Smart Home

Offalyguy

I'm thinking of buying a home automation system, should I go for Samsung Smart Hub or should I go to a company that specialists in home automation.

If I go for a hub I can buy bites and pieces when I can afford to. If you say a company please give name of the company.

What is my best option?

wexfordman2

Offalyguy wrote: »

I'm thinking of buying a home automation system, should I go for Samsung Smart Hub or should I go to a company that specialists in home automation.

If I go for a hub I can buy bites and pieces when I can afford to. If you say a company please give name of the company.

What is my best option?

Depends in what you want, what your abilities are, your budget, and if you are building, rewiring or just adding to existing house.

You'll have to give more info

Offalyguy

Its my own home so existing house. I am a wheelchair so its really to make life a bit easier. Budget is so so which is why I was thinking Samsung hub I could add things slowly

wexfordman2

Offalyguy wrote: »

Its my own home so existing house. I am a wheelchair so its really to make life a bit easier. Budget is so so which is why I was thinking Samsung hub I could add things slowly

Are we talking about lighting only, or heating as well, with some smart audio and video ?

To start off with, I would probably get

A) a google home
some hue lights and a hue hub for lamps, maybe a switch as well.
C) heating, nest for example, but thats just based in my experience if nest, there are other options.
D) Chromecast for tv

Stoner

E) a SONOFF unit , ties in nicely with Google Home , inexpensive.

Offalyguy

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Are we talking about lighting only, or heating as well, with some smart audio and video ?

To start off with, I would probably get

A) a google home
some hue lights and a hue hub for lamps, maybe a switch as well.
C) heating, nest for example, but thats just based in my experience if nest, there are other options.
D) Chromecast for tv

Yes I want to start of on lights and heating and switches then over time keep building on to it with blinds and doors. You recommend a Google Home?

wexfordman2

Offalyguy wrote: »

Yes I want to start of on lights and heating and switches then over time keep building on to it with blinds and doors. You recommend a Google Home?

Def a google home, or probably a few of them but start off with the one. Google home is your interface to everything.

What kind of heating do you have and what kind if controls

Offalyguy

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Def a google home, or probably a few of them but start off with the one. Google home is your interface to everything.

What kind of heating do you have and what kind if controls

My heating is just oil with a timer on the wall. I will get that charged after the summer but now I can't connect to it with any device

wexfordman2

Offalyguy wrote: »

My heating is just oil with a timer on the wall. I will get that charged after the summer but now I can't connect to it with any device

How many zones do you have in your heating ?

Does the water heat separately, I.e is it an independent zone, or does your heating just hear everything in one go ?

I would look at a nest thermostat and the best cheapest way to get ine is via electric ireland If your with them.

Offalyguy

When the heating is on it heats up the whole house

Yes I am with Electric Ireland, how much do you think a thermostat is?

punisher5112

Offalyguy wrote: »

When the heating is on it heats up the whole house

Yes I am with Electric Ireland, how much do you think a thermostat is?

They do offers where they install for you.

I bought a netatamo as was renting so put it in the house while we were there.

You won't know yourself even with just the lights and hue lamps. You can buy the Ikea WiFi LED lights also and these will link with the hue hub.

I don't have experience with the Google unit but have an echo dot which is cool.
She can control the heating and lights also.

On the heating side it will end up in most cases saving you also as you can keep track of usage and if out and not back till later or whatever you can control it.

bk

As others have said above, SmartThings Hub is probably one of the last things I added to my setup, other priorities first.

Google Home / Mini, Hue Hub + some bulbs, Netatmo Smart Thermostat (lots of other good choices too), Logitech Harmony Hub for the TV

SmartThings can be a useful addition to the above, but it isn't where I'd start off.

micks_address

Offalyguy wrote: »

When the heating is on it heats up the whole house

Yes I am with Electric Ireland, how much do you think a thermostat is?

Electric Ireland are offering nest to customers or non customers for 129 euro installed. Excellent value

https://shop.electricireland.ie/products/install-detail/nest-thermostat

wexfordman2

micks_address wrote: »

Electric Ireland are offering nest to customers or non customers for 129 euro installed. Excellent value

https://shop.electricireland.ie/products/install-detail/nest-thermostat

Absolutely, considering to buy the nest alone costs 240 euro off the shelf before getting it installed

Op, do you have a separate hot water zone, Also, do you have a back boiler or any other heating source besides the oil ?

Offalyguy

I have a solid fuel Stanley which heats the house and water when oil isn't on. €129 seems very good value for a nest I'll look into that.

Offalyguy

Offalyguy wrote: »

I have a solid fuel Stanley which heats the house and water when oil isn't on. €129 seems very good value for a nest I'll look into that.

Maybe there's one thing I didn't make clear, my speech wouldn't be a 100% it's not terrible but not 100%. With this in mind should I still buy Google home or Samsungsmart hub.

wexfordman2

Offalyguy wrote: »

Maybe there's one thing I didn't make clear, my speech wouldn't be a 100% it's not terrible but not 100%. With this in mind should I still buy Google home or Samsungsmart hub.

Try google assistant on your phone and see how it is. I find the google speech recognition to be very good. Not 100℅ but very good

bk

Once you've testes out the Google Assistant on your phone and if happy with it, you could also just buy one Google Home Mini to try out. At £35 it is pretty reasonably priced to just try it.

BTW SmartThings hub actually works very well with Google Home, it is natively supported in Google Home. Google Home and SmartThings are different type of devices and do different things, you can't really directly compare them.

Offalyguy

bk wrote: »

Once you've testes out the Google Assistant on your phone and if happy with it, you could also just buy one Google Home Mini to try out. At £35 it is pretty reasonably priced to just try it.

BTW SmartThings hub actually works very well with Google Home, it is natively supported in Google Home. Google Home and SmartThings are different type of devices and do different things, you can't really directly compare them.

I've been doing research I was told Google home isn't a 100% setup for Ireland yet but Alexa works a lot better in Ireland

wexfordman2

Offalyguy wrote: »

I've been doing research I was told Google home isn't a 100% setup for Ireland yet but Alexa works a lot better in Ireland

Google works pretty much 100% in Ireland, the only feature you can't get yet, is voice calling

bk

Offalyguy wrote: »

I've been doing research I was told Google home isn't a 100% setup for Ireland yet but Alexa works a lot better in Ireland

Pretty much the other way around. Alexa is officially available in Ireland, but really doesn't work very well in Ireland. Google Home isn't officially available in Ireland, but for the most part works extremely well in Ireland.

Source: I've both, Echo, Echo Dot, Google Home, Google Home Mini x2, both Echos are now unplugged and unused as nowhere near as good.

Offalyguy

Ok thanks to everyone I will buy a Google Home

THE ALM

Offalyguy wrote: »

Ok thanks to everyone I will buy a Google Home

If you are in no rush keep an eye out on special offers for these. I have two, both of which came free with Hue Starter kits.

digitaldr

If you like RTE Radio 1 it hasn't worked on Google Home for weeks although you can Bluetooth it from your phone. Apparently Google are working on it.

rambunctious1

I’ve spent a year and a half with Smartthings and I wouldn’t recommend the system currently. Constant drops in service no matter where I place the hub or the wifi channel selected.
Inconsistent triggering or no triggering at all.
Having to re-add sensors regularly.
The sensors eat batteries and getting the exact Duracell or Panasonic 2450 is a pain.
I’ll probably upgrade the sensors eventually but I wish I’d went with something more stable in the beginning.