Isolation Day 17: Making A Smart Home
Can I Create a HomeKit Smart Home?
I’ve been wanting to create a Smart Home for years now ever since seeing a Grand Designs episode years ago when one of the home builders was wiring his ouse with a boatload of network cable so he could create a smart home. From that moment I was hooked with the dream of having a smart home.
Why HomeKit?
As many that me know I use a few of apples products and I’m always looking to add more. Believe it or not though, It’s not because HomeKit is a home backbone built by apple that I like it. It’s because it’s a system that can work offline and is really easy to setup. All you have to do is scan a QR code on the product and that’s it added to your smart home. The fact it works offline is great as we have a spotty internet connection that can’t always be relied upon.
I know that here in the UK we are a bit more limited than the US when it comes to HomeKit compatible so I’ve narrowed down my search to a few key areas in our home. So I’ll be looking for products that will smartly my lighting, hearting, power, sound and security. I may find a few other bits and pieces that interest me on the way to. So without further ado lets get looking.
Lighting
So I already have some Philips Hue smart bulbs in the house. Whilst they are great they are really expensive compared to some other vendors. My only other problem with them is that they don’t dim down past 10% but from the research I have come across it seems to be the same across the board.
After looking at a few compatible brands. I ended up going with Ikea’s Tradfri System. One of the main reasons I went with Tradfri is because of the price. Not only does it keep the wife happy, as I’m not spending too much money on these things, but also if I need to get a new bulb I’m paying around half the price of my current Hue system.
I currently need 8x E13 and 3 E27 bulbs for lamps and ceiling fixtures around the house, that don’t already have a hue bulb in them. Of course with the Ikea system there are a few other parts of the tradfri system that will be needed to get up and running.
First off I’m going to need the Tradfri Gateway. This gateway acts as a hub for all the lights to connect to and only have one connection to my home network. Well that’s not quite true as the Tradfri use what they call steering devices to connect to each of the bulbs and then the steering device talks to the hub. This is different the the Philips Hue system there the bulbs talk directly to the hub, as do the switches.
So I’ll need the following to finish the smart lighting in our home:
| Tradfri Gateway | £25.00 | 1 | £25.00 |
| Tradfri Wireless Dimmer (Streering Devices) | £6.00 | 5 | £30.00 |
| Dimmer Wall Mount | £5.50 | 2 | £11.00 |
| Tradfri E14 Bulb | £7.00 | 8 | £56.00 |
| Tradfri E27 Bulb | £10.00 | 3 | £30.00 |
| Philips Hue Dimmer | £17.99 | 4 | £71.96 |
| Hue Dimmer Wall Mount | £8.99 | 3 | £26.97 |
| Total | £250.93 |
You may be thinking “HOLLY S**T That’s a lot of bulbs” You can blame the wife for that as she had me fit a 6 point chandelier in the living room. I’ve also included some wall mounts for the Dimmers. The nicely hide the current switch behind the Tradfri/Hue and stops the previously mentioned wife turning the switch of, without rummaging in my tool bag at least.
Heating
When it came to find some smart heating devices I was bobarded witha number of services that required a subsription to get all the features offered by the devices. This would not only mean that I would not only have to shell out each money but also an internet connect would deffinatly be required to get the added features working.
I ended up going with Netatmo line of heating control products. Not only do they not charge a subscription but they also offer Smart Radiator Valves (TRVs) both as part of a pack and seperatly so that if we move home I can just buy a couple more.
Not only can you set reutines from the comfort of your sofa you can keep an eye on how much energy you have been using. It also has an auto adapt function that takes into consideration how much insulation your home has as well as the outside tempreture and figures out how warm your heating needs to be and what time to tuen it on to get your rooms to the ideal tempreture.
It also works with a variety of heating systems including under floor heating, and though we don’t have that yeat when we buy our own place it will be something that I will be looking into.
| Description | Price | Qty | Total |
| Netatmo Smart Thermostat | £159.99 | 1 | £159.99 |
| Extra Radiator Valve | £69.99 | 5 | £349.95 |
| Total | £509.94 |
Power
When it comds to controling power there are next to no homekit options in th eUK that you don’t have to sell your first born for unless you want to hack somthing together from cheap plugs and sockets on Amazon or eBay. Whilst I don’t particually mind this route any coding i do seems to have a habbit of breaking so to keep the wife happy this option is out, but maybe still a side porject in the future.
What I ahev fond though is that Ikea sell a smart socket as part of their Tradfri range. It’s a bit big, height wise, compared to alot of it competitors but for the price you really can’t compalin. Like all the other Tradfri products it can be controlled either by an adition smart switch or your phone. It can also be included in scenes or set on timers, perfect for our fish tank light.
| Description | Price | Qty | Total |
| Tradfri Smart Socket | £10.00 | 2 | £20.00 |
| Total | £20.00 |
Sound
We listen to a lot of music and podcasts in our house, well it’s mainly me that listens to the podcasts, so having a great speakers throughout the house is important. I originally wanted to go with Sonos, even they were a bit on the pricey side as they had built in AirPlay2 compatibility. That was until Ikea announced that they had partnered with Sonos to bring out some new smart speakers.
