Final Thoughts
Pricing
Energenie is quickly establishing themselves as one of the most affordable smart home ranges, and getting excellent feedback on Amazon. The prices are great and as we’ve seen today, their setup and ease of use is very high.
- Energenie Gateway (MIHO001) – £44.98
- Energenie Motion Sensor (MIHO032) – £26.41
- Energenie Open/Closed Sensor – (MIHO033) – £25.11
You can explore the rest of the Energenie range right here.
Overview
Energenie has certainly left me impressed, and we can’t wait to show you what else can be done with their Gateway hub. Given that some of the home automation hubs on the market can typically cost 2x or 4x as much as the MiHome, Energenie are in a great position for entry-level consumers, but still offer a product range of smart devices which exceed what many other brands have to offer at the same time, giving you lots of options for upgrading and expansion.
Of course, since they have IFTTT support, you can effectively pair the MiHome hardware to virtually any other smart home device. With the system able to send out a simple yes/no notification, you wouldn’t think there’s much to be done. However, you can turn your radiator on, turn your radio off, change your lighting, fire off an email, update Twitter and a lot more with even the simplest of triggers in a smart home setup, and the only limit is your imagination and how long you’re willing to tinker in the mobile interfaces.
While much of the attention goes towards Harmony Hub, expensive Wi-Fi lighting, and many more, which are the most publicised IoT devices, it’s easy to overlook the benefits of smaller and more affordable products like the Gateway, Open Sensor and Motion Sensor. However, if you want to truly automate your home and devices, sensors are the best place to put a unique twist on your new and existing devices and we’re already looking forward to adding more of them to our smart home setup very soon.
Pros
- Affordable prices
- Easy setup
- Easy to use mobile app
- Tool-free installation (screws optional)
- Long battery life (18 months+)
- Compact hardware
- IFTTT support
Cons
- Some IFTTT triggers can suffer from delays, hopefully this will improve and it isn’t Energenies fault
“The Gateway is one of the best value for money hubs on the market, supporting a wide range of devices from Energenie, and with a range of power, sensor and heating units on the market, as well as IFTTT support, they’re the perfect starting point for putting a twist on your smart home configuration.”
