Home Automation and Health: Improving Quality of Life
We regularly discuss smart home automation by addressing things such as energy efficiency and personal security. In this post, we will be looking at home automation from a different perspective. As purveyors of home automation and security packages, we are fully aware that some of our customers invest in their systems due to health issues. They install home automation specifically to improve the quality of their lives.
To explain the health and quality of life perspective in detail, let’s consider a hypothetical homeowner called John. John suffers from a condition known as vestibular migraine/imbalance. This condition can take many forms, but John’s case is one in which the nerves behind his ears responsible for maintaining balance do not function normally. His brain is forced to rely entirely on visual information to maintain balance. John finds it extremely difficult to walk under poorly lit conditions, let alone when it’s completely dark.
A home automated system for lights helps John to stay safe at home when the sun sets. Below are a few scenarios demonstrating how home automation aids John’s day to day life
Going to Bed at Night
It doesn’t take much effort for an average person to walk around the house and turn off the lights as he or she makes his/her way to the bedroom to retire for the evening. It’s something most of us do every night without ever thinking about it. John cannot do that. As the house gets darker, it gets harder for him to move about as he gets disorientated.
With a home automated system, John can set specific scenes for various rooms in his house – scenes that can all be controlled with his smartphone. After he watches tv and heads to his bedroom, he can move from the living room to the staircase, walk up the stairs, down the hall and to the bedroom without touching a single light. Only after he has climbed into bed does he need use his smartphone to turn them all off. He can turn the lights back on in the morning if it is still dark outside.
Waking Up in the Middle of the Night
John also has a difficult time if he wakes up in the middle of the night and has to use the bathroom. With a home automation system, he has two options- the first being that reaching out to his smartphone to turn all the lights back on again, and second more convenient option – motion sensitive lighting that illuminates his bedroom and bathroom.
Motion sensitive lighting would allow him to waive an arm in front of the lamp on the nightstand to turn it on. Another motion sensitive light in the bathroom would automatically turn on as he walked through the door.
Coming Home at Night Time
Lastly, John has a difficult time walking from the car to the front door at night, but he can use his smartphone to create a very specific scene for outdoor lighting. He can turn on a floodlight mounted on the garage, illuminate the walkway leading from the drive to the porch, and turn on the porch light and a light just inside the house. All can be done with a smartphone as he is pulling up to his driveway – rather than leaving all those lights on when he’s not there.
John’s condition is shared by many others. People all over the United States and other parts of the globe suffer from it in various forms. In John’s case, darkness is one of his biggest problems. By installing a smart home automation system that includes a number of key lighting devices, someone in the same position as John could drastically improve their quality of life. What could be better than improving a person’s quality of life and helping them to live they way they want to?
