Swimming Pools, Spas and Water Features

 We can help both in making your pool, spa and water features more cost-efficient to operate as well as add that "wow" factor that really thrills your guests.  You've made a significant investment in your outdoor living and recreation space and you want to get the most out of it while not worrying about whether your guests remembered to turn off the spa heater.  While many pool systems support cost-saving features, we've found many were never actually set up to do so when installed or have gotten changed over time and use.  We can help make sure your system is set up for optimal operation.

One thing we've seen in the pool industry is that most manufacturers are still catching up with the idea of vacation rentals.  They provide control pads that many times allow changes to pump settings that really should be left to your pool service contractor.  And the user interface you get is usually pretty basic and difficult to use.  This might be acceptable for the owner of the house who gets used to it over time, but guests can be daunted by complex or confusing pool controls.

Home Automation of Hawai'i can give you a customized control system that simplifies the use of your pool, spa and other water features for your guests and ensures they only have access to the functions you want them to have.  And for many pool controllers, it isn't just one button to turn on the spa jets, heater, lights and other settings.  Your guests don't want to deal with that and every option they have is another possibility of something being set incorrectly.

We can provide you a wall-mounted key pad with a keypad that controls all of the important functions of your pool area and make it all as simple as one press of a button.  Each button can be custom labeled for the function it provides. And our system can have one action or a hundred for each button, all seamless to you and your guests.  

If you want to take things to the next level, we can provide custom UI in whatever theme you like to fit your home's style on a cool touchscreen controller (tablets running Windows, Android or IOS are all possible).  We can also display other information on this screen as a place for your guests to see such as the weather in your area, local events and even to sell merchandise for your home if you choose.

At Home Automation of Hawai'i we are always trying to make homes "wise" with our automation.  That means not just "smart" but smart enough to operate and handle things as you'd like without you, your property manager or your guests having to do anything.

Every pool and spa system is going to be different but we can help solve problems that might just be affecting your pool but not your neighbor because of terrain or other natural reasons.  For example, in Kohala on the Big Island, the winds can be quite strong at times.  If you have an infinity edge pool, water fountains or other features where water is flowing, the wind can drive that flowing water out of your pool and waste it.  You never know when those winds might come up and asking your guests to remember to turn off these features will probably not work out well.

Our automation can easily solve problems like this and best of all, once in place, there is absolutely nothing for you or your guests to do.   In most cases, we can easily install a small, managed weather station on your property.  Given the variable terrain and weather conditions on the islands, you can't be sure even a weather station a mile away (if there is one) will actually reflect what you are seeing at your house.  With your own affordable weather station our automation will know exactly the wind speed, direction and many other things about your particular location.

Using this kind of information, we can set up rules that determine when to turn on/off fountains and other impacted systems whenever the wind speed/direction is enough to cause water to be blown out of your pool area.  When that happens, we simply tell your fountains and pumps affected to turn off until the wind drops off again.  When that happens, we can turn them back on again or take any action you prefer.

Soaking in a hot tub spa under the beautiful Hawaiian stars is a magical experience but as the owner of a vacation rental, you have to make sure you take the proper steps to ensure the safety of your guests.  Most spa controllers allow you to set the maximum temperature of your spa but if that is the pad used by your guests as well, they might be able to change the maximum temperature and unwittingly get you and themselves into trouble.  Once we are tied into your pool system, our automation can ensure that settings like the spa temperature never exceed your preferred maximum, even if the guest has the pool control pad in their hands.  We can override whatever they do so you have an extra layer of confidence that everyone will be safe.

And of course add one of our control pad options mentioned above and you will have not only a safe but very cool way to let your guests enjoy your pool area during their stay.

Running your heater for hours, or leaving the lights or waterfall on overnight can add a lot to your electric bill every month.  Your spa might not have a timer built into it that the guests use to run it for a given amount of time before it shuts off, for example.  You just have to hope they remember to turn it off.  

Our automation can manage all of these sorts of issues automatically for you.  For example, we can turn off the heater one hour after it starts so that it can't be left on.  Just as if we added a mechanical timer to your system, the guests just need to push the "on" button again to get another amount of time with the heater running.  It's up to you how long to let it run between resets.   Wherever there is something that we can turn off or down, there is an opportunity to add automation to save you every penny.

Pentair pool equipment is one of the more popular brands in the islands.  For this reason (and because our owner has this equipment as well), we have already built the software we need to manage their pool, spa and water feature functions.  You can benefit from this existing work today!