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Right, we're getting one of the Alexa devices for monkey jnr's forthcoming birthday. It won't be solely for him as we've indicated it's something the family can use. So, before I hit the Buy button, which should we go for and how feasible is it to start upgrading one's conventional home to something a bit smarter?
What setups do you have? Anything running off an Echo, a Wink or other?
We have a standard WB combi for water/CH and standard lighting etc. No smartplugs. Just a bunch of phones, tablets and laptops.
Not particularly sure what we can try to achieve either. Quite happy plumbing in some kind of home security. Also have a summerhouse but haven't yet thought of how that might come into the mix. And TBH I'm tired of researching another "How do I do ..." project as I've done so many in recent years. So a bit of quickfire STW inspiration would be wicked.
Ta peeps
I have one outdoor smart plug thing that's hooked up to outdoor lights, lets me switch them on from the control panel on iPhone or with Siri, and saves fumbling about in the dark trying to plug in the cable. Not planning anything else.
Not to want to be a **** but why? It doesn't actually do anything on its own that a phone or console can't already do. Handy if you want to voice control your music but even that gets old the tenth time it plays Japanese jazz polka fusion instead of what you actually want.
plus you have the added problem of devices not liking to play outside their own ecosystems, nest security cameras being an excellent example.
Alexa devices kids’ bedrooms have bulbs, living room has 2 bulbs, landing, passage and our beedroom. Surprisingly handy and get used a fair bit, I’m going to look at other devices to add on too.
I have philips hue, a nest smart thermostat, a couple of smart plugs, movement sensors and alexa all linked up.
I have a combined living/dining room with dining area at one end and living area at other and can switch off tv, turn on a music playlist and change lighting scene for dinner time.
Have similar setups for watching movies (adjusts lights) and reading in my armchair (turns off tv and changes lights).
At night the movement sensor will turn on the hall light and bathroom light (dimmed down low) if I get up during the night.
Have a light for back garden on a smart plug so I can switch it on easily if I need to see outside from any of three rooms that overlook back garden.
Only been playing around with it for a few months, it's ok, handy enough and I will use at least a couple of features every day. I probablly lack the creativity though to get the most out of it, and I doubt I would miss it much if it was gone.
In future I would like to have automated blinds and curtains so I can control them all from a single command morning and evening but they are a bit pricey at the moment. It would also be great to have something that could run a bath for you just the way you like it (temperature, volume of water, bath additives, lighting and music) but that will probably remain out of reach. I will be fitting a new kitchen in the next year or two so will look at some of the appliances available nearer the time to see what's what on that front.
Have tried Echos and Google home. Alexa is much better for conversation, random questions etc. Benefits from being able to pretend you are on the Enterprise by calling it 'Computer'.
Google is better for music, have Chromecast on stereo, and can play own playlists as well as Google music (for monthly fee). The Amazon music with Prime is pretty poor selection and limiting for more than one device.
Plugs and light bulbs etc all appear to be compatible with both. If you go Google with Chromecasts you can cast using your phone and laptop too. I imagine echos work with firesticks too, but why would you with the remote.
Have Hive heating too but it is easier just to use the thirmostat. Same for light switches most of the time tbo.
I have a Dot with some Hue lights & Nest thermostat (I also bought the Logitech stuff to control TV/other remote control stuff with Alexa support but never got around to setting it up...).
In terms of Alexa models, depends what you want to do with it. Unless you want a screen then it's either Dot or Echo and that choice is mostly about whether you want a half decent speaker or a basic one (i.e. are you playing music through it). The Dot works fine for me as I have a separate Bluetooth speaker connected to it for music - if I were buying for the first time now though I'd probably pay extra for an Echo gen 2 with the bridge built-in as well.
I wouldn't say I have a smart home though, I only use it for a few basics:
1). Light routine (they come on at 5:45am weekdays to match my alarm going off - although you can't factor in Bank Holiday Mondays etc. which is a pain!). They also all automatically switch off at 6:30am (when I leave for work).
2). At night time I can just get into bed and say "Alexa, switch off all lights" which is very convenient. Although I did have to buy an Alexa remote as didn't want to shout (the Dot is in my living room), I'll get a Spot for the bedroom next time they're on offer though.
