Amazon Echo is not just a device but a lifestyle that will get you hooked once you get used to it. That is why you can not live without it if you have been using it for some time. So, you might want to learn about all the possibilities that will enable you to have Alexa wherever you go.
Amazon Echo Two Houses
There are tons of cool features about Echo and if you are planning on installing the Echo device in two houses, here are a few things that you must know to make the most out of your experience.
Connectivity
The connectivity is not a problem with the Echo devices. Their smart features enable them to connect with any device that is compatible with Alexa so if you have a smart home system in the other house that is running all the appliances, devices, and a smart home hub that is Alexa compatible, there should not be any problems for you. We all know that the Echo device has a pretty good rating in terms of connectivity so you can simply rely on the connectivity and start enjoying the best smart home experience.
Installation
The installation process for your echo devices is one of the simplest out there and that makes it the right choice for you if you are planning to install it in two houses. All you are going to need is to get an echo device and install it using the same easy process. You will need to connect it to the power source, then you will be able to configure it with your smartphone or any other device with the Alexa app on it. Once done, you can connect it with all the smart appliances and other smart devices that you have in your home and that would do the job for you.
How to use it, and what you can do?
Now, this is one of the most important parts and you are simply going to love the features and possibilities of this one. With your two Echo devices installed in two different houses, you will be able to control them from either of the devices.
If you are a bit confused about the concept, let’s say that you have two devices installed in two different houses. Each of these devices will be connected to all the appliances in that particular house. But you will also be able to control the appliances on the first house and manage the echo device if you are in your second house.
To make this work, you just need to take care of a few things. To start with, you will need to pair your mobile device with both of the echo devices. Now, since you are using the same amazon account on both devices, they will essentially be working in unison. The most interesting part is that you will be able to use your voice command feature to control the appliances in the second house as well, even if you are in the first house and vice versa.
I’ve had 2 homes for several years, starting with with TP devices. Needing wireless cameras, I’ve added Bink cameras. In a few months, I’ll be adding a door bell, and several 5 more wirelss cameras, after adding another sync module. For the most part, I’ll continue to use the apps on the phone
Recently I bought a Show 5, that knows Blink & TP skills, and plan to put it at the front door.
Can Alexa recognize a device both by its name and type of device?
I have switches controlling lights, plugs controlling lights, and smart bulbs. I’d like to be able to be able to specify house and ask Alexa to turn on all lights.
I use other plugs as my proxy, to unplug a device for 5 minutes as a reset switch. After specifying house, could I ask Alexa to turn off family camera plug for 5 minutes, then turn it back on?
How do I use the dimmer function on dimmer switches and smart light bulbs?
Can I set my second echo devise in my mothers home where there is no internet?
Definitely Create TWO accounts or it will end up as a mess, Trust me! OR “all lights off” “announce” etc will oaccur in both places
Hive+Ring handle multiple homes fine. Even Amazon store have switch account, to fast switch without going through ridiculous setup every time you log back in. Alexa needs fixing.
Folks – you are making this way too complicated.
Of course, Amazon says: “You can’t. Create another account.”
But you can, and it works fine.
1) Ensure that your wifi SSID and IP addressing for DHCP is the same at both homes. (which will make it easy for you to move laptops, etc).
2) When you add a device, NAME it to the location. Name house #1 – Colodado, and House # 2 – Florida (duh… use what works for you).
3) Now name your devices always including that location signifier so that YOU know where they are.
Sure, it really doesn’t matter with echo devices, but with smart home items it is critical. Now you would say: “Alexa! Turn on COLORADO kitchen lights” and it will know exactly where you mean.
Adding that one word makes all the difference.
For me, this has been working great… but that is about to end because I want to put in a Lutron Caseta system in my second home. Sadly today only one Lutron hub is allowed to connect to teh Alexa service. For that I will need to add a second Amazon account under teh primary one.
However, those solutions that do not use a hub (like WeMo) will work transparently on one account if you use the naming convention.
Alexa won’t work in my second house and there’s no easy way to fix it which is a flaw in their product
A seemingly simple fix would be to add the ability to create Routines that are specific to certain Echos.
So, if the Echo in your DC home heard ‘Turn on the Kitchen lights”, it would only act on the named devices in the routine — such as DC Kitchen Cans and DC Kitchen Counter Lights.
Similarly, if the Echo in NY heard “Turn on the Kitchen lights” it would act on the devices specific to that Echo – such as NY Kitchen Pendants and NY Over Sink Light.
With a second account it would too painful to always login and log out of the accounts.
Essentially it’s just one big home.
My mum has an new echo dot in her house it’s connected to my Amazon account. How do I set it up so she play different music to me at the same time
I believe that you have to have that feature enabled in Amazon Music. It may cost extra.
Hi Carol not sure if you figured it out , but I just set my mom echo! All you have to do is get unlimited music for family this way you both don’t listen to the same music ! You just add her echo to the list of people you would like to add ! And by adding her to your echo you can drop in on each other with the same Amazon account as I just set my moms to mine all I did was name her echo to hers so she can drop in on us and we have three echos in three different locations in the city
Hi – I have exactly the same problem. I have a second home and would love to be able to adjust the thermostats and lights for house 2 from house 1, it really shouldn’t be that hard for the makers of Alexa to sort out. It would be nice to think that someone working with Alexa would read these comments and realise it may be worth considering what their customers want, rather than just constantly trying for new customers, while ignoring their existing ones
I created a Room for the second house.
I put the new thermostat in that room and gave it an appropriate name.
Now I can ask Alexa what the temperature is in that room and also set the Heat or AC.
