Smart Home / home automation experience, recommendations, etc

derek shared some links said Tue, Dec 3rd 2013 at 11:17am ET

Does anyone have direct experience or recommendations concerning smart home / home automation systems? You know, the world of http://revolv.com/, Belkin's WeMo, http://www.zigbee.org/ and http://www.z-wave.com/ products, of course https://nest.com/, etc. Must be iOS controllable.

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dave said Tue, Dec 3rd 2013 at 4:07pm ET:

Some hacker types I talk to often talk about http://www.insteon.com but I haven't done much checking into it.

I'm basically hobbling together systems from what you're talking about - Nest, WeMo, and now the Philips Hue lighting system. I know @shawn's done some of this stuff, too, and @lukeduff was telling me about this Canary Security system - http://canary.is

It's looking like companies do best when they automate the one thing they're good at, rather than trying (x10 style) to automate your whole house.

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JerseyFrank said Tue, Dec 3rd 2013 at 4:20pm ET:

My home is about 1/3 Insteon, and 2/3 dumb. I lost some motivation in keeping it going, really.

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snapster said Tue, Dec 3rd 2013 at 4:27pm ET:

I'm using a combo of http://www.savantsystems.com software and some Lutron hardware in a new house build. Savant was more simplified approach and very Apple centric versus Crestron or AMX

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derek said Tue, Dec 3rd 2013 at 4:37pm ET:

Another one I'm investigating is http://www.smartthings.com/

Revolv seems promising but expensive. FAQ lists currently compatible products, include some thermostats if Next expense is too much to bear: http://revolv.com/faq/

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