You may not have heard of before ENKI, the Leroy Merlin home automation ecosystem. A proposal that you are still interested in learning about due to aspects such as its ease of use and the fact that it is a multi-protocol solution with which the chain of DIY stores hopes to attract all those users who seek to dogmatize their home without many complications. Of course, there are a couple of details that you should know first.
What is ENKI?
Let's start with the basics, what is ENKI? Well, as we have already told you, it is the home automation solution or ecosystem of products designed for the connected home that has Leroy Merlin. You could say that it is like the alternative to IKEA Smart Home. And we say this and not other solutions on the market because the idea behind it seems to offer simplicity and a good price to its regular customers, but also to the rest who are interested.
It is that simplicity and price that are the main reasons that ENKI exposes when it comes to presenting itself to the general public, although we will see that there are also some other aspects that could be interesting if you are thinking of dogmatizing your home.
The first and most important is multi-protocol support, also being easy to manage from an app for iOS and Android mobile phones, as well as being accessible through a chain of very popular stores. The latter is what makes it a kind of natural competitor for the other platform that sells one of its big competitors, IKEA.
How ENKI works
The use and operation of ENKI is not far from that of other home automation solutions, but it is true that it is much easier than proposals such as, for example, Home Assistant. So the necessary learning curve is easier to assume for those users with less technical knowledge.
Knowing this, it is not necessary to think that it is an excessively basic solution. Once the bridge is connected and configured through the smartphone application, all you have to do is add the different devices that you want to control using said app. These devices can make use of different connection protocols.
ENKI is multi-protocol, which means that it allows the use of devices compatible with EnOcean, ZigBee, BT, WiFi, Somfy RTS and some others. The only one that it does not support among all those that are considered as main is Z-Wave.
For the rest, this system is also compatible with voice assistants from Amazon and Google. So you can still use your speaker with Alexa or the Google Assistant to control lights and other connected devices with spoken commands.
Price and where to buy ENKI by Leroy Merlin
Here comes the bad news for now: ENKI can only be purchased in France. That is to say, despite the fact that there are Leroy Merlin stores in Spain, the company has not yet decided to launch the ecosystem in other countries, such as France.
Logically, it should only be a matter of time before it arrives, because the commitment to this type of solution could be important and very beneficial for the store chain. As much as for IKEA itself, which are its connected products from the Tradfri, Symphonisk, etc. series, it has shown that it is an important market and capable of generating great income.
So, for now, either you follow ENKI on a trip to France or you wait for it to arrive. The two options that exist have a price of 119 and 29 euros depending on whether it is the largest and most capable switchboard (up to 450 devices) or the small one. But whatever it is, the important thing is that you already know what it is.