4 Electrical Preparation Tips for Home Automation

Rather than a reserve for a select few, home automation is fast becoming common in many homes across the world. This may perhaps be attributed to the increase in awareness of the trend, coupled with the fact that home automation protects and saves energy for your home. Imagine lights that you can fully automate to go on, dim, and go off as you please. Imagine temperature controls around the home that are fully automated to respond to current weather conditions. Imagine windows and blinds that can open and close as directed by the time of day or night. Imagine controlling your audio visual devices from any part of your house, or opening your garage door using voice command. In short, imagine a home that fully understands your needs and responds accordingly. Home automation is fast turning your homes into part of the family.

While the IT geeks may seem to be the gods of this trend, residential electrical installations done by your local electrician play an equally important role in the extent and effectiveness of home automation. The following are four preparation tips offered by residential electricians for anyone desiring to undertake this futuristic style of living.

Neutral wire

The neutral wire is an optional necessity in many light switch wiring systems. Many electricians may not include it in these types of wall switches. If you intend on having your home automated, however, you may find it necessary for your light switches to incorporate this wire. This is because many of the home automation systems feature devices with a three wire system i.e. the hot, neutral and load connection.  You should, therefore, as you residential electrical installations expert about your wall switches and if possible, run a neutral wire through all wall switches to ease future automation requirements. 

Junction boxes

Different automation systems vary in size of switches and keypads. When preparing for automation, have your electrician install deep junction boxes even if you are yet to settle on an automation system. This way, there will be sufficient space for whichever system design switch sizes. Deep junction boxes also make for easier switch installations and avail more workspace to the installers.    

Whole house surge protection

Before getting your home automated, ask a residential electrical installations expert to install a whole house surge protector in your home. This will guard your devices against power surges that may be quite often especially if you are adding a significant number of powerline automation components to your system.

Separate automation and non-automation loads

It may be helpful to have your electrician separate power loads into different phases within your home. Have all loads for automation components in one phase while loads for non-automation components such as laundry and kitchen appliances in another.  Sometimes, that extra electrical noise from a turned on blender, or washer may mess with your automated system lines.