensors
At Lera Smart Home Solutions, we use Fibaro sensors, with a range of options available that interconnect with the greater Fibaro smart home ecosystem. These include:
Motion sensors
Portable and battery operated, Fibaro motion sensors can be positioned anywhere within the home to perform a host of tasks.
Their main features include motion sensing, light sensing and temperature sensing. This allows homeowners to understand their home environment at any given time.
Connected to the Fibaro smart home hub, app and/or voice control, the sensors can then be used to activate tasks. So, for example, the sensor gauges that people have just entered the lounge room, and it automatically turns on the lights. Or, it senses the temperature in that area of the home has increased, so opens ventilation.
As the motion sensor also takes light readings, it can be used to set specific scenes, like opening blinds, as part of a morning routine when ambient lighting reaches a certain intensity.
What’s more it can assist with areas like night lighting for small children, turning off lamps when a child has gone to sleep.
A further feature of motion sensors is their ability to alert you to potential threats like break-ins. If the sensors detects motion within the home, it can send an alert to your smart phone and automatically captures the data as part of a historical record.
Meanwhile, should the sensor be tampered with, the home owner will also be alerted.
Door/window sensors
Door and window sensors allow for a range of smart activities within the home. Easy to install, they can be positioned at any entrance including garage doors, gates, windows, external doors and the front entryway.
Door and window sensors allow you to ascertain whether a door, window, or gate is open or closed and take action remotely via the app if required.
They can also be used to initiate complex scenes. So, for example the front door sensor can be programmed to set off a lighting and ‘welcome home’ scene as home occupants enter.
They act as a security device alerting you if someone is trying to enter a door or window. Meanwhile, in conjunction with further features, the door and window sensor can shut down air-conditioning if windows are open.
Smoke sensors
The smoke sensor is a smoke detector, fire alarm and temperature gauge all rolled into one. It informs home owners of a potential fire through an alert sent directly to a smart phone or tablet, while also activating an audible alarm.
Integrated with other areas of the Fibaro system, the smoke sensor can perform advanced scenes like shutting down appliances, opening ventilation or activating emergency lighting.
The sensitivity of the sensor can be adjusted to suit the purpose and use of each room, so, for example in bedrooms it light have high sensitivity to smoke, while in the kitchen smoke sensitivity can be decreased.
Flood sensors
Just like motion sensors, flood sensors are portable and battery-operated, allowing them to be positioned anywhere in the home. They alert home owners to water leaks or flooding while also gauging temperature.
Flood sensors can also be set up as part of the ecosystem to shut off the water supply or shut down electrical devices near a potential threat.
Meanwhile, the temperature gauge can work in conjunction with other features like underfloor heating to ensure the home environment is always comfortable.
CO sensors
Similar to the smoke sensor, the CO sensor monitors and alerts home occupants to the invisible threat of carbon monoxide. It can be connected to the wider ecosystem, allowing it to take action and open windows or doors, or can act as a stand-alone CO alarm.
About Lera
Lera Smart Home Solutions is a leading installer of smart home technology in the greater Sydney region. Our team boasts over 20 years’ experience in IT networking, programming and the electrical industry.
We have sourced the most reliable and cost efficient solutions from around the world to provide the very best in smart home solutions, and work with our clients to understand their needs.
You can learn more about transforming your house into a smart home here, or contact us directly for further advice.
