When you’re away from home for a few days, whether it’s for a vacation or a long weekend, your absence can make your house an attractive target for thieves. To avoid this, people usually take measures like asking someone to collect their mail or leaving a few blinds open to make it less obvious that the house is unoccupied. With home automation, you can also program your lights to turn on and off at specific times to create the illusion that someone is home.
Thanks to the capabilities of a smart home, it’s now easy to replicate the routine activities that we do when we’re at home. This can help prevent potential burglars from realizing that you’re away, making your home less vulnerable and improving its overall security.
Turn on lights to simulate activity
When leaving our home for a few days, we can make use of the connected devices to simulate our presence, making it less obvious that the house is empty and deterring potential intruders.
A simple way to achieve this is by programming lighting routines and even automating the Smart TV or radio to add some sound effects. This can increase the security of our home while we’re away.
To effectively simulate activity using programmed lighting, you should identify areas or rooms that are visible from the street or easily accessible. Once you’ve identified these areas, you can automate the lights to turn on periodically. However, it’s important to avoid having a constantly on light as it would be too noticeable and increase your electricity bill. A good trick is to activate lights behind curtains, as it amplifies the lighting and helps simulate presence.
By scheduling a few lights to turn on and off periodically, you can not only create the illusion of someone being at home, but also deter potential burglars or intruders. For instance, having a TV or radio turned on can make it less likely that someone will try to break in. It may seem like a small detail, but it can make a big difference in terms of home security.
How to program smart bulbs
When planning to be away for a few days, it’s important to create scenes that mimic our daily routine at home. For instance, we can program the TV to turn on in the afternoon and two living room lights to turn on at night, and set the shutdown time at 11:00 p.m., which is our normal bedtime. This way, the house appears occupied even when it is not.
With the latest smart lighting systems, we can schedule lights to turn on and off at specific times, making it even easier to create the illusion of someone being home. This feature not only adds to our convenience but also serves as a great deterrent against potential burglars.
When it comes to setting up your smart lighting system, the process may vary depending on the brand of the lights you have. However, most smart lighting systems offer apps that allow you to connect all of the lamps and light fixtures in your home to your smartphone or tablet. In some cases, you may even be able to control them using voice commands through Google Assistant, Google Home, or Amazon Alexa.
To program your smart lights, you can typically navigate to the programming section of the app. From there, you can add different routines and organize your home by rooms or individual bulbs to make it easier to identify each light. You can then select specific on and off times, as well as the days on which you want the programming to be activated. Some apps even offer an Execution Notice feature, which will notify you each time a lamp is turned on.