3). I have a Bluetooth speaker in the bathroom so just switch that on then and say "Alexa, tune in" and it streams the last station I was listening to
4). The thermostat should come in handy but as I only got the Nest at the start of the heat wave I've not actually used it to control the heating yet (via Alexa).
5). Other than that it's mostly just setting timers when food's in the oven or asking what the time or date is, occasionally the weather but that's pretty basic.
So it's far from life changing but not really a big expense for a bit more convenience.
The only real downside I've found is you need to have the light switches permanently on for the Hue stuff to work. This is fine until you have visitors who use them anyway + I live in a first floor flat and the stairs up (when it's dark outside) are pitch black (the Dot's in the living room so I can't shout up to get it to turn the hall lights on). I could have got a Hue motion sensor to solve this but in the end I opted for the dumber but cheaper solution of just an IR sensing night light plugged into a wall socket.
I'll prob get some security stuff hooked up to it in the future but all the current options seem a bit crap
I have google home x3, hue bulbs, nest thermostat, nest smoke alarms.
Not much to add to above other than.
Nest smoke alarms are worth the investment (not cheap at £100 each). Apart from the obvious alerts etc, its good to have a night light that lights your way to the kitchen when going for midnight snacks.
Hue lights are good, but need to be used strategically. I went OTT and bought about 7. only 3 get used as smart lights. Best in bedroom lamps (wake up feature, dimming one side when I`m reading and the wife wants to sleep). Also better in lamps than main lights.
Also, plan your system otherwise you end up with three smart hubs, cluttered around your router.
Hive heating, Phillips Hue around most of the house with motion sensors on the kitchen and stairs.
forgot to add, I just got back from holiday and used routines on my lights to switch them on randomly between 8 and 10 in the evening. Got a text from my neighbour on the first night as she thought someone was in our house. So it works well.
Got a text from my neighbour on the first night as she thought someone was in our house. So it works well.
Your seemingly vigilant neighbour will now ignore anything suspicious leaving you more vulnerable surely.
We've got one of them there Sonos One's in the kitchen, it's pretty handy(!) when you're cooking to be able to set multiple timers without having to stop chopping or whatever it is you're doing. No more overcooked pasta cos i failed at the mental arithmetic or forgot to strain it when there was 6 mins left on the garlic bread timer.
On the downside, my mate has one in his kitchen, his 3 year old runs round screaming ALEXA PLAY MOVE IT MOVE IT, over and over again so it's a double edged sword
We've got some Hue lights, lets us:
- have a porch light that comes on at sunset, dim in late evening then off later without having any extra timers or switches.
- have a nightlight in kids room that comes on at 6pm, off at 6am
- have a single wall switch downstairs control several lights including a floor lamp and a lightstrip that plug into the wall (next project: get the IKEA GU10s in the kitchen talking to the same thing)
- in our bedroom, we have a remote each that can do ceiling light and bedside lights together
- motion sensor for hall / bathroom (just switches on very dim) for night time visits
- when away, nice timers on everything so it looks like the house is occupied.
None of it particularly earth-shattering but convenient.
Have the start of an evohome heating setup but won't use the radiator valves, just controlling existing zone valves. That was more because thermostats were dying, and via display or phone it's easier to program than the old-style ones.
No speaky stuff, I got an Echo Dot when Sonos had an offer on them - it lasted for a maddening two weeks before going on ebay. We use Siri on phone/watch for things like setting timers.
Has anyone looked at the power consumption of all these devices? Presumably the bulbs, for example, still consume power even when not producing light? If people are ending up with say a bulb (possibly multiple) in each room, some listening device to control, again in each room. I'd be interested to know the uplift in electricity consumption.
Reports seem to vary between 0.1-0.5W for Philips Hue bulbs (switch on, bulb off) so pretty insignificant unless you live in a Stately Home.
My cousin is a tech super geek. He was went for some smart bulbs a few years ago and linked them to an app called something like ‘if this then that...’.
The bulbs would change hue when stuff happened, if an email arrived, and even when the space station was over head.
The outdoor lights new when he was approaching as well, all pretty clever stuff.
Im sure there was other more complicated things as well, but this was all I could take in.
I have noticed my Echo Dot feels quite warm to the touch which isn't really good.
Honeywell Evohome controlling boiler and radiators individually, with IFTTT controlling on/off.
