Caring for aging parents or loved ones with limited independence is a journey filled with both emotional rewards and practical challenges. The emotional toll of balancing this responsibility with other aspects of life can be overwhelming. We want to share some helpful shortcuts from our field of expertise: smart home technology.
You'd be surprised how an inexpensive and simple system like a hub and a few connected devices can change your daily routine. With the guide below, we will help you create a supportive, secure environment tailored to your loved one’s needs, all while reducing the constant worry that comes with caregiving.
Water damage is one of the top home insurance claims in the U.S. Most of us have either experienced a leak or will experience one, especially in our basements. It's stressful and costly to deal with repairs and insurance. So what can you do? Traditional flood monitoring methods, such as manual water level gauges and simple alert systems, are less effective and are quickly becoming outdated. Thankfully, there are smart flood protection systems available today.
In today's fast-paced world, the concept of a smart home is no longer a futuristic dream but a present-day reality. At the heart of a truly reliable and efficient smart home setup is a robust hub that acts as the central command center for all your devices. The Z-Box Hub stands out as a game-changer, offering unparalleled reliability and ease of use.
Welcome to the ultimate guide on transforming your home with smart lighting. We want to focus on the solutions that are most helpful in creating a comfortable, energy-efficient, and aesthetically pleasing environment. Whether you're just beginning your journey into home automation or looking to expand your existing setup, understanding the nuances of smart lighting is essential. Let's jump in!
Imagine your lights gradually brightening in the morning, simulating a natural sunrise to help you wake up gently and feel more refreshed. In the evening, your lights gradually dim, creating a calming atmosphere that can help you unwind and prepare for a good night’s sleep. Sounds perfect, right? But how exactly do you get there?
Smart lighting is one of the first steps in automating your home or office. It brings convenience, energy efficiency, and it's pretty fun. If you're a renter or someone looking for a quick and easy way to upgrade your home's lighting, you're probably thinking about smart bulbs. In this blog post, we'll explore the benefits and limitations of smart bulbs. We'll cover some creative ways to maximize their value as well as the best methods to control them. By the end (spoiler alert), you'll understand why you may still want to invest in smart switches over smart bulbs.
You've likely encountered announcements about the arrival of Z-Wave Long Range (ZWLR) devices. In fact, many of the products sold at our store today support the new ZWLR protocol. But what exactly does "long range" mean in the context of home automation? How is it different from the conventional Z-Wave mesh setup? And most importantly, what advantages does it offer to everyday users?
Z-Wave devices are all interoperable. This means that technically, any Z-Wave enabled device can successfully communicate with another Z-Wave device, exchanging messages using wireless signal. Regardless of the brand, chip version, or product type, they work together seamlessly. Or do they?
Some of us are excited about Matter, some of us are dismissive, some of us are anxious. What does it mean for my Z-Wave gear? Will my smart home system become obsolete or incompatible with devices from my favorite brands? There’s a lot of uncertainty behind Matter’s promises and not many details about how Z-Wave will play into the new landscape. In this blog post, we take a closer look at how Z-Wave and Matter can coexist and interact in the future.
Let’s take a closer look at the first Z-Wave focused hub for US and Canada. We will uncover its primary benefits, UI features, how to use the Z-Box mobile app, and what sets the system apart from other hubs available today.
As we often tell our customers, there isn’t one perfect smart home platform to solve it all. The Z-Box Hub is no exception. What makes it unique is its focus on easy access to advanced automation functionality while keeping the key data and processes off-cloud.
Insteon just became another smart home company to shut down their services. Overnight, the platform’s servers were disconnected, leaving their customers without a functional smart home. SmartLabs, Insteon’s mother company, claims to have sold over 5 million connected devices; that’s a lot of sensors, switches, and controllers that became orphaned. Does it mean that all of this hardware is now completely useless?
It turns out that there are ways to salvage your Insteon products and continue using them, at least to some extent, on other platforms who stepped up and provided integration for this protocol. However, these workarounds are less than user-friendly and will require more time and possible frustration around a system that’s no longer backed by any official support. What’s the alternative and is it even worth it to have a connected house these days?
If you already have Amazon Echo set up, you know how convenient it can be. There’s nothing like walking out the front door with full hands and telling Alexa to turn off your lights last minute. But these smart lights and plugs can be slow to react as you keep adding more smart home devices and clogging your network.
Alexa only “speaks” WiFi (and ZigBee if you have the EchoPlus). It currently doesn’t support Z-Wave, the protocol of choice for home automation thanks to its high speed and low interference with other connected devices in your home. That means you can’t have a Z-Wave switch or plug speak directly to your Echo. BUT you can use a smart home hub as a bridge between your Z-Wave devices and Amazon Alexa. Now that’s a whole other level of functionality to unlock!
And if you already have a Z-Wave hub but no smart speaker, you might be thinking how cool it would be to have voice control for your automations and smart home devices. It’s a step towards a more integrated, easy-to-use smart home with improved security, comfort, and convenience.
Starting May 13, 2020, Wink will be charging its users a $4.99 monthly subscription fee. If you don’t pay, you’ll lose your automations, smart rules, and access to voice control. [Update 5/30/20: Wink has since backed out of the decision, at least for now. Update 7/27/20: The subscription service for Wink is finally in effect.]
So is it worth paying $5 a month for Wink’s service? The platform hasn’t been adding new features or expanding its list of supported devices for a while now. The announcement introducing the subscription model didn’t include any details on when and how the system would start updating again. They also failed to give users at least 30 days notice to consider how to move forward. If you’re thinking about switching to another platform, we can’t blame you.
Here are a few alternatives for reliable smart home solutions that are most popular among our customers and the team here at The Smartest House. They’re all one-time investments without monthly fees. You’ll find a list of benefits and limitations with each platform, but if you have any questions about specific features we didn’t cover here, get in touch or post in the comment section below.