Tuya Smart

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Happy New Year. 2020 is shaping up to be a big year in home automation. Throughout 2019 were saw the emergence of new players in the market and a raft of products and that momentum is sure to continue into this year.

Tuya is fast becoming a platform of choice for manufacturers. If you’re not sure what Tuya is, it’s a cloud-based platform that controls smart devices, but more importantly, Tuya also make chips and products that manufacturers can use in their products to make them smart. For example, Arlec use Tuya based products and Arlec “Grid Connect” is just a rebranded Tuya app, so Arlec products can be added to almost any Tuya app.

We have been testing a number of products with the aim of identifying which products work with Tuya. We have discovered that the following brands do. Mirabella Genio - Arlec - Connect Smart - Deta - Orion - Brilliant SMART and of course iSwitchoz.

In short, this means that when you buy a Genio bulb or power board you don’t need to use their app. If you want to keep your automation simple and integrated you can simply use the Tuya Smart or Smart Life app (both Tuya apps) and have all your devices in one app.

Yes, you can have multiple apps and use things like IFTTT or Home Assistant to bring everything together, but it’s not only convenient to have everything in one platform it’s the best way to create automations. Our test home has motion sensors, temp and humidity sensors, door switches, doorbell, light switches, power points, power boards, garage door controller, RF sender and bulbs all connected to one Tuya app.

This provides for endless automations. Below are a few examples of what you can do.

  • Turn lights and off at present times or based on events

  • Turn garage lights and front house lights on when the garage door is opened and only if its after sunset

  • Have a walk-in robe light come on when motion is detected and turn off after a preset time

  • Auto turn of a bathroom heat lamp off after 15mins

  • Turn the AC on when the house temp is above 35 degrees and someone is at home

  • Flash the kitchen lights when someone rings the doorbell

  • Change bulbs from white to flashing colours for a party

  • Turn on an extraction fan when the bathroom humidity rises above a preset level

  • Turn a non-smart TV on and off with your voice

  • Create a home and away scenes with buttons on wall switches

  • Use a light switch button to control a hard to reach powerpoint.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

All iSwitchoz light switches, powerpoints and fan controllers are Tuya based, so they will work perfectly with the above-mentioned brands so you can create a smarter smart home.