Home automation technology is getting more and more popular, and I’m super giddy about it. I’m not a big gadget person, although my dad totally is. I remember him getting a digital watch in the early ‘90s and putting his entire address book in it. It had that tiny keyboard on it. No matter where we were, we could look up an address and send a letter to my aunt in California or find a phone number and call one of his colleagues from work. Now, all of that information is in our phones along with the power to manage lighting, door locks, security, refrigerators, grocery lists and even irrigation. We have been adding automation to our home little by little over the last few years and I’m going to give you the rundown on what we have, why we have it, what I want to get more of and what I would have done differently.
Automation is great for the environment and it allows me to not worry about things people in the olden days had to worry about. It’s not lazy, it’s efficient. Now that you don’t have to hand water your lawn or play music on a record player you’ll have more time for sitting and looking at your phone.
Amazon Echo
A few years ago, around Christmas time, I was attempting to find both an amazing birthday gift and Christmas gift for my husband. His birthday is three days before Jesus’, so every year I try my hardest to make it feel like no one’s ever heard of Christmas. I surprised my husband with an Amazon Echo. It was primarily for him to have a bluetooth speaker he could talk to and play music from (he’s our resident DJ, when we’re not listening to Baby Shark). The bonus is that you could do all the things in the TV ads like order takeout or toilet paper when you need it most. To this day, I haven’t ordered anything with it, but it gives me piece of mind to know she’s always there for us.
Okay, why Amazon Echo? At the time, when they were still pretty new, the Amazon Echo had the most features, the most apps that were built to pair with it and there were way more skills. I did a lot of research and ended up comparing Google Home with it and the Echo stood out, primarily for that reason. I wish I had the article reviewing them that led me to that decision, here’s a recent one I found that says close to the same thing I had read years ago. all I can say is that I don’t regret it, but I have no idea if I’d make the same decision today. We also have the Echo Dot for our upstairs bathroom, I haven’t been able to link them so we can play music on both at the same time, but this can be attributed to operator error.
Why I love the Echo:
Grocery Lists: While I’m cooking, messy hands and all, I can tell it to put oregano or paprika on the grocery list. What’s more is that I can build the grocery list while my husband is driving to Trader Joe’s and when he gets there he can open his app and whip through the shopping.
Music: Alexa learns our voices (creepy for sure), so if I ask it to play Pandora it will play my last played station. If my husband asks, he gets his music. It’s a great speaker both playing directly through it and through bluetooth.
Skills: One of my favorite skills was the transit app, I could ask when the next bus was coming while I was getting ready, and not have to stop and pull out my phone, open a browser and type in the bus stop number. I can’t say that I was on time more often than not, but again, piece of mind. Another great skill is the news feature. My husband set up a daily news set, we say “Alexa, News” and we hear the headlines from NPR, BBC and some tech new updates as well. We all feel very informed.
Connections to other apps: we only use this for our lights, but it is handy to request that it turn our lights off and on.
Hands-free things: turning off lights, setting timers, starting music, listening to the news, play Baby Shark mid-tantrum. You can do all of those things by saying “Alexa….”
Nesting
I have to confess that we do not have a Nest thermostat, nor do we have any type of wifi- or app- controlled thermostat. Once we got Alexa, I decided I would no longer need to get up to do anything including turn the heat up. I am cold as soon as temps dip below 75 degrees (don’t worry our thermostat is set much cooler than this). When I purchased a Nest, I think said out loud “from this day forward, I will never be cold again,” and then my husband rolled his eyes and fell asleep. The concept of Nest and all these other thermostats are great, but I learned, as I tried to install one and I talked on the phone with an HVAC guy for what must have been an hour, they won’t work in all homes or with all furnaces. It was a very sad day. Nest was wonderful about the return, easy to work with and quick. When we bought our current house, we ended up with the same furnace and thermostat and thus my Nest dreams will stay just that, dreams.
Bulbs and Lamps
After the big Nest let down, I sought out new automation to cheer me up. In our last house, we had three floor lamps and it was annoying to turn each one on and then off every night. When I had been researching Alexa, Phillips Hue lighting kept coming up in my searches. We purchased the starter pack and have been buying more and more light bulbs since. My favorite is a lamp we keep in our daughter’s room, the light color and change from light blue to white to light orange and it has a great dimming feature. If we have to go into her room in the middle of the night, we can set the color to the darkest orange and dim it down. This keeps her in a bit of a dream state and we all sleep better as a result. With that light we have a dimmer switch connected to it above the overhead light switch.
