Dollars and Sense

Anyone who has walked into a Home Entertainment Retailer in recent times would have undoubtedly come across the Connected Home section. Its the section full of brands such as Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Lifx, Phillips Hue, Swann, Ring and many more. And for most people they have a look and keep walking.

The connected home has a number of challenges and as per this blog title in many cases its comes down to dollars and (common) sense. Lets face it, the gear on offer today has some shortcomings and a hefty price tag.

Take for instance the price of a smart bulb. A Phillips Hue White bulb or white GU10 downlight will set you back $49, excluding the hub. It’s even more if you want colour. It only takes a quick stocktake to realise that just to do a lounge room with four downlights will set you back $196. Are you serious? Thats expensive in anyones language. Lets not get into the whole limitation of the bulbs here, you can read the blog “Are Smart bulbs really that smart?” for thoughts on that.

So bulbs are expense and “Smart Power” is just plain dumb. Not dumb because of features but simply because of the impracticality of having a big switch in an existing outlet. Good luck using the other outlet in a double GPO and good luck trying to plug two smart plugs into the double power point. Price is also a factor here, as per the image in this blog a Smart Wi-Fi Plug twin pack will empty your wallet to the tune of $74. Ouch.

Now do that math on a whole house.

We audited a house that was an early 2000, four (4) bedroom family home. The home has fifteen (15) light switches ranging from single to triple gang, six (6) fan light combos and twenty-two (22) power points.

The number of switches and outlets are one thing the number of lights are another. The house has 42 bulbs, 14 of which you cannot get a smart bulb for. Based on this, replacement of each bulb with a simple white smart bulb (no expensive colour bulbs) would cost $2058. Replacing just the switches to add smarts to all existing bulbs / lights would cost just $1155, thats $903 cheaper. It would also provide six (6) fan controls.

The same would go for the power outlets, a twin pack of smart wifi plugs that you couldn't put in a double GPO would cost $74 vs the replacement of a outlet with a smart switch for $55. Of course you have to also factor in the costs of a sparky, but if you’re doing a renovation project or building new you’d have this expense anyway. The DIY gear comes into its own for renters but if you own your home it makes sense to replace the switches and outlets. You also need to consider that iSwitch switches also monitor power consumption.

If you've got specialist lights like pendants and chandeliers you can’t simply ad a smart bulb.

Replacing a three (3) gang switch only costs you for the one (1) switch and it can control three (3) rooms. For example if you had a hallway (one light), dinning room (four downlights) and kitchen (three over bench and one sink light) all off the one switch your cost is only $55 not $495.

Work out what works best for your home and pick the option that makes the most sense.