The Australian Government’s HomeBuilder program has been praised and criticised in the same breath by many people. If you fit the Government’s assistance package envelope I think there are some specific areas you should look at, in order: Whatever you build, make it efficient!, and Whatever you build, make it efficient!, or Whatever you build,…
If you haven’t seen this article it is worth a read on how a family consumes minimal grid supplied energy to maintain their household. The Tesla battery, or any home battery solution, would work for this family. Make sure you do your homework though that you will be able to use your generated solar energy…
My previous house alarm was rock solid, it always worked when you wanted it to, with a simple interface to arm and disarm. Not too complicated, not too basic and nothing to trip it up …. or so I thought. As usual this is no brand bashing blog – I’d rather look at the solution…
It is not with ease that I write the term unsexy and smart home in the same sentence. But it is becoming very evident that one item that can save your life, has had the least amount of attention paid to it. Yep, your grey matter now is pondering away at what is the unsexiest…
A simple read on what is important to USA smart home buyers, although that does not always translate 1:1 to the Australian market (climate, elevation, humidity and product availability all drive needs or wants). Interesting to compare Channel 9’s #theblock and their smart home installations. I don’t think any of them have looked at atmospherics…
Congratulations on finding a house you like (layout, space, aspect, etc) and, more to the point, it has some or all of the smart features you were after. From my initial post (I’m Buying a “Smart Home” – Part 1) you should have the majority of your answers through an informative exchange with the Real…
I have been catching up with a property developer friend for a year or so and we regularly end up talking about Smart Habitats. He asked me about 6 months ago what would be the next big thing in ‘smart environments’? I didn’t take long to respond. For me it is pretty simple, it will…
IFTTT is definitely not a noise you make when you lift something heavy! What is it then? IFTTT, a.k.a. If This Then That, for the more technical among you, is a smart device App/Service solution allowing you to program an output from an input/event. Alright, enough of the lingo! What about an example. You have…
It’s sleek, sassy and minimalist. Your new house is just as you wanted! But bloody hell, it is so noisy!! Truth be told room acoustics are far more complex than most people realise. It is also sadly a forgotten area in some new build and renovation projects. You don’t need to dedicate weeks to it,…
The glossy advert pimps the house as ‘smart’. You have a vision that it ticks all of your boxes – remote-this, auto-that … you start dreaming of life in this house. Snap out of it, how smart is ’smart’? You just don’t know until you visit the house, but the challenge is even at the…