Smart Home Journal: A Year Later
It has been a little over a year since we moved into our new place. And about the same length of time since my first smart addition to the home.
I try to post an update here each time I do something meaningful, or when I feel like my attitude towards things have changed. This is a mix of the two really.
What changed since last time (Nest Cam Outdoor) was, I went ahead and paired my Ikea Trafrid lights with my Hue bridge and added the keypad for the August Smart Lock.
On the smart light front... Ikea is still well behind Philips. I wasn't sure if it was the bulbs or something else. It definitely seems to be everything else. The bulbs work better with the Hue bridge than they ever did with the Ikea Gateway, and they work better with the bridge even than they do the Ikea remotes.
So, the problem definitely seems to be Ikea firmware or the hardware in the remotes and gateway. And thus, there is a chance Ikea could close the gap.
For my part, I'm happy to remove the Ikea Gateway. One less device creating interference. It also means one less app I need.
The Hue stuff works instantly, and the Ikea lights work instantly when paired with the Hue Bridge. The integration with Google works 100% of the time. And I can control the lights remotely. There are only two sets of lights not on the Hue Bridge. And I will likely not bother moving one of them ever. And the other, likely not until our guest moves out because it is in his room. The one I won't move is linked to a motion sensor in the front hallway. I've never had a need to bother with that one from the apps or voice commands. The motion sensor is simply perfect for that area of the house.
I may, over time, replace the Ikea switches with Hue ones. Or not. I don't really know. The nit-picky stuff about the Ikea devices hasn't really been a deal breaker yet. But, I definitely can recommend the Ikea lights with the Hue bridge if you're comfortable doing the sync. It requires a 3rd party app to force the Hue Bridge into "Touchlink mode", so it isn't automatic. And, if your Ikea bulbs are old, they may need a firmware update first, which requires an Ikea Gateway to do. So, mileage may vary.
On the whole, I'm much happier now that I can use the more affordable Ikea lights with the more feature rich Hue app and eco system. My general consensus on Smart Lights remains the same but for one slight modification. In the past, I would have recommended a single eco-system to keep management in one place. But, with Ikea lights able to sync to Hue, that means that there may be cases where you can, in some limited fashion, mix products without hurting that balance.
Smart Lights are still great when you're on extended vacations. You can set schedules, or with some, like Hue, even control them remotely. They can also make solving certainly technical problems a non-issue. It provided up with a dimmer for the upstairs light without the need to for installing a dimmer switch. It also allowed us to add light switches to rooms with no built-in lighting without any rewiring. And, it was an easy way to add a motion sensor. And, to top it all off, it is easy to move any of those lights or remotes because none are actually wired in. And, this is actually something that we did in some cases. We weren't sure if we wanted certain things in certain places. Having wireless remotes allowed us to experiment until we found what we wanted.
Smart Locks are the next area. I bought the August Smart Lock a while back and the bridge. The idea was, if we were out and forgot to lock the door, or needed to let someone in, that would could do so remotely. We add in the Auto-Lock and Auto-Unlock features. The Auto-Lock is great. Auto-Unlock is not quite there, unfortunately. I'm not sure where the problem is. We may have a faulty bridge or something. But, also, my wife's Bluetooth is incredibly slow to connect. To the point where she doesn't even use that door any more. She parks the car in the garage, comes around, and goes in the front door. Then comes in the house, closes the garage and re-locks the August lock in the garage.
Also, the dumb lock with the keypad drew a lot more positive attention somehow.
So, in the end, I bought the keypad for the August lock. Which tells me one thing. If I ever replace the lock on the front door, it will be with a smart lock which has a built in keypad like the Yale x Nest Assure.
A keypad, it turns out, is just a better and idiot proof way to ensure you can always unlock your door when you need to.
