30 / matters magazine / home&garden 2018 How Smart is your Home? Tech makeovers for your house to fit any budget. BY FRANK VERDEROSA The Amazon Echo can help control smart home devices like lights, switches, thermostats and more. “Y ou can see who’s at the door even if you’re not home,” beamed realtor Robert Northfield. “With my Ring video doorbell, I can answer the door even when I’m not there. It’s amazing!” He’s caught the tech bug that many of us are catching, allowing us to add a layer of conve- nience and comfort to our already cozy homes. Recent updates in technology have put smart home magic within reach of more people than ever through scaleable and easily-connected devices. What once required complicated home wiring is now achievable through a multitude of wireless gad- gets that talk to each other. The odds are pretty good that this past holiday season you received the gift of a smart speaker – an Amazon Echo or Google Home. You’re already en- joying your favorite songs, podcasts, news and more. But that device is also the gateway to a connected home, giving you voice control of outlets, thermo- stats, security cameras, locks, TV and even the coffee machine! So where do you begin? A popular starting place is lighting. Phillips Hue offers starter kits to help you jump in. Their app guides you through setup, letting you assign light names: den, living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc. You can immediately control those lights from your phone. To add control from your Echo, just open the Alexa app and choose ‘Smart Home’ from the sidebar. You’ll quickly be able to say “Alexa, turn the living room lights on.” I’ve found the white LED bulbs to be excellent overhead bedroom lights, while the color bulbs do a much better job of mimicking incandescent light. You’ll also have the added fun of saying “Alexa, make the den blue,” since they can produce thousands of colors. You can do lots of fun things with Hue, either by their app or third-party programs. Flash your team’s colors when they score or synchronize a movie so that the colors change with each scene or flash during explosions. While this makes them a bit of a novelty item, they have many practical uses too, such as setting "home" and "away" modes. Leave