Our Econnecx home automation has made living in our new house really easy and convenient.
We’ve set up a bunch of automated schedules for some of the key functions in the house. Our exterior and security lights turn on and off at varying times of the day that we’ve decided works with when we are coming and going. This is an awesome feature, especially arriving home to a well lit home at night. Functional and beautiful!
Our under floor heating and towel rails are also on schedules, which are quite different between the weekend and during the weekday. Which makes sense, we’re home more during the weekends so it’s nice to have the underfloor heating going, but while we are at work there is no need. Since we’ve had these schedules in place we’ve definitely noticed a reduction in power.
One of the coolest and most convenient features is being able to open and close the front door remotely, and turn the alarm on and off. Last week I was in Christchurch and Kylie was away as well, but wasn’t sure if she had set the alarm. I was able to check in on my phone and set the alarm from the econnecx app. Genius. There have also been numerous times that I’ve let tradies into the house without the hassle of having to wait around for them, or leaving a key out. You can even give them access that is time specific, so they can come and go based on the time of day, but outside of those hours they don’t have access.
We’re still waiting to connect up our central heating which will be really good. Plus add a couple of internal lights as well.
Home automation is one of those things you don’t think you really need until you have it. It hadn’t entered my mind during our planning stages as I assumed it would be really expensive, but econnecx is really reasonable – about $3k to set up and install, even into an existing home. Then $92 a year covers all the software upgrades and any support you may need during the year.
It’s super easy to set up too. Your electrician does all the work, then you can just play around creating schedules until you find ones that suit how you live.
Highly recommended.
At a glance we can see which of our connected devices are on, off or open in the house.
Sitting at work or in a different country, we can open the door for tradies, friends or family. We can check if the alarm is on, or set it if it isn’t.
Once on a computer you can add and edit your schedules. Here you can see our underfloor heating and towel rails. It’s very intuitive and automated, right down to dusk, dawn and public holiday settings.
Hi Ben,
Congrats on completing the build. House looks amazing. Which brand and where from did you get the Underfloor heating done? Is it hydronic heating?
Thanks
Thanks Karan. Our builder arranged the underfloor heating – was surprisingly cost effective to add. It’s by Hotwire and is fully electric.
Cheers
Ben
Hi. Curious to know if your blinds are hard wired and can be operated with econnecx so you can open/close them when you’re not there or did you go with battery operated?
Hi Janice. Yes, our blinds are hard wired. We have a remote than can operate 6 motors independently, so leaving one blind up, another down etc. If we wanted to, yes we could connect them to econnecx and control them that way too. With econnecx your native controls still work i.e. the blind remote would let us open and close the blinds, but the benefit of econnecx would be that we could put them onto a schedule – e.g. at 8pm the blinds go down, the heater turns up to 24 degrees and the exterior lights switch on. Hope that helps
Awesome setup! I believe the company has rebranded to Econx .
Do they require specific brands or all brands with smart connectivity supported?
Thanks
Hey David, yes that’s correct, not Econx. No, pretty much anything can be integrated which is what we liked about it. From normal lights to your underfloor heating, front door and alarm. Some appliances may need additional componentry from the manufacturer to be supported, like heating, but pretty low cost gadgets vs having to replace a whole new system!