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1 week ago
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If you were to give your home an IQ test, how would it fare? Nitwit? Useful idiot? Some high-school? Anything below genius and it's time to add some intelligence, to strategically deploy a few devices that provide automation, security, voice controls and other make-life-easier benefits. I'm talking "smart" gear like light bulbs, AC outlets, cameras and so on, all of which are a breeze to use and more affordable than you might think.
Indeed, you can get started for as little as $15, which is the price for a two-pack of smart plugs for use with things like lamps and fans. And the gadget that adds scheduling and phone-based controls to your existing garage-door opener? It's just $30.
Below I've rounded up five such products that will leave your budget intact while making your home smarter. I've tried and tested most of them; the others are here based on features, ratings, reputation and other factors.
Smart home shopping tips: The lightning round
Shopping for consumer tech always means seeking out some degree of device compatibility for your operating system or platform of choice — think Xbox versus PlayStation, Mac versus Windows or, if you're my age, Beta versus VHS. (Kids, ask your grandparents.) In the smart home space, there are similar considerations, but things are finally evolving for the better. Here's the executive summary of what you need to know before taking the smart home plunge:
Your phone or tablet can control everything... With just a handful of exceptions, nearly all smart-home gadgets offer companion apps on iPhones and Android phones and their sibling tablets. The apps let you set up the corresponding gadgets, and handle control and notifications, too.
... but a smart speaker or smart display adds voice control to the mix: Of course, why toggle between a dozen apps when you can instead control everything through a single unified control panel — with your voice, to boot? That's what the Amazon Alexa or Google Home platforms offer, with smart speakers and smart screens that cost as little as $50. Apple and Samsung are also in the game with their HomeKit and SmartThings brands, but they've tended to have fewer — and often more expensive — compatible devices.
The four big players are slowly unifying under one standard: Needless to say, having four competing megabrands has made smart-home shopping a hodgepodge of dueling labels and consumer frustration. But the industry is actually moving to consolidate around a new standard called "Matter." They're still working out the kinks, but if you pay a bit extra for a Matter-branded device, it should offer something akin to universal compatibility — eventually. (In the meantime, we're still recommending plenty of cheaper, non-Matter gadgets here.)
You'll need a robust Wi-Fi network: While some of these devices have Bluetooth to make setup easier, Wi-Fi is the lingua franca for smart home communications. (Consider other wireless protocols, like Thread, Zigbee or Z-Wave, as nice to have but not mission critical.) Smart home gadgets don't like wireless dead zones, which is why a modern mesh network is the best option here.
Got it? Good. Without further ado, let's go shopping.
A winning budget smart plug
Think of a lamp. Now think how nice it would be if that lamp could go on or off at designated times. Or if you could simply speak the words, "Alexa, turn off the living-room lamp" (because you forgot to before heading to bed). You can do all that and more with a smart plug, arguably one of the most versatile and useful smart-home products. They're great for lamps, lights, fans, appliances and just about anything else that plugs into a wall outlet.
I have half a dozen Kasa smart plugs scattered around my home. Know why? They're cheap, they're easy to set up and they work. Any questions?
The Kasa app makes it simple to set up schedules, timers and even "scenes," like switching on all your plugged-in devices in the morning or dimming specific lights for movie watching. The plugs are compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can control just about any function with voice commands.
I particularly appreciate Kasa's 2-year warranty (which I did have to leverage one time because of a plug failure).
A 2-pack for $15 (the near-constant "sale" price) is a great deal, but check out the 4-pack as well: It's often discounted to just $24, a mere $6 per plug. And if you want the option of monitoring energy usage, Kasa makes this version of the 2-pack for $24. It also works seamlessly with Apple devices like HomePods.
A solid budget smart bulb
Why do you need a smart bulb if your lamp is plugged into a smart outlet? Two reasons: colors and dimming. In addition to things like scheduled on/off times, smart bulbs can display literally millions of different colors — and who doesn't want red lighting for sexytime? — and dim to whatever brightness setting you want.
If you're going to buy a smart bulb, don't try to save a few dollars with a 60-watt equivalent — go all-in for a 100-watt. Because while you can dim the latter, you can't make a 60-watt any brighter.
I can't say I'm familiar with Lightinginside, but that's true of most of the smart-bulb brands on Amazon these days. These A19 bulbs seem to hit all the high notes, including 16 million color shades, simple app-based automation, music synchronization (via your phone's microphone) and support for voice commands.
Speaking of which, there's no hub required for that, just a smart speaker or similar device that can accept those commands.
You can also "tune" the white-light temperature to anywhere from 2,700K to 6,500K, in other words from "warmer" to "cooler."
The two-pack typically sells for $20, a pretty small price to pay for bulbs as bright and capable as these.
A promising budget security camera
A smart camera is the path to peace of mind, at least where your house is concerned. It will record video the moment it detects motion and alert you at the same time. It can even deter potential thieves with a spotlight, alarm and verbal warning. Best of all, you control everything from your phone, including a live feed of what the camera is seeing.
