I have a love hate relationship with technology. I love when it enhances my life and makes it easier and I hate it acts up on me and I have to figure stuff out! I am not someone who feels comfortable with figuring out technology so I am easily frustrated when my tech fails.
In terms of the smart tech in my house, I have had Alexa devices in my home since 2019. I have the Echo Show 8 in my kitchen, the Echo Show 5 in my bedroom an Echo Dot in my living room and one in the guest room. I also have a couple smart plugs for my non-smart tv’s! Up until recently, the extent of smart home usage was having Alexa turn my tv’s on and off when I arrive or leave home. And I was perfectly happy with that!
I’m not sure how but recently I have been thinking about other ways to tart up my smart home. I had been under the impression that you needed lots of smart plugs or needed lights to be hard wired in order to use my Alexa with them. Recently, I learned that smart lights are available without using smart plugs or hard wiring! The lights are smart bulbs which connect to your wi-fi. My world just opened up! I invested in 2 LED Wi-Fi lights-one just white and one with white and colors. I started in my bedroom with the plain white light. The instructions were very easy to follow and it connected! I had lots of fun telling Alexa to turn on the light, turn off the light, turn the light down to 50% and on and on. It worked great for 1 day and then the connection was lost. Try as I might, I could not get the light to re-connect. I did everything that was recommended on line and even with the tech support. Nothing worked. Finally, I gave up and set up the colored light. This one connected fast and easy and has stayed connected. I have had way too much fun changing the color from pink to purple to green, blue and yellow. There are settings that allow you to set up certain light themes or have the light change at a particular time. For example, when I tell Alexa it’s bedtime, the light dims to a night light! With that light up and running, I tried again to connect the other light. Still no dice. Rather than chuck the whole project, I moved on to setting up smart lights in my living room. I ordered a set of 4 colored lights for the 4 lamps I have in my living room. I’m pleased to report that these four lights set up easily and work together either individually or as a group. I can tell Alexa to turn all of the lights on or just one at a time. I can have them all the same color or all different colors!! I have set up a few scenes where I tell Alexa to turn the lights to Netflix and Chill which turns the lights down, to turn on Pretty which is all pink or Relaxing which is all blue. It’s really fun!
I think that I’m done with smart lights in my home for now. I have 4 lights in my hallway (takes 8 bulbs) and I considered changing those out. However, I decided not to because (1) the light switch is right next to my front door and bedroom door. There would be nothing really gained from switching them out. One of the lessons I’ve had to learn is that I’ve had to get out of the habit of turning the lights off when i leave the room! That defeats the purpose of having Alexa do the work for me!
I have though decided to use smart lights in my office!
Smart lights are fairly common these days and you can get them in several price ranges. They must be quite popular though because it’s incredibly difficult to find them in stores. I ended up ordering mine from Amazon. The most well known brand is the Philips Hue which gets rave reviews and is the most expensive. With the Philips bulbs there are two methods to connect your lights. The easiest is through wi-fi which is the system I use with several different smart bulbs. The other method is through a bridge. You connect your bridge to your Wi-Fi and then your lights to the bridge. This method creates less usage on your Wi-Fi. Of course, the method you should use is dependent on the size of your house and how many bulbs you plan to use along with other Wi-Fi devices. My house is small enough that I didn’t need a bridge system. The bridge system is especially useful in homes with more than 1 level or a very large spread out space. It is generally stated that your Wi-Fi is not slowed down until you get upwards of 30 smart bulbs!
I am using Wiz connected smart bulbs. Wiz is part of the Philips family and was their bulb prior to them having the Hue system.
FYI-you don’t need Alexa or any home assistant to operate these bulbs. The bulbs can be operated through the app alone if you’d like.
You can mix brands of bulbs if you want but that means that you have to download apps for each brand and that’s too many apps for me. You can connect them all to your smart home assistant like Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home Kit, etc…and have the home smart assistant operate the lights. Some of the more common smart bulbs companies are Govee, TreatLife, Wyze, Feit and GE-Cync.
Smart bulbs can be used indoor and outdoor and there are smart can light bulbs, light strips and Edison style smart bulbs.
Here are a couple of short videos demonstrating my commands to Alexa. You even get to hear me make a mistake!
Vacuum
The other new smart home addition to my arsenal is a Roomba i2 smart vacuum. This is another item that is operated through an app or with Alexa. I bought this vacuum on Prime Day and so far I am quite happy with my purchase. I have named her Rosie after the Robot maid from the cartoon, The Jetson’s!
I tell Alexa to tell Rosie to start vacuuming and she does. This is a basic model so it doesn’t have house mapping but after she runs a few more times I will be able to tell her to go to specific rooms. It was very weird just letting her run and I’ll admit that I followed her around for a bit the first couple of times! I have Rosie programmed to return to the base when the dirt bucket is full rather than just stopping where she is. She picks up a lot of dirt, too.
Smart Home Routines
One of the features I really like with my smart home is being able to set routines and schedules. I find that this makes the technology really useful. As I mentioned before, I have a routine where I say to Alexa, “I’m leaving” and she turns off any tv’s that are on and wishes me a good day. When I say, “I’m home” she turns the tv’s on and welcomes me home. At night when I’m ready for bed I tell Alexa to “end my day” and she turns tv’s off in the kitchen and guest room and now she also sets my bedroom light to a night light. I’ve also set a routine to have my light turn on to daylight about 10 minutes before my alarm goes off! About 20 minutes before my alarm goes off, Alexa says “good morning, today will be a great day.” She then gives me the weather and a few news stories from NPR (my choice, there are several sources to choose from). When she’s done with the news she says, “that’s it for now”. Not gonna lie-I often sleep right through it but on the occasions that I don’t I do enjoying hearing the information.
I can also set up a routine for the vacuum. I can set up a schedule for vacuuming on a certain day and certain place.
This was Rosie’s maiden voyage where she starts learning the area including where the doors or other obstructions are. I like how Rosie can go over different textures easily!
I like that you can have a specific Alexa give you information or the one that you ask. As I said before, I have 4 active devices that I can speak to or get information from. For instance, only the Alexa device in my bedroom, performs the above “routine.” No need to have all of the other ones speaking. You can also have these routines, texts and reminders sent to your phone. It can be as hands off or intrusive as you choose. I have my calendar connected so that Alexa can give me reminders from my calendar!
I doubt that I will be one of those people with a completely automated home because I’m not really interested in that. I like when technology makes my life easier and less complicated. I am proud of myself for setting up first my Alexa devices and now the lights. Even with the set backs and minor frustrations, I am proud that I managed to get it done.
There are some things I am still working on figuring out. I have a new fire tv that is supposed to connect with my Alexa. Even though she has found the tv, she tells me that she is unable to turn her on and off (which I know is not true). What I know is that there is a step I am missing somewhere and at some point it will come to me. In the meantime, I will continue with manual turning on and off!
What I’ve described here in terms of my smart home doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what a smart home can do or even my smart home. I’m actually looking forward to learning more.
I’ve recently learned about a device that can turn your curtains “smart.” I may look into that because I leave my curtains open all the time because I’m too lazy to open and close them daily!
Do you have smart devices in your home? How do you use them? Are you interested in smart home devices? Share in the comments.
