If you liked this video, be sure to check out more of my smart home review videos here: ru-vid.com/group/PLnTSM-ORSgi7obxembH4OAHDsrw52r9zk I've got some good ones in there on Hubitat, and wireless security cameras.
One of my favorite automations is a LED strip and a motion sensor under the bed, so when I step off the bed during the night it lights up the floor subtly so that I can see without waking my partner. Great for when the toddlers wake up during the night and you have to scramble up quickly to stop them from demolishing something in the house at 2 am.
Zac the angle is quite wide, so I put it in the middle of the headboard (under the bed) facing along the length of the bed. That covers all motion on the sides of the bed from roughly chest height, lying down. Hope I explained that clearly enough. 😊
Love these ideas. Thanks for the insipration. I'm using Home Assistant, but here's my set up on my Washer/Dryer. 1) Energy monitor outlets for Washer and Dryer 2) Aqara Door/Window sensors on Washer and Dryer doors. 3) Input/Selector "Helpers" in Home Assistant. For the Washer the options are Idle, Running, Clean. For the Dryer it's Idle, Running, Dry. 4) When the power usage is over 50W for 2 minutes, the Selector is updated from Idle to Running. When the usage drops below 1W for 5 minutes (and the Selector is set to Running), the Selector is updated to Clean (or Dry), a message is sent to our phones, an Alexa announcement is made, and a Helper timer is started. 5) When we open the door to the Washer or Dryer the Selector is set back to Idle. 6) BONUS: If the door isn't opened and the Selector isn't set back to Idle within 30 minutes (remember the timer in #4), Alexa gets snarky ("Seriously, the Washer is done. Do you want the laundry to get moldy?" or "The Dryer is done. The laundry's not going to fold itself, you know!"), and the timer resets. Each time the timer hits zero the cycle begins again until the doors are opened to reset the Selector. 7) BONUS BONUS: We have a top loading Washer, and sometimes we start it then do one last run around the house for loose items. We've both forgotten to put the lid down if we get distracted. If the Selector is set to Running, and the Washer door sensor is still open after 5 minutes, a message is sent to our phones and Alexa to tell us to check the Washer lid.
My first automation was before smarthomes. I bought one of those mechanical timers meant for wall-sockets for my coffee-machine, and ever since I have always woken up to the smell of fresh coffee
My favorite: 1. Geofence to turn on lights in the garage when I come home. They automatically turn off 5 min. later. 2. No light switch at the door where I enter the house. Three lights automatically turn on when I arrive home but only if it’s after sunset.
Got a robot vacuum and mop combo (coredy) and it has changed my life! I have it scheduled for morning and night which is tremendously helpful when you have 4 cats and a teenager. My floors are ALWAYS clean now.
Ok, you teenagers and cat must be very, very disciplined and never leave any mess around. This never ever worked in my house because the vacuum got stuck in cables, socks, etc.
