What happens to my smart home when the power goes out?

The simple answer? 

The same as what happens when the power goes out and you don’t have a smart home. 

No lights; no WiFi; no electricity until the problem is solved,

Does that mean you’ll be locked out of your home if your access relies on technology? Potentially. But don’t panic.

The key (metaphorically speaking) to navigating a loss of power well in a smart home comes from how thoughtfully your system has been designed. 

A well designed control system will often be layered on top of existing, redundant systems. 

That means that a door lock will still have manual override, and a gate will respond to a key fob, or if the electricity’s out, a physical push/pull for manual movement. So you may be locked out of your smart system, but you won’t be locked out of your home if you’re prepared. 

If you’re in a location that frequently experiences prolonged power cuts (Donegal, for instance), then it’s simply a case of ensuring the key you no longer use every day remains on your keyring, or lives in the glove compartment of the car. 

Instead of remembering to leave a key out for every tradesperson like you used to have to do, you simply need to remember once for in case of an emergency if you’ve upgraded your access control to smart tech. 

The solution

If you are worried about power outages, a more immediate solution is to install a power supply back up on your property. That means there’ll be no interruption to your smart home in the case of a power cut. Your installer should be able to recommend the best option for your particular home. 

Epitome Living’s smart home solutions are designed to work with little intervention from our clients. We design and configure them around your lifestyle and how you want to use your home so that they’re invisible, intuitive, and simple.   

But sometimes technology doesn’t work, your system reboots strangely when the electricity comes back on, or a software change throws things off balance for a minute. 

If you’re noticing the technology in your home - like having to use the app a little more to make setting adjustments, or there being a delay in processing between hitting a switch and a light coming on - it may be a sign that the system needs some maintenance: power outage or no power outage. 

A good installer won’t just install your system and then disappear forever. This worry is where questions like ‘what happens if the company goes bust?’ come from (more on that one another day). 

Instead, an installer worth their salt will be on hand either in-person, or remotely, to iron out any system niggles. See this as part of your annual tech service routine alongside servicing your car or upgrading old technology in your home. 

Aftercare

We’ve recently introduced an aftercare model to our business to give our clients extra peace of mind about their smart systems. For a monthly fee, clients who sign on to an aftercare plan with us now get regular remote system check ups that take place without them even noticing, and they get priority access to our team should they need a call out to site.  

We don’t expect our clients’ tech to break, but as with everything in life, things happen. Having an aftercare plan means that if your software needs to be updated, or a product drops off the WiFi, we’ll have dealt with the problem before you even notice.  

Smart technology should make your life easier, and we want to keep it that way. Our goal, as we always say, is to simplify our clients’ lives. For us, that begins at design and honestly, doesn’t really end. 

Increasingly stormy weather in Ireland does make power cuts a genuine concern for many of us. But don’t let the risk put you off investing in technology that can iron out more frequent annoyances and day-to-day friction around your home. 

If you’re well prepared, the 1% of time that your power is out and your smart system doesn’t work won’t matter when you compare it to the benefits you get from the system 99% of the time. 

Talk to us about starting your project at info@epitomeliving.com - we can explain power outages, aftercare and more from there.