I have British Gas Hive that works with Alexa. They also have sensors to as you op[en my front door after the sun set lights come on then my lights some o when the sun sets and go off at about 11pm then if anyone walks across the upstairs hall lights come on for three minutes so that I can walk to the kitchen and back.
Over all the system is great, it's just very expensive, but with the competition coming in it will soon be a lot cheaper. Same as always, the early adopter pays more.
Having said that I do believe that the Hive heating and hot water system has more than paid for itself with much lower gas bills.
Yes, I agree re Hive. It's brilliant. It allows you to have so much more control and very easy to use.
How does hive save the heating and water bills? Our water only heats when using it and the heating is only on when we are in and set to a maximum temperature. Doesn't come on unless temperatures below X and turns off when reached Y
slightly expanding on this thread to cover the Alexa/Smart control.
I am not a great believer in the whole WIFI approach to smart automation, and so slow to adopt this stuff. I have several concerns 1.) multiple devices on WIFI degrades overall performance, so small simple devices can interfere with your laptop access speeds, leading to increase dropouts etc. Multple devices are known to cause conventional domestic access points to overheat, requiring you to reboot the sods frequently. The workaround I suppose is to have a seperate WIFI for small access points.
2) security - when you open multiple ports on your router you are increasing the chances of someone getting access to your local network. with lots of different style devices (HIVE, HUE, YALE, Lightwave RF, etc) they all have different protocols, which can all be attacked. Interestingly there have been reports of people hooking up alexa to their electronic door lock, only for people to shout "Alexa, open the door" through the letter box!
3)cost - Why pay to have a wifi/electronic component embedded in a bulb, where the switch has to be left on. Just dont see the point.
I have been passively looking at specific smart home protocols such as ZWave plus, ZigBee and X10. These tend to replace existing light switches and inline-connectors and operate on a mesh mechanism, where each component passes the instruction along to its neighbours, negating interference/signal loss. There are gatweays which can bridge between your network and the smarthome protocols. Problem is there is little detail as to what works with what. Samsung seem to be heading down this road with their Smartthings offering. I think the long term view is that all of their devices will integrate this sort of offering. you can though with a bit of research have a completely integrated solution for Alarms, Smoke detection, lights, switches, audio and TV. Not that far off.
I also rewired my house a few years ago, and made the mistake of not dropping a spare neutral wire to light switches, as some of these smart switches require a seperate neutral to work off of. Also seems that Lightwave RF are the only offering for replacement of UK sockets, which is a shame.
How does hive save the heating and water bills? Our water only heats when using it and the heating is only on when we are in and set to a maximum temperature. Doesn't come on unless temperatures below X and turns off when reached Y
It is much more flexible so I can have different temperatures at different times and on different days. You can also turn it off when you're out and put it on remotely before you come home. I even get an alert to adjust it when I get five miles away from my house or to within ten miles when coming home.
It means that if I am away for a few days in the winter I don't have to heat the house or have any hot water but can make sure it doesn't take hours to warm up when I get home.
I also think that the ability to give it a quick boost makes me more likely to reduce the temperature on a daily basis.
I'm sure it wouldn't work for everyone but I have seen my gas bills reduce by about a third since I've had it.
Got an Alexa but what do I need to turn lights on/off? Is it just an App and special bulbs?
I believe there is a Phillips Hue starter kit that comes with two bulbs and a hub. Basically you plug the hub into your router and it enables Alexa to speak to the bulbs through the hub. Warning though, you can get addicted I can turn my whole entertainment system on now with my voice and change inputs etc. (TV, Surround Sound, Xbox, Fire Stick, Record Player). I can also turn my hot water & heating on too.
what system do you use for the TV set up? That sounds awesome and maybe even the wife could work it...
How does hive save the heating and water bills? Our water only heats when using it and the heating is only on when we are in and set to a maximum temperature. Doesn't come on unless temperatures below X and turns off when reached Y
It is much more flexible so I can have different temperatures at different times and on different days. You can also turn it off when you're out and put it on remotely before you come home. I even get an alert to adjust it when I get five miles away from my house or to within ten miles when coming home.
