Smart Home

That was one of the features that initially attracted me to the Nest. My wife and I vacationed in Miami a few years ago (2012, IIRC), and there was a vicious cold snap up in New England during that time with four or five consecutive days of single digit or sub-zero temps. Our pipes froze and there was nothing we could do about it. At least now, we'll have the ability to raise the indoor temps and hopefully prevent a similar occurrence if we are out of town.

 

As for solar panels, we leased them and it was a much better deal than buying them.

Yes you have to keep paying but if you buy the panels they are going to need to be replaced at some point anyway.

 

I'll have to check my utility bill when I get back from out of town in a few days. By using ceiling fans, we can keep our thermostat at 75 and it's quite comfortable. We also have double-pane windows throughout the house and I'm sure that helps.

An unexpected bonus arrived in the mail over the weekend. Because our solar system outperformed its guaranteed generation in 2014, the solar company sent us a check for $52. Didn't know that was coming; nice to have them pitch in to cover some of our Valentine's Day dinner.

 

Whoa, 75? Do you walk around in your underwear all day?

We usually keep ours around 68. If it gets much higher than 70, I get uncomfortable.

 

So far, I'm really impressed with our Nest thermostats. I love being able to track our usage to see how I can be more efficient and they've done a great job of learning our habits. I set schedules for all the thermostats and, after a few weeks, I noticed they had been automatically adjusted to accommodate our actual needs (i.e., we don't spend much time in one area and the Nest automatically reduced our usage there). Got some excellent customer service for a minor glitch (plumber didn't wire one of them properly, Nest guided me through it in under 20 minutes). Overall, I totally recommend them.

Installed the GE Link light bulbs last week and I'm less impressed with them. Regardless of their smart capabilities, they are saving us money over our 65W incandescents, which is great. The smart features are very cool and it's nice to be able to schedule them to suit our needs (our exterior light goes on at 7:30 p.m., shuts off at 6:30 a.m., the kitchen lights shut off and the living room lights dim to evening TV viewing levels at 8 p.m.). However, they're a little bit wonky and the interface with the Wink Hub could be better.

A day after I installed the recessed lights in the living room, half of them lost their smart functionality and needed to be recalibrated. However, I didn't really know how to do this without completely uninstalling and reinstalling them. My ceiling is about 15 feet high, making that task easier said than done. After some Googling, I found that I could reset them by switching them on and off five times for 3 seconds each, so it was easier than I thought, but it took some effort to figure it out when they could have simply printed something about it on the package (Google revealed this is a common enough problem, they probably should have just included it with the packaging to save customers some trouble).

If I were recommending them to a friend, I'd say they're worth the initial cost (they save money in the long run), but if you're outfitting your whole house (which carries a significant cost), I'd probably wait for the next generation so GE can work out some of the kinks. These aren't the kind of lights you want to replace after a year or two, so you want to be sure you get the better version.

 

I'm the same way. After spending summers in the Helmand and Jalalabad, I'll pay the bill.

 

Updating my experience with the GE Link bulbs, I recently decided to swap out my dimmer switch for a traditional switch and it has made a huge difference in the operation of the bulbs. Apparently, the physical dimmer was causing a connectivity issue, but using a traditional switch has drastically improved the performance.

I was encouraged by the increased performance, so I decided to splurge for the $180 Amazon Echo. What an amazing and fun device. It's a total luxury gadget that doesn't make you any greener or more efficient, but it's just freakin' awesome.

Using the Echo, I can control the GE Lights with my voice, get news, traffic and weather with a simple question, stream music and so much more that I'm still learning about. I can even dim the bulbs or turn groups or individual ones on and off through a voice command. "Alexa" has incredible voice recognition and she can hear my commands from a good 15-20 feet away (which is about the farthest away I get when trying to use the device). They're adding more functionality to it, which is great, but it's worth the money as is (if you're into this sort of thing).

 

FYI for anyone interested, today only, Amazon is discounting the Echo to $150. I was initially annoyed that I just paid $180 for it, but I called them up and they honored the discount for me and credited me back the $30. Score one for good customer service.

 

Amazon today launched the Echo Dot, which is essentially the Echo without the built-in speaker. As a dedicated Echo user, I highly recommend the Dot if you want to enter the connected home environment at a decent price. The Dot costs $90 for Prime members. They say you need to order it through Alexa on your current, full-size Echo, but apparently there's a glitch that lets you order it from your iPhone.

Also, Amazon announced today that Alexa now has native functionality with Nest Thermostats, which is a great addition. I've been slowly building out my connected home and it's gotten really cool and convenient.

I'm going to pick up two Echo Dots, I think. Right now, my Echo is easily used in the living room and kitchen, but I think I'm going to add the Dots to my bedroom and downstairs.

They also launched the Amazon Tap, which doesn't interest me as much. It's a portable Echo, basically, but it doesn't add anything to my home functionality.

 

Let me know when the North Koreans remotely burn down your house.

 

I can't wait for BP to piss off his Nest so it decides to say hey to the refrigerator and shut off the freezer.

 

Aside from a flooded basement or a tree crashing down, a fridge or freezer that dies and let's a lot of stuff rot is one of the worst things *** that can happen as a homeowner. Gawd, the smell. If you don't catch that situation in time, it's like removing a dead ripe animal from your house.

*** note, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and major shit tops all of this, of course.