How smart is your home?

[iacas]

I do have garage doors that I can open or close from my iPhone. They're Chamberlain. I just installed them last summer. Or maybe this spring?

[mchepp]

I recently bought what could be termed a "smart home" but it may be more stupid than @Golfingdad's dumb home. For starters any system that is "ready" to go will require you to pay a monthly fee and it will be hefty (at least by my standards) ~$30-50. I got it for free for about 6 months and it did things like control my thermostat and unlock my front door and let me know if there was an unauthorized entry into one of the many doors.

The system I had was made by 2Gig run by alarm.com was pretty good. Thermostat app worked really well and door lock could be set to open for certain people at certain times. It worked, I would give it a grade of B+. The trouble began when I decided I did not want to pay the $50 a month. 

Instantly the thermostat went offline. It does not work without the complete system. So now I am forced to buy a new one (a dumb one) or set up a system myself. Absolutely nothing that was smart would work that was connected to the system. The 2Gig system is proprietary and can only work when connected to the alarm system. Now I have to hack the 2Gig system (deep online searching) to get the thermostat and front door lock (the front door lock is made by Kwikset and can be detached) detached from the system. Took me a whole day. The other door monitors because they are part of a closed system for 2Gig will never work with any other system. So they are just dead weight sitting around my house. 

I went out and found the Vera (getvera.com) system to run my thermostat and front door lock. The Vera system is serviceable but is not an all-star solution by any means. I would give it a C- grade. It will do the things I want but the app is crap and rarely if ever works and it so slow that when it does work it is beyond painful. So all work has to be done on the PC at your house. It can be expanded to do the things that the OP is asking for. But it is far far from ready.

@iacas has the most accurate description. It is just not ready for prime time yet. I was hopeful that Nest would come out with a simple solution that would go along with their thermostat but nothing has come yet. With Fadell leaving they probably need to figure some things out before they produce a solution. Samsung has "Smarthings" but it is not a complete solution and very comparable to the Vera system that I have. Samsung bought another company to get it and hasn't put much resource into improving it yet. Maybe later they will. I am hopeful that Apple will see this market as ripe for a simple no nonsense solution that they are so good at providing, but that looks to be on a future roadmap with an unknown timeline. 

So the landscape is still not complete yet. I for one am waiting.

[newtogolf]

I've heard Crestron offers support for a lot of different devices but it's a bit pricey and requires professional installation.  

[nevets88]

Forget integrated solutions. Look in Amazon for reviews of any standalone device that's wifi enabled. There are still kinks to be worked out with this stuff. When they work it's great. The problem is when they break, it's a headache. Like when you change out your router or things like that.

Still, instead of installing a fancy video intercom system, I jury rigged wifi video cameras to see who's at the front and back doors with a smartphone plus there's a motion detection for deliveries.

The car's dashcam is parking mode enabled so it will turn on with motion, it'll track a portion of the house depending on where it's parked.

Fans are plugged into wifi outlets because I'm just too darn lazy to reach to turn them on, but I did put them in elevated areas. I'm curious to see what I can do w/Alexa and a wifi outlet.

LED motion detecting bulbs are useful, not wifi, but smart and cheap, although there are wifi LED bulbs. Maybe I'll get a wifi bulb w/all the colors for the front door.

A little off topic, but endoscopes that work w/a smartphone are handy dandy for fixing things around the house. Plus a drone w/a HD camera when you're too lazy to go to the roof - no I'm not spying on my neighbors. 

As far as Smart TVs go, I've been using a smartphone as a remote since the Chromecast first came out in 2013. Smartphone as a remote is awesometacular. Streaming device remotes are great in that they're so simple. Cable STB remotes suck.

 

[Valleygolfer]

I use myq from chamberlain to open and close my garage door.  this program can this program can also run lights and locks. I love the ability to open my garage door remotely, it is very handy and a lot of instances. I also use a wireless thermometer myself when I BBQ I can't remember exactly what the name of it is. I am intending on adding a thermostat as well but I want one that has multiple remote sensors that can trigger other rooms of my house to turn it on. I am just waiting for somebody to put one out like that.

This being said my truck will also remote start and unlock/lock from my phone. This is really handy during hot days and very cold days as well.

[pganapathy]

Zero, unless you count the "smart" washing machine, TV, fridge etc.  I have not connected anything in the house to a single controller or app.

Partly because I am not very tech savvy and partly because I don't think the cost is worth it because I would have to retrofit everything in my house to make it work as such.

If I was getting a new house and could set it up as such, I might consider it

[jsgolfer]

On 8/29/2016 at 3:24 PM, Abu3baid said:

No :) , although definitely going to get a smart tv what ever that is..

That's too funny.. I'm only going to get 1 keyless lock, the other 4 doors will be regular ol stupid ones.

very interested in the wifi thermo for bbq will look that up thanks!

I have a Smart TV, only Smart appliance in the house.