Back in 2013, a small company appeared on Shark Tank: a company called DoorBot, who later rebranded as “Ring”. In their appearance, Ring outlined their smart doorbell – one of the first smart doorbells on the market. Since then, Ring have released smart cameras, an alarm system, a range of smart lights – along with … Read more
If you are someone who doesn’t like stepping onto a cold floor in the middle of the winter and would prefer to wake up with a cup of coffee instead, then you might have invested in an underfloor heating system. At the same time, you might have heard that a smart thermostat can help you … Read more
A single-zone smart thermostat can either put the whole house’s heating on, or off. It can’t control individual rooms (well, not without automatic dampers – which are rarely fitted in residential homes). In my opinion, this is one of the many flaws of smart thermostats. But what about smart radiator valves? Can these swoop in … Read more
ecobee produce a range of smart home devices, although they’re best known for their smart thermostat which rivals the Nest Learning Thermostat. ecobee also produce two smart sensors: a SmartSensor for their thermostat, and a SmartSensor for windows and doors (compatible with their ecobee Haven system. There’s also some support for 3rd party sensors. ecobee … Read more
I have posted a new video on YouTube covering 11 reasons why I think that smart thermostats are pointless and can potentially be a waste of money, which is the video version of my ‘11 Reasons Why Smart Thermostats Are Pointless‘ article: Video Transcript Hey YouTube, it’s Tristan from Smart Home Point here. As you … Read more
The Nest Learning Thermostat proudly talks of supporting 95% of heating systems, whilst Ecobee also says that it supports “most” systems including geothermal. But do they work properly with geothermal, the green heat pump-based alternative? A properly sized geothermal heating system shouldn’t need frequent changes to its thermostat. Smart thermostats make constant changes to the … Read more
Home automation can be achieved in a range of ways. With so much smart tech available nowadays, you can pretty much look around your house and find ways of automation everything you see. But having loads of choice is both a blessing and a curse: it’s easy to never automate anything around your house because … Read more
“My smart thermostat has really improved my home life” – said no one ever. When smart ‘learning’ thermostats burst onto the scene in 2011, they did so to great fanfare. After all, they are smart. They learn. They will massively improve your home life… or so the marketing promised. The reality is a lot more … Read more