how smart has your home gone?

How smart is my home?

Not very at the moment. I have 2 smart plugs for the lamps and boiler controls are wireless. That's about it!

I'll take the plunge one day and start moving more things over.
 
The age old question of Amazon v Nest is now dominating my brain. I am hopefully going to be moving into my first house in the next month or so and I want to start kitting it out. I am leaning towards Nest as I already own several google home minis and got a Nest Hub for christmas just gone.

I want/need the thermostat, at least two cameras and the doorbell so looking at around £700.
 
I've started adding smart lighting, got ten Hue bulbs in various rooms, some are controlled by motion sensors and others just by voice. I've added a smart power socket thing in my office so now I say "Hey Siri, wake up the office" and he switches the power on, turns the light on and starts playing the radio for me. At the end of the day I tell him to turn it all off and he does.

I'm hoping to replace all my windows and doors later on in the year and as part of that, I'll make the door locks smart and I'm hoping that with decent draught proof doors and windows, my heating will actually be effective and I'll be able to start integrating that as well.
 
Has anyone got recommendations for dimmable smart light switches? I've been told Lightwave but they are pricey! There are some Sonoff ones on Amazon that are about £20 but they apparently use about 30W constantly! I've seen some Fibaro and Shelly products but don't know much about them...
 
The Hue GU10 spotlight replacement starts with our new house. A total of 36 (not including bathrooms) to get, and I'm on a daily hunt for decent Hue bulb deals!
 
bloodiedathame said:
Has anyone got recommendations for dimmable smart light switches? I've been told Lightwave but they are pricey! There are some Sonoff ones on Amazon that are about £20 but they apparently use about 30W constantly! I've seen some Fibaro and Shelly products but don't know much about them...
Click to expand...

Unless you absolutely have to have the switches you're better off with bulbs, far more flexible and user installable.

I checked out lightwave for a set of lights I couldn't make smart on a 3 way switch and the wiring was terrifying, it got very vague when taking into account another switch that was on the ring too.
 
matt100 said:
Unless you absolutely have to have the switches you're better off with bulbs, far more flexible and user installable.

I checked out lightwave for a set of lights I couldn't make smart on a 3 way switch and the wiring was terrifying, it got very vague when taking into account another switch that was on the ring too.
Click to expand...

For me that's about 21 bulbs in 3 rooms, I'd rather just swap the switches out. Don't need dimmable really or RBG. And I'd rather spend £60 and wire some switches than £400 on bulbs (not all the fittings are GU10 either).
 
Chances are you'll need a hub as well, I mean the lightwave 3 way switch I bought and sent back was over £100.

Also you don't need to get RGB, there are cheaper white only options. That said, if you don't want dimmable do you need it at all?

I get that 21 bulbs is quite a cost of entry though, if I was doing everything I have now from scratch I dread to imagine how much it would cost... I'm getting dangerously close to exceeding the capacity of my hue hub.
 
Just moved house and looking at smarting up my house.

One thing that I always thought useful was the ability to check if the front door was locked/unlocked remotely, whilst also being able to control it remotely. I then found the August lock and was excited... until I realised it doesn't work for multipoint doors. So my question is does anyone have any smart lock recommendations for multipoint doors? Yale Conexis L1 seems to be the go to, anyone have any experience with this?
 
bloodiedathame said:
For me that's about 21 bulbs in 3 rooms, I'd rather just swap the switches out. Don't need dimmable really or RBG. And I'd rather spend £60 and wire some switches than £400 on bulbs (not all the fittings are GU10 either).
Click to expand...

It's a fair question, if you don't want dimmable, or RGB, are you just after the ability to turn them on/off remotely.

That being said, you could just go for the basic tradfri bulbs at £6/ea (i believe these are the cheapest on the market) and will give you basic dimmable ability. That £6/ea is for a gu10 bulb, other variants may differ in price slightly. But that should mean you could get smart bulbs across all three rooms with a hub for maybe around ~£150.

You do need the hub for lightwave, so if you're looking at 3 switches for 3 rooms plus a hub, you're still looking at a cost of ~£300.
 
So we've been in our new house like a week and I'm thinking about getting in to smart devices. Currently have nothing smart, so starting from scratch.

