So you’ve taken the plunge to automate your home. Congratulations! Automation not only saves time and energy but it can also reduce stress by taking care of all of the little annoyances of life. It can reduce cognitive load by eliminating the need to make all the little decisions in life; checking to see if the heat has been turned down at night, is the porch light off, and so on.
You’ve probably read about a device called a home automation hub or bridge. What is is? Do you need one? Read on.
Do I really need a smart home hub? The short answer is no. The purpose of a hub is to consolidate devices that operate on different standards and bring them into one central system. Do you have some devices that work on zwave and others on wifi and yet others on zigbee? Is it annoying to jump from one app to next just to change settings for different devices? If so, you may want to consider getting a hub.
If you’re just starting out, a hub will just add complexity. At the beginning you may just have a few smart devices, such as a porch light connected to your phone or a garage door opener. With only a few devices, a hub becomes another thing to manage; it’s better to wait until it becomes needed. If you choose all devices that operate on wifi, a hub will not be needed at all. If you go with the wifi option, you can use apps like stringyfy or yonomi to manage all of your devices from one app.
Can I just use my Amazon echo? The echo dot, also made by Amazon, can serve as a hub in simpler setups. Amazon supports many smart home devices that operate on wifi. Using the Alexa app, you can create routines to operate your smart devices. The Echo dot does not support zigbee or zwave. The Echo Plus does support zigbee radio which will allow you to connect zigbee devices to it. If you wish to use your echo as a hub, you’ll just have to check the smart device’s product specifications to see if they work with your Echo device.
If you found this helpful or something is unclear, let me know in the comments.
