Smart home

The physiological need for shelter nowadays extends to the idea of the roof over our heads that keeps us safe and comfortable. In Canada, from coast to coast, those needs swing wildly between regions and seasons; the one thing that keeps us comfortable are the heating and air conditioning systems installed in our homes. Controlling these systems used to be a dance of setting the right temperature. That changed with programmable thermostats, and then again with the invention of the Smart Thermostat. It’s a revolution in home control and it’s my opinion that, barring a few cases, almost everyone should have one. Want to know why? Read on.

Since we originally visited the Weiser Kevo last fall, it has made its way to store shelves and online at BestBuy.ca, and it’s time to take a little more of an in-depth look at this imaginative device, allowing you to enter your house with just the touch of a finger and the magic of Bluetooth technology.  Is it easy to install?  Easy to program?  How is a home handyman novice like me going to fare with replacing a major lock in the house?  Click on to find out.

2016 has been a great year of progress for Home Automation and an unfortunate year for our hydro and gas prices. With the rising costs of both, this edition of the Smart Home Series takes a look at how you can take some of those systems Steven Hill has been blogging about to apply them to conserving energy and shaving dollars and cents off those bills.

Linksys has entered the burgeoning networking sub-category of mesh Wi-Fi with the Velop, a router that will come as a single unit, or in a pack of two or three to cover your home with a solid connection.

Slow Internet connections and unreliable Wi-Fi is exactly what TP-Link designed its Deco M5 system to fix. How well does it do it though?

Nest and Yale are tag teaming on a new smart lock collaboration called the Nest x Yale Lock—an innovation that's sure to help us all sleep better at night.

I just installed the Nest Hello Doorbell Camera and the Nest x Yale Door Lock, and these two smart devices really take the anxiety out of securing my home.

Philips Hue Outdoor Lily Spotlights are landscape lighting with a twist. You can control them via the Hue App and play with 16 million colours.

Smart thermostats control your home's heating and cooling system. If you're looking for a thermostat, here are the features and benefits of different types.

Belkin didn’t make the kind of splash it’s done before at CES, but the few products the company announced could solve real problems at home.