Outside / ally lights are Philips Hue so come on with IFTTT when phone connects to the house wifi.
Got a Google Mini free with my Nokia 7 Plus phone, but only play radio on it so far. At some point I'll link Hue lights and Evohome heating to the Google Mini so I can do stuff by voice, but I probably won't be arsed.
One thing I would like is for the Kitchen wall cupboard down lights to come on and off when someone in the room. Currently have to walk round the room fiddling under the wall cupboards if you want them on.
Do all the gadgets such as lights work off WiFi?
I'm reluctant to add yet more radio sources to the house as there's tonnes already plus a vast amount from my neighbours (judging by techy types and amount of broadband networks I pick up, literally dozens). Aside from concerns about microwaving everything, it's the amount of noise that WiFi devices and routers have to fight to get a decent signal and throughput.
Do all the gadgets such as lights work off WiFi?
some off wifi, some of proprietary wireless protocols but all radio unless you're in a position to rewire the house.
I was building new so could do that and fitted a Loxone Miniserver that controls lighting, ventilation, intercom and various other things. Then I've used the boiler manufacturer's own smartphone app interface (it was a cheap addition and very rarely need to change anything on the heating between switching on autumn and off in spring and don't really even need to do that as it detects the outdoor temperature). For controlling AV kit Logitech Harmony remotes (which also have a Phone app). The Harmony will talk to the Loxone so there are remote buttons that turn on the lights.
It's far from essential but you get used to the convenience of certain things - eg a triple press on button by the front door (or next to the bed) switches all the lights and all the AV kit off. Because it's all configurable we can change the way things work without rewiring. The movement sensor by the gate switches the outside lights on (but so does pressing the door bell), when you open the front door the outside lights come on. The intercom has a light on it and at weekends people coming home had a habit of pressing it. If all the lights in the house are off and it's dark (ie we're in bed) then I have it set so the the bell doesn't sound. We can answer the intercom remotely and let the postie in the front gate (or send him to a neighbour) if we're away.
I've not installed any voice control yet. Don't like the idea of Google/Amazon listening in. Two people I know who have them have both unplugged them as they found them annoying.
I read somewhere that you can speak to each other through the alexa devices - i.e call from the kitchen to the loft to get them to come down
Yup you can benp1 and send messages to friends.
I have an alexa dot connected to a set of Audioengine speakers in my kitchen, i switch it on when i want to listen to the radio or stream stuff from my phone but at all other times it's switched off.
Yep...tin foil hat wearer, not really sure why i have it to be honest?
Nest smoke alarms are worth the investment (not cheap at £100 each). Apart from the obvious alerts etc, its good to have a night light that lights your way to the kitchen when going for midnight snacks.
We've got 5 of these, inc one in the workshop which syncs to the other four in the house via two difference Wifi networks and a 50m CAT-5 connection between the two LANs (which is really cool as we get a remote fire alarm for the workshop at the end of the garden).
Wow, look at all this really useful stuff going on. Lights coming on and having a smoke alarm and erm,..
How did anyone cope beforehand?
0.1-0.5w per device might not be that significant for one household but multiply that up across a country and that's a lot of power delivering not very much.
0.1-0.5w per device might not be that significant for one household but multiply that up across a country and that’s a lot of power delivering not very much.
Nothing compared with bitcoin mining, which is GW of power delivering absolutely nothing! (Roughly 100 Watts per person on the planet).
How did anyone cope beforehand?
Same way we coped with many other devices.
The speaking-to-other-alexa-devices bit is the only thing that would make me get one. Would be so much easier to get hold of the kids rather than yell up the stairs! (They're too young for phones!)
But we're all in with apple so if I get anything it'll be the apple speaker, but it's too expensive so i'm putting that off
4 dots and an echo, several hue bulbs and a lightstrip, several smart plugs.
Mostly used for playing music, I'm not fussed about picking a specific artist, so prefer playlists which alexa does well. Setting reminders and alarms, and getting it to read out the news / tell me the weather whilst I'm feeding the kids
Most of the lights are on routines, though for places like the hall, outside and the porch I have non smart sensor bulbs which turn on when its dark with motion.
Most of the smart plugs are on lamps which are a pita to turn on with switchs and sockets behind sofas and the like. I also have one on a rad for when the babies room gets too cold and one on my second mahoosive turbo fan for when I get too hot for the 24" one.
