So, for some time I have been looking at smart home technologies, but it’s so confusing deciding which way to go… let’s start we’re I am and move forward from there,
For the lady 5 years I have had LightwaveRF operating 6 bulbs, they have worked nearly flawlessly every day, turning the lights on at dusk, then off at 01:30 then at Christmas I have a few sockets that can be plugged in to operate the Christmas lights on a very similar basis, The gen one lightwave works relatively well but gives no feedback and no cross-platform integration it’s now time I moved over to something else that allows be to extend well I’m doing even further.
I’m currently examining all options including Phillips Hue and smart things and just about anything else you can think about trying to find a system which will give me the right reliability and scalability hasn’t been as easy as I thought.
Smart Home thought process
First decide on lighting to be used to replace ageing LightwaveRF hub, this was preceded by x10, so it all goes back a long way!
Set up new Sonos with Alexa, reposition existing unit to Living Room, setup new Amazon show in bedroom.
Test yeelight, Phillips Hue and LIFX
Is there a requirement for RGB bulbs or just white (RGB may be to much of a gimmick)
Decided on Phillips Hue probably majority of white bulbs as Yeelight or LIFX required individual IP address for each bulb so ideal if you just want a few.
Buy and install SmartThings hub (no backup facility)
Buy and install pocket sockets TBZ from here
https://www.vesternet.com/collections/z-wave-plugs-sockets looking like due to corporate involvement of Samsung and cloud linking causing delay in actuations I will now go with Hubitat as Smart Home controller. Moving forward a few weeks and having run a trial HA, I have now decided to proceed with SmartThings as the smart home hub, with Hue bulbs to control the lamps, I did make sure Phillips Hue and SmartThings were fully compatible.
Setup gate control with Alexa then try geofencing for opening
Lamps to be smart. 3 in living room, 1 in TV Room, 1 in Study, 1 in Kitchen, poss 2 in bedroom or maybe just set new lamp up by tv to control wake up
Consider how to integrate night light on landing with proximity sensor
Integrate Christmas lighting sockets (pocketsockets)
Consider exterior lighting control (although already happy with them att on dusk to dawn sensors, just need to update from LightwaveRF, I have considered the new LightwaveRF hub, but decided on complete change)
Smart heating system decided Tado, which as of June 2022, has been purchased but not yet installed!
Other hubs to consider below, ultimately I decided to stick with SmartThings as others are too complicated, 1 month in happy with decision
Hubitat – poss go with this one (mainly due to backup and local deployment.
Wink
Vera
Nero
Starting out on a smart home isn’t about just going out and buying random smart switches and light bulbs, you need to decide why you’re doing it in the first place and what you want to achieve. Just buying some smart bulbs and getting Alexa to turn them on or off isn’t a smart home, having the system know it’s dusk in an hour, but cloudy outside so to turn on a bulb, or to know your back door has been open for more than 15 minutes so to turn down the heating system, or to approach and your exterior lights come on, is.
My research went on longer than I had anticipated and the implementation started with a replacement of my BT router for a more robust one (Unifi USG) with the DHCP server re configured to take 512 IP addresses as I was already running short! I also purchased a couple of Yeelight bulbs for testing, but realised that as each bulb requires an individual IP address, so long term on a bigger system that wouldn’t work for me.
So it looks like Phillips Hue for the lighting, I think the rgb coloured bulbs may be a bit of a gimmick, to I will predominantly use white (I think there’s a warm to cool white which could be a good compromise, with a couple off rgb thrown in for good measure.
The key to all of this is to make your home subtly sophisticated and to enhance your life, not to make it impossible for anyone without a degree in computing to operate.
Ultimately here’s what I would like, all the switches in my house to work exactly as they do now switching lights on and off with the ability for them also to be controlled from a central smart home controller and give status feedback
I have done a great deal of research; The decision is what to buy first, I’m thinking that the Phllips Hue should come first saying that the SmartThings hub as it isn’t too expensive so I may well do that at the same time as I would like to try out with some window and proximity switches
So at this time here is the list
SmartThings hub
Phillips Hue
Tado (Now changing under advice from plumber)
Window switch – make? Samsung a little more pricey but worth it
PIR with built in temperature sensor – make? Samsung again!
I had already bought new LightwaveRF but have now returned those in favour of the above, this will give Me much more flexibility, although it will not allow me to control the existing light switches which I’m happy to leave as they are for the time being I just stick with lamps and pocket sockets.
I will also look at adding on an alarm system in due course once I’ve got used to setting up the rules
I really like the LIFX bulbs, nice and cheap, might buy some just for playing about with.
This is the early part of my thought process, since then I have settled on my system, initially it was Samsung SmartThings, but then I realised for simplicity and the nature of what I need, Phillips Hue really does most of what I need, so in essence I have settled on a combination of both, the more complex sensor based activations carried out by SmartThings and the simple socket and light functions are all done with Phillips Hue
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