After a visit to Ikea, when we were in Glasgow, I was really impressed with the Symfonisk speakers and may have annoyed a few people when i had them at full blast for a few seconds. The sound quailty was amazing for such a small speaker. They also sell the speakers with a wall mount kit that unables you to turn these shelf speakers into an actual shelf. whilst I wouldn’t put to much on them that could come in handy.
| Description | Price | Qty | Total |
| Symfonisk Smart Speaker and wall Braket | £109.00 | 10 | £1,090.00 |
| Symfonisk Remote | £15.00 | 5 | £75.00 |
| Total | £1,165.00 |
Security
Now comes the most difficult items to find. for some reason it is a nighmare to find smart locks that rae homekit enabled in the UK. I ended up going with Yale’s Keyless Connected Smart Lock it may not be HomeKit enabled but it can be opened by either a pin code, NFC Tag or with your phone. If you fancy shelling out another £230 you can get their hub and lock module so you can give visitors tempoary access or remotly unlock it. This lock is for doors with a Nightlatch but Yale also do a lock for Multi-Point locks (UPV-S Doors).
Once I’d finaly found a smart lock It was on to the smoke alarm. I went with the Netatmo Smart Smoke Alarm. It should last around 10 years on it’s built in battery and will send you notifications if it raises the alarm as well as reminderes to do a regular alarm check.
There looks to be a Netatmo door lock in development but only works with the euro style barrel lock, commonly used on UPV-C doors. as it’s in development there is currently no releasedate or price avaliable at the moment.
Next up is another Netatomo product, The Netatmo Smart Alarm System. It features a camera, 3 x door and window sensosors and a Smart Indoor Siren. The Camera has built in face detection and will send you notifications if someone not on your access list you get a notification. It also acts as the hub for your alarm system attaching it to your home network.
Not only does the Siren make a racket if your house is broken into it also plays noises during the day to make people think you are home. It will also tell you when someone tries to tamper with you alarm and once again set off a racket to alert anyone near by.
You can buy more indoor cameras and door and Window Senors if you need them too.
I couldn’t find a HomeKit Video doorbell in the UK, well at least not one that is avaliable yet. The most promising is another Netatmo product. Their Video Doorbell, like most other video doorbells it allows you to see whos at your door fhile your away from home.
It has a built in microphone and speaker so you can tell thoes young wipper snappers to get of your lawn and has built in SD Card storeage as well as the ability to upload to cloud serverices or an FTP server. It is a wired doorbell and you will need your own chimer as it just replaces your button at the front door.
There is currently no pricing or release date as yet just like their upcoming smart lock but it should be release in the near future hopefully before the 2nd half of 2020 according to their website.
| Description | Price | Qty | Total |
| Yale Keyless Connected Smartlock | £99.98 | 1 | £99.98 |
| Netatmo Smart Smoke Alarm | £89.99 | 5 | £449.95 |
| Netatmo Smart Alarm System | £319.99 | 1 | £319.99 |
| Netatmo Indoor Camera | £179.99 | 3 | £539.97 |
| Netatmo Door & Windows Sensors | £89.99 | 3 | £269.97 |
| Netatmo Video Doorbell | £0.00 | 1 | £0.00 |
| Total | £1,679.86 |
Other Bits
Now it wouldn’t be one of my shopping lists without a load of other shiny things that i really, really, really want too.
First up is yet another Netatmo product. It’s the Smart Weather Station Set. It has an outdoor and indoor sensor as well as a Anenometer and Rain gauge. It has CO2, Humidity, Air Quality, Barometric pressure and temprature sesnors bult into it so you can keep an eye on the health of your home.
Thanks to it’s HomeKit support you can even include it in scenes and shortcuts. So for instance if you have smart windows that open on command you could get the to open if the air quality is low. You can also analyse all of the data too so you can see how your home has been over time.
Ikea also now makes Smart binds (priced between £50 & £150) in either grey or blackout style. It works with the Tradfri gateway and can be controlled via the app or the included remote controll it’s battery powered but you will need a plug within 10 meters for the included signal repeater to work. The blinds also can not be cut down to size, i’d imagine this is because of the motor but I’m not entirly sure why?
Ikea also make the Norrfly LED Light strip for wardobes, bookshelves and other confined spaces. You can set it so when you open a door it will automatically come on and it is also compatible with trady with one of their Tradfri drivers
In the same vain but for the kitchen Ikea have the Omlopp LED worktop Light in a variety of sizes, again controlable via Tradfri with the Tradfri driver.
| Description | Price | Qty | Total |
| Netatmo Smart Weather Station Set | £249.99 | 1 | £249.99 |
| Fyrtur Smart blinds 120x195cm | £150.00 | 2 | £300.00 |
| Fyrtur Smart blinds 100x195cm | £125.00 | 2 | £250.00 |
| Fyrtur Smart blinds 60x195cm | £115.00 | 2 | £230.00 |
| Norrfly Wardrobe Lighting Strip | £19.00 | 4 | £76.00 |
| Tradfri Driver (30W) | £19.00 | 3 | £57.00 |
| Omlopp LED Worktop Lighting | £29.00 | 3 | £87.00 |
| Total | £1,249.99 |
Total Spend
So all in all the total spend to make our home a smart home would be just shy of £5,000.
| Description | Total |
| Lighting | £250.93 |
| Heating | £509.94 |
| Power | £20.00 |
| Sound | £1,165.00 |
| Security | £1,679.86 |
| Other Bits | £1,249.99 |
| Total | £4,875.72 |
Whilst not a small amount of pocket change it’s still relatively cheap compared to some other options on the market. I could reduce the overall cost to £2460.73 if I leave off the other bit’s and don’t get speakers for each room.
I should point out that while most of the products I picked are from Netatmo or Ikea it’s not because I”m super loyal to them but because they really seem to be the best value for money compared to the others.
I’m still a bit gutted I couldn’t find a Homekit Smartlock that is homekit capable, or at least one that would work for me, as the only ones i found were deadbolts but I’m hoping that their are developments in this area soon.
What do you think about my suggestions? Would you have picked somthing else? Do you have a Smart home, if so what products do you use? Let me know in the comments bellow.
