Happy Saturday everyone!! My new Smart Home is so flipping exciting!! If you’d like to buy any of the products featured in today’s video then check them out below!… As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. By buying through any of the links below I will earn commission at no extra cost to you :) AQARA Amazon UK: amzn.to/3GyhluB Amazon US: amzn.to/4a9yokk AJAX Amazon UK: amzn.to/3tcEzDJ Amazon US: Not Available :(
Curious if you have any idea what kind of power draw all of these devices are costing you? I know even in standby they are sipping away. Might be interesting to cover this hidden cost of smart devices, especially as people might be struggling with energy costs over the winter. And I imagine some devices might offset their energy costs with smart home efficiencies
I haven’t tested the power draw of the sensors specifically, it’s an interesting thought as I have covered this topic elsewhere. I doubt they would cost more electric than they would save in turning off lights that kids left on. That said their initial outlay isn’t going to be cost effective in that regard for quite some time!
The question everybody asks me is when starting out on the Smart Home journey is to what devices should they buy? Aqara seems to tick a lot of boxes. As you covered previously you need hubs or gateways for every smart home system and associated apps. As a smart home enthusiast I have various hubs and gateways and my smart phone has dozens of different apps. If starting over again I would like to have one app and one eco smart system to connect with via Alexa. It frustrates me to buy a bulb or smart home device and you need another App or run gateway to run it. Aqara seems to have thought this through. Something I think I might invest in. Keep up the good work and good luck with the move.
Gotta admit that you've convinced me a while ago that Aqara was the bee's knees, and it hasn't let me down yet. They do absolutely make amazing quality stuff, and I'm glad to have found them through your channel.
I got my Aqara items after Paul recommended them. However unfortunately, added 2 more sensors to the mix and it broke nearly everything. Sorry to say, I went back to the Philips hue sensors for the upstairs lights cos aqara didn't do it for us😢
Congrats on the new home, Paul. A big change like that is always exciting. I just popped in to say, yes, Home Assistant can be a bit like a Tamogotchi, but you likely experience a higher level of instability because your job requires you to make many and constant changes to the system. Average users, once set up, don't have quite the number of headaches in certain you do. Heck, I've gone months before realizing i haven't checked for updates and my days of tweaking things feel like they are over. None of this is meant to discredit what you've said, just to provide a little "other side" perspective. Cheers!
Well said, I wanted to chime in when viewing the video but my points would be similar lol. I think I went 6 months from March-September with literally not touching HA running on a NUC, besides using the app to turn things/on/off. Automations all ran fine. I go in cycles of tinkering, and completely updated and redid all dashboard this fall, but you can go very long stretches of time without changing anything, assuming you are using non cloud based gear.
Home Assistant is not so bad at breaking if you don't use custom integrations or bespoke configuration files. If you can do everything inside the UI, you don't really get things breaking as much. But if you want to be all in one ecosystem, then for sure you can ditch Home Assistant. Home Assistant is good if you have a bunch of devices from different suppliers. I think, having a bunch of Aqara stuff, it could be better for what you want to do . The issue with Home Assistant is a lot of people over complicate it, because it can be over complicated. The KISS principle works with Home Assistant too. If you keep it simpler, it doesn't break as much. This is coming from someone who has used Home Assistant since 2017 and also has a life, a partner and a child.
I've had Aqara sensors and switches for a couple of years now. And have only changed one battery in that time. And that was not because a battery was indicated as dead. It was an attempt to fix a suddenly problematic TVOC sensor. And, it didn't fix the issue. Their battery life is amazing. At least to me.
I like playing with Home Assistant, but it can take a lot of work. This looks like a great option for my parents. I don't wan to be their tech support when things go wrong, so easier the better. =)
Hey mate, do you promise not to send Mr. Socky after me if I say you are overusing the phrase "changes everything"? With all these stuff changing everything every time you post a new video, then we are probably on a 360 degree change and back to the first place over and over again! I am literally starting to hump the air shouting "this changes everything, this changes everything, this changes everything!!!"
The setup in our home is fully Nest (Google) and Ikea-tradfri based (due to cost). It works pretty smooth, Ikea's switches are an awesome-cost affective way to get switches in a rental property and also use nest-speakers without having to replace any stuff. If we ever decide to leave I just pack it up, build it up again and it works again.
