Smart Home NEST Home products & Google home any good?

Stargazor on 02/10/2017 - 09:30

Hi I have been thinking of getting smart home features installed in a unit.

Was looking at NEST - Indoor/outdoor camera and smoke alarm by iselect (Nest). Are they any good?

Also the unit has central Airconditioner. Will the NEST thermostat work on this? I couldnt find iselect selling this. But available to buy on ebay/Amazon. Not sure whether it will work here and support our central A/C. Can you switch on and off while you are away from home?

I am also looking at power controlers, where you can switch on living room lights or room lights. Or play music or switch on or off tv while you are away for short period of day. Or if you want to switch on lights daily at a certain time. How do i install it and which product?

Also was looking at deadlock remote access or bluetooth enable locks for doors. Any suggessions?

I was looking at door and window security alarm sensors. Any suggesions?

All these to be controlled remotely via internet and maybe when your home to control through google home.

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • chartparker on 02/10/2017 - 09:37

    I recently installed a couple of Nest thermostats at my place. We have central aircon and heating, and our system is a Lennox US manufactured system and a Smart Temp 2 zone board with 24VAC common output, so everything was 100% compatible.

    Without knowing what you have it's near impossible to tell if the thermostats will work with your system, but try this: https://nest.com/widget/compatibility/

    I bought my units off ebay when the 18% sale was on - saved $125! I can check the temps of both thermostats while i'm away from home and turn them off and on plus setup advanced scheduling and also min and max temps, so even if the upstairs is off, if the it ever reaches 35degrees the aircon will kick in to stop the place getting too hot.

    The Nests can work without a common 24VAC supply as long as the other control wires output enough voltage for them to leech power off. Otherwise you'll need to run separate power to them somehow. Also they don't work with high voltage systems - has to be low voltage

  • dimitryp on 02/10/2017 - 10:45
    +2

    I've been looking into smart thermostats quite seriously of late - be warned that very many australian central aircon systems arent compatible with the US standard which the common smart thermostat brands (nest, ecobee, etc) comply with.
    Best thing to do is take your current thermostat off the wall and look at the wiring behind. Nest website has a wiring diagram to help you work out if you're compatible.
    Because my system is a Temperzone (10yrs old) that has a proprietary thermostat & protocol, my only solution for a "smart" upgrade seems to be to replace the whole logic board with either MyAir or AirTouch smart thermostat systems (AU made) which would be a couple of grand probably.

    btw, nest doesnt do multi-zone, although ecobee does (if you're compatible)

    • chartparker on 02/10/2017 - 11:04

      Yeah I was super keen on an ecobee 3 or 4 for the multi-zoning (the Nests don't talk to each other at all), but they're hard/more expensive to source in Australia so I went with Nest

    • batrarobin on 02/10/2017 - 11:18

      Sorry this might be a bit random or off-topic, we have Daikin Reverse Cycle ducted aircon with MyAir3 control system. The system currently does not have any temperature sensors in any of the rooms so the aircon relies only on the sensor installed in the return duct. I am looking at installing the wireless sensors in each zone that would be compatible with the system, Would you happen to know if that is generally doable by an end-user and what should be my starting point for the info?

      • dimitryp on 03/10/2017 - 14:06
        +1

        i think you're best off calling advantageair (the myair people). They only have sub-contractors doing installs, but perhaps would sell you some sensors direct.
        Unfortunately the sub-contractor they put me in touch with in Syd didnt seem to know much about the system or compatibility, just knew how to do a standard install of it.

    • Stargazor on 02/10/2017 - 11:37

      Thanks for that @dimitryp mines a Temperzone as well and 10 years. So I guess the NEST thermostat will not work.

      Anyone else had luck with securith camera indoor/outdoor and smart lights/ switch on and off with google home

      • chartparker on 02/10/2017 - 12:02

        I also have an Arlo pro system, but that doesn't really work with Google Home. The only thing I could do was get it linked via IFTTT to arm and disarm. Nest cams apparently integrate with Google Assistant a bit better

      • dimitryp on 03/10/2017 - 14:09
        +1

        not sure if you've already invested in a voice-assistant already (google home), but amazon's alexa has a much wider array of support for smart-home stuff via "skills" (plugins). Alexa is the industry leader right now, so all 3rd party plugins get coded for it 1st.
        All the smart-home ecosystems generally work well with it (smart lights, plugs, thermostats, etc)
        This is what i have and love it

  • simgue on 02/10/2017 - 12:39

    I would avoid purchasing from iSelect as you can get pretty much all the Nest gear direct from Amazon without a discount and still save decent money. You can get all the latest products there as well. The new outdoor Nest IQ cam for example. If you haven't seen it Nest also announced a heap of new products in the home security space which are coming out over the next 6 months. Includes a deadlock. So if you're going all in on the Google/Assistant ecosystem you should be able to cover pretty much everything with just Nest products.

    If you want to save a TON of money and are willing to look to China check out the Xiaomi home automation systems. They have literally hundreds of products these days that form part of their system. From cameras to sensors and curtain motors. Every other day they announce something new and they typically only run in the $30-$50 price range (there are exceptions). You can get all their products from GearBest, Tinydeal etc etc

  • Apoca89 on 05/10/2017 - 20:53

    I've only been looking myself into some of these things. Got a Ring door bell/front camera/sensor that's great (they also have other camera systems) - easy to install, battery operated (so no cables needed - although charging it gets annoying).
    With the smart lights, I've gone with Phillips Hue - works well online (although sometimes looses connection from my Apple TV). I was tossing up between this and Lifx lights (might go with them for our next smart lights) - I saw Lifx had outdoor lights that also had IR lights (to extend the range of your IR security cameras) which is something you might want to look at).
    Good luck with it all - I'd love to set up my home like that just can't justify it at the moment.

  • JackMayyam on 18/04/2018 - 16:59

    The nest thermostat is good, I didn't have any problems with it. The installation is easy too. Though it really can't work with apple homekit, since of course, it's a google product. I read a post about Nest thermostat recently. You can find more about it. I was hoping to find some troubleshooting tips but can't seem to find any.

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