Honestly, if I were to go back in time. I would have bought JUST the smart lock and the key pad. The Auto-Lock feature means I've never actually had to worry about locking the door remotely. The bridge is just flaky and temperamental. But, the benefits over all, are there. I don't consider the Smart Lock a waste of money. But, I do think it is a harder one to know what will work best for you. So, it is probably one of the easiest Smart products to hate if you get the right one. Where August beats the others is the extensibility. The lock didn't have a built-in keypad. But I CAN buy one. It doesn't have built-in internet access. But I CAN buy a Hub to add it. You DO run the risk of buying all of these pieces and then, like me, smacking yourself for not waiting for/buying the product which was cheaper and better with all of that included (the Assure lock wasn't out at the time I bought).
Smart Cameras I haven't changed on. They still have a ways to go in terms of service offerings. And the "smarts" have a ways to go as well. If I try and use it for security I get WAY too many false positives. And, the subscription didn't even solve that problem. They are cool. And useful. But, mostly for when you're wanting to actively look at them. A Smart Doorbell might be a bit better if you can restrict the alert area. But, I live in a subdivision. So, any exterior facing camera gets far too much motion, and far too many people. We use ours so we can see the front of our house. We can watch the kids if we need to go inside while they play in the front. We can see when deliveries or friends arrive. And it is useful for those things.
Smart Thermostats. Opinion unchanged. They are great. And you should have one. Most technology makes things more complicated. Thermostats are the exception to the rule. Traditional thermostats are confusing, buggy pieces of information-less crap. I have zero doubts... my energy usage is both lower and smarter than it was before I added the Nest to the house. I know how much energy I use and at what times. The interface is easy to use, so I check it regularly on the phone. And I adapt my schedule based on usage and general weather patterns. I probably tweak the schedule once a month or so. The physical device itself, I have set to show the current weather. Which is useful to me. So, I'm actually noticing and interacting with the device far more than my previous thermostats. And there are other things it can display.
On top of those things, my thermostat will remind me to change the filter in the furnace. It can run the fan hourly to keep the temperature more consistent in the house which saves on usage of the AC and furnace. And it has other useful energy saving tricks.
When you consider that the prime selling feature of the Nest is one I can't actually use; the part that learns and adapts to your schedule. It should be even more impressive that I still recommend it so highly. I can't use that, because I work from home. There is no schedule to learn. There is pretty much someone home 100% of the time.
Smart Speakers. How much do you like music? I like the whole house audio. I do use it for automation. But honestly, that is crazy rare. My suggestion is simple. If you buy one, put it in the kitchen. Beyond music, the second to top usage would be things like ask about the time, weather and cooking conversions. It can give alarms, but then, I have a dozen other devices which do those things, and with better interfaces. My phone is my alarm. It is loud enough. It is much easier to set complex schedules, temporarily disable alarms, etc...
If you find you're doing a lot of home automation or other things in the kitchen with the device which you would like to do elsewhere, then, by all means, grab one more. And don't buy any more until you're sure you'll make good use of them. They are cool. But, I have 4 of them. And I probably only needed 2. One for the kitchen, and one we put in our 4 year old daughter's bedroom so we can let her listen to stories on Spotify which allows us to remotely control the volume and stop it when we want without having to go into her room.
We'll use the multi-room audio on 2 of the speakers during the holidays, but we could live without that and, 2 speakers is still enough to give a little ambient noise on the whole main floor. So, if we just had the 2, we could take the one out of our daughter's room for those rare special occasions.
And, that is where I stand on the devices I have right now. If I were to rank them it would have to be like this:
I try to post an update here each time I do something meaningful, or when I feel like my attitude towards things have changed. This is a mix of the two really.
What changed since last time (Nest Cam Outdoor) was, I went ahead and paired my Ikea Trafrid lights with my Hue bridge and added the keypad for the August Smart Lock.
On the smart light front... Ikea is still well behind Philips. I wasn't sure if it was the bulbs or something else. It definitely seems to be everything else. The bulbs work better with the Hue bridge than they ever did with the Ikea Gateway, and they work better with the bridge even than they do the Ikea remotes.
So, the problem definitely seems to be Ikea firmware or the hardware in the remotes and gateway. And thus, there is a chance Ikea could close the gap.
