Energenie MiHome Gateway & Sensors Smart Home Review

Introduction Taking command of your home has never been easier thanks to the huge range of IoT (Internet of Things) devices that are on the market, but it can be a little confusing finding the ones that are best suited for your setup, especially given different products often come with (or without) support for other devices and software suites. We reached out to Energenie to test their MiHome range, as it comes with support for IFTTT (if this then that) which is awesome for setting up home automation tasks. Think of it like this; if my door sensor (this) is triggered then turn on that light. This means MiHome hardware is compatible with just about anything you can think of in the smart home market. "Use timers and programmes to get Mi|Home to work to your schedule. Energy monitoring means you can understand the true cost of a 30 degree wash. Use geofencing for control via your location and make your heating come on a mile from home. Or even use IFTTT to control your heating based on the weather." https://youtu.be/aSUXKDhQwck Smart home devices from the MiHome range all need to connect to a central hub called MiHome Gateway. You can buy this on its own, or with a bundle of hardware such as three plug switches and a hub, but we'll get to that shortly. We've got a Gateway, an Open Sensor, Motion Sensor to play around with today, and while not the most complex of configurations, there's still a lot that can be done, and if you keep an eye out, we'll be looking into some of the more advanced MiHome devices in just a few days time too. For now, let's check out the absolute basics and see what we can do with Energenie triggers for IFTTT. https://youtu.be/sW3w-B20FaI Packaging The MiHome Gateway comes in a neat little box, showing off support for iOS and Android on the front of the box, as well as IFTTT support. The Open Sensor shows that it can be mounted on doors and windows, or anywhere else if you're feeling creative. Again, support for iOS, Android and IFTTT. Around the back, you can see that it pairs up with the full range of MiHome devices. The Motion Sensor is much the same too. Again, it also hooks up with the full range of MiHome devices. Now, let's get these out of the box and see what they have to offer. A Closer Look - Gateway The Gateway is the heart of everything in the MiHome range, it's needed to operate all of the devices in one way or another. It comes with a mains adaptor, USB to Micro USB cable, Ethernet cable, and a little bit of documentation to help you set it up. The plug is simply a USB adaptor, so while you can use the mains, you could just as easily power it from a USB hub or similar source, just make sure it's one designed to deliver constant power; don't use the port on your TV for example. The included cables are pretty standard, but are really all that is needed. A USB to Micro-USB cable and a CAT 5 cable, and you could easily substitute them for your own replacements or longer cables if needed. This unit MUST be wired to your network though, any Wi-Fi features are for the connected devices. The hub its self is a simple white box, which is small enough to be tucked out of the way in your house. It's very lightweight but otherwise looks pretty simple. There's a single button built-in to the top panel, simply push it down to trigger it, which can be used to reset the device if needed. Around the back, a micro-USB and Ethernet port, as well as a small pin hole master reset switch should things go wrong. On the base of the unit, four rubber grips to help keep the unit in place, as well as a QR Code, which can be scanned when pairing it up with the mobile app for a quick and pain free pairing process. We've blocked ours out for obvious security reasons. A Closer Look - Motion Sensor The Motion Sensor comes with everything you need to get it installed and running within just a few minutes. The sensor, obviously, some 3M pads, and a few screws and rawl plugs, and a AA battery for power. The sensor its self is nice and compact, which should make it incredibly easy to tuck into a corner of your house, and it's unlikely to be an aesthetics burden. There's a small golf-ball like dome on the front for the sensor, and a small red LED hiding behind the white plastic that lights up when it detects motion. Around the back, nothing much to see here, but the smooth surface is perfect for the 3M pads to attach it to your wall. It's very lightweight too, so adhesive pads will do a fine job. As I said, it's quite small! Pop the back off, and you'll find a small PCB, a control button for pairing, and a spot for the battery; it's that simple. A Closer Look - Open Sensor The Open Sensor comes bundled with a battery of its own, some more rawl plugs, and two 3M pads. The pads are great for PVC mounting, while the screws are better suited to wooden door and window frames. There's not really a lot to look at here, the thing looks just like those basic magnetic sensors you get with most alarm systems and well, that's because it is one of those things. The difference here being that it has the wireless tech to pair with the Gateway, that's where all the magic happens. On the back, both have flat surfaces that are great for the 3M adhesive, and you can screw the other part on if you feel the need. Just like the Move Sensor, a space for the battery, a pairing switch and a coil on the edge for the magnetic trigger. Installation & Performance Installing the sensor was nice and easy, I used two 3M strips to get the job done in about 30 seconds. One to hold the bigger unit onto my door frame, and one to hold the magnetic bar onto the edge of my door. Open my door, the little red light blinks, the Gateway app registers an open trigger. Close my door, it registers the closed trigger. Doesn't sound complex, but I'm sure we can come up with some fun things to do with these triggers in IFTTT. The motion sensor pairs in the same way, just hit the button on the inside and it'll sync to the Energenie