Internet Of Things / IoT / Connected Home / Smart Houses

Netatmo gives you pretty good reports. Some nice graphs of temperature and boiler time or you can just get the data into a csv file

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Is that home assistant?

Yep

Like, duh!

Operate as in turn on and off, not operate as in work.

It's a technology maturity thing isn't it? Operational sophistication, like surfacing metrics, events, APIs etc always comes later in a product's life.

Anyone know of a cheapish door sensor? There's only so many times you want to leave the door open when it's -10

Is a Phillips Hue Bridge and a few white bulbs the way to go to get started with smart lighting?

Thats the decision that we made and we are delighted with it. We've used a few alternatives recently in holiday homes and haven't been impressed . The integration with Google assistant is good also, probably good with other smart home interfaces also.

It is pricey if you go for the full colour bulbs. We're pleased that we did.

My only complaint is that Philips made it impossible for other manufacturers to integrate with their lighting early on so things like active lighting for films and gaming aren't as easy as it should be. They've released a developers kit lately though so perhaps that will change with time. Would be awesome to be able to use Hue with non Philips TVs.

Oh wonderful, that's very good to hear. Seems like it allows you to get started quite cheaply too!

There are various hue plugins for things like Kodi which I think do that.

I think their interface has been pretty open for a long time. There are loads of third party apps to control the lights and have been for a fair few years

I've got an amazon echo plus with zigbee so didn't need the bridge. So far so good.

Anyone interested in an edgerouter x and/or a Unifi LR-AC?

I might be, will pm.

This is a hell of a thread, especially when Ecobee chip in

There's a really good app for Windows and Mac also, but it's be awesome if PS4 and our Samsung TV would interact with Hue. I'd rather not piss about with hacks and workarounds .

The best thing about Hue is that it just works.

That and the fact we have a motion sensor in our bathroom so if i get up for a bleary eyed piss in the night, it turns on a really dim red light so I don't get woken up by a bright light.

I need to buy a few things for the new place so thinking of jumping in on this smart-home thing. Just wonder if I'm missing any tricks in terms of product selection for interactivity/ future expansion.

1. Unifi Wifi setup including USG / POE switch / 2 x UAP-AC-LITE/ Gen2 Cloudkey
   
2. Unifi Camera*
   
3. Hive or Netamo Thermostat (because the current one is shite)
   
4. Hive Protect fire alarms x 3
   
5. Sureflap Smart Catflap
   
6. Some kind of smart doorbell / coms system (will already have a camera above the front door)*
   
7. Get smart gas and electricity meters installed*
   
8. edit: 2x phillips hue, because it's easier than moving the light switch
   
   

*these will be a way off in the future

At some point in the future I might want to install zone controlled heating, but I'm still not sure if this is worth while in my house where all the heat is going to migrate upwards anyway. Also keen to hear of any clever ways of getting these for a sweet discount.

Unifi Wifi setup including USG / POE switch / 2 x UAP-AC-LITE/ Gen2 Cloudkey

Unifi Camera*
Hive or Netamo Thermostat (because the current one is shite)
Hive Protect fire alarms x 3
Sureflap Smart Catflap
Some kind of smart doorbell / coms system (will already have a camera above the front door)*
Get smart gas and electricity meters installed*

Remember when we liked simple things, like fixed gear bicycles?

Tongue only half in cheek!

I miss arguing about gear ratios. Now it’s all nest v hive it’s all a lot duller.

Now it’s all nest v hive it’s all a lot duller.

Don't forget the old, shit mountain bikes.

My fixie has 2 gears, two brakes, a rack, mudguards and dynamo lights.

I never was very good at minimalism.

re: Hue, definitely at least do the white ambience, so you can have different temps of white light. I find I rarely use the 'colours' unless im messing about, but having warmer/cooler lights for different seen is priceless. Same as Stonehedge, I only use the colour for red lights at night. Depends on room/purpose though I suppose...

I've never tried the white Hue bulbs which have different temperatures (I've always gone for the cheapest option). What difference does it make in real life, what are the different temperatures good for?

What's the easy option for motion sensor lights when it's controlling a room with a load of spots (i.e. too expensive to replace them all with Hue lights).

Are there any light switches that identify as a hue bulb? A less DIY version of this https://0xfred.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/philips-hue-simple-relay-hack/

Something like these? https://getden.co.uk/products/ very new to market, and haven't used them myself, but they do like interesting to me.

I've never tried the white Hue bulbs which have different temperatures (I've always gone for the cheapest option). What difference does it make in real life, what are the different temperatures good for?

I have these Hue lamps... and they're nice.

I only really use 4 settings:

1. A bright warm light for most of the evening and the daytime
   
2. A dim/dusk warm light for late evening
   
3. A super dim very warm light for going to sleep and lights at night time
   
4. A once in a while super-bright blueish light for doing housework when you want to view all the dust and awful stuff in really bright unsympathetic light
   
   

The first 2 modes are 90% of my use, and those just make evenings feel so relaxed.

I did look at those but I didn't really want a new (and pricey) hub. I was hoping for some kind of light switch that integrates into the Hue system by pretending it's a bulb.

Cheers. I don't use Hue in bedrooms and the main room I use it in has bright overhead lamps so I guess that cuts out 3 and 4.

I wonder how the temperature on your 1 and 2 compares to the standard bulbs.