Same, ikea stuff is cheap and can be used wirhout internet at all, they only sell you a hub if you want voice control, it's not even necessary for initial setup
I use both Homekit and Home Assistant. Love Home Assistant because it is so powerful so I am not likely to give it up. What I would like to see is a proper integration in HA for bringing in the Aqara hubs (integrations exist buy they are not great). If we get a proper integration then all the Aqara devices can be both in HK and HA without any fuss. Lutron Caseta works like this and it is quite handy.
I truly love Home Assistant, just I fixed yet another thing just yesterday afternoon and then at midnight I clicked my button to start my sleep sounds and nothing 😒
I moved cross county last year, and my HA server didn't mind at all. I labeled all of my lights as I uninstalled them, so it was just a matter of installing them in the new location.
The Tomogatchi and Homeassistant comparaison is pure gold 😂 The issue is that if you don't buy a well preconfigured homeassistant green/yellow box, creating your own out of a raspberrypi can lead to serveral issues like you encoutered during all those years as you mentionned (mainly the sd card dying by constant writing, during initial setup i set it up as such so it writes to RAM first then the SD later, but you can't expect anyone to br able to do that)
I have that exact arrangement in my house, 90% with aqara. Been working for 3 years NO STOP. Just add some fp2 and it’s everything amazing and “its just works” 😂😂😂😂
On the temperature sensors is there any heat coming off of the switch below. Remember Linus from LTT had a slight issue as his thermostats were above over switches (can't remember what) but the heat coming off of them was tricking the sensor into thinking the room was warmer than it was. Looking forward to more video's on the new house 👍
The one small thing bugging me is that the kitchen lights turn off before the dinning room lights turn on. Can a delay be added before the lights turn off when leaving a zone?
Congrats on the new home - I'm so glad you've told us, I've been watching the last few weeks wondering whose house you were in 😂 When you reviewed the vacuums I was somewhat confused!
Just out of curiosity, what do you mean you need babysit HA? I've installed it, it works and unless I need new device, I don't need to do any updates or anything. So same as any other system, if you get it into working state, just don't touch it. How did HA then let you down?
I truly love Home Assistant, but I can literally give you 2 examples from just yesterday… Zigbee plug socket fallen off the Conbee stick and needed re-pairing, and then at midnight I clicked my flick button to start my sleep sounds via my Google speaker using webhooks and nothing 😒 I need to go through the logs and get some stuff tidied up I think
HA is constantly broken - After 5 years of use i see no hope for this platform. Problem with developers and community. After all this time they can't even implement simple scheduler, countdown timer, or ui customizable card - things which are basic for every home automation system. That is just ridicolous. And sorry there is no excuse for it also HA influencers do their job but you can't hide serious problems all the time. I'm also buing new devices with intention of switching system.
@@paulhibbert been using the ph- Eugh, Philips Eugh, sorry Phillips hue for now but would prefer to stay in the same eco system. At least it has ohhh the zigbee!
If you had philips hue bulbs you could map your house in the aqara app and then have the light literally follow you around the house. Only have the bulb directly over top of you on
Bugger! Just bought a load of Tuya smart, touch switches (and yes, they do 4 gang switches). Really simple to install, needing only one live input and then one connection to each light (similar to a radial circuit, not a ring circuit).
Good presentation as always. You are responsible for helping me choose Aqara for my automation needs in the future. Thanks for all your honest, fair and balanced reviews. Merry Christmas.
I'm just getting started with Aqara and finding my way. I do have the G4 doorbell camera and up to now I'm a bit disappointed with it. It misses quite a lot of things. I might need to study the settings a bit more to hopefully resolve this.
Spot on... they all don't actually have a full range.... non do... In Australia they are actually just sensors no lighting bar led strip's. The in wall/roof smart relays are available at 70 bucks each 🤯🤯 Shelly's are under 30...
HA is running smoothly for like 3+ years for me, updating it monthly and for like 1-2 years I had NO breaking changes to take care of. Now there is one regarding the Ping integration which I use, but nothing major. If you keep it relatively simple it works fine.
Very healty and refreshing commentary. I'm also slowly preparing to leave HA - test other platform check other possibilities. HA after initial hype for tinkerers is getting problematic - many simple problems with overcomplicated solutions for each of them. Thanks.
Can confirm that Home Assistant configs can get messed up. Mine recently got into a horrible state with the december update. I ended up just reinstalling from scratch and ignoring backups. I've ditched as much tuya stuff as I could, moving to Zigbee.
