More Home Automation

Little by little, we're adding more to our Alexa-enabled home automation. 

I had written previously about purchasing and installing an Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat. This was a project that required some research because our heating system and furnace were not compatible with these new Smart Thermostats. I figured out a way to make it all work and it only required some rewiring and a little bit of adaptation to our system. The most difficult part of that project was that I needed to learn far more than I wanted about heating systems and our particular old furnace. 

This new thermostat is Alexa-enabled (Amazon's voice activated assistant) which means it can be controlled by voice as well as be controlled remotely with our cellphones, tablets or a computer. This allows us to monitor the temperatures in the house from anywhere while we are out of town. Also, since this particular Smart Thermostat is Alexa-enabled, we knew that installing this particular thermostat would open the door to more home automation options.

We've had Amazon's Fire TV for many years (since it was first released) and Fire TV comes Alexa-enabled so we've already had some experience with Alexa. Admittedly, I have absolutely no desire to constantly need to talk to turn things on or off in our home but having a hands-free option is very convenient. The real convenience is having access to Alexa-enabled devices all throughout the house as well as anywhere in the world. Of course, everything can still be controlled manually the old fashioned way.

I had already converted almost all of our lighting to warm LED lighting. This dropped our lighting electrical usage to around 10% of what we used previously. We had been waiting to make this change until after LED bulbs had been refined to specific color temperatures. Early LED bulbs were very cold and had an annoying blue tint and I definitely did not want that in our home. We now have most of the house converted to warm LED bulbs.

Now, having also added Alexa-enabled automation to the house, we can set a lighting schedule for the house for whenever we are away. We can also manually control our lights using our cellphones while we are away if we want to override the set schedule. 

Sheila is really liking the convenience of being able to control the exterior lights as she approaches the house. There will be no more scurrying into the house in complete darkness. This is especially nice since we have some dangerous wildlife roaming around our house. 

The automated Smart Switches/Dimmers look just like any other standard dimmer. After swapping out the old switch or dimmer, you then connect the new Smart Switch/Dimmer to your router's internet connection... install the new device in the app... and you are all set. The switches and dimmers can be used manually just like any other or you can access them via WiFi or cell service. It is really quite simple once you do this a couple of times but, unfortunately, it could be a bit more simple for first time users who aren't all that tech savvy.

All of our new Smart switches, outlets, and dimmers are made my Leviton. We've always used Leviton so I stuck with them but other manufacturers make Smart devices too. Now we can access all of our Smart Lights throughout the house using our Leviton App or the Alexa App...

We've always had motion-activated security cameras outdoors but now we've added a new Amazon Cloud security system indoors too. In the photo, below, you can see one of the Amazon Cloud Cams mounted on the ceiling in our hallway....

We can access these cameras from anywhere. Below is a screenshot of the view of our living room (messy living room... I still have tools all over the place from all the little projects). The hallway camera is turned off in this screenshot. The cameras can be set to an auto mode where they only come on when motion is detected ONLY when our cellphones are away from the house. We can also turn on any camera in the house while we are out of town just to check up on things. These cameras can also be viewed by voice command on our television on Fire TV. I'm not showing all the cameras here for security reasons but we can remotely view just about any area of our living space or on our Fire TV. 

The Echo Spot is a nice little device for the nightstand. It can be used as any other Alexa-enabled device is used or it can be used simply as an alarm clock. The great thing about this is the alarm can be set by voice... "Alexa, wake me to Josh Groban at 6am"...  no more fiddling around with multiple button clicks that can't be seen by our old eyes! When you set an alarm, it is visible in small print with all pertinent information on the clock face.

This Echo Spot also can be used for video chatting to any Amazon customer with a similar device or as an intercom between Alexa devices throughout the house. Of course, it can be used like any other Alexa-enabled device too. 

Sheila and I often found ourselves trying to listen to music on our tablets while we are in the shower. It never really worked well though for a few reasons. Amazon now has a third generation Alexa Dot which has all the bells and whistles of any other Alexa-enabled device. I built a small shelf in our master bathroom that holds a new Echo Dot. We can now just request... "Alexa, play Pandora" or "Alexa, play my Flash Briefing". You can ask, "Alexa, how is the traffic to work this morning?"  

The flash briefing is a collection of news sources that plays on your device like a radio news report. Our particular Flash Briefing is set up to play our weather forecast, some Vermont Public Radio news stories, then some CNN news stories, some NASA news stories, some Science news stories... you can set it up however you prefer geared toward your own interests for a new briefing. 

We can ask Alexa about any appointments on our calendar for that day or any day. 

We can also use this Echo Dot as an intercom from our other Alexa-enabled devices in the house.

Here is a little more information on the new Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat... 

This is also Alexa-enabled so we often use this for setting kitchen timers since the thermostat is mounted adjacent to the kitchen. It is very nice having hands-free kitchen timers. 

We also use the Alexa-enabled thermostat to add items to our shopping list. This is another incredible convenience to have hands-free. If we run out of half-n-half, we just say, "Alexa, add half-n-half to my shopping list." After adding item after item over the course of days, we simply pull out the cellphone when we're at the grocery store and go to our Alexa app to access the shopping list. 

Of course, we can control the thermostat by voice as well using Alexa...  "Alexa, set the thermostat up two degrees."  Or, "Alexa, turn the heat off."  I have to admit that this is a convenient hands-free feature.

The menu of the thermostat is a touch screen and it is simple to use. There are actually even more features when you access the menu from a desktop or tablet.  

We now have four sensors throughout the house which can be seen in the screenshot below. The temperatures in each room can be monitored remotely whenever we are out of town. Additionally, the temperature is constantly adjusted to my previously set "comfort levels" in whatever room I am occupying. The sensors know which rooms are occupied and adjusts the heat accordingly. 

Another feature of this Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat is "Home IQ". This section shows charts and graphs of our home heating usage. You can quickly view user-defined time periods to see furnace usage stats among many other things.

Setting the furnace schedule is a piece of cake on your desktop. It is very easy to use unlike any programmable thermostat I've used in the past. 

We have a few more lights in the house that we would like to automate and have Alexa-enabled but there is no rush on that. We can add to this home automation slowly at this point. 

I think our next purchase will be the Amazon Echo Show which will add more convenient functionality to our kitchen including video conferencing with family members who also have Alexa video devices. I know that buying in pairs saves significant money so I think we'll give this a try sometime soon. The grandchildren will probably enjoy it immensely... if so, so will Gee!