The title might sound like click bait but the truth is, the power is in your hands. Home automation does allow people to turn devices such as smart switches and power points on and off. If you’re using an app then controlling these functions is literally in your hands.

Thats cute, but the truth is turning things on and off is quite a simple function. Add some scheduling and maybe a lights on at sunset scene and its starting to get smarter. But still these are basic home automation tasks. Data is where the true power is.

Ever had multiple lights that you wanted to control from a single switch or a single light from multiple switches? Typically you would need to have your sparky wire up this configuration. With our light switches you can do some pretty cool things via the app, no additional wiring needed.

Our test home has a single switch in a dinning room that controls a deck light. The garage also has a single switch that controls a second light on the deck. Both of these switches are at opposite ends of the deck and its inconvenient to have to walk from one end of the house to the other just to turn on both deck lights.

For those of you who may be new to home automation, we thought we would go back to basics in order to explain how our products work. And how you can use them with other services like Google home.

Put simply smart devices are an electronic device, generally connected to other devices or networks via different wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, LiFi, 3G, etc., that can operate to some extent interactively and autonomously.

Some people would consider smart devices a gimmick. “Hey look I can have my lights change colour with my TV or change with the music.” Sure most peoples first foray into smart home solutions may start out that way, but for many others in the community these devices can give people their independence or simplify tasks we take for granted.

Many people within our community live with a disability that requires their homes to be modified to assist them to live independently.

Next Protect smoke and CO alarms are very cool. For years Australian households had fire alarms that were bland. Nests own marketing material states that they have a Split‑Spectrum Sensor, which tests itself automatically and lasts for up to a decade. It's also the first home alarm that you can silence from your phone without any extra hardware required. And it tells you what's wrong and can even alert your phone.

Thats just to the tip of the features. One handy feature is the use of a motion sensor to illuminate a space. Nest Protect lights up as you walk underneath it, the feature is called Pathlight.