All I really want is a doorbell, a security camera for the rear of the house, and a decent quality speaker for the kitchen, that all link together in one ecosystem that I can view from my phone etc. We're both on android if that makes a difference in terms of app support or whatever.

It seems like most people recommend the Eufy doorbells, is this the best place to start? I was looking at Google Nest mainly because it looks a bit better than Eufy but is it worth the extra cost? We have a wired doorbell already, so I think I'd rather go for a wired version than have to deal with battery charging/replacing.

Also eventually want to get in to smart heating with a thermostat, but that's a long term consideration.

Any thoughts on the best way to get in to this would be much appreciated, thanks!
 
Does anyone use any smart door locks? I am looking at the August Home devices. I would be interested on any feedback.
 
LiamJ said:
So we've been in our new house like a week and I'm thinking about getting in to smart devices. Currently have nothing smart, so starting from scratch.

All I really want is a doorbell, a security camera for the rear of the house, and a decent quality speaker for the kitchen, that all link together in one ecosystem that I can view from my phone etc. We're both on android if that makes a difference in terms of app support or whatever.

It seems like most people recommend the Eufy doorbells, is this the best place to start? I was looking at Google Nest mainly because it looks a bit better than Eufy but is it worth the extra cost? We have a wired doorbell already, so I think I'd rather go for a wired version than have to deal with battery charging/replacing.

Also eventually want to get in to smart heating with a thermostat, but that's a long term consideration.

Any thoughts on the best way to get in to this would be much appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...
Eufy is the best as it doesn't need the cloud to function AFAIK (please double check, but I remember watching the Linus video about it).
You can grab a Hive thermostat including installation from Amazon for <£160 if you scan HUKD.
I'm in the Alexa world so have decent devices in each room and they all sound good. For the living room I have a Sonos which is also Alexa enabled. Only downside is you can't link Sonos and Alexa in a group.
 
LiamJ said:
So we've been in our new house like a week and I'm thinking about getting in to smart devices. Currently have nothing smart, so starting from scratch.

All I really want is a doorbell, a security camera for the rear of the house, and a decent quality speaker for the kitchen, that all link together in one ecosystem that I can view from my phone etc. We're both on android if that makes a difference in terms of app support or whatever.

It seems like most people recommend the Eufy doorbells, is this the best place to start? I was looking at Google Nest mainly because it looks a bit better than Eufy but is it worth the extra cost? We have a wired doorbell already, so I think I'd rather go for a wired version than have to deal with battery charging/replacing.

Also eventually want to get in to smart heating with a thermostat, but that's a long term consideration.

Any thoughts on the best way to get in to this would be much appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...

Google Hello (doorbell) is typically the sought after doorbell because of the integration with Nest, and the cloud subscription prices are OK if you have some of the additional cameras. You're also paying for the facial recognition software which Eufy doesn't have. Although if you're really into your tech you could try deploying a system with DeepStack and use that for facial recognition on the Eufy stream.

dLockers said:
Eufy is the best as it doesn't need the cloud to function AFAIK (please double check, but I remember watching the Linus video about it).
Click to expand...

A thread i read on Reddit this morning suggests that's not quite correct. Whilst it's true that Eufy doesn't require a subscription to operate (which is what i think you're probably alluding to) it does still require cloud connectivity to operate. I.e. if your internet went down, you wouldn't be able to view the feed.
 
dLockers said:
Eufy is the best as it doesn't need the cloud to function AFAIK (please double check, but I remember watching the Linus video about it).
You can grab a Hive thermostat including installation from Amazon for <£160 if you scan HUKD.
I'm in the Alexa world so have decent devices in each room and they all sound good. For the living room I have a Sonos which is also Alexa enabled. Only downside is you can't link Sonos and Alexa in a group.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this.

Not bothered about cloud vs local recording tbh. Seems like cloud is more secure? Although I guess you have to pay a subscription fee on top. It seems like it would be easiest setup to go with Google Home and Nest stuff, but cheaper to go with Eufy and Alexa stuff?

I am interested in the Sonos stuff actually, thinking about maybe a Beam for the TV then a One for the kitchen or as sub for the TV. What do you mean by you can't link Sonos and Alexa in a group?

