Evohome Apple Home Kit - A Fantasy?

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  • Fireblade69
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Apr 2016
    • 30

    Evohome Apple Home Kit - A Fantasy?

    I invested in the Evohome setup a year or so ago, (just before home kit was announced), but I'm a massive fanboy of Apple (or any other one-system fits all) so I've started looking at options for a single all-compatible solution for my home and I must say, I'm not that impressed by what's around for the non-super-technical, there is no real direction one can go for control that doesn't require several Apps and I have a passionate dislike for products that are plug and play like wifi plug controllers. I want my home to look smart as well as be smart so if it isn't hidden, I'm not interested.

    Anyway, my specific question relating to heating. With the Evohome not being compatible due to a lack of Apple Home Kit chip, is there an alternative controller from Honeywell that can control the TRVs I have (Lyric?) or are Honeywell likely to produce another controller that can be a hot swap for the non Home Kit version do you think?
  • top brake
    Automated Home Legend
    • Feb 2015
    • 837

    #2
    Originally posted by Fireblade69 View Post
    I invested in the Evohome setup a year or so ago, (just before home kit was announced), but I'm a massive fanboy of Apple (or any other one-system fits all) so I've started looking at options for a single all-compatible solution for my home and I must say, I'm not that impressed by what's around for the non-super-technical, there is no real direction one can go for control that doesn't require several Apps and I have a passionate dislike for products that are plug and play like wifi plug controllers. I want my home to look smart as well as be smart so if it isn't hidden, I'm not interested.

    Anyway, my specific question relating to heating. With the Evohome not being compatible due to a lack of Apple Home Kit chip, is there an alternative controller from Honeywell that can control the TRVs I have (Lyric?) or are Honeywell likely to produce another controller that can be a hot swap for the non Home Kit version do you think?
    Apple is being very selective with the thermostats that it offers as part of homekit


    Apple is being very selective with the thermostats that it offers as part of homekit

    The new Honeywell Lyric T6 series http://getconnected.honeywell.com/en/lyric-t6?src=home
    was launched yesterday

    This will fully integrate with homekit and is a single zone thermostat solution so will control boiler or zone valve but not wireless TRV

    You can have multiple Thermostats in one App location and in one homekit location.
    When you use Siri, "put the temperature to 15 degrees"… all stats will go to 15 degrees.
    When you call them by the thermostat name it works individually…
    Last edited by top brake; 28 September 2016, 11:04 AM.
    I work for Resideo, posts are personal and my own views.

    Comment

    • Fireblade69
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Apr 2016
      • 30

      #3
      Thanks for the tip.

      I definitely don't want 8 Lyrics in the house and certainly not with the redundancy of the rad controllers. If the Lyric was actually on the radiators then great but it isn't.

      Intelligent home is a great idea but the problem is we've got stupid suppliers that don't really understand. People want to integrate their home into one solution, they don't want to be herded down the road to purchase from one supplier though!

      Comment

      • top brake
        Automated Home Legend
        • Feb 2015
        • 837

        #4
        Originally posted by Fireblade69 View Post
        Thanks for the tip.

        I definitely don't want 8 Lyrics in the house and certainly not with the redundancy of the rad controllers. If the Lyric was actually on the radiators then great but it isn't.

        Intelligent home is a great idea but the problem is we've got stupid suppliers that don't really understand. People want to integrate their home into one solution, they don't want to be herded down the road to purchase from one supplier though!
        In that case it sounds like you might be better off looking at Amazon echo instead. This is compatible with Honeywell TCC App and both android and iOS devices.
        I work for Resideo, posts are personal and my own views.

        Comment

        • Fireblade69
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Apr 2016
          • 30

          #5
          I think that is what I'll try, hopefully a replacement Apple Home Kit compatible (and Android/Open Source for that matter - let's be agnostic) Evohome controller will be along at some point.

          At £50 for an Echo Dot I'll certainly try it out and if it works well enough and can integrate with other stuff then excellent. For such a large and well thought of global corporation, Honeywell are not doing themselves any favours I don't think and I think they'd benefit from a bit more work on their marketing strategy and product development.

          Comment

          • top brake
            Automated Home Legend
            • Feb 2015
            • 837

            #6
            Originally posted by Fireblade69 View Post
            I think that is what I'll try, hopefully a replacement Apple Home Kit compatible (and Android/Open Source for that matter - let's be agnostic) Evohome controller will be along at some point.

            At £50 for an Echo Dot I'll certainly try it out and if it works well enough and can integrate with other stuff then excellent. For such a large and well thought of global corporation, Honeywell are not doing themselves any favours I don't think and I think they'd benefit from a bit more work on their marketing strategy and product development.
            I think you'll need the echo itself. The echo dot is a slave unit.
            I work for Resideo, posts are personal and my own views.

