Hi, I’m Ángel — welcome to Automating Our Home.
I started this site out of a specific frustration. When I tried to understand smart home technology, I kept running into the same two things: glossy product pages, and “top 10” lists that repeat the manufacturer’s copy. What was hard to find was a plain explanation. What does a hub actually do? Do you need one? Which protocol suits which device? Which features change anything in a house where real people live, and which are only spec-sheet decoration?
So this site is built as the reference I wanted to find: the basics explained properly, comparisons that include the trade-offs, and buying advice that starts from the decision you are trying to make rather than from the product someone wants to sell you.
Who writes this
I am Ángel D. Serrano. For the last few years I have been making the same expensive mistake in a loop: buying smart home kit that refused to talk to the kit I already owned. This site is what came out of it.
I am finishing a degree in philosophy in Spain, which sounds unrelated until you notice that most home automation arguments are really vocabulary problems. Matter, Thread, Zigbee, hubs, bridges, border routers: half the confusion disappears once the words are defined properly. That is the work I do here, and it is why the guides open with the decision you are trying to make instead of with a product someone wants to sell you.
Forty guides in, the ones that get read most are the unglamorous ones: what a hub actually does, why a bulb keeps dropping off the Wi-Fi, how much a thermostat really saves once the marketing numbers are removed. I write every article myself, from manufacturer documentation, published standards and the support threads where real problems surface, and I revise them when a platform changes.
I am not a professional installer, and I do not claim to have tested every device on the site. What I can promise is that I read the manual so you do not have to, that I say plainly when an article works from documentation rather than first-hand use, and that a correction sent to the contact page goes into the article. That last part is my favourite part of the job.
How the content is put together
Everything here is written from research, and I would rather be precise about what that means:
- Manufacturer documentation. Setup procedures, supported specifications and compatibility lists, checked against the vendors’ own support pages instead of resellers’ descriptions.
- Standards and public data. Where a claim depends on a standard or published research, I point at the source: the Connectivity Standards Alliance for Matter, Zigbee and Thread, or bodies such as ENERGY STAR and the FTC for energy and safety questions.
- Honest limits. I do not pretend to have tested every device mentioned on this site. When an article works from documentation, published specifications and reported user experience instead of first-hand use, it says so, and it compares what is actually documented: features, ecosystem compatibility, running costs and known trade-offs.
- Corrections. If a detail is wrong or out of date, I want to know. Factual corrections go into the article, and they are noted when the change is material.
What you will find here
- Smart home basics. What a smart home is, whether you need a hub, what Matter changes in practice, and how Zigbee, Z-Wave and Wi-Fi differ once you live with them.
- Home security. Cameras, video doorbells, smart locks and DIY systems, including what to check before buying and which features genuinely make a home safer.
- Lighting and plugs. Bulbs, light strips, switches and plugs, with the wiring and compatibility caveats that decide most of these purchases.
- Climate control. Thermostats, vents, fans and air conditioning, including what the energy-saving figures really mean.
- Voice assistants and hubs. Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit and the platforms that tie everything else together.
How this site is funded
Automating Our Home is funded by advertising served through Google AdSense. Advertising has no influence on what gets written or on how a product is judged: there are no sponsored posts and no paid placement inside articles. The reasoning is set out in the Disclaimer, and how data is handled is explained in the Privacy Policy.
If you want to suggest a topic, or flag something that is wrong, the contact form goes straight to my inbox.