Guides
Smart home guides from a Surrey engineer
Practical, specific write-ups from real installations: what connects to what, what it costs, and what goes wrong. We're Home Smart Surrey, an engineer-led residential technology business covering Woking, Guildford, Reigate and the wider Surrey area.
Can Home Assistant work with Rako, Sonos, Reolink and Hikvision?
How each system connects, what runs locally, and the gotchas we hit on real installs, including Daikin air conditioning and GivEnergy.
How much does smart home integration cost in Surrey?
Starting prices, hourly rates, what drives the cost, ongoing running costs, and what to ask any installer.
How to add a FAAC gate and a Marantec garage door to Home Assistant
Shelly 1 Gen3 direct-wire installs: trigger wiring, open/closed status, and the automation gotchas.