By definition, holidays are the time of year set aside for leisure and relaxation, when you can afford to switch off and enjoy the luxury of living ‘carefree’ – at least for a few days. However, it is difficult to put anxieties and worries completely to one side when you set off on a trip and leave your home unattended.
One of the main advantages of smart homes is the ability to monitor and manage your home remotely: this gives you the feeling of taking a little bit of home with you wherever you go, allowing you to enjoy your holidays with greater peace of mind.
In one of our recent in-depth articles, we told you about the best automations to set up in your smart home this summer. At the end of the article, we also highlighted – as a bonus! – two particularly useful Habits if you’re going on holiday: automatically switching on lights, the TV and the radio to give the impression that the house isn’t empty, and remotely controlling household appliances, both to monitor their operation and to switch them on or off directly from your smartphone.
However, these aren’t the only automations worth setting up when the house is empty and you want to continue managing it from miles away. Here are a few more!
Energy consumption monitoring
Never is it more essential to avoid unnecessary energy wastage than during the holidays. The new ‘Consumption’ feature, recently made available on the Freedompro Home app, now allows you to monitor the energy consumption of your connected devices and accessories, checking energy usage in real time or accessing consumption history for specific periods.
This way, you can easily identify any wastage and immediately switch off the device causing it, even if you’re in Bali.
Setting up a “holiday scenario”
The advantage of Freedompro solutions – or, more specifically, Habits – is that they allow you to set up specific automations based on various scenarios.
Let’s take, for example, one called “Summer Holidays”: this could include switching on the garden irrigation system every other day to continue looking after your beloved plants, or running the air conditioner and air purifier twice a week to maintain an optimal microclimate inside your home.
Power cut monitoring
Imagine you’re on a Caribbean beach, enjoying the best Piña Colada you’ve ever tasted, and you discover on Google News that a storm has hit home so badly that it’s caused a power cut in some parts of the city. The fear that this situation might also cause power cuts to your connected devices is very real!
However, thanks to the remote control offered by your smart home, you can monitor the situation and take swift action, for example by contacting a neighbour or a support service to restore the power and ensure that all your devices are working properly when you return.
Remote management of the video doorphone
As mentioned in this previous article, with the Dry Contact Modules from Freedompro’s Smart Modules range, you can also automate pulse or dry contact devices: one such device is the video doorphone, which can then be managed remotely simply by installing the Module behind the handset.
Imagine, then, being able to answer the door when the postman or a courier arrives whilst you’re at your holiday destination: you can speak directly to them, give instructions on where to leave the parcel and then perhaps ask a neighbour or relative to collect it for you. This feature offers you greater peace of mind whilst travelling, because you know you won’t miss important deliveries even if you’re away from home.
Managing your home remotely whilst on holiday is now a reality thanks to smart home technology. With Freedompro Home devices and the app, you can now monitor security, check energy consumption, control appliances and automate various aspects of your home, all from the palm of your hand.
No matter where you are: your home is always under control, allowing you to enjoy your holidays with complete peace of mind.
