Jay Basen

Jay Basen has been a home automation hobbyist for over 30 years and has worked professionally in the industry for almost 20 years. His professional background is electrical engineering and software development. He has a master's degree in engineering and has been writing software professionally for over 40 years. To read more of Jay's articles, visit his blog http://topicsinhomeautomation.blogspot.com/

Author's Posts

Finding Alternative User Interfaces for Smart Homes Reviews

Finding Alternative User Interfaces for Smart Homes

There are a variety of user interfaces for controlling a smart home. Some of the most common methods are by using individual smart phone apps provided by manufacturers, an integrated app that ties together smart devices, handheld remote controls, dedicated touch panels, wall-mounted keypads, or voice control. All of these options have...
Easy Buttons, Children Detectors, and Other Creative Smart Home Solutions Tech

Easy Buttons, Children Detectors, and Other Creative Smart Home Solutions

There are many problems that can be solved with smart home technology, if you apply some creative, “out of the box” thinking. In this article I’m going to focus on some creative smart home solutions that I’ve come across over the years. Hopefully these will provide ideas, and a way of thinking, that you can apply to your own home...
Saving Water Using Smart Home Technology Green Tech

Saving Water Using Smart Home Technology

Saving water is becoming increasingly important, as extreme weather patterns continue to become more frequent. There have been a lot of stories in the news lately about the “megadrought” that the western U.S. is currently facing. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor (The U.S. Drought Monitor is produced through a partnership between...
Tailwind iQ3 is the Perfect Pro Integrator Garage Door Controller Reviews

Tailwind iQ3 is the Perfect Pro Integrator Garage Door Controller

The Tailwind iQ3 Offers the Widest Range of Features of Any Smart Garage Controller Shortly after my last article on smart garage door solutions (How to Integrate the Garage into a Smart Home), MyQ changed their API (application programming interface) and broke the Crestron-MyQ driver that I wrote for that article, along with other...
Leveraging Smart Ceiling Fans for Summer Energy Savings Green Tech

Leveraging Smart Ceiling Fans for Summer Energy Savings

Summer is upon us, and with it many of us are already experiencing hot weather and sky-high electricity bills from running an air conditioner to keep our homes comfortably cool. Smart ceiling fans are one way to reduce your energy usage (and your power bill) without negatively impacting your comfort. Setting back your air conditioning...
How SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2 Improves on the Original Motorized Curtain Design Reviews

How SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2 Improves on the Original Motorized Curtain Design

The new SwitchBot Curtain Rod 2 is a 2022 reddot design award winner and improves on the original SwitchBot Curtain’s ability to work with curtains mounted on a curtain rod through a redesign of the mechanism that clamps the motor assembly to the curtain rod. The original SwitchBot Curtain was released through a Kickstarter campaign...
How the Shelly Plug US Smart Plug Measures Up  Reviews

How the Shelly Plug US Smart Plug Measures Up 

The Shelly Plug US is a well designed and constructed smart plug that offers a wealth of features that make it very competitive in the marketplace — especially for the price. In addition, its integration with a large number of both consumer and professional smart home platforms makes it very attractive to both smart home hobbyists...
How Whisker Lab Gen 2 Ting Sensors Help Prevent Electrical Fires Reviews

How Whisker Lab Gen 2 Ting Sensors Help Prevent Electrical Fires

Whisker Labs, the manufacturer of the Ting Smart Electrical Sensor, has not been idle over the past year. First, they have released a second-generation Ting sensor. Like the first-generation Ting, it is installed by simply plugging the unit into an unused outlet in a home and still has the same hazard detection and fire safety...
How a Somfy Clever Tilt Motor Can Make Standard Shades ‘Smart’ Reviews

How a Somfy Clever Tilt Motor Can Make Standard Shades ‘Smart’

The Somfy Clever Tilt Motor enables homeowners to motorize their existing 2-inch to 2.5-inch blinds into their smart home. The product comes packaged with seven adapters for connecting the drive motor to a blind’s tilt rod, three sets of adapters for securing the drive motor in a blind’s head rail, and a detailed instruction...
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