For my part, I'm happy to remove the Ikea Gateway. One less device creating interference. It also means one less app I need.
The Hue stuff works instantly, and the Ikea lights work instantly when paired with the Hue Bridge. The integration with Google works 100% of the time. And I can control the lights remotely. There are only two sets of lights not on the Hue Bridge. And I will likely not bother moving one of them ever. And the other, likely not until our guest moves out because it is in his room. The one I won't move is linked to a motion sensor in the front hallway. I've never had a need to bother with that one from the apps or voice commands. The motion sensor is simply perfect for that area of the house.
I may, over time, replace the Ikea switches with Hue ones. Or not. I don't really know. The nit-picky stuff about the Ikea devices hasn't really been a deal breaker yet. But, I definitely can recommend the Ikea lights with the Hue bridge if you're comfortable doing the sync. It requires a 3rd party app to force the Hue Bridge into "Touchlink mode", so it isn't automatic. And, if your Ikea bulbs are old, they may need a firmware update first, which requires an Ikea Gateway to do. So, mileage may vary.
On the whole, I'm much happier now that I can use the more affordable Ikea lights with the more feature rich Hue app and eco system. My general consensus on Smart Lights remains the same but for one slight modification. In the past, I would have recommended a single eco-system to keep management in one place. But, with Ikea lights able to sync to Hue, that means that there may be cases where you can, in some limited fashion, mix products without hurting that balance.
Smart Lights are still great when you're on extended vacations. You can set schedules, or with some, like Hue, even control them remotely. They can also make solving certainly technical problems a non-issue. It provided up with a dimmer for the upstairs light without the need to for installing a dimmer switch. It also allowed us to add light switches to rooms with no built-in lighting without any rewiring. And, it was an easy way to add a motion sensor. And, to top it all off, it is easy to move any of those lights or remotes because none are actually wired in. And, this is actually something that we did in some cases. We weren't sure if we wanted certain things in certain places. Having wireless remotes allowed us to experiment until we found what we wanted.
Smart Locks are the next area. I bought the August Smart Lock a while back and the bridge. The idea was, if we were out and forgot to lock the door, or needed to let someone in, that would could do so remotely. We add in the Auto-Lock and Auto-Unlock features. The Auto-Lock is great. Auto-Unlock is not quite there, unfortunately. I'm not sure where the problem is. We may have a faulty bridge or something. But, also, my wife's Bluetooth is incredibly slow to connect. To the point where she doesn't even use that door any more. She parks the car in the garage, comes around, and goes in the front door. Then comes in the house, closes the garage and re-locks the August lock in the garage.
Also, the dumb lock with the keypad drew a lot more positive attention somehow.
So, in the end, I bought the keypad for the August lock. Which tells me one thing. If I ever replace the lock on the front door, it will be with a smart lock which has a built in keypad like the Yale x Nest Assure.
A keypad, it turns out, is just a better and idiot proof way to ensure you can always unlock your door when you need to.
Honestly, if I were to go back in time. I would have bought JUST the smart lock and the key pad. The Auto-Lock feature means I've never actually had to worry about locking the door remotely. The bridge is just flaky and temperamental. But, the benefits over all, are there. I don't consider the Smart Lock a waste of money. But, I do think it is a harder one to know what will work best for you. So, it is probably one of the easiest Smart products to hate if you get the right one. Where August beats the others is the extensibility. The lock didn't have a built-in keypad. But I CAN buy one. It doesn't have built-in internet access. But I CAN buy a Hub to add it. You DO run the risk of buying all of these pieces and then, like me, smacking yourself for not waiting for/buying the product which was cheaper and better with all of that included (the Assure lock wasn't out at the time I bought).
Smart Cameras I haven't changed on. They still have a ways to go in terms of service offerings. And the "smarts" have a ways to go as well. If I try and use it for security I get WAY too many false positives. And, the subscription didn't even solve that problem. They are cool. And useful. But, mostly for when you're wanting to actively look at them. A Smart Doorbell might be a bit better if you can restrict the alert area. But, I live in a subdivision. So, any exterior facing camera gets far too much motion, and far too many people. We use ours so we can see the front of our house. We can watch the kids if we need to go inside while they play in the front. We can see when deliveries or friends arrive. And it is useful for those things.
