The Project: Wodehose

My goal for my home, nicknamed Wodehouse, is to create a seamless integration of smart devices. They should be reliable, useful, secure and progressively enhanced. This page shows the current, up-to-date, status of Wodehouse's automatable, connected devices. Many devices I try out or review don't make the  permanent Wodehouse cut. 

 
 

Kitchen and Dining

The kitchen is currently setup to automatically turn on lights when someone is in the area, as well as shut them off again when the activity ends. The dining lights are controlled manually or via the app on an as-needed nature. The breakfast bar is also the home of our Betta Fish, Hamachi.

  • 4 x GE Z-Wave In-wall dimmers (main kitchen lights, under-cabinet lights, dining ceiling lights and breakfast bar)
  • Nest Pro WiFi Camera
  • SmartThings Zigbee CentraLite Outlet (for tank light control)
  • 1 x SmartThings Zigbee Motion Sensor (v1)
  • 2 x Amazon Dash (review)

Living Room

The living room as probably the most used place in the home, so the lighting in here has been designed to be unobtrusive. The floor, table lamp and fireplace spotlights in this room activate if motion is noted in the period of time between dusk and dawn. 

  • 2 x GE Z-Wave In-wall dimmers (main living room lights, fireplace spot lights)
  • 2 x SmartThings Zigbee CentraLite Outlets (lamps)
  • Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Gen) (review)

Office

Our home office sits in the back of the house and is generally quite dark, so the lights are useful at all hours in here. As such, the automations turn on all the lights and lamps if there's motion regardless of the time, and also open the blinds during daylight hours.

  • GE Z-Wave In-wall dimmer (main office lights)
  • MySmartBlinds (review)
  • 3 x SmartThings Zigbee CentraLite Outlets (lamps)
  • Ikea TRÅDFRI E26 bulb
  • Ikea TRÅDFRI remote control
  • 2 x SmartThings Zigbee Multisensors (door and window open status)

Bedroom and bathrooms

The bedrooms and bathrooms are generally the areas I have the lowest tolerance for things going wrong or being difficult. As such, these rooms have few automatic rules and are instead controlled either manually or via a bed-side remote (to avoid having to look at a device screen). The blinds in the bedroom serve as a natural alarm clock, opening gently at a pre-determined time, and close again at dusk for automatic privacy.

  • 3 x GE Z-Wave In-wall dimmers (main bedroom and en-suite lights, main bathroom lights)
  • 2 x SmartThings Zigbee CentraLite Outlets (lamps)
  • 2 x MySmartBlinds (review)
  • Aeon Labs Z-Wave Minimote
  • 2 x Lowe's Iris Zigbee Multisensors (bathroom doors) (review)
  • Hello Sense Sleep Tracker (white noise, sleep tracking and alarm) (review)

Entry, landing and staircase

The parts between the rooms are mainly oriented around safety. Hallway lights automatically switch on when the front-door opens, and the staircase lights automatically turn on when in use. 

  • 3 x GE Z-Wave In-wall dimmers (hallway lights, 2-way control for staircase)
  • Arlo Security Camera (front-door)
  • Blink Security Camera (back-door)
  • Nest Pro Camera (garage)
  • Nest Thermostat (1st Gen, landing)
  • 2 x Lowe's Iris Motion Sensors (review)

Misc. and wearables

Of course, the whole system depends on a central "brain" as well as knowing a bit about where and when people are coming and going. Some of this is done via geofencing in conjunction with mobile devices.

  • SmartThings Hub (v1)
  • Pebble Time Round (mini review)
  • Google Pixel