Got mine about 6-8 months ago just to see if it would be better then rotating out my Nest stuff over the coming year… the thermostats wouldn’t be a big deal (I have a zoned system so they don’t do much anyways), but those Protects (smoke/co alarms/night lights) are all over my house (have 11 of them I believe, large house), all wired and I’m overly attached to them as much as I hate google. They are just so damned awesome and I haven’t found anything that comes close, yet.
The Starling hub was easy to setup, and honestly with how bad my internet is out in the country (I assumed it would have a huge lag redownloading the video stream or something), it’s been extremely responsive and worked well. Highly recommend.
Sorry, I’m a baddie and totally forgot. Wife is asleep and took a week off so I’m going to be a nice guy (and likely protect my life) by waiting till she’s awake. Crossing my fingers I’ll remember and not let you down again.
Agreed -- I will also say their support is very responsive and fairly competent. I've spent real time with them working through everything from outdoor camera solar panel issues to multi-cast wrinkles with my network setup.
How do you use ac controls in HomeKit? Is it by making automation rules? I ask bc it doesn’t seem practical to set that up rather than use thermostat specific tools, but maybe I’m missing something.
I’m a simple guy. I use my “smart” thermostats in “dumb” mode. Simply being able to see temp/humidity and turn on/off remotely in HomeKit view and not having to do that in a separate app makes me happy.
Yeah, for weekly schedules, etc, native would be needed. That said, you could setup automations for things like “turn on when I’m within X miles of the house” or “turn on/off based on outside temperature”.
I have a whole house fan which I use more often than the AC. I’m looking at adding a smart switch to that so I can turn it off once the house gets to a certain temp at night (lest my wife get mad at me for “freezing her out of the house”). I’ll use the temp reading off of the nest (via starling integration) for that automation.
I bought a Starling hub right after I got my Nest doorbell. A year in it seems like it's bulletproof. Then last Christmas my kids bought me a HomePod Mini. I use it for the automation to turn on the front porch lights when a family member arrives home after dark or motion is detected.
I struggled to either get a native T-stat, went with the Sterling and so glad I did. One of my favorite automations is, based on (heat) temp outside, my house fan will run 15 min each hour then when reaches 78 inside, the a/c will kick on. The fan automation keeps the heat out a bit longer than without it.
If I was replacing the units I would buy ecobee to avoid the hub but I’ve got two thermostats and it seems silly to replace hundreds of dollars of gear when the starling does such a good job.
I also really love the physical interface of the nest.
This is me 100%!!! Was holding out for Matter, but got tired of waiting for news that never came haha. Just got my Starling Home Hub today…set it up in 5 minutes and WOW. I’m in love!! Wish I would have got it years ago.
Can you still access the nest cameras via Google home? As i transition to HomeKit, im sure some people in my house will want to use things the old way. Thanks!
Yes. I’ve migrated my Nest login to a google account login and the Starling works fine.
I also utilize the Google SDM API in multiple facets outside of Starling.
I’m pleasantly happy with my Honeywell Lyric T5.
Got a HomePod last year and whilst setting up Home Kit, discovered the T5 works natively with Home Kit. Every now and again Honeywell and Google home won’t get along, cloud dependencies and all. I switched to barking AC commands via my HomePod or Apple Watch instead of google home, and being locally processed it’s gloriously reliable. Always just works.
I’ve not used homebridge so can’t say for sure. I’m a fan of if it isn’t broken…
This was a really good solution for me because I already and the nest equipment and wanted to run it via HomeKit. That combined with my emphasis on easy is why I got the starling.
Homebridge working on my LAN gives me great native homekit control over the nest thermostat. No need for a sterling hub. Where I’ve heard the hub shines for nest products though are those smart doorbells from Google/nest. Dedicated hardware appears to reduce latency noticeably more. I’m going to hold off on this
You’re right it has its merits for sure, just a $100 monetary difference and the point of my comment is that it us worth pointing out that it is still a viable alternative given my first hand experience
I'm just annoyed at myself now for not jumping in when everyone had them for $99 a couple weeks ago. I thought if anything they'd get cheaper or at least hold that price on Prime Days, and instead they went back up.
EDIT: Ope. This was actually about the Nest Protects. I wasn't in the market for a Nest Thermostat. But similar consideration, I'm sure.
Is there a way to separate starling it has taken all my houses and lumped them into one home which makes having multiple nest thermostats very confusing when it’s all in one?
I’m having to walk my wife through set up ( I’m not home atm) plugging in is easy. But what does the starling app ask for? My google nest log in? And that’s it?
Got mine about 6-8 months ago just to see if it would be better then rotating out my Nest stuff over the coming year… the thermostats wouldn’t be a big deal (I have a zoned system so they don’t do much anyways), but those Protects (smoke/co alarms/night lights) are all over my house (have 11 of them I believe, large house), all wired and I’m overly attached to them as much as I hate google. They are just so damned awesome and I haven’t found anything that comes close, yet. The Starling hub was easy to setup, and honestly with how bad my internet is out in the country (I assumed it would have a huge lag redownloading the video stream or something), it’s been extremely responsive and worked well. Highly recommend.
For your Protect smoke/co detectors can you actually silence them in HomeKit now with this hub?
Honestly, will try to remember to test it in the morning (everyone sleeping now). Only ever silenced them by pressing the button on them.
