Smart home

Adding wireless coloured light to your home is a relatively new concept, with a lot of new players out there. There are the established brands like Philips Hue, which have commanded a premium on the market, partially because they have brand recognition for being first, and partially because they’ve made a great product. MIPOW PLAYBULB is an entrant into the market that offers a lower cost way to put wireless coloured lighting into your space. I have three products that we’re looking at today, read on to see how they fared in my home.

If you have electric baseboard heating you’re probably feeling left out of the smart thermostat revolution. Popular models like the Nest Thermostat and Ecobee aren’t focused on customers like me with baseboard heaters, so I jumped at the chance to review this – it’s the Sinope 3000W Wireless Smart Thermostat starter kit. Read on to see it installed and learn how it works.

A smart home is only as smart as the products within it, so let’s take a look at some smart lights, smart plugs, and smart switches.

A home without a sense of security isn’t much of a home, and with the latest smarthome gadgets you can have enhanced security, with the added bonus of increased efficiency, monitoring, and the flexibility that comes with modern electronics, no matter where you are. 

When it comes to basic home renovations, I was always told to hope for the best but expect the worst. That may be true when it comes to renovating a kitchen in a 10-year-old house or even doing a major overhaul on a house that’s 20 or 30 years old, but when you decide to crack open a house that’s 100 years old, all you can do is hope for OK and expect a lot of trouble.

These days, it seems as though there is a smart version of almost every electronic device imaginable. There are smart watches, smart phones, smart TVs, smart appliances, smart fitness trackers, smart cars; the list goes on. But one category that really seems to be gaining momentum is smart products for the home, especially smart products that don’t necessarily require professional installation, like the Lutron Caséta Wireless Smart Home Lighting product line.   I was sent two Lutron Caséta products to review: The Lutron Caséta Wireless Plug-in Lamp Dimmer With Remote, and the Lutron Caséta Wireless Smart Lighting Dimmer Kit. I started with what I knew would be the easiest to install of the two, the plug-in dimmer kit.  

There aren’t a lot of things Nest needs to improve on nowadays. It’s already arguably the best thermostat on the market. It not only provides you its learning benefits but gives you access to a huge network of coordinating partners. With no need to re-invent this wheel, Nest has turned to some physical and functional enhancements for its recently announced Nest 3.0 learning thermostat. Come take a look at the newest edition of the Nest!

Geek Squad now offers free in-home consultation to help with your Smart Home Automation needs. Are you interested in smart lighting? Keyless entry? Smart Thermostats? Maybe all of the above? No problem. Read on to find out more about what this free in-home consultation is all about and how you can get your Smart Home up and running faster.

Wi-Fi has rapidly progressed from being a novelty to something we depend on. With a wave of ‘smart’ technology now flooding our homes, Wi-Fi performance is more critical than ever. The need for reliable speed, bandwidth, coverage, security, compatibility, upgradability and setup that anyone can understand has driven tech giant Google—working with respected industry leader TP-Link—to release its own wireless router. Meet OnHub, the “new router from Google that’s built for all the ways you Wi-Fi.”  

Smart lights are an easy way to add beauty, security and versatility to your home.  Whether it’s setting up timers, or adding colour both inside and out, smart lights are quickly moving from fun gadget, to home must-haves.  Find out why.