The Tapo C120's diminutive size and low price belie its capabilities: This is an impressive security camera, one that can work indoors or outdoors. Consequently, I think it's an excellent choice for anyone dipping a toe into home surveillance.
For just $40 (often marked down to $25), you get 2K resolution, color night-vision, a built-in spotlight and siren, two-way audio and support for local video storage (on a microSD card of up to 512GB). It's IP66-rated for outdoor use, meaning it should survive any and all elements.
Specs aside, this is also a really smart camera. It detects motion and sound and immediately notifies you of either. And it lets you set monitoring zones to help reduce unwanted alerts.
Unlike a lot of competing cameras, this one doesn't charge extra if you want person, pet and vehicle detection. And if you want cloud storage (useful for preserving videos if your camera gets stolen), the optional Tapo Care plan is reasonably price at $3.49 per month or $34.99 annually.
My favorite budget garage-door control
Filed under you-probably-didn't-know-this, it's surprisingly simple — and cheap — to retrofit an existing garage-door opener with a smart controller. And once you're done, you can get alerts whenever the door is opened or closed. Even better, you can check its status and remotely control it from anywhere, all using your phone.
"Did you close the garage?" That's a question I no longer dread hearing after my wife and I have climbed into bed or we've left for the airport, because now I just check the myQ app on my phone. And if we left it open, one tap closes it.
The Chamberlain myQ G0401 works with tons of existing garage-door openers. You just install a couple sensors, get connected to your home Wi-Fi and presto: an app-powered remote control that works whether you're in bed or the backset of an Uber.
The system lets you schedule times for the door to open or close automatically (mine is set to close at 10 p.m. in case we forgot to close it and forgot to check if we closed it), and it's compatible with Amazon Key for in-garage deliveries, if you so choose.
My only complaint is that it doesn't work with Alexa or Google Assistant, so you can't use verbal commands. (If that's a must-have, consider the Meross MGS100 instead.) Even so, this is one of my favorite smart-home products, a steal at $30.
A leak detector for ultimate peace of mind
A plumber once regaled me of a burst pipe that occurred while a homeowner was away on vacation. It was... not good. That was more than enough to convince me to deploy leak-detectors, especially once I found out how inexpensive they were. These things are remarkably simple to deploy and extremely effective at notifying you if water is detected someplace it shouldn't be.
This is one of those ounce-of-prevention-worth-a-pound-of-cure products, because if just one of these sensors detects just one leak, it could literally save you thousands of dollars. That's why I've had them deployed around my house for the past several years. And you know what? In that time they caught two leaks.
The system consists of a little gateway module that plugs into an AC outlet and three Wi-Fi sensors you can place in key areas: under sinks, near the hot-water heater, behind the washing machine, etc. — anywhere a leak is likely. (There's also a bundle available that includes five sensors.)
Each one can detect water dropping onto it from above and water touching it from below. If that happens, it triggers a loud siren and notifies you via e-mail and app alert. (Note that this is the only product we're recommending here that's not compatible with Alexa or Google Home, but we don't consider that a drawback given the those other alert options.)
I can't speak highly enough of this product, something I think every homeowner (and apartment-renter) should have.
More to come
In the near future we'll be adding even more affordable smart-home products to this story, including air-quality monitors, smart locks and thermostats. Stay tuned!
FAQ
Are smart-home devices hard to set up?
This depends on your overall tech-savviness. In most cases, adding a smart-home device means installing a new app on your phone, creating an account for that app, then adding the device to your home Wi-Fi network (which means you'll need the network password). There may also be a firmware update to install, which could take a few minutes or half an hour. For anyone inexperienced with tech, I recommend seeking out YouTube videos that walk you through the setup steps. But after that initial process, these things tend to be pretty easy to use.
How worried do I need to be about privacy?
Probably less worried than you think. While the media loves to sound the alarm over smart-home devices that "spy on you" and "steal your data," the reality is that fairly innocuous data-collection is woven into nearly all modern technology: phones, TVs, even some appliances.
Does that mean you're being spied on? Although two smart-home vendors — Eufy and Wyze — had notable security incidents in the past few years, they weren't the result of hacking or any other nefarious activity. And while nothing in the networked-technology space is without risk, I don't personally worry about being "hacked" or spied on — at least, not beyond the general corporate surveillance of buying habits that's the basis of our modern online world, for better or worse.
That said, if you're uncomfortable about the possibility of compromised video feeds, consider limiting video cameras to outdoor or unoccupied parts of your home — or plug them in only when you leave the house for extended periods, like vacations.
What are hubs, and do I need to have one?
A hub is, itself, a smart-home device designed to unify other smart-home devices, to make everything manageable within one interface. There are benefits to that, of course, but also added cost and possibly added complexity as well. My advice: Choose devices that don't require a hub — like all the ones listed above.
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