Author: admin

Which is the best smart home hub for 2017?

We’re often asked which smart home hub we would choose, if we were automating our property. Of course, this is highly subjective so to make the process of decision making a little easier, we thought it would be a good idea to do a comparison of the 3 best selling Z-Wave hubs on our shop.

Win £100 each month to spend at UK Automation

We love to hear all about how you’re using our products, and we know how much other shoppers benefit from learning about home automation and how it all works - especially as it’s quite a technical subject.

To say thank you for talking about us, and telling or showing others how to use all the stuff you’ve bought from us, we’re rewarding a lucky fan with £100 of UK Automation vouchers.

How does it work?

Craig in our office will be drawing one lucky name out of the hat once a month, with the first draw taking place on the 2nd January 2013 - what a great Christmas present!

How do I get my name in the hat?

For each of the following actions, Craig will add your name into the hat:

Tweet mentioning @UKAutomation - 1 ‘hat entry’ per twitter account
Liking our Facebook page - 1 ‘hat entry’ per Facebook account
Blog post linking to www.uk-automation.co.uk - 2 ‘hat entries’ per blog post
Leave a product review on a product you’ve purchased from us - 3 ‘hat entries’ per review
Review our service on TrustPilot - 3 ‘hat entries’ per review
YouTube video reviewing our products or showing how to use them - 5 ‘hat entries’ per video

If you link a blog post to us, review us on TrustPilot or upload a YouTube video then you will need to notify us to be added to the draw.
Please email [email protected] with the details.

We will track Tweets and Facebook likes, and product reviews on our site. You don’t need to notify us of these actions.

Terms and Conditions

Draw will be made at 17:00 on the 2nd of each month, until UK Automation decide to stop the promotion. Cessation of the competition will be announced after a draw on the 2nd of a month. Entries to the hat will cease at 16:55 on the day of the draw, to ensure the draw can be completed on time. The prize is £100 of UK Automation vouchers which can be used for online orders on www.uk-automation.co.uk and have a lifespan of 1 year from the date of issue.
The vouchers cannot be exchanged for cash or any other prize.
The vouchers may not be used in conjunction with any other offer.
The draw will be shown on YouTube and will be announced via our Facebook page and Twitter account.

Product reviews must be of a product you have purchased from UK Automation, and be left in the ‘reviews’ section of that product.

#Note: (30/11/12) The 1st draw date was changed from 24th of December to 2nd January 2013 to give you all a chance to enter the competition over the Xmas period. Subsequent draws will be on the 2nd of the month unless this falls on a weekend in which case the draw will be on the next working day.

 

It’s all about control!

Actually, that’s not a lie. With today’s technology you can have as much (or as little) control as you want. Now it is even possible to control any electrical equipment in your home, from anywhere, all by using your smart phone. I kid you not. Total home automation from anywhere you happen to be.

OK, so there is a little work to do, you need to by a device to connect all your equipment together, and you need Wi-Fi, but once that’s done, the world is your remote controlled oyster! Turn lights on and off remotely, turn on the coffee percolator as you leave the office… the choice is yours.

Take a look at our X10 Home Automation system, for example. A simple plug and play device that can have you up and running in no time. Download an app from the Apple Store or Google Play and you can manage the whole system from your phone! From lights through automated curtains to televisions and other media. All can be connected quickly and easily, and all without any additional extra wiring.

As I’ve already said, the possibilities are endless. Let’s look at media, since that is how most of us spend our leisure time now. Even carrying an Ipod around the house, with its attendant speakers, is painful, and keeping the thing connected just by earphones means that you can’t have your bad singing drowned out by the music! The solution is simple, a Marmitek Wireless speaker for any Apple or Bluetooth enabled device.

Now all you need to hear your music anywhere in your house without the need to be chained to your device, is turn on the speakers! Simple, as someone said once.

Since X10 is an international standard for automated communications systems, the apps are simple and straightforward to use. Take iHome Touch by 1 Jump 2, for example. This simple and easy to use app is extremely intuitive. Select the room in your house, and then the device you want to control – job done!

Another simple to use and equally intuitive app is the X10 Commander by Melloware. Again, you have device by device control. Open the garage doors as you come down the street, turn on the garage lights and the external lights on your house, switch on the lights in the hall, turn on the kettle… Honestly, the sky is not even the limit here.

What about buying a domestic robot for carpet and floor cleaning and even to mow the lawn. You could manage them from your chair in the pub. Now that is control!