How smart should our new smart home be?
OK Google, turn on Nelson
I work in technology, so I like the idea of smart home features. The concept of being able to control various functions of your house from different rooms, or on a schedule, or even when you’re away is appealing to a nerd like me.
Living in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment for the past decade meant I didn’t have a huge need for most smart home products and applications. No light switch was ever more than a few steps away, for example. One thermostat was plenty for under 1,000 square feet. We had Google Home devices, and not much else.
Building a home like Little Farm presented a whole range of opportunities to add smart home capabilities. Most every new appliance is wifi-enabled these days. The sky is the limit in terms of available products and applications, some more practical than others in my opinion.
So the question became… how smart should our new smart home be? The answer is likely different for every home or family. Here’s how we thought about this question at Little Farm.
Establishing smart home principles
Here are some principles we applied to our decision-making:
Smart devices must have a clear benefit, making our daily life easier in some way.
No technology for technology’s sake.
Devices are unwelcome if they lend themselves to paranoia or obsession (e.g., omnipresent video cameras).
Google Home as the starting point
Back in NYC we had already invested in Google Home devices, so choosing smart home products that are compatible with the Google ecosystem was a starting point. Here are some of the first products we choose:
Google Mesh WiFi System. The router plus two points is more than enough to cover our 3,000 square feet. Each one acts as a speaker and smart device. It was incredibly easy to set up, and it has worked flawlessly. Highly recommend!
Nest Audio devices. We added two of these to our existing, early model Google Home devices. The assistant functionality is mostly the same. The audio quality is really a step up from previous generations.
Light bulbs and switches
Lighting is an area where you could go crazy and really overdo it. We referred to our principles to make sure we were using smart technology in the right places, with clear benefits.
Treatlife Single Pole Smart Switches to control outdoor fixtures, some of which are too far away from the house to consider using smart bulbs. These are nothing fancy, but they visually blend with our regular Decora switches throughout the house, and a four-pack cost us less than $40. We don’t seem to be able to control these switches through the Google Home app, but setting up the exterior lights on a schedule with the Treatlife app was easy enough. Set it and forget it!
Philips Hue starter kit with two A19 60W equivalent dimmable LED smart bulbs and a bridge — you need one bridge, then can easily add Philips Hue smart bulbs throughout the house. We use the two 60W equivalent bulbs in our main bedside lamps, and added a high-lumen smart bulb for the large George Nelson pendant light in the main living space.
OK Google, turn on main bedroom lamps
Other useful smart things
Here are a few other smart things we find useful?
Shark ION Robot Vacuum AV752 is pretty great! We haven’t managed to connect this to Google Home, either. But we frequently use the Shark app to send the robot vacuum on cleaning missions.
Samsung washer and dryer send notifications to my phone when they’ve completed their cycles. And to my surprise, I find this super useful! It helps me avoid leaving a load of wet clothes in the washer overnight by mistake. Go figure!
Lift Master garage door openers are compatible with Google Home via the MyQ app. It’s useful to be able to check the status, and open and close the doors remotely.
Nest Learning Thermostats have been on our list since we went into contract. Unfortunately we’re still waiting for our builder to install them. I’m quite certain it will be useful to control the multiple heating zones in our house using Google Home.
Less useful smart things
The Schlage app for the smart lock on the front door (slightly different trim than what is linked) is useful to set up and manage codes. However, it sends notifications whenever the door is unlocked or locked… several minutes after the event. Not so useful.
Our Heat & Glo gas fireplace has an optional wifi add-on. I can’t imagine a time when I would would want to use the fireplace when not in close physical proximity. Not upgrading.
Smart things we didn’t do
We had initially considered Nest Protect devices for smoke and CO detection. Turns out we would need a lot of them for Little Farm, and they’re a bit pricey. We learned that you can’t have some Nest Protect devices. They all need to be the same system. We thought about our principles, and didn’t think they would make our daily life easier or necessarily safer. So we walked away from the idea.
I mentioned earlier that omnipresent video cameras aren’t appealing to me. I could see myself obsessing over every little movement on our property — and watching a livestream of wild turkeys skulking around the yard doesn’t seem like a great use of time.
