A sound just interrupted a conversation I was having with my wife. It was 9PM so I knew what the sound was. It was the sweet sound of my front door locking itself right on schedule. Every night at 9PM the door locks. Seconds later I get a notice on my phone that confirms this fact. There is no guesswork here, no walking down the stairs to make sure the front door is locked. No turning the handle to make sure. One year ago I sprung for a Nuki Smart Lock.
I’ve had a Smart Home for several years now. Up to the point of getting the Nuki though it was really only about lighting. Don’t get me wrong. Lighting is an important part of a smart home. It’s what I started with and I’d like to think it’s what I am really good at. I’ll go into great detail about lighting in later blog posts. Right now though, it’s about Smart Home devices that make something happen. Where something moves or changes. Not something just being turned on or off.
What kind of setup do you need to take advantage of a Nuki (or other smart locks out there, there are several on the market)? Let me give you a rundown on my setup and then we can move on to the benefits of a smart lock. If you’ve read my blog post in the Apple Family category you’ll know that I have several Apple devices. The ones relevant to get started with HomeKit are:
Apple TV
iPad
HomePod
Any one or all of them will do to get started. My first purchase after that was a Hue light bulb with a Hue bridge. I still have the same Hue Bridge but my lighting accessories have expanded dramatically. Hue is not cheap but I found them to be highly reliable as well as diverse in their offering. I now have four lights in the house and seven in the back yard that are controlled via the Hue Bridge and by extension via HomeKit and Siri.
So, that’s the foundation. In the next post I’ll go into more of the details, and of course, talk about the Nuki.