This is the forum archive of Homey. For more information about Homey, visit the Official Homey website.
The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
Is Homey any good??
garyclay
Member
Ok I'm new to home automation. I'm in the UK, technically competent but not a tech geek. I've currently got LightwaveRF sockets and switches and somfey blinds and control using Echo dot. I'm looking to introduce other products and I like the idea of a connected hub but the feedback on here is very hit and miss about this product with quite a few getting rid of their Homey device. So here's the question is it worth me buying a Homey? What is support like? Can I get a refund if the product doesn't work as I expect? How easy is Alexa integration? What is the range of the product like, I currently use an extender for my LightwaveRF gear.
Is is it still to early for a non geek like myself to get involved and should I be patient and let the market mature. €299 is a lot of money for a white elephant!
Is is it still to early for a non geek like myself to get involved and should I be patient and let the market mature. €299 is a lot of money for a white elephant!
Comments
Please check the Apps for the products you use e.g. https://apps.athom.com/app/com.lightwaverf. This third party app is version 0.0.7 and is not updated for a year, but could work fine for you.
The Somfy app is genuine Athom https://apps.athom.com/app/com.somfy and updated a month ago from 2.1.12 to 2.2.0 version (not sure whats the difference in function).
I'm not familiar with Echo dot controlling Alexa myself. Reading the forum I haven't found an out-of-the-box solution.
I'm using WiFi, zwave, nexa, and waiting for the Ikea zigbee app...
What it is good at: Homey is really good (the best on the market) at connecting stuff. It connects z-wave, zigbee (soon), wifi, bluetooth, and infrared, but YOU have to tie it together using the flows. Flows are very easy to use. You will build up more and more flows with more and more complexity over time. After a few months, you will have a automated smart home which does things by itself. Technically competent sound just right, with Homey, you will feel like a wizard.
What it is not good at: Homey voice control works, but it's not great. I think it is the main reason why people are disappointed. You have to be realistic about your expectations. There is no such thing as magic and Homey is no exception. Luckily, you will be able to use Alexa to control Homey, so you will have much better voice control than most of us.
Conclusion: I love my Homey. The thing I love most is the hobby and community. A few time per month, I add or tweak a flow so it behaves just a bit better, or I learn Homey a new trick or two, but most of the time, it just sits there and does it's thing. It closes the curtains at night, turns of the power of devices we do not use, it greets us when we come home and wishes us a good night when we go to bed.
Got myself also a Homey this year and I personal love it, even without some software programming skills. Controlling devices by voice can sometimes be a bit tricky, but overall Homey software and the amount of apps are improving fast. Even today we got a new software update for our Homey. Making your own basic flows to control all your devices is even for a 'white elephant' easy. Don't be impressed by the geeky projects you read about here.
Just look in the app store if it supports your devices. Support of Athom and the forum members here is also great, so you can count always on some backup and advice should you run in some problems.
Amazon Echo is not for sale in our country, but I also testing a UK version of the Echo Dot right now, running next to the Athom Homey. Alexa is working nicely, running all my lights and heating, but I still prefer my homey.
It all boils down to the fact if your are willing to spend some time developing your own Homey flows, and if Homey supports your devices.
I think it completely depends on what you define as good. For me homey is a great home automation controller. It supports all major wireless home automation standards, it's interface is basic and understandable (and that is good), its fairly easy to add supported devices. You don't have to turn to programming to make fairly advanced flows and its performance is good.
The programming of homey is based on NodeJS. When i migrated i found myself having a couple of devices that were not yet supported (if you are new to home automation and you pay attention to what you buy you don't have that problem..) And i'm no programmer in any way but i still managed to get all my devices working.
Every light in my house is controlled by homey. My central ventilation unit is controlled by Homey. My heating is controlled by Homey. Half of my lights don't even work properly without my home automation. Its that important.
With Homey controlling my house even my wife sees the benefits and its the small things that make the greatest improvements. From lights that turn on when you enter the house at night, to lights in the bathroom that turn on dimmed when its passed 0.00 hour so you don't get smashed in the face with light when you have a night time stop at the toilet. A house that turns off lights and other devices at night you forgot tot turn off saving energy. The most important home automation is the stuff you only notice when it does not work and a good controller is reliable or it will annoy everyone living in the house.
That said, i use homey only as a home controller. I don't use speech, Homey sits on my desk at the attic with his ring turned off most of the time.
Reading this forum i find that the people that have experience with home automation like Homey especially in comparison with other controllers on the market. People that bought it with two socket 10 euro plugs and expect homey turns there home in the starship enterprise are disappointed.
And maybe, that is also at some point Athom's fault because with the movies they made in the past they make it look like home automation is easy and cheap and the reality is that it just isn't.
Yes you can make a flow that when you press a button or say something to homey it turns on your tv, sets it to the right channel, sets your sonos speaker to max. Closes your window, closes the curtains, dims some lights turns others to green, sets your heating to 22 Celsius and says to you have a nice movie and makes you a cup of coffee for you.
But before you can do that you have invested a lot of time setting up and perfecting that flow and have invested a lot of money in hardware.
IR to control a TV yes it works but if you try to turn on a TV with a flow while its already on because your wife just turned it on with the remote its going off. Those cheap remote controlled light switches well they work but it remains a bit of a hit / miss (80 / 20) thing going on. And that is not homey but that is because those cheap light switches don't tell homey they are on or off same for the IR of the TV. Its not homey its the used technique that has its limitations.
Electric blinds sets you back at least 200 euro's per window. A smart coffee machine is about 100 euro's more than a normal one. Yes you can control lights with 10 euro plugs but if you want reliable switches you have to turn to Z-Wave or Philips Hue and those are at least 5x that price per light. Electric window controls, at least 70 euro per window. A new thermostat because the old one is not smart 150 euro, those knobs on your radiator 50 euro the pop.
So just to watch a movie you can spend hundreds of euro's depending on your expectations imagine what the cost are to automate your entire house and how much time you need to spend tot tune it all in.
If you think 299 euro is a lot of money if you start with home automation and your a bit serious its only the beginning. For existing houses wireless is the way to go and Homey is the best controller on the market now. But Homey is as good as the devices you connect to it.
And if you want to know what real professional reliable (wired) home automation looks like search google shop for KNX you won't be able to buy a light switch for the price of a Homey but i think homey with some Z-wave / Zigbee switches can come pretty close to the level of automation of these kind of systems.
wow, nice sumary and cant agree more. Another thing to mention is the awesome community, as a tech nerd i know there are alternatives that "could" work better since it might give some more freedom. Homey got me hooked just because of the great community. And not just Slack or the forum, the meet-ups have been fun as well.