MiHome app, which you'll find in the Apple and Android app stores. I opted to put mine in the kitchen for now, and I'll get to why in a moment. Setting up the hardware is certainly the easy part, plug the Gateway into your modem, pair the sensors and any other Energenie hardware you have and you're pretty much ready to explore your options. Remember, if you're using Amazon Alexa, you'll need to add the Energenie skill and then discover devices before they become integrated into your smart home setup. We've already got skills setup for Logitech Harmony, LIFX lighting and more, as well as a range of devices setup that we can potentially trigger using IFTTT. We've already got a few more Energenie devices here, but you can see that as you pair them, they appear on the favourites and devices tab read to use. For now, however, we'll stick with the kitchen sensor and the door sensor. Each one of the sensors can act as part of your home security. You can get mobile alerts when one is triggered, and even configure times when they are active, so that you're not getting notifications for the hours or you're actually at home. This means you'll be able to keep track of what you need when you need it with ease. Of course, getting a notification when a door opens or someone walks into your kitchen is pretty basic, so what else can we do here? If Energneie triggers Then turn on something... I set up one skill on IFTTT so that when my front door is opened, it powers on my LIFX 800 light in my bottom hall. I set the skill up to turn the light on at 80% brightness, with a warm colour, so that when I come into the house or answer my door, I can see what I'm doing. Of course, I set the timers on Energenie, so it'll only do this on an evening. But now your light is left on? Simple solution, I created another IFTTT recipe to trigger when the door sensor is registered as closed. It fades out my light over 2 minutes from 80% down to 0% brightness. By the time we're out of the hallway, the light is turning its self off, waiting to be triggered again. What else? I did the same thing with the motion sensor in the kitchen, if you walk in, it turned the lights on automatically. Unfortunately, this did suffer some severe delays of a few minutes, but that's more the IFTTT service than anything else and we hope to see IFTTT improve their response times in the future. Fun ideas I put the motion sensor into the sweetie cupboard of the house, every time it was opened, IFTTT added a time stamp to a text file on my drop box. I could then check that log to see how often it had been accessed. Even more fun, I could potentially set another IFTTT recipe to trigger a song on playlist every time a file was added or changed in Dropbox. You could have a bit of fun playing a song from Charlie and the Chocolate factory if someone was sneaking for too many sweets. Why? Because you can. The open sensor is lightweight enough that you could fit it onto a cat flap for example, helping you keep track of your pets by blinking a light when it comes back of leaves. While the motion sensor could be placed in a garage and set to turn on your heating or music only when someone is in the room, which can save you power in the long run while also adding convenience to your devices. What's next? We've got a lot more Energenie products at our disposal, but they're a little more technical and we wanted to explore the basics of the Gateway and general setup. So far so good, but we'll be back with heating, lighting, power and more features very soon. Final Thoughts Pricing Energenie is quickly establishing themselves as one of the most affordable smart home ranges, and getting excellent feedback on Amazon. The prices are great and as we've seen today, their setup and ease of use is very high. Energenie Gateway (MIHO001) - £44.98 Energenie Motion Sensor (MIHO032) - £26.41 Energenie Open/Closed Sensor - (MIHO033) - £25.11 You can explore the rest of the Energenie range right here. Overview Energenie has certainly left me impressed, and we can't wait to show you what else can be done with their Gateway hub. Given that some of the home automation hubs on the market can typically cost 2x or 4x as much as the MiHome, Energenie are in a great position for entry-level consumers, but still offer a product range of smart devices which exceed what many other brands have to offer at the same time, giving you lots of options for upgrading and expansion. Of course, since they have IFTTT support, you can effectively pair the MiHome hardware to virtually any other smart home device. With the system able to send out a simple yes/no notification, you wouldn't think there's much to be done. However, you can turn your radiator on, turn your radio off, change your lighting, fire off an email, update Twitter and a lot more with even the simplest of triggers in a smart home setup, and the only limit is your imagination and how long you're willing to tinker in the mobile interfaces. While much of the attention goes towards Harmony Hub, expensive Wi-Fi lighting, and many more, which are the most publicised IoT devices, it's easy to overlook the benefits of smaller and more affordable products like the Gateway, Open Sensor and Motion Sensor. However, if you want to truly automate your home and devices, sensors are the best place to put a unique twist on your new and existing devices and we're already looking forward to adding more of them to our smart home setup very soon. Pros Affordable prices Easy setup Easy to use mobile app Tool-free installation (screws optional) Long battery life (18 months+) Compact hardware IFTTT support Cons Some IFTTT triggers can suffer from delays, hopefully this will improve and it isn't Energenies fault "The Gateway is one of the best value for money hubs on the market, supporting a wide range of devices from Energenie, and with a range of power, sensor and heating units on the market, as well as IFTTT support, they're the perfect starting point for putting a twist on your smart home configuration."