Created my smart home around my seriously ill wife. Using Amazon Alexa enabled devices I set up smart bulbs and switches so that she could switch on and off lights via her voice, setup routines to alert me during the night when she required assistance, and when things got to the stage where she was confused and couldn’t make Alexa understand, I set up alarms using routines and Amazon buttons, one in the bathroom one in her bedroom and one in the lounge. Together with a couple of Wyze cameras I could check on her day and night from anywhere using the smart phone. Peace of mind for us both . Smart homes are not just for helping with mundane things but are extremely useful for disabled, elderly or ill people whether living alone or with someone you are never going to be alone and vulnerable again. p.s. Amazon bring back the simple button it is useful for much more than for playing games
My top smart home bits: #1) without question my most favorite is my smart thermostat. It cost about $60, integrates with my security system, and within the month, I saved $60 on my electric bill. #2) Automated irrigation. My system does *not* integrate with my alarm system (or anything else, as far as I know), but it will monitor both soil moisture and weather conditions; if the soil is damp enough, or if it's rained recently or forecast to do so before the next routine, it won't run. #3) my cameras. I know people have concerns about having cameras in the home and I perfectly well understand that (I myself don't even plug my Alexa in unless I'm actively using it for some of those same reasons!), but hear me out on this one. I was out of state for a week visiting a friend, and we had gone out of cell phone range into the mountains for the day. The minute I entered the service area, my phone blew up with notifications, including that my alarm system had lost power. I've lived here 18 years and can count on two hands (with fingers to spare) how many times I've lost power AT ALL, and on one (also with fingers to spare) that it's been off for longer than five minutes, so this was an exceedingly rare event. I immediately checked my alarm system, saw everything was armed, saw none of the glass break sensors had gone off, that none of the door or window sensors was triggered. Then I looked at the camera. I saw one cat passed out on the couch, and the other was happily eating, thought to myself "well it can't be that bad if the cats are relaxed", and would have forgot about it entirely I wasn't fielding panicked and hysterical phone calls from friends & family about the 5 stadium wide EF5 tornado that had just passed by my house, killed a bunch of people including by picking cars up off the overpass and throwing them to the ground, and generally wrought tons of havoc. And with my cameras? I knew everything was fine before I even knew there was a problem.
I like this video because, for most of the things, he isn't telling you to buy all these expensive light bulbs and washing machines, he's showing you how you can make the things you already have IoT-enabled.
Pro tip. Put one of those water sensors in your furnace water pan. My system was going on 10 years and it leaked over the water pan onto the ceiling above. The only way we knew the furnace was bad was when we saw the watermarks on the ceiling. $18,000 later we have a new furnace and one of those sensors in the water pan. Cheers
I setup home/away based on our phones being connected to the WiFi and this has been faster and more reliable than any GPS method I tried. Also got a Yale Assure with August and it's awesome!! Love the door unlocking when I walk up and relocking 100% automatically.
I have outdoor smart plugs for the holiday lights and the backyard lighting, automated to turn on at the local sunset and to turn off at 11:00 pm. I added lights above and below the kitchen cabinets and those are automated to turn on and off at specific times. My wife has a glassblock in a basement window next to the front porch which she decorates according to seasons/holidays. It also turns on at sunset and shuts off at 11:00 pm. I’m looking at getting “Level” locks for our three exterior doors.
Matt, have you ever thought through the process of temperature monitoring of your freezer(s). I have freezers in my kitchen refrigerator, a stand alone freezer in my utility room, and an old freezer in the ‘replaced’ frig/freezer that’s now in the garage. I’ve tried the transmitter design with batteries in the freezer, but they just don’t last. My desire would be to have a probe inside the freezer that is direct wired to a sender unit outside of the freezer (where the wire that the magnetic door seal goes over doesn’t affect the seal). This could then interface with a Hubitat for warnings if the temp rises above a certain temp. I’ve seen a couple of DIY videos, but I don’t have the talent of an EE to effect such a contraption. It seems like there is a valid need for a ‘home owner’ product that works as discussed. I’ve seen commercial, big freezer products that are too expensive for home use. Thanks.
I love the SmartDry sensor for the dryer. SmartDry just released a beta program and now my Alexa devices alert me the dryer stoped and still wet, or when close are dried. Virtual switch to create the automation and when the switch is triggered then Alexa announces the automation. Pretty cool
I have a Neato vacuum cleaner and I notice that I don’t need to have her charging all the time. So I have a smart switch (HomeKit) that turns on one hour before it has to start vacuuming and one hour after it finishes. That gives the vacuum cleaner enough energy to do its work and save some energy at the same time.
I'm running home assistant on a NUC and find it really flexible and awesome. If you haven't looked into Node-Red yet on home assistant - give it a try. It's way more flexible than any other system and yet still user friendly. My automations include a home-made smart doorbell based on a $17 ESP board with camera+wifi+PIR. When the PIR fires, members of my family get a text notification with a picture even before someone rings the actual doorbell :) Oh, and I bought a bunch of cheap google home minis and put them around the house for a very affordable notification system. Now I can call everyone to dinner with a touch of a button! Lastly, HA integrates very neatly with my Model 3 so I can remotely control it, charge it and track its location.
