Unboxing the Lowes Iris

Hi Dave Johnson editor of eHow Tech and if you’re anything like me you might have some concerns about home security. There are a lot of ways you can go to get a home security package installed and a lot of them are fairly expensive. Well there are a new breed of home security packages hitting the market now which are quite affordable and this one the Lowes Iris is one that I want to show you as a potential I don’t know a gift for Mom or Dad perhaps or even for yourself if you want to uh make sure your home is really secure. So this is sold by Lowes and there are a couple of different models available. This one is the smart kit, it costs about $299, there is actually a less expensive model available and you can get components individually as well to build out as much or as little as you want. So let’s open this one up and see what’s inside. We have a quickstart card which tells you what you need to get going, which is essentially go to the website and it will walk you through the process of getting this installed. We get the smart hub and the hub is exactly what it sounds like. You connect this to your home router and then it communicates with all the other devices in your home. So it actually looks kind of like an internet device itself. There’s the Ethernet port that plugs into your router, and then there’s a couple of indicator lights on it and that’s it. There’s a smart plug and the smart plug is really cool because it allows you to remotely control anything that’s plugged into this. And you can buy additional smart plugs as well. There’s a range extender which is actually just like a WiFi extender, it just extends the range of the hub if you have a big house. There’s a door window sensor so you can use these to sense if someone has opened a door or a window. A motion sensor and you only get one but you can buy additional ones if you want. Here’s the keypad, comes with batteries and this you can mount on your wall and use to enter codes to turn the system on and off that sort of thing. We get a smart thermostat, so notice not everything in this package is about home security it’s also about home automation as well and that’s what’s so awesome. This replaces the thermostat on your wall and you can program is remotely. And show you there is a smartphone app available for Iris which you can use to get status at any time, you can use it to program things, so for example, the smart plug, you can turn things on or off. You can change the temperature in your house with the smart thermostat. You can watch video if you get the optional video camera, wireless video camera. You can build out additional components as you need, control it remotely with your phone, and then in addition to the initial cost of getting started, there is an ongoing monthly fee. You can pay $10 a month for the premium service and that gives you a bunch of really cool things like stores, video if you get the wireless video camera, if you um don’t want to pay $10 a month you can just use the free service which still sends you notifications like if someone breaks into your house and trips a sensor you’ll still get notifications for free. So all in all this is a really cool system that doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg but let’s you make your house secure and automated as well.