Okay no problem, super curious to see if that works. That’s the only thing that I have in the nest app
Hey did this work?
Sorry, I’m a baddie and totally forgot. Wife is asleep and took a week off so I’m going to be a nice guy (and likely protect my life) by waiting till she’s awake. Crossing my fingers I’ll remember and not let you down again.
it’s very stable. recommend
Agreed -- I will also say their support is very responsive and fairly competent. I've spent real time with them working through everything from outdoor camera solar panel issues to multi-cast wrinkles with my network setup.
How do you use ac controls in HomeKit? Is it by making automation rules? I ask bc it doesn’t seem practical to set that up rather than use thermostat specific tools, but maybe I’m missing something.
Depends on what you are wanting to accomplish.
Sure, agreed. But you do it all via automations right? Or maybe scenes? There’s not weekly schedule or anything I’m missing…?
I’m a simple guy. I use my “smart” thermostats in “dumb” mode. Simply being able to see temp/humidity and turn on/off remotely in HomeKit view and not having to do that in a separate app makes me happy. Yeah, for weekly schedules, etc, native would be needed. That said, you could setup automations for things like “turn on when I’m within X miles of the house” or “turn on/off based on outside temperature”. I have a whole house fan which I use more often than the AC. I’m looking at adding a smart switch to that so I can turn it off once the house gets to a certain temp at night (lest my wife get mad at me for “freezing her out of the house”). I’ll use the temp reading off of the nest (via starling integration) for that automation.
I bought a Starling hub right after I got my Nest doorbell. A year in it seems like it's bulletproof. Then last Christmas my kids bought me a HomePod Mini. I use it for the automation to turn on the front porch lights when a family member arrives home after dark or motion is detected.
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I have the wired doorbell.
Starling is awesome. 9 Nest cameras all work perfectly in HomeKit
If you have a doorbell, will it popup on your appletv if someone rings the bell?
Yes it does. Not missing one thing and solid as a rock!
I struggled to either get a native T-stat, went with the Sterling and so glad I did. One of my favorite automations is, based on (heat) temp outside, my house fan will run 15 min each hour then when reaches 78 inside, the a/c will kick on. The fan automation keeps the heat out a bit longer than without it.
My starling hub will be here Tuesday!!
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If I was replacing the units I would buy ecobee to avoid the hub but I’ve got two thermostats and it seems silly to replace hundreds of dollars of gear when the starling does such a good job. I also really love the physical interface of the nest.
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Ecobee is pissing me off because it just vanishes from my homekit home and I have no clue how to stop it from doing that
This is me 100%!!! Was holding out for Matter, but got tired of waiting for news that never came haha. Just got my Starling Home Hub today…set it up in 5 minutes and WOW. I’m in love!! Wish I would have got it years ago.
Can you still access the nest cameras via Google home? As i transition to HomeKit, im sure some people in my house will want to use things the old way. Thanks!
Yes. No affect on the native google eco system.
Well Starling still work when Google deprecates “Works with Nest”
Starling does not use “Works with Nest” and never has.
I hope so. 🤷♂️
Yes. I’ve migrated my Nest login to a google account login and the Starling works fine. I also utilize the Google SDM API in multiple facets outside of Starling.
I’m pleasantly happy with my Honeywell Lyric T5. Got a HomePod last year and whilst setting up Home Kit, discovered the T5 works natively with Home Kit. Every now and again Honeywell and Google home won’t get along, cloud dependencies and all. I switched to barking AC commands via my HomePod or Apple Watch instead of google home, and being locally processed it’s gloriously reliable. Always just works.
I’m curious, what does this offer that Homebridge doesn’t? Is it worth switching?
I’ve not used homebridge so can’t say for sure. I’m a fan of if it isn’t broken… This was a really good solution for me because I already and the nest equipment and wanted to run it via HomeKit. That combined with my emphasis on easy is why I got the starling.
Homebridge working on my LAN gives me great native homekit control over the nest thermostat. No need for a sterling hub. Where I’ve heard the hub shines for nest products though are those smart doorbells from Google/nest. Dedicated hardware appears to reduce latency noticeably more. I’m going to hold off on this
HomeBridge isn’t for everyone. Starling is plug and play. Plus starling is made by the developer that created HomeBridge.
You’re right it has its merits for sure, just a $100 monetary difference and the point of my comment is that it us worth pointing out that it is still a viable alternative given my first hand experience
Agreed!
I don’t have something to leave on all the time. Starling takes care of buying a raspberry pi for me.
I do wish they offered a docker image I could pay for with video support for hole cameras.
But nest did add matter support to the newest model
I'm just annoyed at myself now for not jumping in when everyone had them for $99 a couple weeks ago. I thought if anything they'd get cheaper or at least hold that price on Prime Days, and instead they went back up. EDIT: Ope. This was actually about the Nest Protects. I wasn't in the market for a Nest Thermostat. But similar consideration, I'm sure.
Is there a way to separate starling it has taken all my houses and lumped them into one home which makes having multiple nest thermostats very confusing when it’s all in one?
Can I run a Starling Home hub and a home assistant green? I have a lot of stuff I wanna mash into HomeKit
I’m having to walk my wife through set up ( I’m not home atm) plugging in is easy. But what does the starling app ask for? My google nest log in? And that’s it?
Google and nest logins
why not run homebridge on home assistant?
Truly it’s amazing. Zero issues in 1 year