top smart light switches

hey, everybody! this week i am super excitedbecause i’m going to introduce to you how to install the wink hub. yeah, it’s thislittle guy right here. i got it done installing it myself. i showed my wife how to use thewink app and how to control and dim the lights without having to switch out the light switch,which is way cool, right? so it solves a huge problem for do-it-yourselfers who are a littlebit scared of electricity or doing electrical work around the house. so i’m so stokedto show you this video tutorial. and guess what, i’ve got a big surprise for you atthe end, so watch the video the whole way through. i think you’re really going tobe stoked about this as well. let’s get to it.here’s the wink hub. i bought it at target

for $50. you can also buy it at home depotfor about the same price. there’s not much to it when you open it up. basically it tellsyou to download the application, follow the directions on your phone, and you should begood to go. the hub is what allows you to control a lotof different wifi-linked devices. so here’s the hub itself. here’s what it looks like.you use an ac adapter to plug it into the wall. there are no buttons on it. it’s supersimple to set up. now the hub is what allows you to controllight bulbs, garage door openers, thermostats, and more from your iphone or from your android-enableddevice. so you can control these things remotely and automate your house.when you plug the hub into the wall, it starts

blinking like this. then you have to uploadthe app to your phone—actually, do this beforehand. you have to sign up, which reallymeans adding your name, your email address, and creating a password. tap on the “createaccount” button, and you’ll be on your way. and you’ll have to go through someterms and conditions, which i agreed to. and i agreed to having push notifications pushedto my email because i want to have updates in my email inbox so i know if there’s anew software update. but if you add the hub—you will click on“add the hub” from the products—you follow all the directions. the one thing hereis you’ll have to share your wifi, so you’ll have to connect your wifi to the wink app.and the hub itself should be about 5-6 feet

away from your wireless router. you will seethe “success!” thing come up on your phone, and then you’ll be able to add a productwith the bar code scanner. so i have the ge link light bulbs. i simplyturned it around, and scanned the bar code using the wink app, and it found the product.pretty cool, right? you can also find the product within the list of products withinthe wink app. and i wanted to show you this three-way lamp—you can’t use the ge linklight bulbs in a three-way lamp—but you can use it in a hallway light like i’m unscrewinghere. and the reason why i wanted to use the link light bulbs in these lights is becauseour kids in the morning find the lights to be too bright even though i only use one 60wlight bulb per light.

but once you install your light bulbs intoyour light or lamp, you can scroll through the directions. it’s really, really simple.and once you connect the hub to the light, what’ll happen is the light bulb will startto blink in the background. it’ll blink i think three times. you could barely noticeit there. and then it’ll say that it paired the light, and you have “success!” andthen you click on the done button, and it’ll show you all the different ins and outs ofhow to use your lights with the wink hub. now here’s what’s really, really cooland what has me excited. you can turn the light bulb off using your phone. you can alsodim it. so you can turn it on and off, and you can dim it. now if i wanted to dim thatlight, i’d have to change out the light

switch. this is a three-way switch, but it’snot dimmable. and it’s kind of a pain to rewire that.now you can have the app on two different phones. so i wanted to share that with youin case you live in a house with multiple people who want to use these lights. so here’sthe deal. the light at the far end of the hallway, i just turned it off independentlyfrom the light that’s at the top of the screen. and that is so neat because theselights are actually on the same circuit. you can’t really do this because they’re onthe same circuit. but now you can if you use the ge link light bulbs. and you can dim onelight independently from the other because you’re controlling one light bulb at a time.but you can still control the lights with

the wall switch, so it’s not a problem.now here’s the other cool thing. you can label all your devices. so i labeled the lights“hall light 1” and “hall light 2” so i know which ones i’m controlling withthe application. you can also schedule the lights to go on and off. this is cool forsecurity reasons. you can look at the activity. you can see when they were turned on and howbright they were at the time that they were turned on or off. and you can group them together,too. and what grouping does is you can turn all the lights on and off if they’re inthe same group. so in this case, i have “hall light 1” and “hall light 2.” if i putthem in the same group, and i turn the button on and off, they both turn on and off.so the hub is so cool. i think you should

check it out.well there you go. that’s how easy it is to install the wink hub, and it’s goingto make home automation so much easier for you. it’s going to solve a lot of problems.for example, if you forget if you closed your garage door opener, guess what. you can checkon your phone. or if you think that you left the lights on in the house, no problem. youcan turn them off via your smartphone as well. so here’s the big surprise. i’m goingto be giving away a wink hub back over on home repair tutor. so go over to homerepairtutor.com.check out the latest blog post associated with the wink hub. leave your comment—iexplained how to do this down in the post. but leave your comment about why you thinkhome automation is so cool, and why you could

use the wink hub. it’s really that simple,right? all right. so while you’re over on homerepairtutor.com,don’t forget to sign up for the email newsletter. that way you won’t miss out on any of thegiveaways that i have moving forward. and if you’re watching this over on youtube,sign up for my youtube channel. subscribe to the youtube channel. that way you won’tmiss any videos, too. so i hope that you liked this video. i can’twait to give away a wink hub to one lucky fan. thanks for watching the video today.take care, and i’ll talk to you soon.