Smart Home kit - the thread

thisisguitar

I have Sonos Play:1s dotted around the house, Sonos Bridge in the living room and Philips Hue everywhere... ten of them in total. There's nothing nicer than sleeping in a room with a blackout blind and letting the lights gently wake you up, followed by Sonos taking over if the lights don't do it. Got a pair of Sonos Play:3s due soon too. 

As a random benefit, having Sonos play all around the house makes cleaning so much more bearable!

Axe_meister

How easy is it to install a hive.
we have a 5 year old Gloworm boiler with a wireless thermostat.
Is it just a matter of teaching the hive the on/off codes?

ThorpyFX

Axe_meister said:

How easy is it to install a hive.
we have a 5 year old Gloworm boiler with a wireless thermostat.
Is it just a matter of teaching the hive the on/off codes?

Dunno, British Gas did it as part of the package, so in short very easy. It took an hour. 

Snap

hmm,

The Hive - yes its all good and dandy being able to warm your house up when you are away, but.......efficiency wise, you are better to have your heating on all the time, but on low, when out, rather than off, then blast it to get it warm again. I've got settings on my fancy thermostat that does this, came with the boiler. I ahd a good look at all this recently and decided against it.

CCTV - yes.

Alexa - no.

Hue - not for me.

Sonos - I get it, but use something else.

So, do I have a smart home? Not sure. Its a bit clever, but not so sure about "smart"

IvisonGuitars

I have a couple of Sonos Play 1's around the house, I think they are great, really must try linking them in a stereo pair, bet it'll be awesome.

But the whole "Alexa" thing, I don't get. I'd feel like even more of a bellend than usual wandering round the house shouting "Alexa..." at nothing in particular. 

That said, some friends of ours have it and love it. But I don't think it's for me personally.

Travisthedog

to add to my original post

we went to some friends last night for drinks - they have a new echo.

I have to admit I thought "what a bellend" every time my mate went "Alexa, play drinks party playlist" or suchlike

Definitely something you dont want anyone hearing you doing

TimmyO

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest what someone thought of me for doing it - it's dead handy.

I've spent the afternoon flitting between artists, albums and all sorts. 
While I was listening I got an email about a meeting tomorrow - I told Alex to put it in my calendar, and she did :-)

The novelty will doubtless wear off, but I like and will use it. 

As for feeling self-conscious, or letting someone using it change your opinion of them against the weight of the rest of your experience of them, well, it's not them that this reveals something about eh? ;-) 

octatonic

thisisguitar said:

As a random benefit, having Sonos play all around the house makes cleaning so much more bearable!

That must be very pleasant for your housekeeper.

TimmyO

octatonic said:

thisisguitar said:

As a random benefit, having Sonos play all around the house makes cleaning so much more bearable!

That must be very pleasant for your housekeeper.

hahaha

TimmyO

Alexa knows who shot first :-) 

Myranda

I'd really love a fully voice controlled home.. walk in and the lights come on, the house says "Welcome back" ... you tell the telly to come on, or stereo to play a particular track... 

If someone comes to the door, the intercom comes over the in-room speakers and you can open the door with a voice command, rather than walk to a little screen on the wall to push a button.

Not sure that the smart home stuff is quite where I'd want it to be before I tried to install it

Sporky

I have ordered a Gramofon for the workshop - at the moment I'm reliant on an old Nexus 10 as a Spotify client.

TimmyO

Sporky said:

I have ordered a Gramofon for the workshop - at the moment I'm reliant on an old Nexus 10 as a Spotify client.

<googles>

They look nifty. But I think I'd get an Echo Dot for nearly the same price.

boogieman

I think if I was going to have an Alexa type device it would have to have the ability to rename it. I would love to be able to say "Computer, turn on the lights" or even better "Good morning Hal, check the airlock doors"

Sporky

TimmyO said:

Sporky said:

I have ordered a Gramofon for the workshop - at the moment I'm reliant on an old Nexus 10 as a Spotify client.

<googles>

They look nifty. But I think I'd get an Echo Dot for nearly the same price.

I can't find the Echo Dot for £17 new. They seem to be three times that?

TimmyO

Sporky said:

TimmyO said:

Sporky said:

I have ordered a Gramofon for the workshop - at the moment I'm reliant on an old Nexus 10 as a Spotify client.

<googles>

They look nifty. But I think I'd get an Echo Dot for nearly the same price.

I can't find the Echo Dot for £17 new. They seem to be three times that?

A disingenuous question but I'll respond anyway :-) 

I was taking Gramafon.com's 59Euro price at its word! 

Sporky

Ah.

Many, many on sale on eBay, new in box, for much less.

I gather also (not that I want to be too corksniffy about it) that the Gramofon has a better DAC and output stage. In the workshop I only care about music. Not knocking the Dot, it's just not the device for the application.

Sporky

My £17 Gramofon has arrived, brand-spanky, and took about 2 minutes to set up (most of which was finding the Wifi password). Sounds very decent, has a handy pause/play button and works seamlessly via Spotify Connect - and it responds much faster than the Nexus 10 I was using before. Also does a sort of airplay thing for other services.

fretmeister

I've been looking at the Hive stuff as I already have their heating system.

I quite like the lights with sensors option. Even if for no other reason than to combat my kids leaving lights on all the time.

Sporky

I have ordered another Gramofon, this for my home office.

Sadly this one was rather more expensive at £23.