Guides
Advice for Calgary homes
Straight answers on the questions we get asked most — what things cost, which system suits which home, and what we would do differently.
·8 min read
Lutron RadioRA 3 vs Caséta: which does your home actually need?
An honest comparison of Lutron's two main systems for Calgary homes — how they differ on scale, shades, keypads and installation, and where the line between them really falls.
Read the guide·7 min read
Your smart home installer disappeared. What now?
What to do when the company that installed your system is gone — what not to touch, how to find the configuration, and what taking a system over actually involves.
Read the guide·7 min read
How to choose a smart home control system
The questions that actually decide whether you'll still like your automation in five years — activities vs devices, who writes the programming, keypads vs phones, and what happens when the internet drops.
Read the guide·7 min read
Sonos vs a wired multi-room system: which suits your house?
Powered speakers or a rack and speaker wire? The real difference is where the amplifier lives — and which one is right depends mostly on whether your walls are open.
Read the guide·7 min read
Wired vs battery cameras in a Calgary winter
Why battery cameras struggle at −30 °C, what wired PoE does differently, and how snow and short winter days change where cameras should actually go.
Read the guide·7 min read
The TV over the fireplace problem
Not always a bad idea — but it depends on three things you can check yourself: viewing height, how hot the wall actually gets, and whether there's a sensible path for the cables.
Read the guide·7 min read
Why your Wi-Fi is bad in a big house
It's a coverage and backhaul problem, not a bandwidth problem — and adding more mesh nodes often makes it worse. What actually fixes it.
Read the guide·7 min read
Pre-wiring a Calgary new build: what to run, and when
The window between framing and drywall is when infrastructure costs almost nothing. What to run, which decisions genuinely can't wait, and the basement trap specific to Calgary homes.
Read the guide·8 min read
Motorized shades and Calgary's west-facing glare
Why winter sun is worse than summer sun on west windows, how fabric choice decides most of the outcome, and why automation matters more here than in milder climates.
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