I've had the same problem. Went to a multiple backup system, normal backup, system image and config files so I've always got an alternate to backup from. I have a huge system now and can't imagine starting from scratch.
I only have Tuya stuff that I *dont* want in HA (Namely the plug that restarts my server) so I can access externally if something freezes and not trigger by accident. I've not had too much issue with the new Tuya Local Control but I try to stay away from it where possible. The issues with HomeAssistant have gotten miles better once when is in UI integrations. The main issue is that YAML files cant easily be converted when things get changed or depreciated, but the UI stuff can, but it can still be massively frustrating.
Great loghts demo, BUT I would get pissed, and piss the sensors off if thse lights turning off imediatelly i leave, thy should only turn on imediately and turn off after cetrain delay and gradually dimm not shut off, then it feels smart.
I have a love/hate relationship with Aqara. First, they make things that nobody else does (like my blinds rollers). Second, they look nice. Third, they have multifunction uses that I find very handy. The big downside for me is that they don't follow the zigbee protocal exactly, which means that sometimes they don't do what I want exactly the way I expect. Oh, and their vibration sensor is crap and won't stay connected to their hub even when it's only two feet away. However, I also love Home Assistant, even if it means I'll never have sex again :) So I do love the fact that it works pretty well with HA :)
I have a similar setup to yours, but, since I upgraded to the m2 hub, I can't connect the bulk of my ZigBee stuff, it's super annoying! How do I setup Aqara and Home Assistant to work together - as I have 20+ ZigBee bulbs and 10 ZigBee sockets that no longer are smart thanks to my new m2 hub... How do I fix this? Or do I need to scrap Aquara, and go back Lidl's hub?
Actually having a "smart home guy" steering people away from home assistant is quite refreshing!, do you do any network segmentation between your smart home systems, your home life kit (personal laptops, phones ets) and your work life/production equipment? Congratulations on the new home!
I have an amplifi hd router that is capable of that stuff, but I’ve never been overly worried about it. I do love home assistant and will never fully quit it, you’ll see that at the end of the video 😉
Congrats on the new home. We have a lot of Aqara devices in our home and I completely get the attraction of a single platform controlling everything. However, there are so many things that Home Assistant can do that pre-configured systems cannot. Plus, our own Home Assistant instance takes very minimal maintenence to keep running smoothly. I spend about an hour once a week doing updates. The biggest time expense for me is if I add new functionality to Home Assistant, such as our TTS voice announcements over "she who must not be named". Anyway, keep up the good work and have a great 2024 when it comes.
Honestly...Aqara is great, as is Shelly as is Switchbot and also Homematic IP...but at the end of the day, none of them makes everything, so, Home Assistant, while it does require attention and tends to break things with Updates (though some of the issues are down to manufacturers changing the API or blocking it) it is the only system I know that can (relatively) reliably connect everything and make it work together. A Vaillant Heat Pump, Homematic underfloor heating controller, Huawei Solar system, Tibber electricity, a Tesla, some Switchbot stuff, Hue, Govee and other lamps? Ikea switches and so on and so forth...Home Assistant links it all up easily.
I'm currently having issues with Alexa routines with Aqara. All my routines have stopped working. I was having to relink the skill to get them working again, however this week even that hasn't worked. Currently switched to link n link sensors, and testing Aqara daily. Today is the first day for a week it seems to be working. Maybe it's the update just received has fixed the issue. I do love the aqara gear. I'm hoping to enable my routes soon.
Hey, it's your house, you can pick any Smarthome platform you like. I just hope you don't forget about home assistant compatibility, coz a lot of your viewers rely on HA as their main hub.
