Smart Home Technology

We found ourselves in the situation of one missing garage door opener remote and one non-functioning garage door opener. We decided to upgrade our entire garage door opening system, including the opener motor. Our selection was the Chamberlain 3/4 horsepower opener equipped with myQ. The installation instructions were very easy to follow even though this is a larger project requiring tools and a ladder. The garage was pre-wired for the wall control unit and the door sensors, so that made things easier as well. The wall control nit features a motion sensor light switch that turns on the garage door lights as soon as someone walks into the garage, even when the door is already open. This is helpful, for example, when I walk into the garage with hands full of recycle stuff to dump in the recycle bin, the lights turn on without having to flip the switch.  The major problem with this has been getting the myQ to connect to the door opener. I think the WiFi signal is no...

The Nest 3 learning thermostat is designed to control the forced air heat and air conditioning with greater precision and user controls than a stand-alone thermostat.  The installation process was easy to follow, and despite all steps being followed correctly, my Nest did not work at first, showing an error message. Warning: before you call out and pay for a professional HVAC technician to diagnose your Nest, plug the nest in to a computer using a "not provided" micro USB cord, fully charge the unit, and install any necessary updates. This turned out to be what mine needed in order to function correctly. The app is super easy to use and the Home and Away function helps reduce unneeded energy usage. The Nest does learn what temperature settings you like, and builds a temperature profile to fit your needs. We ended up making some adjustments to the learned profile, but overall it controls the temperature very well.  I will be interested in seeing how the ...