Tag: nashville home automation

4 Trends in Garage Automation and Technology – Nashville, TN

Written by tricountyg on August 28, 2015. Posted in Garage Doors, Nashville Home Automation.

Technology is an amazing thing. It has brought us smart phones, home theaters, and cars that drive themselves. It has also brought us some impressive advances in how we live in our own homes. In the early days of home automation, it was too expensive for most people. But nowadays, home automation is becoming easier to use and more affordable for everyone.

Brentwood Custom Organized Garages

Homeowners can control lights, security systems, HVAC, and other systems all from a smart phone app. Recently, home automation technology has come to garages across the U.S. With this and other technologies, garages have become much more than just a place to store your yard equipment. Your garage is an extension of your home; an extra room you can use and control just like you would any other area of your house. Here are the best new trends this year for that extra room in your home.

Garage Door Security and Automation

Garage automation came as a natural extension of whole home automation. You can control your surround sound system and the lights in your home, so why shouldn’t you be able to control your garage? Now you can. The MyQ Connected Home system by Liftmaster is easy to set up and use. The system lets you monitor and control your garage door and entryway lights from a smart phone or tablet. It’ll send you an alert if you’ve forgotten to close the garage door or if someone opens it while you’re not home.

The Total Control system can be retrofitted to any Nashville Liftmaster garage system manufactured after 1998, and it controls everything from the door to the lights. The system is also compatible with several other garage door manufacturer brands.

Open-Me is another garage security and automation option. Like the MyQ system, Open-Me lets you control and monitor your garage door from your smart phone. However, it has one significant advantage: it uses GPS to sense when you are nearing your home and will open the door automatically. It also uses sonar to detect if your door has been opened when you’re not home and will send you an alert on your phone.

Whisper-Quiet Garage Door Openers

Gone are the days of clattering, creaking door openers. The new Chamberlain garage door opener operates on one of the quietest belts in the industry. It also has a backup battery, so it’ll function even on stormy nights when the power goes out. One of its most impressive features is the garage door timer. Set your garage to open right when you get home from work or to close right after you leave so you never have to worry if you’ve left it open. The Chamberlain garage door opener is compatible with the MyQ Garage system, which lets you monitor your garage door from your smart phone.

For those with a heavy or insulated garage door, the Chamberlain Power Drive has the strength to lift any garage door on the market. With one of the strongest and quietest belts around, the 1/2 horse power motor provides industrial strength with residential size (and volume). This compact model is compatible with the Chamberlain Protector system and comes with two sensors and a garage door remote. It’s an affordable, strong option for homeowners with heavy, solid wood garage doors most other models struggle to lift.

Parking Assistance

Nashville Garage Laser Guided Parking If you’ve ever pulled into your garage and bumped the back wall, you might need a little help from the Maxa Laser-Guided Parking System. It’s available for one and two-car garages and uses a laser beam to mark the parking safety zone in your garage. It’s affordable and easy to install, and it protects you from damaging your bumper or garage wall. This is particularly useful if your garage is on the small side or is filled to the gills with bikes, toys, and equipment. Never worry about knocking over your gear again.

Storage Systems

Do you have a lot of equipment, toys, and sports gear cluttering up your garage? Can’t seem to find the floor or wall space to accommodate your kayak? The MyLifter motorized lifting device stores your gear up and out of the way. It attaches to the ceiling of your garage and lifts up to 100lbs with strong, 25 foot steel cables. Units can be combined to lift heavier objects, but one unit is perfect for bikes, kayaks, or storage boxes. The device itself weighs a light 2lbs, and lifting is controlled by a smart phone. Get your equipment out of the way, and make room so you can actually move around in your garage.

Nashville Garage Lift Storage System

With all the technological advances in home automation this year alone, it’ll be exciting to see what the future continues to bring us. Manufacturers and technology companies are constantly finding ways to make our Middle Tennessee homes safer and more “user-friendly.” Soon our homes will be making intelligent security decisions without us having to even press a button. If you’d like to learn more about these or other garage technology trends or how you can install a new garage door system, contact Tri-County Garage, Inc.

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A Look at Nashville Internet Controlled Garage Doors, Home Automation and Security

Written by tricountyg on September 17, 2014. Posted in Garage Doors, Gutters, Nashville Garage Door Security, Nashville Home Automation. No Comments on A Look at Nashville Internet Controlled Garage Doors, Home Automation and Security

Home automation offers the consumer services and functions available through various systems. What can you include in this list? You can control the lighting in your home through a remote, manipulate an appliance from far away, and monitor fire and carbon monoxide. In addition, it’s possible to use security cameras and live video surveillance to keep an eye on possessions, pets, or children. You may have email and text alerts sent to your smartphone the moment something happens. You can lower the temperature in the home at a moment’s notice. This is very helpful for homeowners who wish to cut back on their heating/cooling bills.