It means that if I am away for a few days in the winter I don't have to heat the house or have any hot water but can make sure it doesn't take hours to warm up when I get home.
I also think that the ability to give it a quick boost makes me more likely to reduce the temperature on a daily basis.
I'm sure it wouldn't work for everyone but I have seen my gas bills reduce by about a third since I've had it.
For me, it's helped massively as the system we had in place before was really dated and difficult to use, it only had 2 buttons on it and took ages to scroll to the correct setting and then you miss what you were trying to achieve and have to go round in circles again. You'd probably have to spend the whole day to get it on the cycle I now have.
With Hive you can have things exactly how you want them. It's also good for if you go away you can put it on holiday mode. And if you've got someone in the house who likes to turn the heating up you can turn it down using your phone without them cottoning on
Got an Alexa but what do I need to turn lights on/off? Is it just an App and special bulbs?
I believe there is a Phillips Hue starter kit that comes with two bulbs and a hub. Basically you plug the hub into your router and it enables Alexa to speak to the bulbs through the hub. Warning though, you can get addicted I can turn my whole entertainment system on now with my voice and change inputs etc. (TV, Surround Sound, Xbox, Fire Stick, Record Player). I can also turn my hot water & heating on too.
what system do you use for the TV set up? That sounds awesome and maybe even the wife could work it...
I use the Logitech Harmony Hub, it's essentially a universal remote that can control pretty much every device you have. Setting it up can be a bit fiddly as you have to get the Hub to recognise each device you use by using that device's remote but once that is done you can wave goodbye to your remotes.
Before I had it people would struggle to turn on my TV as you have to switch the TV on with one remote, turn the amp on with a different remote and then switch the Freeview box on with another remote. Then if say the amp isn't on the correct input people would not know how to sort it.
Once the Harmony Hub is set up you can then set up 'Activities' on it, so one of my activities is called 'Television', when I click that it turns on the TV, turns on the amp and switches it to the correct input and then turns on the Freeview box. I've got other activities such as 'Xbox', 'Kodi' etc...
This is where Alexa comes in as you can tell Alexa to turn on any of your activities so now when I get home from work all I have to say is "Alexa, turn on Television" and on comes the amp, TV and Freeview. Likewise once I'm done watching TV I can tell Alexa to turn it off or I can tell her to turn on the Xbox etc. I've also got a "Film mode" activity that turns the Amp to Kodi, turns on ambient light behind my TV and then switches off the main light.
So now I don't have to teach my girlfriend over and over again how to use each remote, she just has to say "Alexa... blah blah blah".
***Nerdiest post of the year probably awarded to me***
SWEnglandAddick - you are now the goto guy. So, I have a TV (Sony) and lovely Alexa, can I just ask her to turn my TV on and off or do I pair the TV to Alexa via wifi?
SWEnglandAddick - you are now the goto guy. So, I have a TV (Sony) and lovely Alexa, can I just ask her to turn my TV on and off or do I pair the TV to Alexa via wifi?
You can't go direct without a lot of f'ing around. Sony do not and will not support it. Best bet is to get something like a Logitech Harmony hub that sits in between.
SWEnglandAddick - you are now the goto guy. So, I have a TV (Sony) and lovely Alexa, can I just ask her to turn my TV on and off or do I pair the TV to Alexa via wifi?
You can't go direct without a lot of f'ing around. Sony do not and will not support it. Best bet is to get something like a Logitech Harmony hub that sits in between.
Yeah. I have a Sony TV and haven't figures out how to control it via alexa yet.
SWEnglandAddick - you are now the goto guy. So, I have a TV (Sony) and lovely Alexa, can I just ask her to turn my TV on and off or do I pair the TV to Alexa via wifi?
As @cafcpolo has said above Sony don't have Alexa support (I think). So you'd have to go down the same route as I have and buy a Logitech Harmony Hub that works as the go between. The beauty of the Hub though is that it can control pretty much any device that uses a IR remote.
EDIT: Just had a quick google and it looks incredibly complicated to get a Sony TV and Alexa talking without using something like the Harmony Hub.
bought two dots tonight, will plug them in to my Sonos Play 5 and Playbar. Been meaning to start home automation for a while but the Prime discount has twisted my arm!
