Mid-Size Easy Smart Home Starter Kit: $350 – $600

Description

To make most of this kit, you should get:

• 1 x Smart Home Hub. There is a smaller model that should work well if you are on a tight budget.
• 1 x Dimmer Bulb for each light that you want to dim. I recommend this for bedrooms and areas you may need to visit late at night. The bulbs come in a pack of 8, which should do 2-4 rooms.
• 1 x Relay Switch for each room that does not require a dimmer and has more than 2 bulbs. Living room and dining room are good examples. Be sure to get the Zigbee model so it will easily connect to the hub.
• 1 x Amazon Echo Pop per room – Optional. Get at least one, and up to as many as one per room.
• 1 x Presence Sensor per room – Also optional, but you will want either a motion sensor, or an Echo Pop in each room.

Connect all of the bulbs, switches and sensors to the Hubitat Elevation. Hubitat Elevation has an Alexa integration that will sync the devices to the Alexa app so you can control them with voice. You can also set up room lighting automations based on when motion is detected by the presence sensors.

Within the Alexa app you will want to group the bulbs into rooms so you can control them all with a single command: “turn on the lights in the primary bedroom”. If the Echo Pop and Lights are in the same group, you don’t even need to say the group name. Just “turn on the lights”.