Smart home help!

330d

Hi, I'm doing a full refurbishment of my house and was planning on adding a few smart devices. I am looking to add,

Boiler nest thermostat
A few smart light bulbs

Underfloor heating smart thermostat

My question is, do I need to use the app for each app to control each of the above? So for example, Neat app for thermostat, Philips hue for lights and other random app for the underfloor heating.

Or can an app like Google home control all 3 of the above? I prefer that as everything is under one app .

Neil_Jones

If its a Hive you can control them all from the smart hub I believe and the Hive app.  Philips can be connected to a Hive hub I understand

Google Home would probably work too:

https://www.hivehome.com/discover-hive/smart-home/ok-google-make-my-smart-home-control-even-smarter.

ballyblack

google nest &  smart plugs & speakers are all controlled by Google Home app

Sandtree

There are over arching options like Google, Amazon and Apple (the later is least well supported) however in my experience of them is that they aren't as user friendly etc to use in some circumstances compared to the dedicated app. Spend a little time setting up your scenes etc and they are great but want to change a bulb from neutral white to mid warm white? I'd be opening the bulb's app rather than Google as the white wheel is easier to use than the full spectrum colour circle

srobinson620

We bought some cheap smart plugs (4 for £22 on Amazon) and have an Amazon Echo.  Installed the control app to name each plug. Could not get google home to recognise them but "Alexa switch on alcove light" just worked with the Echo.

teleaddict

Smart home devices can kind of be a repeat of vhs or betamax. Different manufacturers use different standards. Some use wifi signal, where as some use zigbee. For zigbee you will need some form of hub (like phillips hue or Ikeas for example). Quite a lot will have integrations with either google home or alexa (or both). Both methods usually rely on cloud support from the manufacturers.

Depending how tech savvy you are, you may want to consider the likes of Home Assistant, a free software package that runs on various devices, which will act as a "universal hub". This has the advantage of liaising between the different formats. So for example ,  company As light sensor could trigger company Bs blinds to close and trigger company Cs lights to be switched on. Home Assistant is a very flexible solution, which provides both the option of remote access as well as local control without relying on cloud support for devices. There is also a very large community of users out there, who offer help & support...