Say with the Phillips Hue system, I understand the hub plugs into the router via ethernet. Then does that create its own closed loop bulb wifi as it were, then all the bulbs have to be in the range of the hub?
I ask as ideally, I'd like to buy 6 GU10 equivalent bulbs and plug them in the veranda of my log cabin which is 150ft at the other end of the garden.
I've got my log cabin wired up over LAN to my main router in the house, but got another another router in the cabin, so essentially its the one network. Would I just need the hub in the house or would I need an additional one in the cabin? Hope that makes sense.
IOT is opening us to a potential world of pain as rightly pointed out by @dogpat65 - Too many people just plug things in without considering the consequenes, never leave the username/password as default.
Even the routers that ISP's supply have bugs that could let someone have remote access to that device which is out of their control, some make it tooooo easy.
I work in Telecoms where people's phone systems get hacked, you put their IP into Shodan and it shows you why. Shodan is the google for hackers, it details open networks/ports etc. Too many IT novices out there. I love tech and where it is going, I am usually first on-board with things. But Alexa, Google Home etc scare me a little so I'm just waiting.
Set up the harmony hub and echo dot at the weekend and it works like a dream. Probably took about 90 mins in total and was pretty straight forward. The Harmony is controlling a Samsung TV, Sony sound bar, Roku 3, Panasonic freeview recorder and Samsung blu ray with no issues. All the remotes are in a drawer and we both have the Harmony app on iOS with all the devices remotes replicated. Alexa triggers all the pre set activities so I just tell it what set up I want as I enter the room.
The hue system extends by bulbs, each bulb becomes like a range extender, roughly 30m so it's like a chain, in theory you could have 30 bulbs 30m apart and they would all connect.
Set up the harmony hub and echo dot at the weekend and it works like a dream. Probably took about 90 mins in total and was pretty straight forward. The Harmony is controlling a Samsung TV, Sony sound bar, Roku 3, Panasonic freeview recorder and Samsung blu ray with no issues. All the remotes are in a drawer and we both have the Harmony app on iOS with all the devices remotes replicated. Alexa triggers all the pre set activities so I just tell it what set up I want as I enter the room.
No problem @bbob. I couldn't live without it now, makes my life so much easier, no more swearing and tearing the sofa to pieces looking for numerous remotes
I'm just getting use to my Echo, I'm just getting use to my Echo and now thinking on making it do more such as the tv, lights and heating. I will have to start with the Harmony hub as my tv is a Sony but does it also connect to Virgin Media? And change lights to screw-in (sounds football connected on type of studs). Can you still resort to manual (remote) control should/when the broadband goes on the blink?
I'm just getting use to my Echo, I'm just getting use to my Echo and now thinking on making it do more such as the tv, lights and heating. I will have to start with the Harmony hub as my tv is a Sony but does it also connect to Virgin Media? And change lights to screw-in (sounds football connected on type of studs). Can you still resort to manual (remote) control should/when the broadband goes on the blink?
Harmony will control Virgin boxes as well as the TV yes. You can revert to the standard remote any time you wish, it doesn't disable other remotes or anything of the sort.
Comments
I am not a great believer in the whole WIFI approach to smart automation, and so slow to adopt this stuff. I have several concerns
1.) multiple devices on WIFI degrades overall performance, so small simple devices can interfere with your laptop access speeds, leading to increase dropouts etc. Multple devices are known to cause conventional domestic access points to overheat, requiring you to reboot the sods frequently. The workaround I suppose is to have a seperate WIFI for small access points.
2) security - when you open multiple ports on your router you are increasing the chances of someone getting access to your local network. with lots of different style devices (HIVE, HUE, YALE, Lightwave RF, etc) they all have different protocols, which can all be attacked. Interestingly there have been reports of people hooking up alexa to their electronic door lock, only for people to shout "Alexa, open the door" through the letter box!
3)cost - Why pay to have a wifi/electronic component embedded in a bulb, where the switch has to be left on. Just dont see the point.
