Reviewing Atlantic Energy’s Smart Home Bundle: First 90 Days Package

When you become a member of Atlantic Energy, one of the aspects of their service that sets them apart from other potential energy providers you could have gone with is their Smart Home Bundle. While the reliable and clean energy delivery at a competitive cost is certainly more than enough to get your attention, the smart products they offer customers over the first two years of service really go the extra mile to lift them above the competition.

For new customers of Atlantic Energy who sign up with the Smart Home Bundle, they are rewarded with various products and services at a $650 retail value over the first two years, with those products arriving at your doorstep in incremental steps along the way:

• After 90 days, you'll receive 1 Wi-Fi Smart Camera and 3 Wi-Fi Color Changing LEDs;
• After 6 months, you'll receive 1 Bluetooth Speaker Bulb and an additional Wi-Fi Smart Camera;
• After 12 months, you'll receive 10 LED Light Bulbs;
• After 18 months, you'll receive 3 Wi-Fi Smart Plugs; and
• After 24 months, you'll receive 3% cashback on the energy supplied during the previous 12 months.

This value-added should raise some eyebrows and capture your attention, especially because those smart home products are ones you'll be able to keep no matter what. I was lucky enough to receive the 90-day package-- 1 Wi-Fi Smart Camera and 3 Wi-Fi Color Changing LEDs. Having not dabbled in smart home products too much previously, these devices gave a great sense of the possibilities behind the Internet of Things and how connected devices can make your life easier, more fun, and-- importantly-- more energy efficient.

Read on to hear about my experiences and overall review of the 90-day package.

Receiving the Products

When the devices came, they were all packaged neatly together and with their own individual boxes. Again, this first delivery included 1 Wi-Fi Smart Camera and 3 Wi-Fi Color Changing LEDs.

The nice compact boxes were nice because they minimized any extra packaging materials, and the clean look had me excited to dive in right away.

Installing the Smart Home Devices

One of the most significant factors that scare people away from investing in smart home products is a fear of how complicated they will be to set up and use. Any fears like that are cast aside when seeing how brief the instructions included are:

And to be clear, these instructions aren't brief because they're lacking, rather the instructions are brief because of how much of the installation and setup process is straightforward, automated, and dummy-proof (click here for an overview on how to install the smart lights and click here for an overview of how to install the smart camera). Including the time it took to actually download the Atlantic Energy app, you're looking at less than 5 minutes of installation time per product. It's hard to beat that.

To gain full functionality, you're also well-served to connected these devices (particularly the smart lights) to Amazon Alexa or Google Home, which enables voice control. Again, follow the instructions provided (and reference the 'help' section of the app if you run into issues) and you'll be up and running in no time at all.

Using the App and the Devices

Once the installation is complete and you're on the app, the fun really begins. Each product and the app itself really comes with a smorgasbord of cool, useful, and energy-saving features. The best way to get to know these features and learn what will fit the lifestyle of you and others in your household is to start playing around, but an overview of some of my favorite aspects of these devices include the following:

• The app is easy to use, with all your devices in one place and allowing you to set up preset 'scenes' that can adjust every single device with the touch of a button.

• The automation setting is a step ahead of other products I've seen, allowing the app to take input from the web about the weather and other conditions in your area when deciding where to set devices. For example, you could have the app evaluate the weather and level of natural light (i.e., cloud cover) to determine if the best way to light the home and keep it at a preferred temperature is the turn on some lights, to open the blinds, or to adjust the air conditioner. That level of control really opens up the possibility for energy savings (both the scenes and automation are discussed in the previous blog article on how to use the app).
• Connecting to Amazon Alexa and enabling voice control is incredibly convenient. In the morning I simply ask Alexa to turn on the bedroom lights and as the night is winding down I can even ask Alexa to dim (but not turn off) the living room lights, which is not only nifty but energy efficient.
• All of these features are easy enough to use that you don't need to be knee-deep in instructions and FAQs to figure it out, rather they really are intuitive and allow for new people to catch on quickly. My home has two pets, so when we're out of town we're often wondering how the animals are doing. We don't have to wonder anymore because we were sure to place the Wi-Fi Smart Camera in a location that can see where they most often are, meaning we can check in on them from across the country if needed.
• Many smart home products exist on the market today, but too often you have to buy a clunky smart home hub whose sole function is to communicate with the devices. This extra piece of hardware costs extra money takes up space and uses more energy, but the devices included in the Smart Home Bundle are all connected to your Wi-Fi so no added hardware is needed.
• An additional advantage of these products over some of the less sophisticated ones on the market is that you can grant access to as many family members as you want to control the products via apps on their phone. What good is a smart home product if they can only be controlled by one person? With the Atlantic Energy products, that's not something you'll ever have to worry about.

Final Impressions

Overall, if you haven't dipped your toes into the smart home market before then Atlantic Energy's Smart Home Bundle might just be the package you've been waiting for. The ease of use, variety of available functions, and sleek look of the devices would all be reason enough to jump at the opportunity, but keep in mind these devices are included free after 90 days of becoming a customer of Atlantic Energy and their clean and affordable power.

You could be forgiven for thinking this was all too good to be true, but Atlantic Energy would love to prove it to you! Get in touch today to find out more.