Have nest therm and smoke alarms - I also like the night light feature.
All in absolutely not a necessity but very helpful
We have an Echo in the kitchen which is our main radio / smart helper.
We have a dot in the bedroom and the garage - good for intercoms etc.
We have smart lights in a few rooms - not all "main bulbs" but side/accent lighting.
We have the logitech harmony thingie in the lounge for controlling gaming or movie setups (turns on relevant hardware / switches TV input)
We also have Arlo cameras, but nothing too smart about these.
Everything is linked with IFTTT (if this then that). So various routines are run at sunset / preset time, or can be triggered using Alexa.
e.g. Alexa Trigger Goodnight will turn off the TV, and the downstairs lights and set the bedroom side light to 50%
We have a routine that makes sure the cameras are in full motion capture mode at 10pm and various other stuff
It's not (by any means) a necessity, but it is useful to not have to get an app out to do something.
I'd draw a flowchart but I'm lazy....
Do you prefer riding your bike, tweaking your bid or setting up electronic gadgets and in which order/preference.
Is your bike workshop heated....?
Have you got important stuff you need to do around the house that this will provide a welcome distraction from?
If you want something to something to tinker with then may be just the thing... especially over winter.
Unless you really buy in it's unlikely to do anything groundbreakingly useful... but when it does work your not sat in a freezing shed this winter swapping your brake hoses just to see what it's like...
(My brother loves this and gave up trying to get it to do something useful over what he could already do with his phone or god forbid feet) ... he does do the heating and lights remotely but he could do that anyway and pressing buttons on his phone was more reliable than trying to dim the lights and getting the heating turned off... )
It's verging on mature but from what he demo'd to me misses being consumer ready..(he reluctant;y demo'd anyway as he was already pissed off with it). you then end up buying more stuff to try and do something useful... find incompatibilities with other systems etc. and if you get satisfaction overcoming those then why not.
Alexa at home plus Philips Hue; several Hue bulbs downstairs, and as the remaining non-Hue bulbs around the house fail, they will get replaced with Hue bulbs. Each bulb can be turned on or off individually, as a ‘room’ group, as a whole floor group, or as a whole for the house. Movement sensors can also be added to the Hue system, but don’t necessarily need Alexa to control them; it’s just easier to say ‘Alexa, (lamp/room/floor) on’ than to pick up a phone or tablet and use your fingers.
Don’t have smart thermostat/heating controller - yet.
Television is supposedly ‘smart’ but haven’t got round to adding it to Alexa control yet
How do those video/cctv type systems work?? Could be doing a bit of travelling next year and MrsT is talking about burglar proofing the house and likes the look of a tv advertised system which sends pictures/alarms to your phone...
Bookmarked
my swann cctv system will record and send alerts doesn't integrate with Alexa though.
came in handy when it pinged me on holiday and turns out the gale force winds had broken the gate lock and I was able to watch in real time the gate smashing over and over into the wing of my car till my mate got there 🙁
Some interesting info for sure. Am starting to understand more of the possibilities and am building a picture of things in my head.
Long day and evening ride means I'm knackered so I'll digest this in the morning and feed back.
Cheers all
Two Google homes. Three Google home minis. Great for Spotify in multiple rooms. Can set zones etc. Great for daily brief, news, sums, recipes, weather, setting reminders. Jokes. Trivia. Translations. Loads of stuff. Great for syncing with your phone. Can use it as a loudspeaker for your phone. Can ask it to dial people. Can ask it to find your phone and make it ring.
The mini in the bedroom is an alarm clock. Internet radio. White noise/river sounds machine. Fab bits of kit.
Got two chromecasts attached to smart TVs. Useful for being able to voice control Netflix and YouTube. Just ask Google home to turn on the living room TV and play the latest better call Saul episode etc. Also good for turning off the TV when I'm running a bath for my kids. Just ask the mini outside the bathroom to turn off the TV.
Got a nest thermostat. Awesome. I can be 4 hours from home and turn the heating on. Or in bed you can ask Google to turn the temp up or down. Clever kit.
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Wow, look at all this really useful stuff going on. Lights coming on and having a smoke alarm and erm,..
How did anyone cope beforehand?
