10 smart home gadgets that cost less than £100

10 smart home gadgets that cost less than £100

Home automation used to be impossible unless you lived in a mansion and had the budget of a Russian oligarch’s wedding reception but with practically everything now connected to the internet, it’s become much easier and cheaper to give your home brains. Here are 10 gadgets to make your home smarter for less than £100 each.

Amazon Echo Dot (£50/$50)

The easiest and cheapest way to add voice control skills to your smart home is to pick up an Echo Dot. On its own it’s a nifty voice-controlled kitchen timer, weather forecaster and diary manager, but with other smart kit hooked up to it, it suddenly becomes the hub of pretty much everything that happens in your home, from lights and heating to security cameras and robo-hoovers. You’ll never have to lift a finger again.

Ikea Tradfri (from £7/$7)

The thing about smart light bulbs is that one isn’t enough. But the more you need, the more expensive it gets, so keeping the cost of each one down is crucial. Ikea’s Tradfri bulbs start at just £7/$7 each, with wireless dimmers costing just £8/$10, and £16/$18 for a motion sensor. The most expensive bit is the Gateway (£25/$30), which is what’s used to control each one individually and set up groups. They even work with Alexa and Apple’s HomeKit.

Elgato Eve Thermo (£60)

Smart thermostats are great but not all of them allow you to set different temperatures in different parts of your house. Elgato’s Eve Thermo is a Wi-Fi-enabled radiator valve, meaning you can independently control any radiator with one attached using Siri or the smartphone app. You can even set different heating schedules for each room, so the bedroom stays warm at night while saving energy in the rest of the house.

TP-Link HS100 (£30/$40)

Yeah, it’s a plug. Try to contain your excitement. But these Wi-Fi controlled sockets let you do some pretty cool stuff. You see, not every appliance in your house is smart. And that’s OK, because you probably don’t really need a clever toaster anyway, but if you’ve got an antique lamp that you’d quite like to be able to control from your phone or by talking to Alexa Alexa, sticking one of these in the wall first before you plug it in will make that possible.

Wyze Cam v2 ($20)

Only available in the USA at the moment, the Wyze Cam brings smart surveillance to your house for a fraction of the usual cost. For that price you might expect it to only be capable of capturing a few pixels at a time, but its CMOS sensor records 1080p HD and stores it in the cloud. There’s also night vision, two-way audio and it can even recognise the sound of a smoke alarm and ping your phone if yours goes off.

Now TV Smart Stick (£15 + monthly subscription)

Thought voice control was only available by shelling out for Sky Q? Now TV’s Smart Stick offers access to loads of Sky’s films and TV shows on a month-by-month basis (depending on which subscription you go for), plus its remote has a tiny microphone built in, so you can just ask it to bring up what you want to watch, or which app you’d like it to launch.

LIFX + A60 with Night Vision (£80)

LIFX’s smart bulbs work without needing any extra hub or bridge, so they’re great if you just want one for a floor lamp rather than rigging up an entire room. They work with Alexa, HomeKit, et al, plus the LIFX app lets you change the colours in seconds, but the really neat thing about this one is its ability to give off infrared light, which can help your security cameras to see in the dark.

Logitech Pop (£80/$60)

Ever fancied a magic button you could press that would put the kettle on, set your smart lights to movie mode and switch the telly on? Logitech’s ultra-customisable Pop buttons work with all kinds of connected devices and services, so you can set them up to activate almost anything. Best of all, they’re wireless, so you can pop them pretty much anywhere you want. The starter kit comes with the hub and additional buttons cost £35 each.

Fibaro Flood Sensor (£65/$60)

It looks more like a Wi-Fi router than something that could save your home from potential disaster, but the Fibaro Flood Sensor is designed to sit on the floor near anything that’s liable to leaking and sends an alert to your phone if it gets wet when it shouldn’t. It also has a thermometer onboard, plus it works with HomeKit, so you can ask Siri to check in if you’re worried.

Netatmo Healthy Home Coach (£90)

It might look like an Amazon Echo after a makeover but Netatmo’s Healthy Home Coach sits in your house sniffing the air, with four sensors that monitor humidity, noise, temperature and general air quality. Why are those things important? Because keeping them at the correct levels can help to keep you healthy, control allergies, and ensure that you get a good night’s sleep, with an accompanying app to help you keep on top of things.