Best Smart home automation products to buy..

[Annablake]

Hi I am Anna, Looking forward for more discussion on Smart home technology.

Three main things required in our house are the lighting system,Thermostats and Security products.
Which is the best smart home products that are affordable also with a longer warranty.Could somebody suggest some online review sites for products available in portals like ...

http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.cannykart.com/
http://www.bestbuy.com/

 

[Peepo]

http://www.smarthome.com

Many products sold there have reviews by users/purchasers.

 

[EnderBeta]

Hi I am Anna, Looking forward for more discussion on Smart home technology.

Three main things required in our house are the lighting system,Thermostats and Security products.
Which is the best smart home products that are affordable also with a longer warranty.Could somebody suggest some online review sites for products available in portals like ...

http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.cannykart.com/
http://www.bestbuy.com/

If you want the best Crestron is where it is at.

 

[LiveM]

Hi I am Anna, Looking forward for more discussion on Smart home technology.

Three main things required in our house are the lighting system,Thermostats and Security products.

Lighting: Philips Hue. The most comorehensive and versatile system.
Security: Schlage and August locks. I like August's key logger function. Lutron blinds. Canary camera and alarm (HomeKit version coming).

 

[cynics]

When it comes to home security add HomeKit to the "want" list not your "need" list. If a security camera overall sucks but is HomeKit enabled...what good is it? Reliability and functionality need to take precedence over HomeKit compatibility.

I'm not saying HomeKit compatiable security cameras are bad but it's just a feature that needs to be lightly weighed into the equation. The person above me mentioned the Canary camera and upcoming Canary Plus (HomeKit enabled), as of posting this its my camera of choice (of just the plug in and forget it type). The current firmware and app work very well even with pets (this was a problem at first) but still logs even the slightest detection of movement.

 

[steve knight]

I use smartthings hub to control the locks and turning lights on of when we leave and detecting motion and doors locked when gone hue for the lights I use the hue app for some smartthings for others.

 

[ericgtr12]

I use smartthings hub to control the locks and turning lights on of when we leave and detecting motion and doors locked when gone hue for the lights I use the hue app for some smartthings for others.

Can you setup recipes for multiple items with smartthings, like turn off the kitchen and living room, then turn on the bedroom all in one command? I know we can use IFTTT but it's not practical when you have 2 dozen bulbs because you have to add an action to each bulb with no ability to group.

Also if you haven't heard, Hue is finally making a motion sensor which is awesome news!

 

[steve knight]

yes with smart things you setup things so some lights go on some off and change the brightness level. I use this when I go to bed. some turn off some dim some come on. if the lights come on at a time then I use hue or ihueconnect to dim them on in the morning one light then another and another. the doors unlock and the mode changes so the motion detectors don't do things. it is real home automation when a huge amount of choices and devices. it sucked for awhile but it finally gotten pretty reliable. the only wacky thing is the gps is not always accurate so it may take awhile before it knows you are gone and can miss when you come home once in awhile. but the last few months it has been pretty reliable.
so far I have not found a outside motion sensor or door sensor so I had to adapt them.

 

[boston04and07]

I've been searching for an out of the box HomeKit enabled security camera and so far the only thing I've found is the yet-to-be-released Canary Plus, and that's how I found this thread actually as I was looking for more information on it.

According to their press release, they say it'd be able to "give you an easy, secure, and private way to monitor your home via the new Home app in iOS 10." That sounds to me like the video feed would somehow be directly in the Home app, which sounds super intriguing, but I had no idea that Home has the ability to handle video feeds...does anyone know more about this? Perhaps I missed something when they were discussing the app in the last keynote. I'm looking to replace my Nest cam anyway and the idea of having all that home automation stuff in one app sounds pretty sweet...