I too run Home Assistant, and I'd love more info on your smart doorbell. It's one area that I haven't been happy with. How have you made it look decent? what software are you using? how's the picture quality? Any false positives with the PIR trigger outside?
@@Green__one I used this design: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3704769 The PIR is a bit tricky as it depends on what happens outside. If you use something like Node-Red you can make the logic a bit more robust against noisy triggering. I ended up just capturing an image after the person rings the doorbell.
All the options, all the hubs, all the rules... I'm exhausted just watching this video! I've worked in tech for 40 years (software engineer) and I still get the heebie-jeebies when contemplating home automation. Plus, living in a household where one or more occupants are luddites does not make things any easier. In any case, thanks for the info -- it still looks like there's a ways to go before home automation is for everyone.
Luddites can be overcome. The key is, as he says in the video, home automation should always add something, and never take away. In my house all smart lights are done using smart switches, not smart bulbs. That means all the switches still work exactly like they did before, but you can also automate things or use your phone. The door lock still opens with the key, but I can also automate things or use my phone. The smart thermostat still has up and down buttons on it to adjust the heat, but you can also automate things or use your phone. Nothing is taken away, and the "luddites" can decide whether or not to try the "new and scary" stuff, or stick to what they know. Once they see how it can make their lives easier though, they'll end up using some of the things. My wife wasn't thrilled with the idea originally, but now there are several automations that she absolutely loves and isn't sure how she could do without. Go slow, avoid anything that looks ugly or intrusive, and make sure you never take away the old method of using whatever it was.
I have a lot of the same automations, although certainly not all. My main objective is voice control (as an option) for lights, TV, temperature, etc. One thought: when you have a case like your kitchen when one switch controls multiple lights, you really want a smart switch, even if smart bulbs will be fine -- the switch gives you the option of controlling lights either way. I have stuck with Alexa even though not entirely thrilled with it, and don't want a hub. There's a lot of complexity in all of this, and voice control gets harder as you have more devices, as you have to remember the incantation needed in that case.
Matt - I also have leak detectors under every sink, toilets and washing machine, but I connected all of them to an electronic sensor that shuts down the main water line when any of the leak detectors are triggered. Peace of mind when on vacation.
Can't speak for FloridaGary E, but I have similar and use a Dome Z-wave water shutoff. It isn't a valve itself, but instead is a motorized arm that turns your existing valve.
Thanks for this. I have all of the items setup like you do except for the laundry. Just 30 minutes ago I was frustrated that I had left clothes in the washing machine. Since I have an electric vehicle, I am on a time of day usage, so there are limits to when I dry my clothes unless I want to pay the highest usage rate. These examples should help me greatly. (My system is SmartThings tied to my Google home speakers with z-wave light switches, although I recently bought a HomePod and now have to reconsider how my system integrates since my Apple Music subscription doesn’t easily play on the Google speakers except through painful workarounds.)
You should really invest in an automatic water shut off valve. It’ll shut off your main water supply and the sensor will show where the leak is. I have one and it’s well worth your time.
Great video! I just would love if you could put a list on the description down to all the things that you mention! I’m looking for those humidity sensors, but you didn’t tell what brand are they
My wife and I are both retired and we live in a 46 year old house that I had built for me with a large three car garage added thirty years later. I've been told that a smart thermostat will not work with my heating system which is a heat pump supplemented with an oil fired hot water heater. Anyway, since we're home all the time and when we're not, my wife wants to keep the dog and cat comfortable, I don't need a smart thermostat. My door locks are the NYC favorite Segal surface mounted dead bolts. The external garage lights are controlled with a timer and the walkway lights come on when its dark and go off when its light again. I did install a massive solar array about five years ago and I just had my electrician install a Nema 14-50 receptacle for when I get a Tesla a year from now. The only device you mentioned that I'd like is the dryer device because my wife over-dries the clothing.
