Unless you’re super rich, you’ve probably never heard of Savant.... Read the full article here:

​http://gizmodo.com/savant-takes-a-simple-but-elegant-approach-to-home-auto-1736115862

Blinds and curtains... lets face it... are pretty annoying. They are annoying to put up, they get dirty, they take up space and they get unfashionable in time. If you can be bothered you waste your time everyday when you pull or draw them. 

It's also pretty difficult to automate them as every blind is different. You need an electrical supply as well as a motor configured to draw and pull the blinds.

Our children will look back and laugh at us. How we wasted time, energy and effort on these strange contraptions which only purpose is to block light. They'll all have windows which, at a click of a button, can change the opacity of a window.

Fortunately for us... the technology has now arrived!

For a few years its been possible to make glass with the ability to make itself opaque however its only recently manufacturers have started to sell smart film which allows an existing window to be retrospectively fitted with the technology. Check out the video from Smart Tint showing the windows in action.

More information can be found at their website, SmartTint.com

Bad luck tends to follow me.

Between doing up houses I decided to sofa crash for a few weeks whilst my house purchase was going through. My friend was going away and so I looked after their cats and house whilst they were away. On day three I was sitting working on the laptop when I suddenly heard a running water. It took me a few moments to find that - for some reason - water was gushing out of their upstairs bathroom cabinet under the sink... fast. We're talking mains pressure, tap fully on, water spraying in multiple directions. 

Throwing myself down the stairs I located the internal water stop (which was broken) and then ran to the road to find that I needed a spanner to stop the outside water stop! Running back into the kitchen to find the key for the shed where the tools were kept I was already walking into a waterfall as water had started coming through the ceiling. 

After fight with the water stop a few minutes later I had the water off. The problem was that a flexible hose had burst. When any tap in the house was turned on or off fast a vibration if often sent through the pipes. This was causing the hose to rub and deteriorate. After less than 10 minutes of water the leaking the house was a mess. The kitchen ceiling had to have new plasterboards and the walls all needed repainting. It took 2 days just to clean up all the mud that had run from the ceiling over their new kitchen.

My friends (after over coming the shock) realised their luck at having a property developer chilling out next to the leak as it happened.

Whilst at the time we viewed the incident as almost entirely unavoidable since working with home automation it has become apparent that it easily was. A water leak detector in the sink area could have wirelessly sent a message to electronic water stop valve stopping the water seconds after the leak occurred. 

Aeotec's products are already a significant force in home automation and this video really puts across their excitement in creating products. Their products are generally beautifully made and they are heavily investing in the wireless scene making installation quicker and cheaper. The most exciting up and coming product being produced is the smart film which allows you to convert any window pane into a smart window pane! This means at the touch of a button you can make your windows opaque - essentially replacing blinds.
Before you get too excited quite a few of these products aren't available in europe... yet.

There's been a lack of decent door bell systems to choose from. Finally there a simple solution for those who want to know who is calling. Ring is a standalone system which allows the homeowner to view who is calling directly from camera built into the doorbell. It's possible to speak to whoever is at the door are well... whether you are home or not. This is great if you've got a delivery or unwanted visitor. It can be paired up with other ring cameras to allow full 360% surveillance of the property. Its great... although as a stand alone system we'd want to see if it can be tied into other features around the home. It would be great, for example, to see this tied in to a smart lock so you could unlock your front door too. 

Day seven of building a website... Cat has sat on me almost totally blocking my ability to use the keyboard.  Beginning to regret starting the website on holiday in Mexico as all defaults seem to be in Pecos and Spanish. Whilst constructing a website has seemed pretty easy so far... creating a company facebook page seems impossible.