            Comment

            • Fireblade69
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Apr 2016
              • 30

              #7
              I thought that when I first saw it but when I read the detail on it and researched it I found out it was a fully independent unit with a couple of features the Full Echo doesn't have.

              Comment

              • paulockenden
                Automated Home Legend
                • Apr 2015
                • 1719

                #8
                Originally posted by top brake View Post
                I think you'll need the echo itself. The echo dot is a slave unit.
                I don't believe that's true. Dot is simply an Echo without the speaker.

                P.

                Comment

                • top brake
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Feb 2015
                  • 837

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Fireblade69 View Post
                  I thought that when I first saw it but when I read the detail on it and researched it I found out it was a fully independent unit with a couple of features the Full Echo doesn't have.
                  Originally posted by paulockenden View Post
                  I don't believe that's true. Dot is simply an Echo without the speaker.

                  P.
                  Yep very similar. The Echo dot loses the audio speaker and £100 cheaper.
                  I work for Resideo, posts are personal and my own views.

                  Comment

                  • MichaelD
                    Automated Home Guru
                    • Mar 2006
                    • 167

                    #10
                    The industry seems to at a stage where several suppliers (Apple, Samsung, Google/Nest, Amazon ...) all want to set the standard that will cover everything, but right now there doesn't seem to be a clear market leader, so connecting the technologies together using hardware and software gateways seems to be the best we can do.

                    I currently have 8 hardware gateways and a handful of software gateways connecting together technologies. Technically its very ugly, but it works pretty reliably and it is the only way to get everything to work together.

                    Some people are at a stage where they are happy with a bunch of different apps on their phone to do stuff, but that happiness wears off pretty quickly (I currently have apps for SONOS, Honeywell Evohome, C-Bus2 Wiser 2, Nest, LG TV Plus etc.,) but HomeSeer and HomeSeer Touch give me most of the functionality I need, Echo should provide the rest

                    Comment

                    • Fireblade69
                      Automated Home Jr Member
                      • Apr 2016
                      • 30

                      #11
                      I've been looking at Home Assistant, looks like it can be used for a lot of things, time will tell.

                      Comment

                      • top brake
                        Automated Home Legend
                        • Feb 2015
                        • 837

                        #12
                        Agree that we are in a transitional phase in the smart home development. The competition has multiplied but all are based around their own hardware/app. Apps like IFTTT help tie all the threads together and this can be quite successful. This new dawn of connected platforms enabled by HomeKit, SmartThings etc will take it to the next level and potentially remove the manufacturer apps completely (or at least put them in the background) as more manufacturers have wifi devices and open up their APIs

                        As manufacturers build their products with this type of integration in the forefront it will accelerate the functionality.

                        Currently devices have been adapted to be connected. For example evohome started life as a multizone heating controller with a black and white user interface. That was the UI. Then it gained colour and a gateway. Then it gained wifi.

                        The new generation/future devices will be built with connectivity as part of their DNA. For example HomeKit chip as part of the hardware. Like the new Lyric Thermostat.
                        I work for Resideo, posts are personal and my own views.

                        Comment

                        • oshingler
                          Automated Home Jr Member
                          • Jul 2016
                          • 17

                          #13
                          This takes a bit of time and effort to do, but I have Evohome working with Homekit nicely, letting me adjust room temperatures by asking Siri or via the new Home iOS app.

                          Raspberry Pi + Homebridge (https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge) + homebridge-evohome plugin (https://github.com/luc-ass/homebridge-evohome).

                          There are pros and cons to this approach compared to the ideal situation which would be Honeywell releasing a native Homekit controller:
                          - There's currently a bug in the homebridge-evohome plugin for those with stored hot water systems causing it to crash, hopefully that'll be fixed soon (I tweaked the scripts to fix it and ignore hot water)
                          - It relies on access to the Honeywell API over the Internet (same as the app) for connectivity
                          - Raspberry Pi is low power and can be used for other things too - homebridge has tons of plugins including one for Domoticz if you're into home automation.

                          Comment

                          • DBMandrake
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Sep 2014
                            • 2361

                            #14
                            Originally posted by oshingler View Post
                            This takes a bit of time and effort to do, but I have Evohome working with Homekit nicely, letting me adjust room temperatures by asking Siri or via the new Home iOS app.

                            Raspberry Pi + Homebridge (https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge) + homebridge-evohome plugin (https://github.com/luc-ass/homebridge-evohome).
                            Now I know what I'll be tinkering with for the next couple of days.

                            Comment

                            • simonh29
                              Automated Home Lurker
                              • Nov 2016
                              • 7

                              #15
                              Installed homebrdige on OS-X. Everything is running great. It even gives temperatures to the .1 degrees unlike evohome. Handy for debugging things as we have access to the real temperature.

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