Questions tagged [smart-home]

For questions about any smart devices and services that help automate or remote control one's home. Prominent examples are lights, home appliances, roller shutters and radiators.

Use this tag for questions that are about any smart devices and services that help automate or remote control one's home, including home automation questions.

Consider the question check list if your question fits the tag. You can also look at the example questions. If this tag doesn't fit your question have a look below at somehow related tags that might fit your question better.

Question checklist

  • Is the question about automating a home? If not, consider a more specific tag.
  • Is the question about a particular device (e.g. a Google Home)? If so, use the product's tag instead, e.g. .

Example questions

Not what you are looking for?

  • Use if your question is about any IoT network, not just a smart home network.
  • Use the product's tag, if it exists, for questions about specific devices and their behaviours, e.g. , or .
307 questions
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6 answers

Is it better to control smart lights or smart light switches/fixtures?

IoT enabled light bulbs have been on the market for a while now. The Philips Hue is probably the best known. But I think controlling bulbs directly is a rule-maintenance disaster waiting to happen. If a bulb goes out (and yes, LED bulbs do fail),…
John Deters
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6 answers

How to detect the state of "dumb" entertainment equipment?

Scenario After the helpful answers to my last question I got myself a Harmony Hub and it works as I want it to. Basically, it remembers the state of the devices and uses infrared signals to fake the remotes and change to the configured settings when…
Helmar
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2 answers

Why do I need hubs for some devices when automating my home?

When you get started with automating your home, you quickly find out that many devices need a hub or bridge to function correctly. For example, the Philips Hue bulbs need a bridge, August Smart Locks need a different bridge, and some people also buy…
Aurora0001
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14
votes
5 answers

Internet controlled garage door

Basically wanting to start off with by controlling garage door through Internet and then add things like smart lights and door alarms over time. I just heard about Z-Wave and Google Weave on this site - they might be of some help. Also wanting to be…
strider
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13
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3 answers

How does a smart switch get its power?

I bought a smart wall switch. The switch it replaced had only 2 wires (in and out). My knowledge of electricity might be only limited, but how can this work? A normal switch just opens a circuit so the current no longer goes through right? So then…
Nathan H
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12
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3 answers

can a shelly switch control a different shelly relay?

I have a standard wall switch connected to an input on a Shelly relay, call it A. I have a second Shelly relay (call it B) across the house that has a light connected to the relay output. Using the Shelly Cloud software, can the switch input on A…
longneck
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10
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1 answer

Do I have to manually enter expiry dates with the Smarter FridgeCam?

I've been learning recently about the Smarter FridgeCam. According to their article, one of the features is: Expiry date notification: Automatic reminders sent to your phone on food expiration dates. One thing I have been unable to decipher,…
anonymous2
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7
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1 answer

Can I reset breakers from my computer with the Schneider Smart Panel?

I've been looking into Schneider smart panels recently for home monitoring. From what I'm reading, it appears that they have the ability to monitor your home's electric usage on all the various circuits real time. They are connected by Ethernet…
anonymous2
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6
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0 answers

What steps/equipment is needed to control a fan?

I currently have a standard home fan in my bedroom, it's controlled with one light switch (on/off switch) and two pulleys on the fan unit itself. One pulley for the fan and one pulley for the light. What equipment can I use to integrate it into a…
eww
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6
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3 answers

How can I access data from my In-Home Display?

I have my electricity and gas meters connected to an IHD (In-Home Display), and the IHD is connected to my router. I have access to all of the address of the IHD. I am wanting to get the energy data from the Smart Meters, in order to integrate it…
Sky020
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6
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1 answer

Set up Yeelight (Color) in both Yeelight an MiHome app

I have recently purchased a Xiaomi Gateway with body motion sensors for automating lights in my house. I already had a couple of Yeelight Led Bulb (YLDP02YL) set up with the Yeelight app, in which I had created different scenes (afternoon, night,…
makeMonday
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6
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1 answer

Remote switch to activate smart outlet

I have quite a few smart outlets that I run through a wink hub and use Alexa to activate. It all works great. However I would like to have a switch on the wall for some of them also. Is there a way to do this. I am open to IFTTT. I just didn’t know…
Jim
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5
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4 answers

Is it possible to automate devices that are connected to electric switches in homes?

Suppose I have a mobile charger connected to an electric switch and I want to switch the charger off when the mobile battery is fully charged. How can I do that? Would I need smart switches to do so?
4
votes
1 answer

Is it possible to use LG's ThinQ without internet access?

For obvious reasons I do not want my home appliances to be on the Internet. It boggles the mind why manufactures think this is okay, and even more boggling that people seem to accept it. Anyway... The setup process for LG's ThinQ app demands that I…
Tuaris
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0 answers

Smart Door options

I'm looking for a ready-to-use Smart Door in a room. I want to control it via app (Bluetooth or direct wifi is ok) or by voice commands. It should have the following skills: open close lock unlock I tried googling this, but the problem is that I…
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