Looking to freshen up your Halloween smart home decorations this year? Make it a little spookier with home automation! You can set the perfect mood for Halloween night with your home automation security system, while also keeping an eye on your trick or treaters. From motion-detected fog machines to timed flickering lights and spooky music, learn how to use your home automation security system to create the best haunted house on your block!
Connect Outdoor Decorations to a Smart Plug
Decorating the front lawn is a great way to celebrate Halloween and go the extra festive mile. Save electricity with your yard decorations by setting all your inflatable spooks up on smart plugs. You can set them to timers like you would Christmas lights. That way you can easily turn them on at night and your inflatables will creepily spring to life as darkness falls. And by the time morning arrives, they can eerily (and automatically) turn off on their own.
Set Up an Automated Fog Machine
You may already utilize smart sockets and motion detectors for automatic lights and home entrances. But have you thought about getting a bit more creative? Have you thought about the effect an automated fog machine can have? Just think, as someone is making their way toward your door, a layer of fog trickles out. This will create the perfect entrance for trick or treaters, and an opportunity to provide some fun scares and really set a creepy mood! Just plug your fog machine into a smart socket and set a rule in your Alarm.com app to command the socket to fire up when a particular motion detector goes off. Or simply control it directly from your app!
Flickering Smart Lights
Speaking of lights, there’s definitely opportunity to use your smart home settings to make your lights as frightening as possible. Create the perfect atmosphere for your Halloween smart home using your home automation system. Since you can already control your smart lights from anywhere through your Alarm.com app, you can manually flicker them to create the perfect strobe effect! Especially if you go the extra mile with any jump scares.
Create a Haunted Television
With a smart TV, you can program the channels to randomly change themselves, making it seem like a ghost is changing the channels. Or you can go the full Poltergeist route and swap directly to static. Bonus points for any onscreen scary movies!
Spooky Music
Use wireless smart speakers to fill any dark corner of your home with spooky sounds and eerie music. Just like your lights and outdoor decorations, you can set up these creepy sound effects on a timer. Use your smart phone to control noises in real-time for the perfect jump scares as trick or treaters arrive.
Halloween Lights
Flickering lights aren’t your only option. Smart lighting settings also allow you to instantly change the color of any room you want. Exchange your bright white lights for orange or dark purple shades at the touch of a button and create that extra spooky atmosphere.
Create Your Own Haunted Doorbell
Looking for even more ways to integrate scary sounds to your new haunted home? Using your two-way voice video doorbell camera, you can add your own sound effect to any horrifying sound or music you can imagine. When someone rings your doorbell or you see visitors approaching, simply put a speaker up to your device or put on your best spooky impression! Think about it – what could be scarier than a bloodcurdling scream when a trick or treater comes to call?
Old School Meets New School with Self-Opening Doors
The classic creaky door that opens on its own can complete any haunted house. Now, with a little old school ingenuity combined with new school technology, you can achieve the same effect. Use clear fishing wire to set up a pulley system to enable opening your door while remaining hidden. Then keep a close eye on your video doorbell camera so you know when visitors are approaching. From there you can pull your door open before trick or treaters even have the chance to knock!
A Halloween Blackout
If strobe lights or interesting shades still aren’t scratching your Halloween scare itches, consider a timed “blackout” event! Control all of your lights in real time, setting the scene with fog and spooky noises. When tick or treaters and other guests get close, power down your lights all at once. This creates a great jump-scare opportunity, especially depending on what’s waiting once the lights power back on … Just be sure to be safe!
For More Security and Home Automation Tips and Solutions, Stick with ACS Security
Safety always comes first. Make sure you test any new installations to make sure they work safely and properly. And most importantly, have fun! Don’t be afraid to get creative with your Halloween smart home.
And if you’re looking for more ways to keep yourself and your family safe, check out our home security and automation services at ACS Security. We offer a wide range of home security options to protect you and your family. If you’re ready to discuss our custom solutions, contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you prepare for what’s next.