Did you have a similar pointless statement to make when TV remote controls started being a thing? No one here is saying you must buy this stuff, that it will change your life and no one can manage with out it. We're in a first world country, convenience is a thing people spend money on, get over it.
This might be taking things too far though - who puts a £76k item outside on their door?
I also forgot to mention the most used feature on my Google Home. I shop with tescos online. While I`m making dinner and I use the last of something I just say "hey google, buy olive oil" and when I come to do my shop at the end of the week all the stuff I have run out of is already in my basket.
Nowt wrong with convenience and making things easier but most of this is just shite for the sake of shite.
Its not as if a basic thermostat is actually difficult to use - they are designed to be basically automatic. This thread describes a wet dream of teenage consumerism. Nothing here really enhances anyone's lives, its all just solutions in search of problems.
Its not as if a basic thermostat is actually difficult to use – they are designed to be basically automatic. This thread describes a wet dream of teenage consumerism. Nothing here really enhances anyone’s lives, its all just solutions in search of problems.
Correct, but, my smart thermostat knows when I leave the house and switches to eco mode when I do so. I adjust the temp far more on my smart thermostat then I ever did on my conventional one. I have found that it encourages me to save energy. I get emails once a month telling me how much energy I have used and also how that compares to others in my local area. I can fine tune my hot water and heating schedules to the day whereas my conventional one was set to come on and off at the same time no matter what day it was. Smart thermostats are far superior to conventional ones.
If you're after saving energy then set the thermostat lower. If you increase it just because you have that convenience then that is counterproductive.
I imagine, as a general rule, the convenience of being able to idly flick the dial from your phone and make it a few degrees warmer when you don't really need to will outweigh any savings over the long term.
Echo dot, spot, Sonos, Philips Hue and Vsmart for the boiler here. All works well, probably don’t use half of what it is all capable of but what I do use serves a purpose.
If you’re after saving energy then set the thermostat lower. If you increase it just because you have that convenience then that is counterproductive.
I imagine, as a general rule, the convenience of being able to idly flick the dial from your phone and make it a few degrees warmer when you don’t really need to will outweigh any savings over the long term.
Actually its the opposite, I find I turn the temp down far more than up. And as I said if I'm not home it stays in eco mode so I am not heating an empty house if I am late home from work.
How do you adjust yours when you are out of the house longer than you expect?
Like I said, in general. You may well be a model citizen but for every one like you there'll be a few more who constantly dial it up, or pre-heat the house before they get home etc etc
If I'm out I don't adjust it, the thermostat takes charge. For those that like to tinker, the settings will be up and down like a yoyo, which is inefficient at the best of times. For those that don't like to tinker its going to work more or less like a dumb thermostat anyway.
Anyway, its a fair bit of waste (replaced hardware, energy usage (both smart thermostat itself plus server time etc)), for a very marginal improvement, and that's only 'if' you want energy savings. If you just want convenience than it is going to be wasteful, almost by definition.
Its hard to explain the benefits of a system to someone who doesn't understand how they work, so I will carry on enjoying the benefits and you can carry on living in the 1980`s.
How much energy did you use last December? how did that compare to November? did the weather have any effect on your energy use in either of these months? How does your energy use compare to your neighbours?
Nest gives me all of this information and helps me save money and energy.
The main difference for me is that when programming the smart thermostats you're saying what temperature you want when - not what time to start aiming for a new temperature. You don't need to know how long it takes to get there or fiddle about with setting it earlier when the weather gets colder - the thermostat knows how long your room/zone/house takes to warm up and knows what the temperature outside is likely to be. You just say you want this room at 20c at 7am and it fires up the heating whenever it needs to.
Leaving aside the petty insults trailwagger, if you take simon_g's example above, this is not very different to my honeywell digital thermostat which is standard with the boiler. Its programmable and does more or less whats described there, just from a slightly fiddly LCD box attached to a wall, rather than my phone. The main difference as I see it, is that the heating will come on sooner if its cold thus using more energy. The offset to that is that the house is warmer quicker. I suspect the majority of people will be in the warmer house camp as opposed to the save energy camp therefore more energy used.
And yes, I do know exactly how much energy I used in different periods of the year, my bills tell me and its not very difficult to work it out.
Some pretty email which tells you how virtuous you are really means very little.