I don't understand why your home assistant keeps breaking. I'm going on 5 years now with it and am largely hands off. I do absolutely love all my Aqara products, but I love the ability to have HA do even more with them than simple IFTT scenarios, like IFTT with way more than a few conditions attached. For example, when I am watching a movie, there is NO way I want my lights to suddenly come on simply because my CAT decided to enter the room! But I love my setup. I've spent the time to build it, and now, it's generally flawless, and I'm pretty much hands off now. Not sure why the push to never use it again, but I feel the combo of HA + Aqara is a solid platform. For a non-techie, sure! Get the Aqara brains, just know that it's about as smart as Amazon's smart home setup using only Alexa, though Aqara being local is still better! At the end of the day, there are now lots of choices, so use the best one for *your* home. Good video, and I think more people should see it! 😁👍
Hi Paul I dont think you are far wrong, I am a big fan of Home assistant, but I find it infuriating when I do an update and a load of my stuff stops working. The reason I watch your vids(apart from the comedy value) is that you are like me nerdy but not quite as nerdy as the the home assistant nerds, and the fact that you do test lots of nerdy stuff that can work alongside HA. I am similar I use the Tuya smart life and the Ewelink apps along with home assistant for the more technical automations. I havent gone down the Aquara rout as I dont want a fourth app I already struggle to work out which app is controlling what thing in HA if I had another it would muddy the waters more.😉
I sold Aqara, Xiaomi, Others and went Tuya after struggling as early adaptor of the Chinese region locking that existed in them. I know Aqara have corrected this but I find their products seriously overpriced. I sample the devices (in the thousands), find the one device I need more 4 of and go with it. Contrary to opinion (those who do not realise it or even want to know the facts), Tuya has EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING. From Powerful split ACs to Robotic Mowers to Smart Watches to Presence Sensors, to POE based Cams to Temperature sensors for boilers to displays, to IR RF, to Matter capable Zigbee 3 Hubs and more. I means thousands. And there are more reasons: Tuya also has our countries compliant electrical embedded as well. You goto your electrical light fittings store, you can goto to your electricity component department and BUY off the shelf electrical certified Tuya ECO system devices for your country. Okay I can really think nothing that is already in this eco system. And they are snap away from being integrated into HA.
Few of you Smart Home youtubers (mostly you Paul, Lewis is just perv) convinced me to stick with Aqara, now i'm renovating my flat from zero (wasn't used for a while) and all I got for the start are only aqara switches, M2 hub, radiator thermostats and some smaller things like aqara smart button. So hyped to put it together and run homeassistant on my rpi4, would probably stick only with aqara but there isn't any option for smart door lock than Yale Linus when it comes to flats. love your vids, great job
This was a seriously stressful week. I had window fitters in too whilst trying to make this video and the electrician was like “you want me to do what?!” 🤣
I loved the Aqara motion sensors & Presence sensors too but then they stopped working for no apparent reason then they became tempremental and worked some of the time so now moved onto Kasa / Tapo
Just an fyi, who the real heros are here is Texas Instruments. They are the ones who designed the internal radar sensor Aqara uses that make all this possible. Credit where its due.
Based on your previous recommendation, I'm buying Aqara whenever i have a choice. The FP1 seems handy for lights but having lights flash off and on as I move around a space would drive me nuts. I use HA to keep lights on for 2- to 3-minutes in corridors and 5 or so minutes in busy areas like the kitchen. How are you getting on with your implementation now the novelty has worn off?
Hey, Paul. I've got a bunch of different smart stuff around the house, some of it is Tuya. I've been having issues with the reliability of routines/automation. I'm fairly sure it's because they are executed over the cloud. I was wondering if you knew or could test any of your Tuya compatible Hubs to see if any of them are able to take over the job of the cloud? The setting I'm referring to is in Scenes, then pick an automation, and then go down to more settings, and you'll see "Executed By" -> Cloud. Cheers.
Hi Paul, what lightbulbs are you using with Aqara? Because I didn't quite get your old video, where in my own mind you misleadingly promised compatibility with Home Assistant for BroadLink lightbulbs and switches (never mind). Now, my Aqara sensors only communicate through Alexa with my lights. Unfortunately, Alexa is even worse than Home Assistant because when she's not working, I can't even fix it. I’m desperate enough to buy non-neutral Aqara switches (sooooo expensive 😳) but I have no idea what lightbulbs 💡 should I have. Please help
Congrats on the new home. I added HA to someone elses house because of a weird compatibility thing and then exposed HA to their normal smart home platform, if Aqura lets you do that it may be an option for the devices they dont support.
For a moment, I thought you were in Reed’s house! Nice place you got there, Paul. Also, I’ve been using Aqara stuff for a while and it’s all been bloody brilliant. I didn’t know they did smart TRVs though, they look far nicer than the Hive ones
I'm a big Home Assistant user and their 2023 12.2+ releases broke ZHA (zigbee integration) and all my zigbee devices stop responding a few hours after each reboot (Fixed in 12.4) which was not mentioned in the release notes. The coder mentality of treating issues like this as normal is totally infuriating. Commercial developers don't release unproven code into the wild and neither should HA. Unfortunately there simply isn't an alternative that offers the breath of support or configuration granularity so I'm stuck with it for the time being.
