Save big on these smart home bundles, security systems

Welcome to Home Deals, where we pick out the best deals on things you need for your home, garden and beyond. Like our cousin, the Cheapskate, we’ll give you a regular selection of smoking-hot deals, but we’ll cover things like smart home hubs, intelligent light bulbs, home security systems and anything else your home or garden requires.

The battle to make your home smarter is heating up as Google, Amazon and others compete to get their systems into your home. That means deals if you want to smarten up your home, like this $159.89 Lutron Caseta and Amazon Echo Dot starter kit. This saves you about $30 on buying the components separately, and gives you everything you need to control two lights wirelessly or by asking Alexa to turn the lights on or off. The Lutron Caseta system was one of our picks for the best devices to control from Alexa, so it’s a good pick if you don’t already have an Echo.

Amazon’s Alexa service works with a range of smart home devices, but don’t forget that most will need a home hub. This is the device that connects Alexa with the smart light bulbs and sockets, so most manufacturers offer a starter kit of a hub and a couple of bulbs. The Philips Hue White Ambience Starter Kit is our recommendation for smart lighting, as it includes a light bulb, hub and remote control switch for $129.99. If you are all-in for going smart, though, you can save some cash by buying bigger bundles. This $199 kit gets you three color bulbs and the hub, which is a decent deal since the color version of the Hub bulbs cost $50 each.

Watch out, though: Some places are advertising the color Hub bulbs for less, but these are often the older models that aren’t as bright or colorful. The third-generation bulbs are the ones to get if you can find them. You can also save if you don’t need the fancy color features of the more expensive Hue bulbs. Best Buy has a good deal here: an Amazon Echo Dot, Hue Hub and two white bulbs for $99.99. You’ll save $20 buying this bundle versus buying all of the bits individually.

Another tip: More manufacturers are now making their devices compatible with other gadgets, so you can now control a Cree Connected LED bulb from a Philips Hue hub, for instance. With this bulb now available for less than $14.97, you can save big by shopping around, but check compatibility before you buy.

If Google is your home helper of choice, the cheapest place to buy the new Google Home device is Google itself: $129 gets you the device, free shipping and six months of YouTube Red, the ad-free version of the video streaming service. That’s the same price that it’s showing up at other locations, but you don’t always get free shipping. The Google Home starts shipping on November 2, so you’ll have it in time to control your Christmas lights.

If security is your concern, Newegg has a sweet deal on this Panasonic Smart Home Monitoring kit. $119.95 gets you four cameras (two indoor, two outdoor) and a selection of sensors, plus a keypad and remote to control the system. It won’t integrate with your smart home system, but it is a great deal for monitoring an office, garage or other space that you just want to keep an eye on. If you want to monitor a bigger space, Newegg also has a refurbished 16-channel video DVR system on sale for an impressively low $379.99. This internet-linked system includes 10 night-vision cameras and also allows you to view the footage over the web using its iPOLis app, which is perfect if you want to cover all of the angles around your home or office.