Home Automation

Best Amazon Gadgets for the Home: The Room, the Gift, or the Carry-On

Marketplace listings describe a gadget as if it will land in a vacuum. It will not. It lands in a room with a particular wall,

Sonos Smart Speaker for Home Assistant Setup: Your Phone Decides

The speaker is not the part of this purchase that will limit you. The phone you set it up with is. Sonos publishes its own

Smart Blinds for Large Windows: What the Bedroom Rule Changes

A window in a bedroom is not only a window. Building codes count it as a way out of a burning house, and that single

Humidifier for Bedrooms: Dry Heat, a Nursery, or an Old House

The furnace comes on in October. By the second week of November the doorknobs are shocking people, lips are cracking, and somebody in the house

Smart Light Switch for the Living Room: Renting, Voice, or Savings

The lamp is by the couch, the switch is by the door, and at 11 p.m. somebody has to get up. That is the everyday

Best Smart Camera for Google Home for the Front Door, Nursery, or Pets

The doorbell rings at 11:40 on a Tuesday morning and nobody is home. What you want, three hours later, is not a grainy still and

Best Smart Thermostat for Energy Savings: Rental or Old House

Every smart thermostat listing promises to cut your bill. Almost none of them mention that the size of that cut depends on your house, your

Best Smart Plug for Home Automation: A Buyer’s Guide

A smart plug is the cheapest way to find out whether you actually want a smart home. It turns a lamp, a fan, or a