After initially not seeing the point in a smart home or devices when it first came out I've now fully embraced the technology.
It started when renovating the house and needed a new central heating thermostat. British Gas were offering their Hive smart thermostat half price so we had it installed. We then got our first Amazon Echo and linked the 2. Suddenly I could see it was useful. Being able to set the temperature or ask what it was by just asking. Turning on the hot water or setting a schedule.
We then got a couple of Hive's own smart lightbulbs and plugs. One for the hall light so it comes on a dusk, and we have a standard lamp in the lounge where the plug is behind the sofa and not easy to reach
Since then the amount if smart home things has expanded greatly. Most of our ceiling lights are now smart bulbs. And some table lights. Some other plug sockets are now too. Had Christmas tree and outside Christmas lights set up on smart plugs too.
2 of our Smart TVs can be controlled by Alexa too.
And in the log cabin because I ran the home network into it, with wifi, I have smart lights, a smart electric heater, blink security camera and Netatmo smart weather station all working in there.
Other things include more Blink cameras in the house and a Ring front door bell. Plus a few wifi security sensors.
And today we just bought something else, which got me thinking about smart homes. My wife was moaning she needed an extension power strip by the bed to plug her hairdryer, straightens, side table light and phone charger into. But said it was still difficult to turn stuff on and off as the wall socket is low down behind the bedside table.
Solutuon. TP-Link make a smart wifi power strip. You can name each plug socket on the strip and turn them on and off separately using Alexa or the app.
My next planned job is this year to setup some proper mains lighting down the garden that can be smart controlled. Not sure if I will use smart bulbs or just connect them all to one smart plug. We picked up a really cheap garden lamp-post last year that has 3 lights on it. That will go halfway down the garden. I was then considering a couple of those lower pillar lights along the path. Using smart bulbs would be fun though as could have coloued one so can change colour and brightness.
I also have to replace the securiry light outside the backdoor. Might look at making that smart too. And the water pump for the pond.
So do any of you have a smart home?
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We've got some smart bulbs, which is our entry way into smart home stuff. It's neat being able to dim the bulbs without having to install dimmer switches, or to turn just some of them (but not all) off when we are watching TV. Plus, the kids like it when we make them flash funky colours.
At the moment our heating and cooling systems are in fine health and show no need for replacing, and to my knowledge aren't compatible with nay smart stuff. It would be neat to be able to control that remotely.
Our coffee machine has bluetooth, so I can turn it on and get it warmed up from my phone, as long as I am at home. I can also get it to start preparing a drink, which I imagine would be dead handy until I find someone has moved my cup from under the machine.
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I was looking at smart coffee machines in a store the other day. My nice DeLongii expresso machine finally stopped working properly last year so I bought a cheap Amazon basics one to replace it just to tied me over. But wanted to get an all singing and dancing bean to cup machine eventually.
They make some really cool coffee machines now but some are mad money. Obviously the one I liked the most was £1500.
There is a very nice DeLongii one around £300 that does everything I need but isn't a smart one, so will probably get that later in the year, or ask for next Christmas.
So I'm sticking with the cheap Amazon basics one for the moment. The thing is it looks a bit plasticy (my old one was nice chrome) and it does rattle and vibrate a bit, but it makes perfect expresso and only cost £46. You really can't complain about that.
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Sounds the same. My wife always moans I make it too strong and I have to add hot water to hers. And she also moans it's not hot enough.
It was the Magnifica I was thinking about. Was it worth buying? Although just looked and I can get the Dinamica for not much more.
We did have one by Dualit initially after my other one failed. I have a Dualit percolator and that's brilliant, and other things they make are always highly rated. It was secondhand but looked brand new. All still in the box with every accessory and all looked unused. Owner said they just couldnt work out how to use it. They sold it for about £50 (RRP was £170). It was the worst expresso machine I've ever used. Only successfully made a coffee 1 out of 4 times. It would either block if you tapped down the coffee slightly too much, or would somehow decide to fire tons of coffee grounds into the coffee. It got binned! Horrible thing.
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