Is it possible to add overlap the zones or add a zone bettween zones so both light areas are on at once for a better trasition? it looks so awkward when the room goes black for a second lol
Do the presence sensors work with Alexa routines too? I already have smart switches and bulbs (wired them myself in a no neutral system) and really don’t want to change them
Great video, thank you. I'm heavily invested in zwave, but he ocntroller I use by vera, albeit good, seems to be on the decline. What do you suggest so I do not loose my zwave investment (10 baseboard thermostats, door locks and a bunch of light switches and sensors)? Home assistant?(probably not).
I have no trouble with my HA Setup since I run it in a VM on my Synology Nas. But I get where you are coming from, I was there before I had my current setup :) So, currently, I am using Aqara and HA in tandem too. All devices are present in both systems and through HA I am exposing certain devices to HomeKit because I use it as a sleeker UI interface an my iPhone. Automations get made in HA since it is my HUB for all the devices from different manufacturers. And the Voice assistant of choice is Alexa, since I am heavily invested in Echo Dots.
Very similar setup to how I will probably end up. Once I inevitably add more smart home gear from other manufacturers home assistant will be an unfortunate necessity.
I am finding that sometimes my E1 radiator thermostats do not seem to close the valve when their coupled sensor is reporting that the set temperature has been exceeded. Do you have any issues like this? I am using an M2 hub.
I bought an Aqara M2 Hub and the darn thing constantly goes offline in by Ubiquity network with a Wifi access point a short unobstructed 10 feet away. I was interested in your video but given I cannot get reliability form the Aqara Hum M2, I cannot by any more Aqara products until I can possibly establish some reliability. I am a Home Assistant user and would love to find a large ecosystem like Aqara if it is reliable. Any suggestions?
There is another free cloud option that offers BOTH a subscription or an SD card. I have not see you review them for a while, but I have a whole Wyze ecosystem with cameras and lights integrated with my Google Home. Would love to see more Wyze things on this channel as every product of theirs I have tried have been amazing. I keep everything smart home on a VLAN setup in my router and it all works great. I am not sure why most smart home tubers like yourself have not featured them in some time, but they are worth a new look :)
Also also, you can get creative and load custom firmware to the to cameras so they can be 100% local. I have not seen one other company that allows you access to such features right out of the box!
Having the light turn off behind me and then switching it on in front of me after a second would drive me nuts. Can you make the zones overlap, so it turns on when you transition and turn off when you actually left?
I'm curious, Paul. How did your break your home assistant? I've been running mine since March 2020 on a pi 3B with the same 64GB Samsung evo micro sd card.
Is there a way of using 3rd party smart bulbs with Aqara hubs? I find Aqara’s bulbs very dim but don’t want to use them through Alexa routines as that requires internet
IMHO I prefer the delay to be less between entering one area from another. IE Walking downstairs to the dining area. I want the new area lights to come on just a second or two sooner. Especially if I were in a hurry. And vice versa.
I have aqara h1 switches throughout my house. I love them, great quality compared to others i have tried. Only thing i don't like is the loud click when used in relay mode. Its bearable when actually pressing the switch but really annoying when lights come on using an automation as in the start of the video. I wish they would make silent switches like the cheaper brands
Another great video. Aqara makes great products, but I agree that Aqara still has some gaps which is why I moved my Aqara devices directly into Home Assistant.
Great video again Paul. Recently bought £300 worth of gear. Very disappointed with the roller shade E1 the thing doesn't calibrate and broke my vertical blinds string 😩
I don't think buying all smart items from the same brand is an option for many people, lol. Is the multi person/zones in the pf2 sensor working properly now? Ps: Your house now has 16th, 17th and 18th edition wiring 😂
Aquara sure makes a wonderful ecosystem! however - HA and Homey are the only ones that integrate full-fledged heating, ventilation, solar panels, wind turbines, airconditioning, car chargers, .... and even they have *a lot* to professionalise before "average joe" can handle it. Sadly home automation is still a bit of a nerds-area. I admire Aquara's effords, especially the human presence detectors (mm wave) are amazing.
