Home automation for lazy people

Home automation for lazy people

I’ll admit it, I am a lazy person!

I am perfectly happy in my state of perpetual couch potato in the evenings and during the weekends. At the same time I constantly look for ways to avoid 1. getting up from my couch and 2. doing boring stuff.

Check out some of the products that keep me happy lazy:

Vacuum robots

Many people have heard of Roomba and many are sceptical that it won’t clean as well as a human-operated-vacuum-cleaner.

This is true! Roomba won’t be able to clean very well in the corners of the room or the staircase or your bookshelves. But why spend time cleaning when you can spend time not cleaning?

Roomba comes in wide price ranges from £250 to £900. The basic models you will need to switch on, the advanced models you can program to clean at certain times of the day. It even comes with a smart phone app for reporting!

Whatever you choose though, Roomba will be your best friend, just like he is mine!

 

Mopping robots

Ready to take lazy to the next level? Why not try out mopping robots as well?

Made by the same company that created Roomba, the mopping robot is unfortunately not as automated as I would have liked.

You will need to fill it with water, bring it from room to room, and charge it when the battery runs low. But if you absolutely hate mopping, this robot could be a solution. There are two available models at £250 and £330.

Mowing robots

Hate mowing? Join the club!

Mowing robots aren’t cheap, but they’re definitely handy if you don’t want your garden to look like a jungle.

Robomow comes in various models and can handle different sized lawns – from 20,000 square feet to 360,000 square feet. That means prices vary as well, from £600 for the smallest model to £3,200 for the commercial grade ones.

Another nice thing about the mowing robots is that their blades spin at 400 rpm, mulching grass back into the soil so you don’t have to clean up the grass yourself.

Smart lighting

If you don’t like to get up from the couch to switch the lights on or off, Philips Hue lights are for you!

Plus more: you can control the colour and the light intensity, you can schedule it to turn on or off at a certain time of the day, you can control it via voice command, and you can even set up rules for it to behave just exactly as you want!

The Philips Hue in colour is quite pricey, but the white bulbs are a real bargain considering how smart they are.

Learning thermostat

Don’t fancy getting out of bed in the morning in the midst of winter? Check out Nest!

For the Nest Learning Thermostat to work, you will need to teach it. Fortunately the teaching process is short and simple: all you have to do is use Nest for a week so it can learn your schedule and your preferences. After that it will program itself.

For example, after a few days Nest will know that you often have breakfast at 7 am and you like your room temperature at 19°. It will warm the house as you get out of bed. It will also know when you leave the house and set itself in Eco mode to save energy.

And the bottom line is, you can also adjust the temperature from your phone while you remain on the couch!

Prices starting from £180

Are you a huge home automation fan as well? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Please leave a comment below.

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