Review : WeMo Switch & iPad/iPhone App
Having an automated house is something many of us truly desire, but the cost of outfitting an existing home is tough for many of us to overcome. Thankfully products like the Nest thermostat and the Belkin WeMo exist to help.
The WeMo Switch is a simple device that plugs into a wall outlet, and then allows you to control power to whatever you have plugged into it. I’ve used a simple lamp in my living room. It’s only one example, and one could certainly use many other items, but for me this was the best place for it. I hate trying to navigate the downstairs in the dark at night. Whether I’m coming down for snack, heading up for bed, whatever, I hate stumbling around like a fool. Now I don’t have too. I go up, and once I’m ready for bed I can simply turn off the downstairs light from my bed via the iPad or iPhone. If I’m headed down, I can turn the light on before I ever get out of the bedroom. It’s so amazing how something as trivial as this has made things easier for me and my wife.
Even better than just controlling the power, is being able to set up rules for the WeMo Switch. Such as turning the item (my lamp in this case) on or off a certain times, like a vacation timer. Or if you find you are always coming home to a dark house around the same time in the evening, you could simply create a rule to turn the lights on before you normally get home.
There are two models, and the more expensive one includes motion sensing, however I stuck with the cheaper model ($49.99) and find it works great. It’s amazingly simple to set up, took about 5 minutes to get it from package to working from the iPad/iPhone, and for the price you truly can’t beat the convenience.
I’m sure the novelty will wear off, as my wife sometimes just turns the life on and off for fun right now, but the function that it provides in the long-term is something I don’t think we will outgrow, and that’s something I’m really excited about.
If you have pondered picking one of these up but wondered if they actually worked as advertised, I can honestly say they do, and I may just pick up another soon.