I have been passively looking at specific smart home protocols such as ZWave plus, ZigBee and X10. These tend to replace existing light switches and inline-connectors and operate on a mesh mechanism, where each component passes the instruction along to its neighbours, negating interference/signal loss. There are gatweays which can bridge between your network and the smarthome protocols. Problem is there is little detail as to what works with what. Samsung seem to be heading down this road with their Smartthings offering. I think the long term view is that all of their devices will integrate this sort of offering. you can though with a bit of research have a completely integrated solution for Alarms, Smoke detection, lights, switches, audio and TV. Not that far off.
I also rewired my house a few years ago, and made the mistake of not dropping a spare neutral wire to light switches, as some of these smart switches require a seperate neutral to work off of. Also seems that Lightwave RF are the only offering for replacement of UK sockets, which is a shame.
Geek rant ends....
It means that if I am away for a few days in the winter I don't have to heat the house or have any hot water but can make sure it doesn't take hours to warm up when I get home.
I also think that the ability to give it a quick boost makes me more likely to reduce the temperature on a daily basis.
I'm sure it wouldn't work for everyone but I have seen my gas bills reduce by about a third since I've had it.
With Hive you can have things exactly how you want them. It's also good for if you go away you can put it on holiday mode. And if you've got someone in the house who likes to turn the heating up you can turn it down using your phone without them cottoning on
Before I had it people would struggle to turn on my TV as you have to switch the TV on with one remote, turn the amp on with a different remote and then switch the Freeview box on with another remote. Then if say the amp isn't on the correct input people would not know how to sort it.
Once the Harmony Hub is set up you can then set up 'Activities' on it, so one of my activities is called 'Television', when I click that it turns on the TV, turns on the amp and switches it to the correct input and then turns on the Freeview box. I've got other activities such as 'Xbox', 'Kodi' etc...
This is where Alexa comes in as you can tell Alexa to turn on any of your activities so now when I get home from work all I have to say is "Alexa, turn on Television" and on comes the amp, TV and Freeview. Likewise once I'm done watching TV I can tell Alexa to turn it off or I can tell her to turn on the Xbox etc. I've also got a "Film mode" activity that turns the Amp to Kodi, turns on ambient light behind my TV and then switches off the main light.
So now I don't have to teach my girlfriend over and over again how to use each remote, she just has to say "Alexa... blah blah blah".
***Nerdiest post of the year probably awarded to me***
EDIT: Just had a quick google and it looks incredibly complicated to get a Sony TV and Alexa talking without using something like the Harmony Hub.
So had to get one of them too.
Give me a shout if you need some help and I can try my best. YouTube has plenty of tutorials too.
I get remote control light switches, which have been around for a while, but this smart stuff is pretty weird to me, I don't get it.
Say with the Phillips Hue system, I understand the hub plugs into the router via ethernet.
Then does that create its own closed loop bulb wifi as it were, then all the bulbs have to be in the range of the hub?
I ask as ideally, I'd like to buy 6 GU10 equivalent bulbs and plug them in the veranda of my log cabin which is 150ft at the other end of the garden.
I've got my log cabin wired up over LAN to my main router in the house, but got another another router in the cabin, so essentially its the one network.
Would I just need the hub in the house or would I need an additional one in the cabin? Hope that makes sense.
Do you already have a hub and bulb so you could test this?
Even the routers that ISP's supply have bugs that could let someone have remote access to that device which is out of their control, some make it tooooo easy.
I work in Telecoms where people's phone systems get hacked, you put their IP into Shodan and it shows you why. Shodan is the google for hackers, it details open networks/ports etc. Too many IT novices out there. I love tech and where it is going, I am usually first on-board with things. But Alexa, Google Home etc scare me a little so I'm just waiting.
Probably took about 90 mins in total and was pretty straight forward.
The Harmony is controlling a Samsung TV, Sony sound bar, Roku 3, Panasonic freeview recorder and Samsung blu ray with no issues.
All the remotes are in a drawer and we both have the Harmony app on iOS with all the devices remotes replicated.
Alexa triggers all the pre set activities so I just tell it what set up I want as I enter the room.
So big thanks to @SWEnglandAddick for the idea.
Can you still resort to manual (remote) control should/when the broadband goes on the blink?