Saving energy is a good place to start. An even better place to start is saving money by saving energy. Which kind of energy is the large chunk of your bill and which devices or rooms are using that much. concentrate on the big ones and try to invest in something that will earn itself back long it needs to be replaced. That way you earn money for new improvements. If is heating, a programmable thermostat in every room that can demand for heat only when needed can save you up to 50% certainly if you make sure the heating system is properly maintainted and (cv)-tuned. I love honeywell evohome. Electricity is kind of hard, most people have already changed their halogeen lights for leds so not much to do there. Fridge and freezer is often the next station together with desktop computers and large TV's.
Energy savings is my biggest goal at the moment. I like the idea of the SmartDry. I saw in another video that there was something to get for making a water heater work more efficiently. Unfortunately my water heater is not compatible. I recently installed a heat pump system and I’m under contract for a solar instal. I’ll keep an eye on the channel for more energy saving ideas.
My son sometimes slams our deep freezer door when he shuts it and it can bounce back open. I setup a smartthings temperature sensor to send an alert when the freezer temperature goes above a certain temperature. Save our stuff in our freezer a time or two.
hey brother ive had so many of the products that your talking about and ive forgot how many things work together and ive been lazy to set things up specially like you said we have been stuck at home and instead of working on projects ive been on RU-vid haha... but tonight i thought to my self i want to do something with my night. your videos gave me so many new ideas and i need to buy more smart home gadgets but i have so many that ive not taken advantage of. great video thanks for the tips...
so you lock the locks, but have a glass door that someone can easily break and unlock those locks. time to upgrade to a solid door without glass right next to your lock.
One issue with Ecobee geofencing. As far as I can tell, it only detects if 1 device leaves the area. So if you are home and your wife runs to the shops, the ecobee goes into away, even though you are still home. With HomeKit, you can select the option of, if one OR if last person leaves. Also, if you run out for 5 minutes, and it is now in Away mode, it will not change to Home mode if you return before the status period has ended.
The only smart-home automation item I have (besides my powerwall... does that count?) is an Orbit b-hyve irrigation controller. I could see getting the garage door opener module as I've put solar on my garage roof the past year and when the sun is shining, the RF from either the panels/wiring/inverter interferes with the remote control. Surprised you didn't put in the doorbell as one of the top 10. That also seems very useful, especially for people that aren't home. TBH though, most of the other items seem frivolous, IMHO.
Only my 3rd video but I like your style Matt no BS and open honest opinions. I'm planning to build my own house in the next 5 years and definitely looking to integrate things like solar and battery system etc
2:28: if your garage is not accessed by a direct internal door and is not visible from a window, one of the best features is the garage app itself. Rather than using a separate button, a wall-mounted cheap phone or tablet running the garage app becomes both the monitor and the opener.
4:00: you can do even better with the lock. Combined with a door contact sensor, you can set it up so that it knows whether it is open or closed - if it’s open, it stays unlocked. And if it’s closed, it automatically locks. And if you unlocked it but change your mind and don’t open it, within a couple minutes it automatically re-locks itself.
12:00: a vibration sensor can help with this, along with a penchant for under-drying. Set up a routine in Hubitat that alerts you via your smart speaker system when your dry cycle has completed. Go clean the lint screen, and then turn on the dryer for another five minutes. Dryers work a heckuva lot better when there’s no lint in the screen. So under-dry, get your alert, clean the screen, then dry for five more minutes and you’re good
Great stuff for beginners. I’m a seasoned home automator and frankly, overwhelmed early adopter of... everything. I’m at the stage of deciding what to dump and what to augment. Ring devices are gone! Too slow and unreliable. Most died in less than a year. Nest devices are on their way out as they die off. Subscriptions are too expensive, but the devices are rugged and reliable. Like Wyze cuz they are cheap. And going full Eufy as soon as HomeKit Secure Video is available for doorbells.
