Devolo Home Control Smart Home Products Review

Raise the IQ level of your home!

by Greg Hook
Tech Review

9

Recommended
Devolo Home Control Smart Home Products Review

What is the Devolo Home Control?

Imagine waking up in the morning to the coffee freshly brewing, the radiator heating up in the bathroom ready just for you and if you are an early riser, the lights turning on in just the rooms you need. Or leaving the house and having the heating turn off, various lights coming on for security and the motion sensors enabled. If you have your own team of servants then this is probably commonplace, but for the majority of us that don’t, then the ‘Smart Home’ is your next best option.

Smart Home related products have really come to the forefront in the last few years with products and solutions available from multiple manufacturers and in many different guises. From learning thermostats such as Nest to full home control solutions such as Samsung’s Smart Things and a whole array of similar Z-Wave compatible products that allow you to control every part of the modern house both whilst at home and remotely.

One such solution and the subject of our review is the Home Control range from Devolo. This range includes a basic starter pack and multiple add-ons which allow you to control every part of your home. Read on to see how we fare with our first foray into the world of the Smart Home…

Home Control range and design

The core of Devolo’s Home Control is their starter pack. This includes the Central Unit which is the hub of the whole system, a Door/Window Contact and a Smart Metering Plug. If you have used any of Devolo’s (or any other manufacturers for that matter) Powerline adapters, then the overall design and feel of the Home Control range will not be unfamiliar to you. They are an all-white, hard plastic standard affair, albeit with a fairly modern look, good build quality and feel to the majority of the range.
Devolo Home Control
The starter pack at £179.99 includes everything you need to setup a basic smart home. You get the Central Unit from which everything is controlled, a Smart Metering plug which makes any wall outlet smart and a Door/Window contact. Then from that core you can add additional products such as a Smoke Detector, Wall Switch with up to 4 buttons, Room Thermostat, Remote key-fob, motion sensor and radiator thermostat. All of these additions cost between £34.99 for the remote key-fob right up to £79.99 for the Room Thermostat.

Is it easy to install?

As we’ve found with the majority of Devolo’s products, particularly their Powerline Adapters, the setup and installation is very easy and quick. Here with the Home Control products, it takes slightly longer but is still very simple and easy to setup and configure. The Central Unit can either be connected directly to your router, or if you already have a Devolo dLAN network (it must be Devolo, not any other brand’s) then this can just be added to the existing network via the same method as you use to add adapters, simply pressing the home/encryption button on an existing dLAN adapter and then again on the central unit.

Once this has been done by either method, you then create an account at www.mydevolo.com and follow the very simple instructions to add the Central Unit to your account and then browse through the easy to follow Home Control Portal. Adding additional devices to your new account is all done very simply via this portal and takes barely a minute or two to add each device. Devolo provided the entire range to us for testing and all 8 different items were installed and added to the system in just 10 minutes or so.
Devolo Home Control
All of the Home Control items use Z-Wave+ wireless technology, which uses RF for signalling and control and operates on a different frequency to Wi-Fi to prevent interference. Unlike Wi-Fi which once you leave the range of the router you will lose the signal, Z-Wave products work on what is known as a ‘mesh network’, whereby one Z-Wave product will pass the signal onto the next one until the final destination is reached. So the distance and area the products will operate in is quite large. As it’s a mesh network, the more Z-Wave products you add the stronger and more powerful the network becomes.

What features does it have?

The main browser based online portal is laid out very simply and allows for the easy configuration and more detailed setup of the whole system. The initial dashboard gives you an overview of all the devices, a list of activation messages, plus instant access to altering the thermostat temperature, turning the smart plug on and off and seeing various statistics such as when the door contact was triggered for example. The My Devolo app, available for both Android and iOS devices, mirrors the available options of the browser based portal, but in a more mobile friendly format. Groups, schedules and more can all be setup and configured within the apps, plus for those with a Devolo powerline network or Devolo cameras, these can all be accessed from within this single app too.
Devolo Home Control
The juicier parts of the system are behind various tabs of which the four most useful are groups, schedules, rules and scenes. Groups allows you to group several devices of the same category together so they can be operated as one, for example if you have a room thermostat and a radiator thermostat in the same room they can be added to a group so that both will be set to 20°C. Schedules as you might guess allows you to create time control settings. For example, the radiator thermostat can be configured to different temperatures at up to 8 different times of the day. So if you want it to be 25°C in the bathroom just from 7am – 7.30am when you are getting ready for work, then drop to 18°C for the rest of the day. Or if you want the smart metering plug to trigger a device at certain times of the day.
Devolo Home Control
Within rules you can setup one device to trigger others. For example, if the door/window contact is triggered then the radiator thermostat could drop to 15°C. If the motion sensor is triggered it could turn on the TV, a light or other security related activity. It could even be configured to send you an email every time a device is triggered, such as if you have the door contact on the front door, every time it is opened you get an email.
Devolo Home Control
The scenes section is where the full smart nature of the system comes into play. Here you can set a scene that uses the groups, schedules and rules that you have created to the fullest effect. For example, pressing button 1 on the wall switch triggers a scene called ‘going to work’ that will turn the boiler off and activate the time schedule of a light to come on later. Then a scene triggered by the front door opening could turn on the boiler, set the room thermostat to the desired temperature and even start the coffee brewing.
Devolo Home Control
The whole layout is excellent and very easy to use. If you get stuck the FAQ is at hand to guide you. Whilst the various groups, schedules, rules and scenes allow for a reasonable amount of configuration options, the possibilities are fairly restricted if you wanted to really create a very fine tuned system or specific scenes. For example, those who have a tendency to, let’s politely say ‘overcook’ the dinner, which causes the smoke alarm to always go off, a great scene would have been to press button 1 on the wall switch which then causes the smoke alarm to be turned off, but only for a set period of time. Unfortunately, you can’t add the smoke alarm device to be triggered this way.

