Helping you Build your Smart Home
A Honeywell thermostat not working usually shows it in one of three ways: a blank screen, a house that won’t warm up, or an AC that won’t start while the display says it’s cooling. Most of the time the fix is simple. It’s often the batteries, a power switch at the furnace, or a built-in … Read more
The best Honeywell thermostat for most homes in 2026 is the Honeywell Home X8S: it has a large touchscreen, room sensors, Matter support, and it works with Alexa, Google Home and Apple Home. But the X8S isn’t the only good option, and the right pick depends on your budget, your HVAC system, and the smart … Read more
What is aux heat on a thermostat? It’s the backup heat on a heat pump system. When the heat pump can’t keep your home warm on its own, the thermostat turns on a second heat source to help, and many thermostats show “Aux” on the screen while it runs. Seeing it on a cold morning … Read more
Do space heaters use a lot of electricity? Yes, compared with almost anything else you plug in. A typical space heater draws 1,500 watts on high, which is 1.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh) for every hour it runs. At the current US average of about 18 cents per kWh, that’s roughly 27 cents an hour, or about … Read more
A smart space heater does what a regular one does, plus a few things that make it easier to live with: you can set it to an exact temperature, run it on a schedule, check it from your phone, and turn it up with Alexa or Google Assistant. For a cold bedroom, a home office, … Read more
Both Eufy and Ring sell battery cameras and video doorbells. They cost between $100 and $550 and are compatible with Alexa. So what matters the most for the eufy vs Ring choice is where your video is saved. Eufy records to storage inside the camera or to a HomeBase at your home, so you don’t … Read more
The best floodlight camera includes a security camera, motion-activated lights, and a siren in one single device, usually mounted where an outdoor light fixture already is. The bright light at night is what makes it different from a regular outdoor camera: it scares off people who shouldn’t be there, and it gives the camera enough … Read more
HomeKit Secure Video is Apple’s recording service for security cameras and video doorbells in the Home app. Your HomePod or Apple TV checks the camera’s video at home, and when something worth keeping happens, the clip is encrypted and saved to iCloud, where only you and the people you share your home with can watch … Read more
A Matter smart lock is the one smart lock you don’t have to choose a platform for. It’s certified to the Matter standard, so the same lock works in Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa and SmartThings, and it can run in more than one of them at the same time. Most of these locks … Read more
A thermostat wiring diagram shows which wire connects to which terminal, and what each one tells your heating and cooling system to do. Once you know the letters (R, C, W, Y, G and O/B cover most homes), the wiring behind your thermostat is much easier to read. The one rule to remember: go by … Read more