Smart Thermostats. Opinion unchanged. They are great. And you should have one. Most technology makes things more complicated. Thermostats are the exception to the rule. Traditional thermostats are confusing, buggy pieces of information-less crap. I have zero doubts... my energy usage is both lower and smarter than it was before I added the Nest to the house. I know how much energy I use and at what times. The interface is easy to use, so I check it regularly on the phone. And I adapt my schedule based on usage and general weather patterns. I probably tweak the schedule once a month or so. The physical device itself, I have set to show the current weather. Which is useful to me. So, I'm actually noticing and interacting with the device far more than my previous thermostats. And there are other things it can display.
On top of those things, my thermostat will remind me to change the filter in the furnace. It can run the fan hourly to keep the temperature more consistent in the house which saves on usage of the AC and furnace. And it has other useful energy saving tricks.
When you consider that the prime selling feature of the Nest is one I can't actually use; the part that learns and adapts to your schedule. It should be even more impressive that I still recommend it so highly. I can't use that, because I work from home. There is no schedule to learn. There is pretty much someone home 100% of the time.
Smart Speakers. How much do you like music? I like the whole house audio. I do use it for automation. But honestly, that is crazy rare. My suggestion is simple. If you buy one, put it in the kitchen. Beyond music, the second to top usage would be things like ask about the time, weather and cooking conversions. It can give alarms, but then, I have a dozen other devices which do those things, and with better interfaces. My phone is my alarm. It is loud enough. It is much easier to set complex schedules, temporarily disable alarms, etc...
If you find you're doing a lot of home automation or other things in the kitchen with the device which you would like to do elsewhere, then, by all means, grab one more. And don't buy any more until you're sure you'll make good use of them. They are cool. But, I have 4 of them. And I probably only needed 2. One for the kitchen, and one we put in our 4 year old daughter's bedroom so we can let her listen to stories on Spotify which allows us to remotely control the volume and stop it when we want without having to go into her room.
We'll use the multi-room audio on 2 of the speakers during the holidays, but we could live without that and, 2 speakers is still enough to give a little ambient noise on the whole main floor. So, if we just had the 2, we could take the one out of our daughter's room for those rare special occasions.
And, that is where I stand on the devices I have right now. If I were to rank them it would have to be like this:
- Smart Thermostats
- The only thing on this list which can guarantee it will pay for itself in most situations.
- Smart Lock
- Piece of mind, and it may protect you from a crime of opportunity which pay for it in short order.
- Smart Lights
- Lots of potential cases where they are really useful. But, probably few that will actually materialize.
- CAN pay for itself if you're replacing old tungsten filament bulbs.
- Smart Cameras
- Best security features usually require subscriptions. Almost better to pay for a proper security system and monitoring if that is your goal.
- Can serve as a deterrent I guess.
- Smart Speakers
- Fun
If you have smart devices and no smart phone, you can raise the value of the smart speaker :) But controlling devices with your voice is more novelty than anything in my opinion. I find the apps in the phones have far better interfaces and are the only way to access certain data and settings anyway. Also, voice recognition often fails. Which is why you'll find locks generally won't allow voice to unlock a lock. Would be really funny to just run around the subdivision screaming at Alexa and Google to unlock doors though.
Also, the "smart" in this technology is still a little immature. I don't think any have great solutions for homes with older family members or which are shared. For instance, I can see when my tenant is casting to his Google Home. It listens to me sometimes when I talk to my own. I can control his bedroom lights. And the list goes on. When my daughter gets older, she may want to control the smart lights in her room. And I may want to let her, but have no able to control the REST of the lights in the house. And right now, there is no clean, simple way to do that.
Similarly, when a guest comes over... how can I quickly and easily give them access and control to smart devices in the room they're using and ONLY that room? Granted, lights are generally the only things they care about and I have switches for those. But, still... it would be nice.
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