The real bonus with these lights is you can automate them and save energy (they use less energy and last up to 22 years). The downside is when people visit or house sit they have to do everything manually.
Why I love Hue:
Their app is great, easy to use, allows for routines and timers, and they always have cool new things I want to buy.
It’s easy to add to the collection, every once in a while, if I’m at Best Buy, I’ll get a new bulb or two.
Pairs with Alexa and is relatively easy for guests to understand.
What should you buy? Get the starter kit and then add on from there. It’s not terribly expensive and even if you decide not to get more they’re great for porch lights (you can set them to turn off at sunrise and on at sunset and they adjust times throughout the year by themselves!). My next purchase will be their recessed lights. Our house currently has recessed lights that require bulbs that only have a 1-year lifespan (some haven’t even lasted that long), while the Philips Hue lights will last 22 years.
Security
I had thought homeowners having cameras was weird, and then my parents got a Ring and saw some weird stuff out their front door and I became intrigued. We also had some issues with a neighbor (which have since resolved), and we wanted to keep an eye on the comings and goings in front and behind our house. What we found out is that ding dong ditch is still a popular and adorable game and I have nearly memorized the routines of our dog- (and pig-) walking neighbors. I was also once caught turning my back on the stroller to lock the door while it glided away, don’t worry, no one was hurt. We have Arlo cameras and an Arlo doorbell, we got them from Costco and I’m not sure if I feel too informed or the right amount of informed. They are wireless and need to be charged about once a month.
Why I love Arlo:
It’s easy to save videos, usually to share a funny thing (kids playing ding dong ditch or my neighbor taking her pig on walks).
My husband and I switch off letting our dog out in the middle of the night (yep, our dog doesn’t sleep through the night but our 19 month old does), and we use the video footage to prove that it’s the other one’s turn.
Obviously, piece of mind. If we hear weird things outside we can turn the cameras on and watch a live feed.
The doorbell is great at silently notifying us that we have another Amazon package, and prevents our dog from going crazy and waking up the kiddo.
Outdoor Lights
Phillips Hue doesn’t have outdoor lighting, so I went in search of it elsewhere. I am pretty sure I bought my Meross outdoor plug on Amazon. We have some pretty tree lights and industrial French cafe lights. Their website has a bunch of different Smart gadgets to keep your home safe and efficient. I will say that they disconnect from the app pretty frequently, I’ve had to go reconnect them several times, I’m not sure if this is user error or if it’s the device, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Why I love Meross: ambiance, especially in the cold and rainy winters.
Rainbird
The cherry on top of my home automation sundae is my Rainbird irrigation app. That’s right folks, I can literally make it rain. When we moved into our house there were a bunch of serious problems with the irrigation (so many broken pipes, and then we kept breaking them as we dug into the yard), luckily we have an amazing irrigation guy who fixed it all and outfitted us with a new Rainbird Controller, complete with wifi enabled plug-in thingy. At our last house, my irrigation system was run off an Orbit irrigation timer. It wasn’t perfect, but it did the job. The problem was that when the weather was worse or better than what I had auto-set it to, I had to go out and manually run each zone. With the app, I can adjust it from my bed! The best part about having the app is that it allows me to test zones and heads, so I don’t have to run back and forth to the home controller to stop and start it.
Why I love Rainbird: I don’t think there’s anything better than being able to turn sprinklers on with my phone. I mean, besides my wedding day and the birth of my child, of course.
What will I get next?
I don’t think I will ever get door locks that I can lock and unlock from my phone. While all of these gadgets are great, there are constant hiccups and delays and I don’t like the idea of relying on wifi to be able to get inside my house. I also think it present a more significant security risk than the other devices we have.
More lightbulbs, I’d love for every light in my house to be controlled through my phone (they still work manually).
Hatch baby. We actually already bought this because I couldn’t wait. Our daughter loves it and we love it and it’s amazing, so you should buy it.
I saw a bluetooth bathroom fan/speaker at Home Depot the other day that I think is pretty cool.
Anything that improves energy efficiency and makes my life easier.