Smart Plugs Last spring I finally purchased my first smart plug, a Homekit compatible plug from KooGeek. It worked. I bought a second. A few weeks later the local Walmart had the isp6 HomeKit compatible plugs from iHome on sale. Only $15. I bought three. My plan was to use these with lights and to have one for my A/C in the summer to be swapped out to the heater in my well-house in the winter. I’m pretty stingy in my use of energy so in the winter I make it a point to keep that heater off and only turn it on when when I must which requires a good bit of effort on my part. I don’t mind the walking out to the well house as I can always use the steps but it’s the mental tracking of it and the occasional forgetting that is bothersome. Having a smart plug makes it convenient to power it on and off but I’m still having to remember to keep tabs.

Automations Enter automations. The Home app gets better with each new version. By using automations it is now possible to automate a scene or a device or multiple devices at specific times or sunset/sunrise or a set time after sunset/sunrise or before. Very handy for a morning light but not too helpful for my well-house heater. But wait, I can also set-up an automation for a plug based on a Homekit sensor such as the iHome 5-in-1 Smart Monitor. I put the monitor in the well-house and create an automation to turn on the heater if the temperature dips to 32. I’ve turned my not-so-smart heater into a smarter one which will keep my water from freezing with no effort from myself. Even better, it will reduce my electricity use because of it’s accuracy.

I have a similar dumb heater in my tiny house as well as a window A/C. I might use the same monitor to more accurately control heating and cooling in here. Currently I do that with constant futzing with controls and looking at a simple analog thermometer. It would be an improvement to just have a set temperature to trigger devices.

Lights I’ve been avoiding purchasing Homekit compatible lights because most, such as those from Phillips, also required purchase of a hub. Also, cost was a bit much. My reasoning being that if I just pick-up smart plugs as they are on sale I can use those for lights or anything else. Cheaper and more versatile. That said, one benefit of the lights is that they can be dimmed which is appealing. So, two weeks ago I picked up one of Sylvania’s Smart bulbs. It works perfectly. I’ll likely get another but in my tiny house I don’t need that many lights so two dimmable bulbs will likely be enough. It’s very nice to be able to ask Siri to set the lights at 40% or 20% or whatever. I have an automation that kicks on the light to 15% at my wake-up time. Very nice to wake up to a very low, soft light. With a simple request I can then ask Siri to raise the brightness when I’m actually ready to get out of bed.

Lighting Automations An hour after sunrise I’ve got another set of LEDs that kick on for all of my houseplants that sit on two shelves by the windows. An hour after sunset those lights go off and at the same time the dimmable light comes on at 50%.

Home All of the set-up happens via the built in iOS Home app. It’s a fairly easy to use app that gets better with each new version of iOS. My set-up is pretty simple but Home is designed to scale up with larger homes with more rooms and devices. In my case, I’ve go the Home app split screen with Apple Music on my iPad Air 2. It’s on a shelf within easy reach of my usual sitting spot on my futon/bed. While I do most interaction via Siri or automation it’s nice to have easy visual access. Especially handy for monitoring the well house heater and temperature. Having Music open and ready to play to a speaker via AirPlay is very nice.

AppleTV as Hub Of course, to really make this work a hub is required. A recent iPad running iOS 10 or one of the newer AppleTVs will work. I’m using the AppleTV because I’ve always got one on. Set-up was easy and I’ve never had to futz with it. The nice thing about this set-up is that I can access my Homekit devices from anywhere. Whether I’m in town or visiting family or out for a walk, checking or changing devices is just a couple taps or request from Siri.

HomePod Last is the device that has not arrived yet. My HomePod is set to arrive February 9. I don’t need it for any of this to work but I suspect it will be a nice addition. Controlling things with Hey Siri has always worked pretty well for me though I suspect it will be even better with HomePod. Will find out soon.