Miscellaneous articles, news, tips and tricks relating to smart home tech and home automation devices.
Frost control as a function isn’t unique to the ecobee smart thermostat. In fact, many old-fashioned thermostats and HVAC systems have their own versions of frost control. This setting is part of the overall attempt to wrest with relative indoor humidity. We humans have become picky creatures when it comes to climate. While we have … Read more
The ecobee smart thermostat is one of the leading choices when it comes to bringing some inelegance to your HVAC system. This smart thermostat comes packed with features that handle everything from leaning your daily routine to nuanced scheduling options. On the top of every homeowner’s mind is humidity. Not only is this about comfort, … Read more
Having full control over your home’s heating and cooling is one of the best perks of smart home tech. Being able to use your phone to quickly change the thermostat in response to a cold snap while you’re on the way home from work is ideal. Ecobee makes one of the most popular smart thermostats … Read more
Smart homes are great. They give a range of benefits to home owners and lodgers. BUT they have some big downsides too: they can be really creepy. Whether it’s listening to your household’s conversations by mistake, running facial recognition on people walking by or various data privacy issues, it’s important to know the risks so … Read more
Ecobee makes one of the best smart home thermostats on the market. It comes fully ready to work with both Alexa and HomeKit. It also comes with all the features you’d expect from a modern smart thermostat. Even with all these features, many users have been struggling to get their HVAC fans under control when … Read more
The marketing of smart plugs is great: easily control your household appliances and devices from anywhere in the world, or even via smart routines and schedules. Simple. However if you look at the “fine print” of many smart plugs, they say that they only work with mechanical switches. Many devices have electric (not mechanical) switches, … Read more
When I first seen the Philips Hue Smart Plug, I thought “Why’s it 3-4x more expensive than other smart plugs”? I then wondered whether the fact that it’s controllable via Zigbee and Bluetooth offers any major benefit that justifies its price increase? After going out and buying this Hue Smart Plug, I wanted to write … Read more
I was recently playing around with a smart plug, and I didn’t have an Echo device – or my smartphone – nearby. I therefore started wondering whether it was possible to control the smart plug with a physical remote. As it turns out, there’s quite a few options open to you – but funnily enough, … Read more
Smart plugs are an interesting item in the world of smart home devices. They have the potential to become extremely useful, but there are some major questions that need to be answered before you can plug a smart plug into every socket in your home. Smart plug technology is facing off against one of the … Read more
Smart plugs are great (or so the marketing says…) – they can easily be used to turn household devices and appliances on/off via your voice, a phone app, automated schedules, and more. Awesome. Unless, of course, you want to control a device which has an electric or mechanical switch – like the red switch below: … Read more