If all the devices in both houses are setup in your app, you can just control them by name.
It works just fine.
Is there a way to talk to my echo at a different location? Have the Plus here and have an Echo in our home 200 miles away . I would like to know what the actual temperature is at any given time. Is there a way that I can ask my home Alexa to check the home temp at the other home? Or, is there a way do get the temp through the app?
You can “Drop in” on the other device if you know its name or location.
You can ask what the temperature is in the other location if it has its own name.
I just asked mine what the temperature is in our house 400 miles away and it told me.
Totally agree with DH above; the ability to segregate groups of devices in Alexa (beyond long naming conventions like ‘boston kitchen lights’ versus ‘New York kitchen lights’) is non-existent in the Alexa world as is the ability to move devices, etc. from one account to another due to the fact that Amazon ties an Alexa device to an a
Amazon user/shopper account (unless both users are in the same ‘household’ account). Amazon has focused on ‘the shopper’ as the user and not on those users that have lots of similar devices in a household. Google has done a somewhat better job.
The title of this article is poor, at best. It gave me hope that Amazon had created some form of organizing devices (beyond groups)… or for a routine that only turned on devices at my location (e.g., turn on kitchen lights would do the kitchen lights in Boston if I was in Boston).
Google has it, you can select which home right at the top of the main screen via a dropdown. I use both Alexa and Google at both homes and they both have their plus and minus unfortunately.
In short, Alexa doesn’t have any clue about your homes, despite its understanding of different Echo devices, different IP addresses, different locales, etc. When I ask Alexa for “the weather”, I get beach weather at the beach house and town weather when in town.
But Alexa sees all your devices as one big house. It took me awhile to figure this out. After all, I have kitchens in both houses, but when I ask for “Kitchen Lights,” the lights in the kitchen go on, 100mi away.
Google Home solves this by understanding houses and rooms. When I add a device, I place it in a house (assuming I’ve created more than one house) and then in a room. So Google understands that when I ask for kitchen lights at the beach house, I get those lights.
It seems like a pretty obvious thing. Yeah, you can make up a system for naming things in one house versus the other, but that’s clumsy. This has me moving more toward using Google and its devices, even though I like some things about the Echo better. A solution that actually works right is worth a few bumps.
Yes exactly my issue
I’m in mumbai india
Been using Alexa for turning on and off ac and lights in 1 house. Assuming it should work. I installed another echo in other house and same I have ac in that house same lights too. Ofcourse if 1 works I will buy same device. LG ac I have now 4 of them. With Alexa
Now if I say turn on ac or turn off. It turns off ac in another house so stupid.
I have setup groups perfectly
1 house then rooms as sub group’s then devices.
2nd house new group and sub group’s as rooms
Also both house address location is also different in the respective echo devices
Only common thing is I have same wifi network names in both houses.
Even then this is not solving
I got all Alexa devices for this only.
Now both houses will have kitchen. Both houses have bedrooms. Meaning I can’t name those bedrooms. If a particular device is in a sub group’ it shud 1st understand that that devices is in that particular room and ac of that room is also in that room so if I simple say turn on ac it shud 1st command the nearest ac and not the other rooms ac.
Unless I mentioned turn off ac of pink bedroom or something like that. But I can’t say. Turn off ac lg name xxx of pink bedroom that would be stupid.
U dont expect me to remember names for 4 different ac as …
Please solve this asap
I completely agree with you. Alexa, unlike Google Home, is sorely missing the “Home” identification feature. It’s a surprising oversight, especially for the many of us that may have a second home we manage for say, Mom. Hopefully, Amazon closes this gap and cleans up the Alexa app while at it. Google nailed the app on this one.
I have Alexa and she knows exactly what I want, where I want it from and asks me to be specific when she doesn’t….much like Google Home (which I also have). I have her in every room in my home and in some rooms, there are multiple devices. If you want her to differentiate between rooms, homes, etc., then you will need to go into the app then name and group the devices accordingly. In a situation like you’ve described (different kitchen lights in different homes), I would name the kitchen lights at location A something like, “New York Kitchen lights” and at location B, “D.C. Kitchen lights.” There are approximately 50 individual smart items in my home. Each and every one of them has it’s own specific name. For some, they end up grouped together. For example, my “Master Bedroom Lights” are in the Master Bedroom and each bulb is labeled Master Bedroom Light 1, Master Bedroom Light 2, Vanity Light, Mirror light, Ceiling light 1, Ceiling light 2, etc. I can ask her to turn on/off the master bedroom lights and they ALL come on; I can ask her to turn on/off the ceiling lights (or Master bedroom ceiling lights if there are other rooms with smart ceiling lights). In some cases, the bedrooms are named for the individuals (my sons). Mancave 1 or Tommy’s room, etc. It took time but I started with a few smart items and started adding them along the way. I’ve moved a few around, renamed them when necessary and then made the changes in the app. Even my robot vacuum has her own name, “Molly.” Yep, so I can say, “Alexa, tell Molly to start.” Molly then starts doing her thing, which I’ve also specifically programmed. We just have to remember that with all so-called smart devices, they are only as smart as we program them to be. 🙂
Yeah, I named my Nest thermostat Hallway because that’s where it is.
So I ask for the temp in the Hallway or set the Hallway to 71.
We added an Amazon thermostat to our house in St George so I named it St George’s House. Now I ask what the temp is in St George’s house and it tells me.
It is kind of annoying that it thinks that St George’s house in physically located in my house so I can’t use the Away and Home features. Maybe they will update it.
Indeed, Alexa is lacking a feature for multi-houses.
I think that one solution is to create a second account as a household account, so that one can use that for the second house.