Home Gadgets
Get spring-cleaning with a smart vacuum
1 The very first edition of Apple Home (see MF296) looked at the money-saving potential of smart thermostats. We talked to Momit back then, but the Spanish company has only recently started selling its offerings in the UK.
You can begin at quite modest cost with Momit’s Home Thermostat Starter Kit. At just £99, it’s one of the most affordable smart heating kits we’ve seen so far. Its Wi-Fi connectivity lets you control the thermostat using the Momit app on your iPhone or iPad. This includes quick on/off controls, as well as scheduling options so you can adjust your home’s heating to suit your daily routine.
The Home Thermostat also includes a ‘presence sensor’ that can automatically turn off the heating if it can’t detect anyone moving around your home. When you’re out and about, the ‘geolocation’ feature can track the GPS location of your phone to follow your movements and turn on the heating when it sees that you’re heading home.
Make it even smarter
The Home Thermostat is available in a number of different colours to suit your home decor, and once you’ve installed the starter kit you can buy additional thermostats for £59 each to control the heating in specific rooms, or on separate floors of your home. There’s also an optional extension kit (£29) that allows you to take the thermostat control off the wall and put it in your bedroom or lounge for extra convenience.
The company also makes a second model, called the Smart Thermostat, which costs £149. This version has the same features as the Home Thermostat, and adds a colour LCD with touchscreen controls and a number of different display options. The Smart Thermostat also includes an ambient light sensor, which helps it to tell when you’ve turned the lights off and gone to bed at night. Unlike the Home Thermostat, which requires the gateway that’s part of the Starter Kit in order to join your network, this model can connect over Wi-Fi on its own.
Momit says its thermostats are compatible with most domestic heating systems, and that you can install them for yourself in less than half an hour. However, if you’re a bit worried about fiddling with wiring, it can send an engineer to install the kit for another £79.
The Home Thermostat can turn off the heating if it doesn’t detect anyone moving in your home