Many refer to home automation as “The Internet of Things.” Why do they do this? What does it mean? Home automation allows us to link our appliances and devices through a network. We get to control every part of our home, providing us with convenience and peace of mind. But home automation isn’t a recent invention. People have utilized home automation for several decades for straightforward appliance and lighting control. Until recently, we didn’t have the ability to do much in terms of connecting everything in a household together. Because of changes in the world of technology, it’s now possible to manipulate your home from anywhere in the world. This is a new reality that people of all ages should keep in mind. Do you want to tell a device what it should do and when it should do it? What about why it should do it? Home automation gives you the key to unlocking such a power. Use your personal preferences to set an automated schedule. This gives you authority and keeps your budget out of harm’s way. If you want to go away on vacation, it’s hard to know if something goes wrong unless you have a house sitter. Your Android or iPhone device may tell you about unwanted visitors, water leaks in the basement, and much more.

Controlling Your Garage Door with Home Automation

When you walk around your property, what items do you interact with the most? One of them is most likely your garage door. While some people are content with a regular, standard garage door opener, you may want something different – something smart. Why not use your phone to dictate the movements of your garage door? No matter where you are in the world, you may open or close the door, lock it, and perform a variety of other commands. Do you leave your home in the evening? A special garage door device may be able to anticipate your departure by noting that you locked the front door and turned off all the lights. It may then open the garage door and let you out without wasting time.

Does such a device exist? Can you really dictate the movements of your garage door with a few swipes on your smartphone’s screen? The MyQ®-enabled Internet Gateway is a good example of what you can find on the market. Manufactured by Liftmaster, you use it as part of your home automation platform. But don’t assume you have to install something large in your garage – on the contrary, a small device is all you need. Simply connect it to your garage door opener. Once you do this, you connect it to a central hub using Ethernet. Download a companion app for your smartphone and you get complete say in how your garage door works. If you so wish, you may tie the actions of your opener to other gadgets operating through your networked system.

When Hackers Threaten Your Home Automation System

Home automation has its advantages. However, you have to take the disadvantages into consideration, too. Your family members could find themselves at the mercy of a hacker. When it comes to “The Internet of Things,” you have to remember that home automation works thanks to the online world. Hackers thrive on the Internet, and you have to know where they strike to keep your household safe. What are a few things hackers can do if they gain access to your home automation system?

Access Your Wi-Fi
- Hackers can get into your system by accessing your Wi-Fi. Many homeowners don’t bother with passwords, so hackers don’t have to work to gain entry. Once they get inside your Internet, they may be able to manipulate any devices running through your “smart” system.

Turn On Lights, Manipulate Temperatures
- Your electricity bills could go through the roof once a hacker gets into your system. They could activate your hot tub, change the thermostat, keep lights on all night, or even turn on your television.

Unlock Doors
- Yes. A professional burglar could potentially hack your network and gain access to your doors.

How to Fight Back

Be smart about automation. There are steps you can take to keep hackers out of your home.

Use a Difficult Password

When you use something like “1234” or the name of your dog, you’re just asking for trouble. A person sitting thousands of miles away could easily hack into your system through a series of lucky guesses. Give yourself a harder password by using a series of numbers, capital letters, and symbols. If you can’t think of one, use a random password generator website on the Internet. If you don’t want to use a website, look around the room and note words and numbers you see. Write the password down and hide the information. Never reveal where you put it unless that someone has your trust.

Demand More from the Companies You Use For Home Automation

Ask For Double Protection

Tell them you want the ability to create a special username and password. Ask them to include security questions that a hacker would never be able to guess. “What was the name of your first pet?” or “What was your first grade teacher’s name?” are good examples. Make sure they know that you want complicated passwords to be a requirement for all customers.

Be Sure Your System Cannot Show In Internet Search Results

Using a few simple phrases on Google, a potential hacker may be able to find your home system in the search results. He may then click on the link and start raising havoc. Make sure the company behind your home automation has taken steps to prevent this from happening. Tell them that even discontinued devices need security. You have the ability to keep “The Internet of Things” inside your own four walls.

Tri-County Garage Doors has experience working with home automation and we will be more than happy to help add your garage door to the list of devices you can control remotely in your home. Give us a call today at (615) 360-3535 for a free estimate. We are your go to professional source for Nashville Internet Controlled Garage Doors and Entry Door Home Automation!