While voice control is big right now, what if you didn’t even need your voice to control things like lights and heat and air conditioning settings. This is the mission of Securifi with their most recent updates to their Almond routers. The routers have always been marketed as dual purpose, since they act as routers and smart home hubs. But now the routers are able to interact with other home automation devices, like Nest. This gives you smart home control on a whole new level.
Here’s a rundown of some of the features that come with this update:
Actions triggered by personal device connection to WiFi
This is a great feature, because it is the most precise. While you can certainly set things like thermostats to turn on or off or up or down at specific times, those times might not accurately reflect if you are really home. Say you stay home sick from work one day, and realize you are freezing. It’s because your thermostat adjusted for you not being home, like you have it set to do. Or what if you have your air conditioning set to kick on at the normal time you get home from work, but you are delayed by traffic or decide to go to happy hour? Sure, you can likely open an app and change your settings, but will you always remember to do that? Instead, use the Almond router to tell Nest when your personal device connects to the WiFi, and then have it trigger a temperature adjustment action. If you’re wondering how it deals with multiple personal connected devices with competing temperature settings, the answer is that it will adjust to a happy medium.
Local control of some devices
It’s likely that you are always connected to the Internet, but with local control, you don’t have to be.
Not restricted to one action at a time.
This is something that I’m interested in trying out. Using the router, I could potentially leave my house for work in the morning, or head to bed at night, and have my doors locked, my alarm set, my lights switched to off, and my thermostat adjusted, with the push of not a single button. The same thing could be applied for when I arrive home, in reverse: the doors unlock, the alarm turns off, the lights turn on.
The Almond 3 router is available for preorder now, and has a price tag of $120. If you have an existing Almond or Almond+, those should update to include the newest features. If you already have a Nest, then you are good to go. If not, you’ll be looking at a price tag of about $250. So, this smart home automation system could cost you up to $370 to get set up.
Photo by: designmilk
