In the past my husband has had a tendency to use his Belkin WeMo Switches for if not actually evil, less than nice activities. I am not saying he is an evil man, he just does evil things, such as remotely turning lights on and off when I am working, or turning a boombox (a relic from our university days) on full blast to remotely wake our teenage kids during spring break. I am not sure which was more of a shock the loud music or this thing old people refer to as a "boombox".
As a result I have been working hard to try to train him to use his WeMo switches responsibly and for good. I think I may have made some progress, but only time will tell.
The latest
addition to our family of WeMo switches is the Belkin WeMo Insight (the
Insight makes number 6...the same as the number of kids in the Brady Bunch).
The Insight
is almost half the size of the standard WeMo plug-in switches, and about the
same size as the Belkin Conserve Socket (which is a GREAT doohickey which, when
activated, stays on for a fixed amount of time and in our house is hooked up to
the espresso machine which my husband always forgets to turn off).
What's new
in the Insight is the ability to monitor the power used by the attached
devices. Previously we used the “Kill A Watt” wall wart to track down and
eliminate energy vampires. With the Belkin WeMo Insight we can not only
measure the power used by the device but also manage when and why it turns
on and off.
We live in
a jurisdiction which has time of day billing:
If only
there was some way to control some of our appliances and have them operate during the low rate period ...
if
only ...
We use the
WeMo Insight to control our dehumidifier using a time of day schedule (running
the dehumidifier only during the off peak periods). Using the handy WeMo
Android app I see that this is costing me $15.75 a month.
My husband
has been trying out IFTTT (which stands for If This Then That) and allows you
to control your WeMo switches using “Recipes”, here is a list of the recipes
available for use with the WeMo Insight: Recipes for WeMo Insight Link (Full disclosure I have no idea what these "recipes" are. I married an engineer so I would never have to know, but they sound delish!)
I for one
look forward to our coming robot masters managing the devices in my home using
the WeMo family of switches (and hopefully saving me money by turning on my
stuff only when necessary). Or if that fails then at least managing my husband!
With great home automation, comes great responsibility!
Please use your WeMo Switch Responsibly!
The WeMo Insight is easy to use, retails for $59.99 and works with Android and Apple devices. For more info and specs about Belkin products including the WeMo line visit Belkin.com or follow Belkin on Facebook, and Belkin on Twitter .
Yep, just me Cathy thinking out loud about Wemo Insight.
Note: I was provided with a WeMo Insight free of cost for the purpose if this review. All opinions are my own and reflect my experience with this product.
