Kritin Curtis writes practical smart home guides for NXT Smart Home, with a focus on Australian homes, rental-friendly installs, home networking, security cameras, video doorbells, and everyday automation. His work explains what smart devices actually do in real homes, where they fail, and what Australian buyers should check before choosing hubs, sensors, cameras, locks, plugs or connected appliances.
16 articles
Your existing split system almost certainly speaks infrared, and that's all a smart IR controller needs. Here's how to add app scheduling, voice commands and geofencing to a reverse-cycle head unit you already own, what the cheap controllers get wrong, and when you genuinely need an electrician.
Double brick, foil sarking and a Colorbond garage will stop a Zigbee mesh dead. Here's how to place your coordinator, chain mains-powered repeaters through the right windows and doorways, pick a channel that dodges your Wi-Fi, and decide when the granny flat needs its own hub instead.
Some robot vacuums will talk to Home Assistant entirely over your own LAN, others refuse to move without a server overseas. Here's how local control actually works in 2024-25, which brands are realistic, what rooting involves, and how to automate cleaning even when the vacuum itself stays cloud-tethered.
Winter mould in Australian bathrooms is a moisture problem, not a cleaning problem. Here's how to use a humidity sensor and a smart exhaust fan automation to pull damp air out before it condenses on your grout, ceiling and window reveals.
Zoning a ducted reverse-cycle system is the single biggest add-on cost most Australian homeowners face at quote time. Here is how the price bands break down for new installs and retrofits, where the cheap workarounds actually work, and what to check before you spend.
Australian summer is brutal on outdoor entertainment gear: 40°C afternoons, UV, driving rain and salt air. Here's how to choose an outdoor TV, projector or speaker that lasts more than one season, what the IP ratings actually mean, and where a licensed electrician is non-negotiable.
A blackout or an NBN dropout can blind your cameras exactly when you want them watching. Here's how Australian homes can keep footage recording and alerts flowing, using UPS units, portable power stations, battery cameras, local storage and 4G failover.
Cloud plans buy convenience and off-site backup; microSD cards and NVRs buy ownership and no ongoing fees. Here is how the two approaches compare for Australian homes, including NBN upload limits, subscription costs in AUD, and the privacy questions worth asking before you commit.
Most video doorbells are designed around American 16-24V AC transformers, not the 8V plug packs and battery chimes common in Australian homes. Here's how to work out what you've got, what a licensed electrician has to do, and when going wire-free is the better call.
Everything here mounts with adhesive, sits on a shelf or plugs into a socket. No holes, no wiring, and nothing that has to be explained at the final inspection.
Which smart home devices genuinely help older Australians stay independent at home, which are the wrong tool entirely, and what to ask before buying.
A property you are not living in has different priorities. What is worth installing in an Australian holiday house or short-stay rental — and what is not.
Some smart home devices keep working during an outage and some become useless plastic. The difference is where the decision is made, not what the box says.
A complete guide to building a capable smart home in a rental — what needs no permission, what does, and how to take it all with you when you move.
Wired or battery, cloud or local storage, subscription or not — how to choose a video doorbell in Australia without signing up to a decade of monthly fees.
The four wireless protocols behind every smart home device, what each is actually good at, and the Australian frequency trap that makes imported Z-Wave gear useless.
