New Smart House

Hardware
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We just had an offer accepted on a great little lake front house!!

Extremely excited for the move but I’m also really excited to turn it into a full smart house!

**What recommendations do you have for hardware/software, general things to think about in the process? **

Would love to hear your experiences.

Here are some more details of our situation.

We are moving from an apartment (this will be my first house). The apartment had several hue lights including light bulbs, indoor strip, outdoor strip and play bar. We have 5 or 6 echo devices that will be used in the new space. Because it was an apartment was not able to fully convert the more unique lights because I wasn’t going to install light switches.

The new house was completely remodeled. It was a fix and flip type property. It has some really nice built in lighting, and lots of it so I’m looking to switch out the light switches as a way to make the lighting smart. My partner is significantly less tech savvy. There will need to be a seamless integration for this little house to be a happy home. She has gotten used to calling out to Alexa for some basic actions.

I’m looking to add automatic black out blinds, lots of outdoor elements (we are building a deck and hoping to extend lighting out to the dock), and I’d like to install a Home Hub in the kitchen, probably run off an iPad and shortcuts so if I’m not there Julia can easily run the entire house.

What else am I missing? I’m ready to make this a tech lovers dream home.

If you want/need more details on the space to give good recommendation (or just want to see a pic :slight_smile: ) let me know.

I also run a YouTube channel and plan to document the entire process including turning half the garage into a fully decked out live streaming and video production studio.

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My Lutron Caseta has been flawless and super easy to install plus the integration with everything from Homekit to Smartthings has been superb. The only downside is no RGB but I too have Hue Bulbs that I use and if I want to tie everything together I do it through a HomeKit app

That being said we’re on the cusp of the next generation of HA technology. Amazon, Apple, Samsung and more are working on Connected Home over IP - CHIP which attempts to get rid of the incompatibly because of many different protocols. A key component of CHIP will be Thread underlaying foundation which seeks to have IP addressable products, self healing networks (kind of a true Mesh) and low power so battery accessories last longer than say Wifi devices.

I’m excited for this because being IP centric allows Thread/CHIP to be integrated into networked devices. This is why the HomePod Mini is able to neatly integrate with Thread as a Border Router. The latency is much less with Thread. Companies like Nanoleaf and Eve Home have Thread products that respond almost instantaneous as compared to Bluetooth accessories.

So let me wrap this up. Eve is planning to move their entire lineup to Thread. Nanoleaf has stated that all future lighting product upgrades will be Thread enabled. Even as a Hue owner …I likely won’t buy any future products that aren’t Thread enabled because Thread products should make an easy migration to full on CHIP support.

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Thanks for your comment on this. I was leaning towards Lutron for the switches so great to hear they’ve worked flawlessly.

I’ve been doing a lot of research into Thread since I first read your reply. I’ve since ordered my first HomePod mini. It arrives today!

Thanks again!

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