HomeKit Building a home with Smart Appliances

[ckurt25]

I had installed an Ecobee thermostat and Schlage Sense door lock in our last house and was able to control them with Siri, along with Hue lights. My wife and I are building a home and one of the options the builder offers is a Smart Home bundle that includes an Echo Dot, the Schlage Sense, a Honeywell thermostat and Genie garage door opener. The appliance packages offered also include some Whirlpool appliances (a microwave / wall oven combo). All can be controlled with Alexa but at first glance, only the door lock can be controlled with Siri.

I probably could install and use the individual apps for everything and skip using Alexa but it is very tempting to have all the automation "under one roof" to simplify things. I think I can control my TV (pretty new Samsung) and I know I can control my new Sonos Arc with Alexa too. We've been reluctant to have something other than Siri "always on" and listening to what's going on. Not based on anything other than the little research or articles I've read about Alexa recording things it shouldn't, but I feel like I trust Apple more than I trust Amazon with "listening in" at home.

I've been disappointed with the lack of integration between Homekit and many home items and have simply dealt with not having the control. In the new home it's going to be difficult not to want to use the Echo. Am I being paranoid or overly cautious about using an Amazon device? Why do I feel like a traitor for considering using one? LOL

 

[Itinj24]

A lot of the fun of HomeKit is picking the accessories out and installing if you have the time. Then creating the scenes and automations to suit your needs. There are no compatible appliances at this time (other than a Robovac with Siri Shortcuts) so that’s pretty much personal preference as long as you stay in one appliance ecosystem. While the walls are not up yet, I recommend running some CAT6 wire throughout the house and get a nice mesh setup with a wired backhaul. Basically anything with wires I’d have them preinstalled for a cleaner look. Most smart home stuff is wireless but if you plan on doing cameras, a lot of them are wired. Go in with a plan. I’d personally prefer everything under one roof and that preference is HomeKit. Had a Ring doorbell (when they promised HomeKit and before Amazon bought them) and it was my only non HomeKit device and it drove me crazy. This is a huge investment and it will be yours. You make the demands and don’t settle for what the builder’s idea of a smart home is. If they can install that stuff, then they can install any HomeKit stuff really. I don’t blame you for not wanting an always listening Amazon device in the house. HomeKit doesn’t have as many devices as Google or Amazon but you can create a very respectable smart Home with Homekit only devices and privacy will be key with these. HomeKit is more robust too with the automations, especially if you use third party HomeKit apps.

 

[inkahauts]

Look into if any of these work with ifttt and other things as well. You might be able to create Siri Shortcuts to use siri to control them all.

The thermostats is an interesting issue. Ecobee is great I have one, but if your ax is really complex (true multi zone off one machine) ecobee isn’t enough. You’ll need more details on that...

 

[bbednarz]

Like Itinj24 said. Building it yourself and finding different pieces that work for you and customizing automations is part of the fun, for me at least. Everyone will be different, but I like the tinkering.

 

[longhorn375]

I am also building a home and trying to decide the best smart home solution. The builder works with a smart home provider that pushes Control4, which to me seems too expensive, too complicated, and somewhat antiquated. It seems to me that as long as I get HomeKit compatible products, I can do everything in HomeKit that Control4 can do.

The one thing I'm unsure about is the amplifier. We will have a TV and ceiling speakers in our family room, but the amp will be housed in a closet in a different part of the house. The people pushing Control4 swear up and down that because the amp will be in another room, I just HAVE to have a Control4 remote ($1,200) that talks through walls in order to communicate directly with the amp. But if the TV is wired to the amp, wouldn't I be able to adjust the volume on the amp (and thus what is coming through the speakers) by just adjusting the volume on the TV with my normal TV remote? I just can't get a straight answer on this, and I don't want to run the wires to house the amp in the closet if that means my only smart home option is a Control4 type system.

 

[inkahauts]

There is so much more info needed. What receiver and rv are you using? What else is in your system? Satelites appletv etc?

If it’s all newer stuff then hdmi CEC should allow pass through of volume control. But you can also use a simple ir repeater that cost $30 and do it. How far is the cabniet from the tv? Other side of the same wall or????

 

[longhorn375]

We do not have any of the equipment yet and can get whatever receiver would work best for what we are trying to do. So it will all be brand new equipment (including the TV), and if we decide to use HomeKit, we will get all compatible equipment to the extent possible. We will have AppleTV only, no cable box or anything like that. We might have ceiling speakers in a couple of other rooms purely to play music. We're not very sophisticated on AV (obviously!) - we don't like having a ton of equipment (which Control4 seems to require), and we'd like to control as much as possible through a central app like HomeKit. The closet where the receiver will be stored is on the opposite side of the house, nowhere near the TV. Hope that helps, and happy to provide any other info. Appreciate your feedback.