Semple said:
Google Hello (doorbell) is typically the sought after doorbell because of the integration with Nest, and the cloud subscription prices are OK if you have some of the additional cameras. You're also paying for the facial recognition software which Eufy doesn't have. Although if you're really into your tech you could try deploying a system with DeepStack and use that for facial recognition on the Eufy stream.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice.

Not sure I'm that in to tech! I'll probably pick up one of the cameras and a doorbell to start.
 
LiamJ said:
Thanks for this.

Not bothered about cloud vs local recording tbh. Seems like cloud is more secure? Although I guess you have to pay a subscription fee on top. It seems like it would be easiest setup to go with Google Home and Nest stuff, but cheaper to go with Eufy and Alexa stuff?

I am interested in the Sonos stuff actually, thinking about maybe a Beam for the TV then a One for the kitchen or as sub for the TV. What do you mean by you can't link Sonos and Alexa in a group?



Thanks for the advice.

Not sure I'm that in to tech! I'll probably pick up one of the cameras and a doorbell to start.
Click to expand...
Double check my comments on Eufy. It may just be that a subscription isn't required (Semple helped correct me).

I have the Beam and it is absolutely brilliant. By grouping I mean, Alexa's allow you to say play 'everywhere' and all speakers sync up. Annoyingly whilst the Beam is Alexa compatible it cannot be grouped for this function. Annoying as I would play downstairs and keep Living and Kitchen in sync.

I think Alexa/Google is down to who you trust the most :D or distrust the least... I use 4x Alexa's linked to Spotify and the only main annoyance is baby monitor cameras out of the box only show for 5mins :rolleyes: I couple the Alexa's with a Hue Bridge for lights and smart switches, and Hive for smart thermostat radiator valves and heating/hot water.
 
dLockers said:
Double check my comments on Eufy. It may just be that a subscription isn't required (Semple helped correct me).

I have the Beam and it is absolutely brilliant. By grouping I mean, Alexa's allow you to say play 'everywhere' and all speakers sync up. Annoyingly whilst the Beam is Alexa compatible it cannot be grouped for this function. Annoying as I would play downstairs and keep Living and Kitchen in sync.

I think Alexa/Google is down to who you trust the most :D or distrust the least... I use 4x Alexa's linked to Spotify and the only main annoyance is baby monitor cameras out of the box only show for 5mins :rolleyes: I couple the Alexa's with a Hue Bridge for lights and smart switches, and Hive for smart thermostat radiator valves and heating/hot water.
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks for the clarification!

Good note on the Beam, not sure how often I'd use it just a speaker but helps to know.

I use YT music over Spotify, and I know in the past I know Alexa devices haven't supported it. Hopefully they do as that would be a decision maker! I'm in no rush for these ultimately so I'll probably wait a bit until one or the other goes on sale.
 
Keep popping and reading this thread on and off for some time, but now we’re moving house I’m looking at putting more smart tech in the new place.

I’ve bought a Eufy 2k doorbell and already have a couple of hue bulbs, which I will be looking to expand and buy more to put through the house along with motion sensors. So will be keeping an eye out for any deals.

Also looking at getting a couple of Echo Shows for use with the door bell and lights, but anyone know of any smart security systems that would work with stuff like Alexa etc as the new place has an old alarm, but gonna look to replace this and add a couple of cameras. So be nice to be able to tie everything in together as much as possible.
 
Just about to buy some Hue kit including a Hue Dimmer Switch. However, I just can't find a simple blanking/converter plate to fit over an existing light switch socket, and allow the V2 dimmer switch to sit there nicely?

I can only find ones for the older V1 variant?

Before I give up and buy the V1 dimmer instead of the V2 variant, has anyone found a simple cover plate allowing the V2 dimmer switch to go in place of of an existing light switch?

ps: Plan to remove the existing dimmer switch there and hard wire the power cable in the back of that socket, and then just mount the new plate over the top of it all for the Hue dimmer switch.



EDIT: It sort of looks like the screw holes on the reverse plate of the V2 switch are 6cm apart, which means it can screw straight onto/over the old light switch box on the wall?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom