1. You have to do one bulb at a time. If you plug in multiple bulbs and try to pair them, it won't work. I don't know why.
2. You will need a portable lamp - or some other way to bring the bulb as close as possible to the hub.
3. Open the Hue app, go through the "Add Device" sequence.
   • The app changes regularly and may be different depending on your phone.
   • Get to the screen which says "Searching for lights".
4. With the lamp off, plug in the bulb to the lamp.
5. Turn on the lamp.
6. After the light has come on, you need to rapidly switch it off then on again 6 times.
   • This means 12 switch flicks in total. Off, then on.
7. After flicking the switch 12 times, the bulb should be on.
8. The bulb should start to dim then brighten. It will keep doing this.
   • If it doesn't, switch it off. Then switch it on. Wait a moment, then repeat the rapid toggle.
   • Try doing more than 6 toggles.
9. Bring the bulb as close as possible to the Philips Hue Hub - touching it if possible.
10. After a moment, the bulb should stop pulsing and go to full brightness.
    • If it doesn't stop pulsing, use the app to "Add Device" again.
11. All being well, the app will tell you that it is paired.
    • Continue the set up in the app.
      • Once done, you can switch off the lamp.
    • If it doesn't work, switch off the lamp, have a drink, try again - making sure to read all the instructions thoroughly.
12. Repeat for all other bulbs.

Once done, the Trådfri lights work flawlessly. The colour is good as is their dimming curve. They are very expensive. Personally, I'd go for the ultra-cheap ZigBee lightbulbs from eWeLink.

FAQ

juST use A ligHTswiTch

Our kitchen is big. The lightswitches are far away. Also, I don't want them covered with cake-batter when I'm cooking.

gEt a sMarT LIGhtSWItCh

Most UK homes don't have a neutral wire to the switch. That makes it hard to use smart-switches. The ones which work without neutral don't work with dimmable bulbs.

PRIVaCY AnD secuRItY is iMpORtAnt

Yes it is. ZigBee bulbs don't have a way to "phone home" and are relatively resistant to being hacked.

Let's take a look at details of the vulnerability:

An unauthenticated attacker who knows the target device's serial number, can generate the default administrator password for the device.

Recently, the UK brought in some laws aimed at strengthening consumer protection - the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure act (PSTI). There's a readable summary on the National Cyber Security Centre's website.

There are three interesting points to note in that blog post. The first is about passwords:

The law means manufacturers must ensure that all their smart devices meet basic cyber security requirements. Specifically:

1. The manufacturer must not supply devices that use default passwords, which can be easily discovered online, and shared.

Secondly, is a question of jurisdiction:

Most smart devices are manufactured outside the UK, but the PSTI act also applies to all organisations importing or retailing products for the UK market. Failure to comply with the act is a criminal offence

Thirdly, what is actually covered:

The law applies to any ‘consumer smart device’ that connects either to the internet, or to a home network (for example by wifi).

Is a WiFi enabled printer a "consumer smart device"? One of the things that techies find confusing is that the law is not code. It usually doesn't enumerate a definitive list of what is and what isn't in scope. It gives a general outline and then allows case-law to develop. This means laws don't need to be updated when someone invents, say, an Internet connected tinfoil dispenser.

Let's move beyond the consumer-friendly summary and go to the actual law. The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products) Regulations 2023

2. Passwords must be—

   a. unique per product; or

   b. defined by the user of the product.

3. Passwords which are unique per product must not be—

   a. based on incremental counters;

   b. based on or derived from publicly available information;

   c. based on or derived from unique product identifiers, such as serial numbers, unless this is done using an encryption method, or keyed hashing algorithm, that is accepted as part of good industry practice;

   d. otherwise guessable in a manner unacceptable as part of good industry practice.

How does this apply to the printers? Rapid7, who discovered the vulnerability, have this to say about how it works:

[The vulnerability] allows an attacker to leak a serial number via the target's HTTP, HTTPS, and IPP services. However, should an attacker not be able to leverage [the vulnerability], a remote unauthenticated attacker can still discover a target device's serial number via either a PJL or SNMP query

So, yes. The default password is unique but it can be automatically derived from the serial number. That serial number is available to anyone with a network connection to the printer.

But, do printers fall under the scope of this act?

The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 says:

4 Relevant connectable products

1. In this Part “relevant connectable product” means a product that meets conditions A and B.

2. Condition A is that the product is—

   A. an internet-connectable product, or

   B. a network-connectable product.

3. Condition B is that the product is not an excepted product (see section 6).

It goes on to define what Internet-connectable means, along with some other clarifying details. But is there a get-out clause here? Are printers an "excepted product"?

In this Part “excepted product” means a product of a description specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State.

OK, let's look at the regulations. I've expanded out the relevant bit:

Schedule 3 Excepted connectable products

5. Computers

   1. Products are excepted under this paragraph if they are computers which are—

      a. desktop computers;

      b. laptop computers;

      c. tablet computers which do not have the capability to connect to cellular networks.

Nope! The Brother printers don't appear to be exempt¹. What's the maximum penalty Brother could be subject to?

The greater of £10 million or 4% of worldwide revenue.

Ouch!

Of course, much like GDPR fines, these are headline grabbing numbers. The prosaic reality is that the enforcement policy is much more likely to suggest remedial steps. Only the most flagrant transgressors are likely to be punished harshly².

So, to recap. The law says an Internet-connected device (including printers) must have a password which is not "based on or derived from publicly available information". As I understand it, having a serial-number based password is OK as long as you don't publicise the serial number. I expect that if it were printed on a sticker that would be fine. But because the serial can be discovered remotely, it fails at this point.

In Brother's (slight) defence, unless the user has specifically connected the printer to the Internet this is only a local vulnerability. Someone on the same network would be able to monkey around with the printer but, similarly, they could plug in a USB cable for some illicit printing or break it with a hammer. Any damage is confined to the LAN.

Should users change default passwords? Yes. But manufacturers have a legal duty to ensure that people who don't are still protected.

By design, the smart-meter is limited in how much data it can send back. You can choose to have readings sent monthly, weekly, daily, or half-hourly. There's no option for minute-by-minute precision. That's useful from a privacy perspective - and no doubt makes the network engineering simpler - but slightly annoying from a home-monitoring perspective.

The smart-meter has the ability to send real-time information to a local device using the ZigBee network. If you have an in-home display (IHD) then you'll have seen just how accurate it is.

As I've discovered, you can't just pair any-old ZigBee device to your meter. Luckily, Octopus have sent me the "Mini". A little device which connects to the smart-meter and your home WiFi, then reports usage every 10 seconds. Let's put it through its paces.

Size

Mini by name, mini by nature!

It's rare to find a device smaller than its plug. I half-wonder if they could have integrated it and just made it into a smartplug.

Annoyingly, it is micro USB. I am a USB-C maximalist. There's no reason this device shouldn't use the same cable as everything else I own.

Installation

Plug the Mini in - ideally within 5m of your smartmeter - and wait for the blinkenlight. Follow the in-app instructions. Because, like every modern device, it needs an app. You need to install the standard Octopus Android app, and can then add the Mini to your account and to your WiFi.

Like all cheap IoT devices, it will only work on 2.4㎓, so you may need to adjust which network your phone is on.

And then…

That's it. Every 10 seconds it sends an update to Octopus. You can use the app or the website to view your current consumption or to see your last 5 minutes or last 30 minutes usage.

If you're a dab-hand with the API, you can poll that. Or you can connect it to HomeAssistant.

Downside

In theory this is nifty, but there are a few things I'm not keen on.

• Export readings simply don't work for some brands of smart meter. That's an annoyance - my meter can send half-hourly readings for export, but the Mini just shows that I'm using zero Watts.
• No local connection. It sends the data to Octopus, so I have to use their API to get the data. I'd like the ability to stream it directly from the Mini.
• USB-micro. We live in the future. USB-C or GTFO!

Honestly, a bit disappointing. If you don't have solar panels - or your meter works correctly - this could be very useful. Even so, the lack of an local API is a bit of a buzzkill. Sadly, for my purposes, it isn't very useful.

At least, that's what I thought. A few days ago my little cybernetic helper suddenly started speaking!

Not exactly a Shakespearean soliloquy, but a hell of a lot better than trying to decipher BIOS beep codes.

All of my electronics beep at me. My dishwasher screams a piercing tone to let me know it has completed a wash cycle. My kettle squarks mournfully whenever it is boiled. The fridge howls in protest when it has been left open too long. My microwave sings the song of its people to let me know dinner is ready. And they all do it with a series of tuneless beeps. It is maddening.

Which brings me on to Star Wars.

Why does the character of Artoo-Detoo only speak in beeps?

Here's how we're introduced to him⁰ in the original script:

                THREEPIO
        We're doomed!

The little R2 unit makes a series of electronic sounds that 
only another robot could understand.

                THREEPIO
        There'll be no escape for the Princess 
        this time.

Artoo continues making beeping sounds

There are a few possibilities. Firstly, perhaps his hardware doesn't have a speaker which supports human speech?

Artoo demonstrably has a speaker which is capable of producing a wide range of sounds. So perhaps he isn't capable of complex symbolic thought?

This exchange from Empire Strikes Back proves otherwise.

INT.  LUKE'S X-WING - COCKPIT

Luke, looking thoughtful, suddenly makes a decision.  He flips several 
switches.  The stars shift as he takes his fighter into a steep turn.  
The X-wing banks sharply and flies away in a new direction.

The monitor screen on Luke's control panel prints out a question from 
the concerned Artoo.

                LUKE
            (into comlink)
        There's nothing wrong, Artoo.
        I'm just setting a new course.

Artoo beeps once again.

                LUKE
            (into comlink)
        We're not going to regroup with 
        the others.

Artoo begins a protest, whistling an unbelieving, "What?!"

Luke reads Artoo's exclamation on his control panel.

It could be that Artoo can't speak the same language as the other humans. C-3PO boasts that he is fluent in over 6 million forms of communication¹ - so it is possible that Artoo can speak but just can't speak out language².

Speech synthesis is complicated but playback is simple. Artoo can play recordings. His memory could be stuffed full of useful phrases which he could blast out when necessary. So perhaps he only has limited memory and doesn't have the space for a load of MP3s?

Except, of course, his memory is big enough for "a complete technical readout" of the Death Star. That's got to be be be a chunky torrent, right?

The only reasonable conclusion we can come to is that R2-D2 is a slave³. Sentient organics apparently hold some deep-seated prejudices against robots and "their kind".

The Star Wars universe obviously has a version of this meme:

Which brings me back to my home appliances.

This isn't a technology problem. Back in the 1980s microcomputers had passible speech synthesis on crappy little speakers. Using modern codecs like Opus means that pre-recorded voices take up barely any disk space.

The problem is: do I want them to talk to me?

• When I'm upstairs, I can just about hear a shrill beep from the kitchen. Will I hear "washing cycle now completed" as clearly?
• Would a manufacturer bother to localise the voice so it is in my regional language or accent?
• Is hearing a repetitive voice more or less annoying than a series of beeps?
• If the appliance can't listen to my voice, does it give the impression that it is ordering me around?
• Do I feel a misplaced sense of obligation when inanimate objects act like living creatures?

It is clear that the technology exists. Cheap home appliances have more than enough processing power to play a snippet of audio through a tiny speaker. But perhaps modern humans find something uncanny about soulless boxes conversing with us as equals?

I settled on the SereneLife 3-in-1 Portable Air Conditioning Unit. It's a small(ish) tower, fairly portable, claims 9000 BTU, is reasonable cheap (£160ish depending on your favourability to the algorithm), and has WiFi.

Why WiFi?

I know it is a trope to complain about appliances being connected to the Internet for no real benefit. Thankfully, I don't have to listen to your opinion. I find it useful to be able to control the temperature of my bedroom while I'm sat downstairs. I want to be able switch things on or off while I'm on the bus home.

Most manufacturers have crap apps. Thankfully, SereneLife use the generic Tuya platform, which means it works with the Smart Life app.

Which has the side benefit of having an Alexa Skill! So I can shout at my robo-servant "ALEXA! COOL DOWN THE ATRIUM!" and my will be done. Well, almost! When I added the app to my Tuya, this instantly popped up from my Alexa:

I renamed it to something more pronounceable for me! Interestingly, "蓝牙" means "Bluetooth" - although I couldn't detect anything other than WiFi.

Of course, being an Open Source geek, I was able to add it to my HomeAssistant.

Again, the Tuya integration worked fine and showed me everything the device was capable of.

Interface, Remote, and App

The manual control on the top of the unit is pretty simple. Press big buttons, look at LEDs, hear beep, get cold.

The supplied remote (which came with two AAA batteries) is an unlovely thing.

Fine as a manual control, but why the blank buttons?

Both remote and direct interface are good enough for turning on and off, setting the temperature, and that's about it.

As well as manual control, the manual claims that you can set actions based on the following:

• Temperature
• Humidity
• Weather
• PM2.5 Levels
• Air Quality
• Sunrise & Sunset Times
• Device Actions (e.g., turn on/off)

I couldn't find most of those options in the Tuya app. It allows for basic scheduling, device actions, and local weather.

Cooling and Noise

This unit isn't silent. The various mechanical gurglings and hum of the fan is, thankfully, white-noise. The label claims 65dB - which seems to match my experience based on this comparison chart. You probably want earplugs if you're trying to sleep when it's in the same room - but it isn't hideous.

It does play a cheerful little monophonic tune when it is plugged in for the first time, and it beeps when instructed to turn on and off.

Windows

In order to generate cool air, the unit needs to remove heat. Where does it put that heat? Outside! So this comes with a hose which you can route out a window. The hose is relatively long and flexible, so the unit doesn't need to be right next to a window.

The unit came with a vent designed for a sliding sash window. The windows we have are hinged. Adapters are about £15 each, so factor that in when buying something like this.

Cost

It claims to be 960W and my energy monitor showed that to be broadly accurate. Very roughly, that's about 30p/hour. We are only running it when the sun is shining, so it either consumes solar power directly or from our battery storage.

£160 is bargain bucket when it comes to air-con units and, frankly, I was surprised to find one this cheap which also had WiFi. I suspect prices will rocket as temperatures get warmer.

Features

As well as the air-con, it is also a dehumidifier and fan. The fan is basically fine at pushing air around.

The dehumidifier has a hosepipe for draining into a bucket or plumbing in to your pipes. There's a small internal tank which can be emptied with the supplied hose.

This appliance features a self-evaporating system that enhances performance and energy efficiency by reusing condensed water to cool the condenser. However, if the built-in water container becomes full, the appliance will display "FL" and emit a buzzing sound.

I didn't use this function because, thankfully, our place isn't damp.

Verdict

The UK gets very few scorching days and, usually, a fan and some open windows are enough to relieve the heat. But the climate is changing and I expect more sweltering nights in our future. £160 seems like a reasonable sum for an experiment - I don't expect to be heartbroken if this only last a few years. Most of the time it is going to be stuck in the loft waiting for the heatwave.

It isn't particularly light, but it does have castors so it is easy to roll around the house.

The manual is comprehensive and written in plain English.

As it hasn't been particularly warm this spring, I can't truly say how effective it is - but running it for a while made a noticeable difference to the temperature. Cold air pumped out of the front of the unit in sufficient quantities.

If you think you'll need extra cooling in the coming months, this seems like a decent bit of kit for the money. The Tuya platform is cheap enough to stick in most domestic appliances without breaking the bank.

ALEXA! CHILL MY MARTINI GLASSES!

Do you need a mirror which is connected to the Internet? Yes. Obviously. What's the point of having anything which doesn't have an IP address‽

The good folks at Infrared Group don't want me shivering while I blog, so they've sent me their latest Far Infrared heating panel which, obviously, is also a smart mirror. 350W of heat, enough for a 6m² room, and a cool little display to tell you the weather.

Let's put it through its paces.

Photos

Look, taking photos of a mirror is difficult!

Here's what the weather display looks like:

And here's the power button, located at the centre near the bottom edge:

It is an edge-to-edge mirrored panel, there are LEDs around the back of the edges which light up on demand:

Installation

The mirror needs to be mounted on the wall. It comes with a set of fairly hefty screws & rawlplugs. It weighs about 10.5㎏, so is suitable for most walls when properly installed.

There's also a handy paper guide which will allow you to mark exactly where you want it to hang. That's pretty useful and should stop you making too many holes in your wall.

The power cord is reasonably long - 120㎝. It is IP65 rated, so can cope with splashes. The retailer recommends installing it in a bathroom, although I'd suggest getting an electrician to fit it safely if you're doing that.

At about 100x60㎝, it takes up a chunk of space - thankfully, it's a rather shallow 5㎝ deep (2.5㎝ for the mirror and 2.5㎝ for the brackets).

Interface

The bottom of the panel displays a lit power symbol. It's the only physical way to control the smart mirror.

• Long-press turns the heating on or off.
• Single-tap turns the edge lighting on or off.
• Double-tap turns the weather display on or off.

Weather Display

There's a reasonable amount of data on the weather display. It can also be set in the app to optionally show the next day's weather as well.

Sun, cloud, and rain are all fairly prominent. There's also temperature outside (current, high, and low), temperature inside, and humidity both inside and outside.

A small icon shows whether WiFi is active. There's also a prominent date and time. All of which can be configured in…

The App

This is usually the weakest part of any domestic IoT offering. The mirror's app is developed by Adsmart Baolun Technology Ltd who specialise in making white-label products like smart lights, wristbands, and other gadgets. Their page about the smart mirror is a little bare-bones, but shows you what's available.

They provide the WiseMirror app (for Android and iOS) which is basic, but gets the job done.

Here's what you can do:

• Set up WiFi
  • Only supports 2.4GHz Wifi, as is common with most IoT. This thing isn't pulling down GB of data, so speed isn't an issue.
• Change the brightness of the weather display
  • High, Medium, or Low.
• Weather
  • The mirror will geolocate your IP address to provide local weather, or you can set your own location.
  • You can set localisation options like whether to use ℃ or ℉, and whether to use Day-Month or Month-Day
• Sleep timer
  • The weather display will dim (but not go off) during these times.
• Firmware update
  • Mine had the latest, so I couldn't test this.

The app is poorly translated, but not egregiously so. It doesn't ask for ridiculous permissions and doesn't run in the background.

There are several weather-provider servers, but they don't have names attached to them.

Rather conspicuous by its absence is the ability to control the heating remotely.

Notes on Infrared Heating

There are a few things to be aware of before getting an Infrared heater. Firstly, the heating experience is different to a traditional hot-water heater. Not worse; just different. A normal radiator heats the air whereas IR heats objects. I liken it to being in a sunny patch on a cool autumn day - you are warm, but the air isn't.

Secondly, Infrared heating is instant. Once you turn it on the heat starts. When you turn it off, the heat stops. Again, different from a radiator which takes some time to heat up, but stays warm after it has been switched off.

The panel is, effectively, 100% efficient. Every Watt of electricity becomes heat - and there's no wasted steam puffing out of your boiler's flue. But electricity is generally more expensive than gas. Of course, you can choose to only heat the room you're in rather than a whole house.

What I'm saying is that there are advantages and disadvantages. Being able to get instant heat in a single location, without burning gas or pumping water, is brilliant. But you need to understand that they are a different type of heater.

Technical Geekery

The MAC address shows that it is using standard Espressif module for WiFi. I couldn't find any open ports using NMAP. It uses the hostname "LEDWifi". The app communicates directly with the mirror using UDP on ports 8000 and 8001 - it also makes a connection to commander.adsmart.com.cn.

I took a brief look through the app, there don't appear to be any hidden settings for setting the heating. It uses Accuweather to look up cities (although uses plain http for that). In my brief period monitoring the panel, it didn't seem to do anything dodgy. But, as with any piece of IoT gear, you may want to place it on an isolated network.

Downsides

The big downside is a lack of remote control for the heading and lighting. It would be fantastic if this could be integrated into HomeAssistant, or Alexa, but I'd even settle for control via the app. There's no public API that I can see.

The heating is pretty much instant, so you don't need to switch it on 10 minutes before you want to feel warm. And pressing a button isn't too much of a burden. But it does feel like a bit of a wasted opportunity especially as the app will show you the internal temperature.

The other downsides are pretty minor.

The weather display seems accurate enough. There are 4 different weather providers listed, but the app doesn't say who they are.

The LED lighting around the edge is a fairly cool white. Multicolour LEDs might have been a nice touch.

Other than that, there isn't anything to complain about.

Price

Including delivery, the 350W model comes to £500.

By way of comparison, the Infrared Group have a bunch of non-smart heaters with a mirror finish starting at £240 for those with LED lighting.

If you want a plain white 350W panel that'll cost you about £170.

You can also get panels with images on them for around £240. Or about £325 if you want your own image printed on them.

You're paying a bit of a premium for the "magic mirror" element - but it does look lovely.

Verdict

This is a great Infrared heater. It powers on quickly and produces a good amount of heat. If you want instant heat in a moderately sized room, it's perfect.

The weather display is pretty useful and seemingly accurate.

The app is basic but easy enough to use - it doesn't require an account or anything complicated than that.

As a mirror? Well, it showed my face clearly 😉

It is slightly annoying that the WiFi connection is only used for weather and basic config. Being able to remotely control this would make it truly excellent.

If this is your first time experimenting with Infrared heating, I'd recommend starting with one of their basic panels. If you're looking for more of a statement piece, want the weather displayed, and are happy to manually switch it on then this is a worthy addition to your home.

You can buy the 350W Infrared Smart Mirror directly today and have it up and running quickly.

And ZigBee bulbs are expensive!

Five years ago, feeling flush with cash, I replaced all the bulbs with a mixture of Hue and Innr Smart bulbs. Last week, two of the bulbs died. No explosions or release of magic smoke - they just became unresponsive and I lack the skills to fix complex electronics.

So I looked at some replacements. Hue bulbs are £31 per pair - that's about 15x more expensive than buying a regular bulb. The cheaper Innr bulbs are about a tenner each. Still a bit much.

What about non-branded ZigBee lights? On eBay I found a single GU10 for £8 and, if I was prepared to buy in bulk, £60 for 10.

That's getting better - but still a premium on a boring non-smart bulb.

So I went looking for a Shenzhen special on AliExpress - and hit the jackpot!

There, I found a ZigBee GU10 bulb for £4! The price seems to fluctuate between £3 and £5 - but there are plenty of sellers with close-to-identical products priced less than a fiver.

The bulb took a few days to arrive from China. I plugged it in, searched for it in the Hue app, and it was added. Less than a minute later I was able to bark "Alexa! Turn on the kitchen lights!" - it responded at the same time as all its brethren. It is also colour changeable - unlike the Hue and Innr models.

The labelling says it is by eWeLink and, as expected, it has warm white and colour changing LEDs. Total power of 5 Watts.

But that's not all! AliExpress will quite often plunge price certain items to entice you to become a customer. I picked up another bulb for 77p! It was limited to one per customer - but that was good enough for me!

My sub-quid bulb arrived and… Yeah, identical to the first. Plugged in, paired quickly, turned into a disco bulb with a couple of taps. Oh, and because shipping on the 2nd bulb was delayed, I got a £1 voucher. So, I guess, technically it was free? So I bought another.

Here's what they look like in situ:

They do a range of RGB colours - and will also do white at a variety of shades. They dim. They react quickly. They're cheap.

Will these bulbs last as long as the others? Considering the price, I'm not sure I care! If you buy from a UK store on eBay, there's probably slightly more chance of recompense if things do go wrong. But if you're happy to wait for delivery from China - those cheap AliExpress bulbs are probably fine.

So, there you go. For a couple of quid, you can get a generic colour-changing ZigBee light which is compatible with Philips Hue.

FAQ

juST use A ligHTswiTch

Our kitchen is big. The lightswitches are far away. Also, I don't want them covered with cake-batter when I'm cooking.

gEt a sMarT LIGhtSWItCh

Most UK homes don't have a neutral wire to the switch. That makes it hard to use smart-switches. The ones which work without neutral don't work with dimmable bulbs.

WhAt AbOuT ThE carbon FOotprINt Of shipping?

Even a regular bulb would have been shipped from far away.

PRIVaCY AnD secuRItY is iMpORtAnt

Yes it is. ZigBee bulbs don't have a way to "phone home" and are relatively resistant to being hacked.

Take, for example, this tale from museum-worker Aaron Cope:

I was out with a friend who worked for Twitter and I asked them whether it would be possible for the museum to “create 200,000 Twitter accounts, one for each object in the Cooper Hewitt’s collection”. My friend looked at me for a moment, laughed, and then simply said: No.

In that blog post, Aaron reveals that the San Francisco International Airport Museum is using ActivityPub to create automated social-media bot accounts for all its exhibits and, possibly, every object it hold.

And why not! That would be close to impossible to do on a centralised service. But on a decentralised service under your own control, it is relatively simple. Perhaps I only want to follow the museum's canteen, or I just want to engage with a specific artefact. The Fediverse makes that possible.

This reminds me of the Melbourne "treemail" phenomenon. Every tree in the city had an email address, ostensibly so residents could email maintenance issues for a specific tree. Instead, people started interacting with the trees and sending them little love notes!

Dearest Golden Elm Tree, I finally found you! As in I see you everyday on my way to uni, but I had no idea of what kind of tree you are. You are the most beautiful tree in the city and I love you

A few weeks ago, I read about Ben Smith inventing Tweeting trains. With a bit of code, every train line in the UK was suddenly represented on the web in a convenient format. Well… Convenient if you were on Twitter.

Museums, trees, and trains naturally brings me on to the Internet of Things. I think it is fair to say that IoT is in a bit of an odd place right now. Matter is a confusing mishmash of standards. Security and privacy issues dog the simplest devices. Many people don't even want their toaster online!

For the majority of domestic uses, people want an Intranet of Things. There's little need to have your light-bulbs controlled when you're outside of WiFi range. Similarly, it is probably a really bad idea to have your hydroelectric dam connected to the Internet.

Which brings me back to the Fediverse.

On the one hand, it would be nice to be able to follow @Yellow_Line@Transit_Authority.gov - or even @Bus_Stop_1234@bus_company.biz - that would allow for hyperfocused data getting to the right people. It seems feasible that every civic object could have a Fediverse account. From the individual streetlights to the municipal sewerage system. Perhaps people won't send love letters to overflowing drains - but a social-dashboard of your civic environment could be both practical and delightful.

And, as for your domestic gadgets? Why not give every room, or every light-bulb, in your home a private Fediverse account? You could send a message like:

Hey @thermostat@My_Home.example.com, please set the temperature to 19°C. Thanks!

That might be a bit much! But I like the idea of a private social network which consists of all my IoT gadgets talking to me and each other.

The only problem is - I don't know how long the rice will take to cook. It uses "Fuzzy Logic" to work out exactly how much heat and time is needed for perfect fluffy rice. This is inconvenient. I cannot always hear the beep the machine makes when it completes its culinary wizardry.

So let's hook it up to the Internet of Things!!!

Step 1 - Get an Energy Monitoring Smart Plug. These are now relatively cheap and reliable. As the cooker is cooking, it reports back its energy use. But where does it report to? You can use the associated app, but that doesn't have an alert to say when something has stopped drawing power.

Step 2 - Install Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi. HA is a nifty bit of software which gives you complete control of your SmartHome. It integrates with all the various makes and models of devices you have controlling your lights, TV, plugs, smoke alarms, and other gadgets. It comes with a companion app which runs on your phone.

Step 3 - After spending a few weeks configuring everything, getting frustrated, wiping everything, starting again, and then getting it right this time - you're ready to add some automation! I used Leo Fabri's Appliance Status Monitor. You tell it which plug you want to monitor, what power level to detect as "on", what power level to detect as "off", and how long it should be off before sending you an alert.

The user interface is... intimidating.

It is necessarily complex. But this definitely isn't for the casual user!

Step 4 - Test with users. My rice cooker dips in power a few times through its cooking cycle - which sent my wife scurrying to the kitchen expecting to be fed. After which, I eventually worked out that I needed to tell the monitor to wait for the power to have dropped for at least 60 seconds before sending an alert.

Step 5 - It works!

One minute after the end of the cooking cycle, I receive an alert on my phone. I can now go and eat. Lovely!

Is this worth it?

I like playing with gadgets - so yes.

I also don't want to eat over-cooked curry, or under-done rice - so also yes.

I am lazy and don't want to get off my arse every five minutes to check the cooker - so again yes.

I don't want my rice-cooker sending all my rice-cooking habits back to the manufacturer - so even more yes.

This is a fun project for adding a minimal amount of smart-alerting to your existing appliances.

And… it works!

Mostly

These are the Meross 315 Smart Plugs. They are small(ish), cheap(ish), and easy(ish) to use.

As soon as I plugged them in, before even configuring them, my home went crazy. I got a pop-up on my phone asking if I wanted to control them with Google Home.

Nope!

I then immediately got an email from Amazon saying our Echo had detected the device and perhaps I wanted to use that to control the plugs?

Also nope!

I wanted to add the plugs using the Meross app. Not because it is particularly good (it's basically fine) - but because of a couple of limitations in Matter. Here's a page from the plugs' manual.

At the moment, Matter doesn't support firmware updates. That's probably fair. You don't want some random app bricking your device - so it is restricted to the manufacturer's app.

But Matter also doesn't support energy monitoring. I understand it's early days for the protocol, but that's a bit annoying.

Luckily, HomeAssistant came to the rescue! Because the Meross API is well documented, my local SmartHome Pi was able to get a realtime view of how much power was flowing through the plug.

Minor irritations

The power toggle - and activity LED - is on the left side of the plug. That makes it a little awkward to press and obscures the view of the LED. I guess putting it on top would make it too easy to accidentally activate?

The energy monitoring doesn't seem to update in realtime in the app.

I renamed the plug in the Android app, but that name doesn't seem to be exposed in Matter. Nor was it picked up by HomeAssistant.

In order to connect the device to WiFi, your phone needs to be on that specific WiFi network. Because the devices only support 2.4GHz, I needed to swap SSIDs on my phone. But, on the plus side, I didn't have to manually enter any passwords.

But these are all fairly minor complaints.

Verdict

For about £32 for a two-pack (depending on whether the algorithm favours you) these are pretty good value for money. They were easy to set up, quick to get working in other apps, and had a firmware update waiting for me.

I got some Meross plugs about 6 years ago and they've kept trucking all that time - so I'm pretty confident these will last. And, even if Meross disappears, Matter means that another app can easily control them.

Next Steps

Here's the plan. I'm going to plug this into my Tumble Dryer and tell HomeAssistant to monitor its energy usage and send me a message when the drying is done.

Obviously, a crappy oven with an app that upsells you cleaning products is a bit shit. As is a dishwasher that borks on firmware update and lets itself be hacked by the Eurasians. But those are just a symptom of profit-led development rather than placing a priority on user-needs.

Several years ago, I built an Internet Connected Fridge. This didn't have a touchscreen with a broken calendar integration, and it didn't use AI to scan my yoghurt for expiry dates. All it did was send me an email when I'd left the door open too long.

You see I am old and forgetful. I can't always hear the machine's plaintive beep. My fridge doesn't let me adjust its tip, and I couldn't find a spring-mount which would fit. A simple push-notification is exactly the solution I wanted.

Similarly, my air-fryer, washing machine, dishwasher, bread-maker, and microwave are quiet. I know I could start a timer on my phone every time I use them, but that's a bit of a faff. And doesn't work for non-timer devices like the rice-cooker and tumble-dryer.

IoT notifications are useful to me.

What about control? That's a slightly more difficult subject. Most of my gadgets already have a timer delay built in. That allows me to set them to run when I know electricity is going to be cheaper. So I could set the air-fryer to have dinner ready for me at a specific time. But if my journey home is delayed, I have no way to stop it.

To be honest, it is rare that I want to control something while I'm away from home. I like that I can crank up my heating while on the bus home, that's as far as it goes.

So I can see the utility for some people, but it isn't especially relevant to my needs.

Your arguments are irrelevant

Whenever I talk about stuff like this, some weapons-grade bore feels compelled to pipe up and say "No! IoT is rubbish! The S stands for Security!! How did people cope before this??? Why not get off your arse and check manually???? ENSHITTIFICATION!!!!!!"

Let me be clear - I don't give a fuck about your opinion, random Internet man. You don't get to police what desires people have. I am competent enough to set up my network securely. I am willing to spend a few hours fiddling with HomeAssistant to save me 3 minutes at a later date. Your opinion is unwanted and unnecessary.

I like technology. I enjoy playing and exploring. I want things to be slightly more convenient.

So, I've just bought some Matter smart plugs and am going to retrofit alerting to some of my legacy appliances. Fun times ahead!

I have a bunch of smart plugs. Some use WiFi, some use Zigbee, some use Bluetooth. None of them use PowerLine Ethernet. Why is that?

I have a bunch of PowerLine Ethernet adapters. They let me use my home's electrical wiring as a network. They also let me plug electrical items into them. But none of them can be controlled remotely. Why is that?

I want to take one of these:

And mix it up with one of these:

That way I'd be able to monitor the power consumption of a device and remotely operate it. It wouldn't need WiFi, it would have a permanent and reliable connection to my LAN.

I've searched AliExpress and I can't find what I'm looking for. If you think this exists - or if you make it - please let me know!

I wondered how my home network looked in comparison. A few years ago I was complaining that routers which limit users to 128 WiFi devices weren't suitable for the average family. I'm not quite at that many IP addresses - but I'm closing in.

So, here's my attempt to map my network - with a splash of colour to explain the different protocols at play.

Created with Graphviz Visual Editor. Using a free trial of RunZero to discover devices.

Conceptually, the network is quite simple. Cable Internet → WiFi / Ethernet Router → Devices. But some of those devices have their own wireless networks, some connect to a mesh, and others over mains electrical wiring. And then it gets a bit complicated

I do have more IoT stuff than is sensible. And, annoyingly, there's no good way to design a home network for (potentially) hostile IoT devices. At least, not without getting professional gear.

This is just our personal kit. There's a guest network for visitors and WFH equipment. I also haven't mapped every ZigBee devices (a lot of lightbulbs) nor all the LoRaWAN sensors (lots of doors and windows being monitored) - and I'm completely ignoring the things controllable by BlueTooth (mini-printers and treadmills).

One thing I notice is that the 2.4GHz is ridiculously crowded. All the cheap IoT devices use it - plus it provides the private network for some equipment. I get it. 5GHz is expensive, power-hungry, and has a shorter-range. But it is a bit annoying that more devices can't make use of its plentiful spectrum - it's currently restricted to phones and laptops.

We have a tall, narrow house. So WiFi extenders have proven a bit useless. But, perhaps it is time to create a couple of IoT networks on different SSIDs?

All told, when including work devices and random old Android phones / tablets, ancient Xbox consoles, and assorted Raspberries Pi - we're pushing 60 devices with an individual IP address.

I've got to admit, this doesn't feel like "underkill"…!

Simple. I love it.

It got me thinking about other things which have "zero interfaces". Once they're set up, they just keep quietly working.

The most obvious is a thermostat. If set right, it keeps the heating off in summer and on in winter.

Bank rounding is a fairly modern invention. Every time you spend less than a whole pound, the remainder is swept into a savings account. Spend £3.76 on a muffin? The bank pays the merchant and then transfers 24p to your savings.

Taxes - for most people - works the same way. If you have an ordinary job, tax codes and payments are automatically deducted from your pay cheque. You don't have to think about anything.

Downsides

Anyone who has been sat in an office conference room will know that the lights go off when they don't detect movement. Not ideal if you're sat on a video call! So you end up waving your arms around like a fool.

Just because the inside temperature is warm, it doesn't mean that it feels warm. So heating occasionally needs a boost.

Taxes are usually calculated yearly - but paid monthly. So starting a new job can occasionally result in the automated systems thinking you're earning more - or less - than you should. Which usually means either waiting until the end of the tax year, or making a manual intervention.

What's Next?

How do we build more "set and forget" solutions? What are the limits of zero interface products? Should users be able to override the "Breathe-o-Smart" settings?

If people don't have to constantly interact with something, will they forget that it is there? What consequences does that have?

So I dug through my scrapheap of old tech and resurrected an ancient Pi2. It's old, outdated, slow, with limited RAM, and has a bunch of much-abused GPIO pins. But it works and - crucially - is still supported by Home Assistant OS.

Well... ish!

The official Home Assistant installation guide for the Pi says that you can use a:

Raspberry Pi 4 (Raspberry Pi 3 is ok too, if you have one laying around).

But, if you go to the latest releases page and then click "show all assets", you'll be rewarded with a file called haos_rpi2-9.5.img.xz - that's Home Assistant OS for the Raspberry Pi 2. Sweet!

From there it was just a case of following the installation steps. But... my goodness the Pi 2 is slllloooowwwww.

I could see that the Pi was responding to pings, but the web interface wasn't coming up. I left it for a few hours and did something more interesting. And, when I came back, it worked!

But, that slowness becomes a recurrent theme. Not in the interface itself, which is delightfully snappy, but it is slow on any form of add-on installation, upgrade, or reboot. A lot of waiting is involved. Even something like viewing sensor history slows to a crawl.

It quickly detected all my smarthome gadgets (I have far too many). Integration was pretty easy - assuming you trust the system with your username and passwords... Most of these devices don't have OAuth. Some don't even have official APIs. But HA was able to interact with nearly everything.

Of course, that does mean the user interface is a lot!

As long as you're happy to fiddle around making everything just right, then the UI isn't too bad.

The phone UI is great! It interfaces directly with Android 13's quick actions. I was able to add a couple of buttons to my phone to do common tasks like switch off lights, and turn on electric blankets. The app is a bit of a power hog - because it is continually polling for updated data about your home. I put it in battery jail - I care more about control than reports.

Installing update is slow. Installing new integrations is slow. Rebooting is slow. But, thankfully, these are things you only do rarely. For switching lights on and off, getting the bed warm, and checking the air quality, it's fast enough.

At the moment, I'm using sloppy security. The Pi has the usernames and passwords for my various gadgets and talks to them via their official APIs. I guess I could reflash them all with FLOSS firmware - but that seems like a bit too much effort at this point.

Similarly, the Pi is running Let's Encrypt and uses Dynamic DNS to give me a permanent connection back to my home. I'm reasonably sure the security is good enough - but I probably need to Design a Home Network for Hostile Devices.

But, for now, I'm impressed with Home Assistant. It isn't quite "it just works" - but it's good enough for the enthusiast who is willing to put up with a few rough edges.

And I'm pleased my old Pi has a new purpose in life.

But the same thing happened the next day. And our alarm system app started complaining that it couldn't reach our home network. Nor could our security camera app, heating app, and lighting app.

Bother.

At first, I thought the Internet had temporarily gone out. Our ISP's fault page showed no disruption in the area and no problems with the line.

Arse.

I checked with the local power company - and there were no cuts reported in the area. So I checked our smart meter data. Our energy company gets reports every 30 minutes from the meter. That let me see that, at some point after 0930 one morning, the power had gone out and hadn't come back.

FUCK!

The smart meter was sending back 0kWh every 30 minutes. So I was reasonably sure that the house hadn't burned down. And, after a moment of panic, felt sure that if there had been a gas explosion, ram-raid, or meteor strike, someone would have found a way to contact me. So it was probably a fuse tripping which had knocked everything out.

Wait! What about our UPS?!!?

Last year we got a small Uninterruptible Power Supply. In an act of hubris sure to tempt the wrath of Jupiter, I said "I never get power cuts". Lord, what fools these mortals be! Checking on a few of my cron jobs from a home server, the UPS kept the WiFi, Internet, and a few other bits and bobs running for a couple of hours before starving to death.

We decided not to cut our holiday short by a few days or ask a friend to pop in and, instead, waited until we got home to flip the circuit breaker. The only calamity to have befallen us was a bunch of spoiled freezer-food.

But it got me thinking about all the things which went wrong, and how I could have prevented them.

No Alerting

I have a UPS. It has a USB port. It is connected to my server. My server can communicate with my UPS. Do I make use of any of this? NO!

Conceptually, it is pretty simple.

apcaccess -p BCHARGE -u will retrieve the battery level. Run that every few minutes in cron. If it dips below 100% then send an email with the full apcaccess status output.

No alternative ISP

When I thought it was an Internet outage, I cursed myself for not adding a 4G USB dongle to my router. That would have allowed me to see whether it was the ISP or the electricity which was the issue. It would also have helped with:

No Cloud Storage for Security

As a paranoid little geek, I made sure that all my security cameras only store data on the LAN. But that means that if they had caught images of a burglar breaking in and cutting the power, I'd have no means of retrieving them.

Perhaps I need to rethink my strategy? Do I trust myself - or someone else - to configure AWS properly so that I can access images but ne'er-do-wells cannot?

WiFi Circuit Breakers?!?!!?

My house is stuffed full of dangerous IoT equipment. Why not add WiFi to the fuse board? Yup, someone makes a Wi-Fi MCB which features "Intelligent Reclosing".

If I'd had that installed, I could have been alerted that something was a problem and then tried to flip the switch.

I've no idea if they're legal to install in the UK - but Amazon sells them for about £40.

What else?

I can't stop lighting from striking our house. I have off-site backups of all our important digital stuff. But what more can I do?

I suppose I could have hired a house-sitter - but that seems more geared to watering plants than dealing with complex maintenance.

The electrics were checked a couple of years ago - I could schedule a more regular assessment.

We have solar panels and a battery - but they don't work in a powercut to prevent domestic brownouts and the risk of feeding back into the grid. It might be time to look at re-doing all our electrics so that critical components can run directly from solar?

Perhaps I should abandon all ideas of leaving the house ever again - but that doesn't seem healthy.

Electricity is such a fundamental part of life but, in the end, our house survived without it. The UK's weather is rarely extreme, and our property is well insulated. Maybe I should just learn to let go and accept living by candlelight?

WWYD?

Well, X-Sense were listening! They've sent me the X-Sense Mini - it's a WiFi smoke alarm which integrates with the X-Sense app. That means that your phone receives a push notification when it is triggered.

It connects to your 2.4GHz WiFi network and sends push notifications to your phone via an app.

Why is this useful?

On first thought, it may be a bit silly to get a notification if you're not home. I mean, you won't be there to stop the fire, right?

But it is more complicated than that. If you receive a notification, you can get home, or ring a neighbour, or check if your partner is accidentally burning toast, or - if necessary - call the fire brigade.

You can also share the smoke alarm with someone else. For example, if you have an elderly relative who consents to remote monitoring of their environment.

Installation

Dead simple. It comes with some screws - so just shove it on a wall or ceiling somewhere.

It integrates well with the app. Press a button on the alarm, scan a QR code, then the app transmits your WiFi details via Bluetooth.

The whole setup process took about a minute.

Positives

It's a small, fairly neutral looking alarm. It isn't as big as the Nest, nor does it take as many batteries! It's also pretty loud, you should be able to hear the alarm in an average sized house.

If the device ever falls offline, it can send you a notification when it is back online.

You can fine-tune the notifications - so you can choose not to get pinged whenever it is tested, for example.

And, finally, the notifications come in pretty quickly.

Downsides

There are a few things that you need to be aware of.

Firstly, this is only a smoke alarm. It won't detect carbon monoxide - so you'll need a different alarm for that.

Secondly, it is WiFi only. Despite X-Sense having a hub which uses the low-power LoRaWAN standard, this thing only connects via 2.4GHz WiFi. So your hub is redundant in this situation. The battery is likely to last for about a year. I suspect it could last a lot longer if it used a lower-power radio protocol.

Thirdly, there is no API. So it may be hard to integrate with your homebrew home automation kit.

Finally, it only comes with a screw-mounting. You get a few screws and rawlplugs, but it would have been nice to have some double-sided stickers for mounting.

Final Verdict

The XS03-WX is a cheaper alternative to the Nest and other expensive alarms. It lacks CO detection, and I'd like to see better integration into the hub - but, for the price, I can't complain too much.

But what's the "smarts" in it which allows it to be controlled? TO THE SCREWDRIVERS, ROBIN!

There's a single board hiding in the boring grey shell. It's a QNQ010W - which doesn't have any publicly available data. KB-5150 appears to be a popular name of a variety of power supply boards.

Flip it over, and this is what we see: The buttons are… springs?

There's an 8x8 LED matrix for the display board.

Speaking of which, what's the "brains" behind the WiFi? ZOOM! ENHANCE! ROTATE!

Ah, the ubiquitous TYWE1S from Tuya.

There you go, nice and simple.

Does your home smell horrible? Would you like it to smell lovely? Well, friends, the good folk at Asakuki think that I'm the sort of person who knows lots of putrid people. So they sent me this Essential Oil Diffuser.

It's pretty plug-and-play. Pour some water into the supplied jug, tip it into the unit, shake in a few drops of your favourite flavour, hit a button, and WHOOOSH!

As a basic diffuser, it's great. Smells come out of it quickly and fairly quietly. You can fiddle with the lights, dim them, and turn them off. But it's the WiFi stuff that I like to fiddle with!

Tuya to your rescue

Every cheap WiFi device seems to use the ubiquitous Tuya platform - and this is no exception. Power it on, scan for the device in the app, click a button, and it's enabled. The second it connected, my Alexa also chirped up to say it had found it.

You'll almost certainly want to rename the device - because that's a bit of a mouthful.

What amazes is me is just how cheap it is to add "smarts" to a device. The basic diffuser without WiFi costs about £25. The WiFi enabled version is £32! Seven quid to add brains to a device. Nice!

The Tuya app has a bunch of options. If you try and turn it on without water in there, it will refuse your request. Which is a good safety feature.

You can set the intensity of the misting, and set a timer for how long to run the device.

And there's a standard colour wheel so you can set the mood just right. Or set it to disco mode.

Downsides

There are a couple of small niggles. Mostly around power. The unit's power connector is on the bottom: So you can't unplug it while there's water in the device without risking a spillage.

The connector is a barrel jack rather than USB. So make sure you don't damage it.

The Alexa integration is a bit weird.

You can turn the device on or off, but you can't set the colour of the light - nor its brightness.

Final Thoughts?

If you like a variety of scents, then this is a decent diffuser. For the £7 extra that it costs to put WiFi in this, I reckon it's worth it just to be able to yell "ALEXA! MAKE IT SMELL NICE!"

The Tuya app is basic, but works. Alexa integration could use a little polish but, for the price, it's hard to complain. I'd like to see a future version have a more sensibly placed power socket and USB-C.

I'm told that this will be part of Amazon's Spring Sale (April 1st to April 13) - so expect some discounts around then.

If there's a gadget you'd like me to review, please contact me!

Burning gas to heat water to pump around a home is… daft. It's noisy, expensive, requires a yearly service, and is difficult to control on a per-room basis. It is a fossil fuel with a tendency to explode. Yuck!

Heat pumps are marginally better. But they require a huge box installed and, possibly, bigger radiators. They still rely on pumping fluids around. Eugh!

So I decided to experiment with Far Infrared Heating. The science is simple - a thin flat panel which pumps out infrared radiation - and nothing else. No light, no whirring fans, no stored oil - just heat.

Before replacing every single radiator in the house, I decided to get the cheapest panel I could find which included WiFi (hey, what else did you expect from this blog?!). This is it:

Boring, innit? And it only cost £100 delivered.

It's the Maclean 360W WiFi heater. As far as I can tell, it's a rebadged OEM heater. It uses the near-ubiquitous Tuya platform, which means there's a basic app and it can be controlled by Alexa.

There's also some on-panel buttons for controlling it, if you don't trust IoT devices.

The controls are physically on the panel. The panel gets painfully hot to the touch so, sensibly, the area around the buttons has no heat. That said, it's easy to misjudge where your finger is going and feel a slight pain. There's an infrared remote control which feels plasticy and clicky and is just grim to use.

It's pretty thin, only 35mm, which includes the power box - but closer to 40mm if you use the included mounting brackets. And it is light - only a couple of kilos. These things are designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Mine also came with little feet to make it free-standing.

Thermal Imaging

Using my cheap Thermal Camera, I took a couple of photos of the device in use.

Here's the general heat distribution:

The top of the panel is quite a bit warmer than the bottom. This is also observable through touching the panel briefly. What's more interesting is the right hand side of the panel - where the controls are:

Despite the controls only being in the top corner, the entire column is considerably cooler. Effectively, this is a 50cm panel with a 10cm control space.

What I like about the system

The heating is instant. With a gas-powered radiator, I have to wait for the water to heat up and get pumped to the room. With this, I flick a switch and it is on. You start feeling the heat straight away.

The heat is directional - the back of the panel doesn't get very warm. Unlike a normal radiator which quite often needs a "reflector" to make the best use of the heat.

The aim of FIR is to build up "thermal mass". Rather than heating the air - which can be swept away in an instant - it heats objects which then continue to radiate warmth.

Because each panel is wired in individually, I'm not wasting energy by heating rooms I'm not in. I know I could dial down the radiator valves - or even get smart ones - but this just targets the rooms I'm in. And, when I leave - the heat can be instantly switched off.

Completely silent - no whooshing of gas or gurgling of water. Well, OK, there is a small speaker which beeps whenever it receives a command. And, as with anything, there can be the occasional creak due to thermal expansion. But it's a lot quieter than my existing heating system.

The Tuya app is a little basic, but it works. I can schedule rooms to be on or off, control them directly, or use the built-in thermostat. Or set the heating to come on when the local weather is a certain temperature,

Drawbacks

FIR has a few issues which are worth knowing about.

FIR heats objects and people, not the air. It is a different type of heat to convection radiators. Think of being out in bright sunshine on a cold spring day.

The heat travels in a straight line. So a panel around a corner will only heat things in its line of sight.

Thermostats generally measure the air temperature - so traditional ones won't work. There is a thermostat built in to this panel but it is only really measuring the ambient temperature around the panel.

The heat cuts off instantly. With a gas-powered radiator, the rad stays warm even once the gas has been turned off. With this, you get a few minutes of residual heat before it cools down.

Product specific issues

I deliberately chose the cheapest panel available. Longer term, I think I'd use someone like Warm4Less who offer a much better service.

Anyway, problems with this unit:

• Long shipping times from Poland.
• No wall mounting template - although they did provide screws & rawlplugs.
• Euro-style plug rather than BS 1363.
• No long-term guarantee - although these sorts of panels typically have a 100,000 hour life.
• The LED control panel will dim after a period of inactivity, but never switches off. When the unit is off, the power LED flashes. So you won't want it in your eyeline.
• The panel is pretty shiny, so reflects LEDs from your other gadgets. A matt finish would have been better.
• Only a 2m power cord. That's not really long enough for ceiling or wall mounting without extension leads.
• The Tuya app *sigh*

Tuya App

Tuya are near-ubiquitous when it comes to IoT and Home Automation. The Tuya Smart Life is pretty basic - and really could do with some UI and UX attention to detail. But, it works. Here are the sum total of the controls.

OK, once you're in the belly of the app, you can set actions to happen based on timers, weather, geographic location, and voice commands.

The app also has an Alexa skill which - despite my best efforts - I couldn't get working. I followed the Tuya Alexa Guide but the Echo just couldn't detect the Espressif-powered device. Annoyingly, there are two different official Tuya skills. I tried both of them, but no dice!

Security

The panel only has one TCP port open - 6668 - which is normal for these sort of devices.

As with any IoT device, unless you're prepared to spend ages configuring subnets, you have to take the risk that your devices could get compromised. YOLO!

Alternatives

I deliberately bought the cheapest panel I could find which was free-standing, so I could move it between rooms. There are panels available in all different shapes and sizes. Long, thin panels are great for hanging from a hallway ceiling, for example. There are picture panels if you want to use them as decoration, and mirror panels for bathrooms.

But all of them work in the same way.

Conclusion

Depending on the size and shape of your home, Far Infrared could be a good source of heat. The panels are passive and don't require any maintenance. If/when they break - you won't need a plumber or electrician to replace them. They're a lot simpler to install than a heat pump - and they're thin enough that you can place them in front of your old radiators if you want.

The 360W panel is enough for me to heat my home office. I have it set fairly close to me and it feels lovely. For larger rooms, you'll need much more powerful panels.

True, the cost effectiveness is highly dependent on the relatively price of gas and electricity. But the use of gas is being phased out across the UK and investment in this technology is likely to make it cheaper.

Overall, I'm happy with this experiment. When I'm the only one WFH, I can just heat my office and it will get warm pretty quickly. Most of my electricity comes from our solar panels, which is a much greener and cheaper source than gas.

I think, by next winter, I'll have these panels in every room and the gas heater will only be used for showers and baths.

Further Reading

I found these resources useful:

• ACC Haus "Far Infrared Heating. It’s heating, Jim, but not as we know it! (but you may need more power, Scotty) "
• Why infrared heating wouldn’t work for you…
• Far infrared radiation (FIR): its biological effects and medical applications