Frequently asked questions

It is a home where everyday equipment, heating, shutters, lighting, security, is controlled from a phone or acts on its own according to simple rules you set in advance. In practice: the shutters close by themselves at sunset, the heating drops when you leave, an alert reaches your phone if a door is left open. No technical skill is needed to live with it, only to set it up.

In everyday use the two get mixed up, which keeps the confusion alive. A smart home usually means a few isolated objects, a bulb, a socket, a thermostat, each driven from its own app with no link between them. Home automation goes further: it connects that equipment so it acts together, following scenes designed for your home, without you opening an app every time. The first term is about objects, the second about a system.

It is a house designed for you, not a kit fitted in a hurry. Your equipment, lighting, heating, shutters, security, audio, stops working in isolation: it communicates and acts together. The installation is integrated discreetly, built to last and to disappear into daily life.

Usually two to six weeks, depending on the size of the property and the complexity of the project. The path is always the same: a study at your place, a design made for you, careful installation, then a walkthrough with everyone in the house.

We build on open, local foundations: Home Assistant, Zigbee, Z-Wave and the Matter standard. We also bring in the equipment you already own, Somfy, Philips Hue, Netatmo, Sonos, without making you buy anything twice.

Yes, and it is a good part of what we do. We start with an audit: an inventory of what is installed, the real state of the equipment, a check on access and on any reliance on outside services. You get a written report saying what stays, what goes, and what taking it over would cost. When the audit opens onto a project, it is part of the study; ordered on its own, as a diagnosis or before buying a property, it is quoted separately.

Very much so, and it is one of the situations we know best. You keep an eye on the chalet out of season and control it remotely over an end-to-end encrypted link, without opening a single door onto the internet. The house warns you before damage happens: frost threatening the pipes, a window left open, a power cut.

Cameras, intrusion detection, simulated occupancy, real-time alerts: you hear about what matters, and sometimes beforehand, a door left open, unexpected movement. Everything is processed in the house: no image and no recording leaves for an outside server.

Heating, cooling, lighting and shutters adjust automatically to your habits, the weather and whether anyone is in: no heating an empty room, and the cool held in summer by closing at the right moment. Real savings depend on the property, but the comfort is not in question.

Yes, from your phone or tablet, over an end-to-end encrypted link that opens no door onto the internet. Lighting, temperature, security, media: you keep control, and your recordings stay stored in the house, never in a manufacturer cloud.

Absolutely. Discreet integration is our trade: the technical parts fade away and the controls sit comfortably with your decoration. The best home automation is the kind nobody sees.

Velarys installs and maintains systems in Annecy and within roughly an hour of the lake: Chamonix and its valley, Albertville, Chambéry, Rumilly, and the villages along the shore (Sevrier, Saint-Jorioz, Talloires, Menthon-Saint-Bernard, Veyrier-du-Lac). Whether the project is a main residence in Annecy, a chalet in Chamonix or a second home by the lake, the first survey and the follow-up always happen on site.