Do you want to know how to set up a smart home with Alexa? In this simple guide I will explain how to set up your own smart home run by Alexa, plus show you some clever ways that you can use Alexa skills, automations and routines to get your family organised and make your life easier.
Table Of Contents
What You Will Need To Get Started
An Echo Dot
An Echo Dot is a smart speaker that you can use to run your smart home. You can get Alexa built into multiple different smart devices, but we have the dots are they are reasonable to purchase and small and discreet to have in the home.
We have one Echo Dot in the kitchen, one in the hall and one in the master bedroom. We also have one in my husband’s external shed. “Dotting” these Echo Dots throughout our home means that Alexa can hear our commands from most places in the house.
Smart Plugs
Smart Plugs connect to your home’s wifi, turning any device that plugs into a mains socket into a “smart device”. this means that you can turn any standard item on or off using Alexa commands, schedules or your phone.
Ring Doorbell
Wile a Ring Doorbell is by no means essential in your Smart Home, ours has proven so valuable that I felt they needed a mention. With a Ring Doorbell, not only will Alexa announce when someone approaches your door or rings your bell, but you can see and hear them from your phone from anywhere in the world where you have phone signal.
This means that you can speak to someone knocking your door, whether you are at home or out. The Ring can also act as a security and CCTV system.
Setting Up Your Devices
Here are some helpful videos for setting up your devices.
How To Set Up An Echo Dot
How To Set Up A Smart Plug
How To Setup A Ring Doorbell
Smart Home Automations & Uses With Alexa
One of the ways to make your smart home work for you is with smart home automations. These are “set it and forget it” routines that you can set up once that will continue to run
Turn Lights On & Off With A Timer
Having lights into your home turned into “smart lights” with smart plus means that you can control them with Alexa voice commands, your phone or timers.
Some examples of how we use timed lighting in our home;
- Children’s night lights that automatically turn on at 7pm and off at 7pm.
- A lamp in the lounge that goes off at 10pm on a week night to gently remind us to think about heading to bed.
Turn Lights On & Off At Sunrise & Sunset
Setting lights to automatically go on at sunset or off at sunrise can save having lights burning up electricity unnecessarily. We have our outside lights come on at sunset which avoid having to adjust the timers when the seasons change.
Say Goodnight To Alexa
One of the most useful automations that I have is “Good night”. I have set it to turn off all of the smart devices in the house when it hears “Alexa, Goodnight” (apart from the night lights in my girls’ rooms that go off on the timer at 7am) and to wish us “Goodnight” in acknowledgement.
Wax Melts With Alexa
I adore scented candles, but as a mother of young children they are a bit of a fire hazard. I have recently discovered electric wax melt warmers and it’s been a game changer! Better yet, by putting my wax warmers on smart plugs, I can time them to come on at set times, like when it’s time to wake up or before I start a work session in my home office.
Dressing Table Controlled With Alexa
Having my dressing table lights on a smart plug means that not only are my lights easy to turn on and off with voice control, but I never have that “Oh pants! Did I turn my hair straighteners off?” panic. I know that when the smart plug is off, the straighteners are off, which I can check from my phone.
Voice Commands To Try With Alexa
Here are some voice commands to try out with your Alexa;
- Alexa, set a timer for X minutes.
- Alexa, remind me to X at 5pm.
- Alexa, add chocolate to my shopping list.
- Alexa, order X from Amazon.
- Alexa, make an announcement (this will announce on all of your devices).
- Alexa, flip a coin.
- Alexa, open sweet dreams (this will play soothing sounds).
- Alexa, what’s the weather today?
- Alexa, what’s the weather this week?
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