Alongside the portal, apps are available for both Apple and Android products which mirror the portal in the available options. Groups, schedules and more can all be setup and configured within the apps.

Home Control range in detail

As we mentioned above, Devolo provided the entire Home Control range to us for testing and whilst you would be hard pressed to use the entire range in one house to good effect, there are several worthwhile additions to the £179.99 starter pack, whilst keeping in mind that costs could easily add up to a quite significant level. For example, the entire range as we tested would cost you almost £500.00.
Devolo Home Control
Radiator Thermostat - £59.99
This device was very easy to install to an existing radiator. It doesn’t include the valve, so if your radiator doesn’t already have a thermostatic valve fitted, you can’t use this device. It came with two adapter rings which covers the majority of the radiator valve manufacturer’s. The thermostat features a display showing the temperature and buttons to manually control it if you wish.

Room Thermostat - £79.99

A fairly pricey addition, although it is fairly weighty and feels well built. The thermostat needs to be screwed to the wall ideally, or can just be left on a table. It shows the temperature and as with the radiator thermostat has buttons for manual control.
Devolo Home Control
Wall Switch - £39.99
Whilst the build quality of the Home Control Range on the whole was excellent, here with the wall switch it felt a bit light and flimsy for our liking. The switches didn’t spring fully back into the starting position when pressed for example. Whilst we would have liked a slightly better build quality, the wall switch itself is probably the first addition we would make following purchase of the starter pack. It can be configured with either 1 or 2 buttons to trigger 2 or 4 contacts and is the device that we found to be the most useful when setting up scenes.

Motion Sensor - £49.99, Door/Window Contact - £39.99
These two operate in much the same way. They can be stuck or screwed to the desired location and if you are looking at the Home Control system with security in mind, the sensor and door contact are the most useful to keep your piece of mind. Both work as expected, although checking the message log within the online portal we did find the door contact on the front door had created a few erroneous activations. At a time the door was opened, it would say it had been opened 5 times for example. A minor glitch which hopefully future system updates may cure.

Smoke Alarm - £49.99

An important part of the Smart Home with all these electrical devices is to have protection to ensure they don’t all burn the house to the ground. Whilst a £50 smoke alarm may sound a tad expensive, comparing it with other wirelessly connected smoke alarms available such as the £89 Nest Protect for example it then doesn't look overpriced. The smoke alarm can be configured to send you a text, email and app notification if triggered, so you can quickly stop a fire in its tracks or instantly know when someone has burnt the toast again.
Devolo Home Control
Key-Fob Switch - £34.99
Working in the same manner as the wall switch, the key-fob switch has 4 buttons that can be configured to operate a scene or a device. It can operate the Home Control System from up to 100 metres away, so whilst you are pulling into the drive you can start the coffee brewing, have the TV turn on or a light turn on.

Smart Metering Plug - £39.99
Whilst this is included within the starter pack, a decent system would really need a few of these adding to get the most out of it in our opinion, which is why the £40 price tag is a little steep. Adding additional smart plugs to the system would allow a much greater flexibility and options for controlling devices around the home. There is only so many different times you can tell the boiler you want the house to be 20°C before it gets all confused and turns itself off in a huff.

Conclusion

Pros

  • Very easy to install and setup
  • Works perfectly
  • Simple way to make your home a smart one
  • Good range of add-ons

Cons

  • Some of the add-ons could be cheaper
  • Configuration options slightly restrictive
  • Wall Switch a bit too flimsy

Devolo Home Control Smart Home Products Review

Should I buy Devolo's Home Control Starter Kit?

At £179.99 Devolo’s Home Control starter pack gives you a system that allows you to very easily make your home a smart one and at a reasonable price too. The setup and installation really couldn’t have been any easier if they tried, other than someone physically coming and doing it for you. The add-on range is fairly extensive costing between £34.99 for the simple key-fob switch right up to £79.99 for the room thermostat and the system can easily be controlled from all mobile devices, either in the home or remotely.

It's worth bearing in mind for those considering this as a direct replacement for a full alarm system, the Home Control could be a very expensive alternative. A starter pack with say 5 additional door/window contacts could stretch you to £380, add in a couple more smart plugs and you'll be at £500 in no time at all. Whilst Devolo have created a system that is very easy to use and configure, for those more advanced users familiar with Z-Wave and the products available, you may get slightly annoyed with the level of restriction. You can only do what the system allows you to do, there is no bespoke programming but you can add non Devolo Z-Wave products, although the central unit will only work with other Devolo powerline adapters.

What alternatives are available?

As for alternatives, this is a market that is growing fast and starting to get very crowded. The most obvious alternative to Devolo is Samsung’s SmartThings range. Their starter kit at £199 includes the central unit, smart plug and door contact as per Devolo’s but also includes a motion sensor and presence sensor. Additional items are similarly priced to Devolo’s and additional Z-Wave products can also be added to Samsung’s system. Hauppage also do a very similarly priced system. Given our mostly positive experience with the competitively priced Home Control Range from Devolo, we are happy to award this our AVForums recommended award.

Scores

8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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