Home Automation Bargain Alerts thread - No General Chat

3 colour bulbs plus a hub for 75e, seems a good deal to me, they're around 50e each normally.. only have the white so gonna give these a shot... from amazon france

https://www.amazon.fr/Philips-d%C3%A9marrage-ampoules-connexion-g%C3%A9n%C3%A9ration/dp/B01LZ8QYPI/ref=sr_1_1?s=lighting&ie=UTF8&qid=1514144832&sr=1-1&keywords=philips+hue

edit: just noticed seller is new so could be dodgy, please ignore

Ring Pro video doorbell €209 Amazon France DID
https://www.amazon.fr/Ring-Pro-compatible-communication-bidirectionnelle/dp/B072KLVTQP/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514286737&sr=8-1&keywords=Ring+door

Philips Hue 3 white and colour E27 bulbs and hub down to €109 DOD
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/aw/d/B01LZ8QYPI/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?__mk_fr_FR=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1514346031&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Philips+hue&dpPl=1&dpID=31u6C8JJzbL&ref=plSrch
Amazon France seems to have a few offers on Hue stuff. Dimmer switch for €21. Hue Go €59. Strip €49 and so on

givecredit wrote: »

the Google Home / HUE starter kit bundle on John Lewis includes dimmer.

£169 + PW

https://m.johnlewis.com/google-home-hands-free-smart-speaker/p3194397?s_afcid=af_78888&tmad=c&awc=1203_1514484444_7fb963dd7d492d9e464e667e1fe9d03d&tmcampid=48

Same deal on curry's UK
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tech/smart-tech/smart-home/google-home-hue-white-colour-ambiance-27-starter-kit-bundle-10173878-pdt.html

xl500 wrote: »

Let us know what you think of it would like to hear real world thoughts

thx

Personally I would hold out for the Harmony Elite Remote. In my opinion a far better remote.

ctlsleh wrote: »

with the harmony, do i still need the Hue Hub, or the harmony can manage the bulbs independently?......is there any downside?

Still need the hue hub. The harmony controls the lights via the hub.

bk wrote: »

ctlsleh wrote: »

Someone needs to come up with an all-in-one hub, otherwise we will need a switch to be able to connect them all up......!!

Great opportunity for a Service Provider like Vodafone or Virgin to step into the market and become the SmartHome solution provider in the market........ most of the techies on here probably don’t need that, but the vast majority of people would welcome it....

Some of the very biggest companies in IT have tried and failed! It is really hard.

Samsung have probably come the closest to all in one with SmartThings, though it still partly uses separate hubs and is only ok and Samsung are massive IT company.

Apple HomeKit hasn't really taken off and they are the biggest company in the world!

Google, with some of the smartest com sci people around haven't even tried, instead opting to integrate things at the cloud level, arguably pretty successfully.

Service providers like Vodafone, Virgin, etc. are WAY down the list in this sort of technical ability. Outside of their core competency of telcoms/networking/video they are really very poor at this sort of stuff and have very little technical ability. Hell some would argue they even fail at their simple core competency (see Virgin and their Horizon box). Mostly when these companies sell gear, they are just rebranding other IT companies gear, they have little R&D abilities themselves.

All in one hubs are super hard because the massive variety of devices and incompatible protocols they need to try and integrate. Googles approach is probably right, anything else is just crazy complex.

I agree with you.....but if I was head of Marketing at Virgin or Voda etc, I’d be thinking that this is my turf......I’m already providing services and in a prime position in every subscribers home, I’m even taking the support calls for Samsung, Apple, Amazon etc, because who do people call? They call their service provider........if I don’t do something I will be relegated to being a dumb pipe provider where all these over the top players take all the value added revenue......

Just my 2c.......there’s a big opportunity for the broadband providers to up their game, otherwise they won’t be around in 10 years time....

The high horse brigade wrote: »

A one for all hub is pretty much impossible, lots of the protocols are proprietary

The Homey is broadest protocol supporting hub I’ve seen (open to correction).

I myself have a vera z wave hub, a few harmonies (one at each tv) and a few echos. All work together well now and voice control etc works.

For example I say turn on the house lights they all come on, same for asking the heating to come on, and if I say goodnight to Alexa it all turns off.

My only to do’s are to get a thermostat for more automation driven as opposed to on demand heating and convert the remaining light switches with z wave.

Alarm is the big one, I got a monitored alarm recently and despite z wave integration being touted as one of its selling points the alarm company basically haven’t a clue how good the panel they are selling is and lock a huge amount of functionality out by default (so much so I’ll be resetting the installer code and seeing if I can make use of the PIR’s and door sensors for some automation if not they can have the thing back and I’ll go down the original comfort cytech planned route).

To hear the hushed and slightly confused tone about enabling these features when I rang the alarm company post install was I think a similar position the likes of the ISPs would be in, it’s not their area and they don’t know what to do.

Alarm companies could have a huge upsell of home automation gear integrating with their alarms, have yet to see one doing it though (the one I signed up to advertised it, but hadn’t a breeze about it).

Edit: Way off bargain alert topic!

deezell wrote: »

FWIW, anything to do with alarms/ cctv has to be installed by a licensed company and installer.

This isn't a bad thing as it keeps the cowboys out of the business, but FWIW, for me, only amounts to a 5% discount, about €19 a year.

I already have an dumb alarm system installed by a licenced installer, one of my objectives for 2018 is to get a smart one (I'm thinking Nest) & take the other one off the insurance so I don't get any crap.

deezell wrote: »

I didn't know Nest done security alarms. Really nice looking kit. I assume it's self installable. If so, where do insurance companies stand if you have a break in and they find your alarm is diy installed. In my experience they put the most effort into claim avoidance.

I installed my own alarm and I just tell them I have no alarm. It makes little difference in the price.

Today is the last day of amazon.co.uk 3 for 2 on hue bulbs

Meanwhile bargain of the century on the Nest Protect on Amazon...

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Meanwhile bargain of the century on the Nest Protect on Amazon...

cant see anything on Amazon, still 98GBP, so 10 off, is that right?