Arlo Cameras are great, had mine for going on 3 years never a problem, and Arlo makes a doorbell now. I have an outside camera with no hard wire so I do swap out the battery about once every three months or so but I have a second battery and takes less than a minute to change and camera doe not need to be reset, the battery recharges in about 30 min
If you're a "seasoned home automator" look into locally controlled devices wherever possible, avoiding anything cloud based. I love Z-Wave and Zigbee for that stuff. No subscriptions, no worries about the vendor changing their terms or discontinuing the service down the road. I connect it all through Home Assistant myself, there's a definite learning curve to building the system, but the end result is an amazingly slick system with everything integrated through a single app and interface.
It's a first step towards automation. Many automation setups require some technical knowledge, so remote on/off is a great way for people to dip their toe in that water. Especially since the smart switches/outlets/etc can be pricey. Build it up slowly.
"Smart Home" means different things to different people and that's what it should be. It better allows you to customize your home to your preferences. For some that is mondo automation, to others that just might be just be the ability to remotely check and control things for peace of mind while away.
I initially set my TV to temporarily lower in volume everytime the smart speaker activated. It sounded like a great idea but 20% of the time the smart speaker activates falsely and the TV volume lowers during important parts... and then the volume doesn't always return like it is supposed to. Ahhhh! Technology and automation will be great someday. But today is not that day. The consumer oriented automation has a ways to go.
You offer some excellent insights into building a smart home. I'm diving into smart home equipment for the first time after buying my house last year and I appreciate the clarity with which you explain your device choices and their functionality. I work in industrial automation for a living but smart homes and home automation is a very different beast. On an unrelated note, I noticed you mention in a previous video that you used to work for a video game developer. I'm a heavy-duty gamer myself, mind if I ask which developer you worked for?
Most of these things solve problems that don't exist. Most are gimmicks. Why do you need timers on lights? Just turn on when using And off when you're not. Garage door opener? You've got a clicker in your car. It's not easier to pull out a phone, unlock it, open an app, and open the garage door. Door openers with motors and batteries? Just more expensive stuff to fail and replace later on. More junk in landfills. The dryer sensor is pretty useful though especially if your dryer doesn't have a sensor built in.
These are great ideas man especially the washer dryer dongle. I have 40 smart things contact switches and 10 motion sensors that correspond to every drawer and cabinet in my kitchen. The idea is to have intuitive lighting only when you are around it.
Yeah, but the purpose of the sensor was not to tell him when the dryer was finished, rather when the clothes were at the preferred "dryness" so he could turn off the dryer early.
@@samuelhardin8726 It seems to me that his complaint was that the dryer always ran longer than it needed to. Seems to me that would be more easily solved by picking a damper done setting on the dryer. My main objection to his solution is device must use batteries, and I have so many devices with batteries now that I do anything I can to avoid them. I also have a secondary complaint in that I refuse to use any device that only works with it's own proprietary app. If I can't control it locally from my home automation hub with no internet connection, than I won't buy it, there have just been too many companies that have either shut down their cloud services prematurely killing all their devices, or suddenly decided to charge monthly fees. Never mind the hassle of having a different app for every device, or the privacy/security implications. My dryer is connected to a z-wave power monitor, that tells my smart hub when the dryer is done. I get notified any time the dryer is done, and any time the washer is done, but only if the dryer isn't already running. (no point rushing to get the wash, if the dryer isn't ready to accept it!)
Also not everything needs to be smart. The best “smart” device I ever installed is a lutron motion detecting dimmer switch. My kitchen switch is on the other side so you had to walk all the way in to turn the lights on. This removed that annoyance and now auto shuts off and dims just like before. Modded the sensor with tape and the cats no longer trigger it either. Best money I ever spent and it doesn’t even have WiFi.
Button pushes are actually just as simple today as before... it's just that the difficulty making something "push button simple" has now been pushed onto the user.
My most used automation is triggered by a button push. I mounted a doorbell button inside by my back door. Pushing it unlocks the back door, waits for you to open and close the door, locks the back door and then opens the garage door. "with the push of a button" just seemed the easiest interface. I can also do the exact same thing with a voice command through google, but it's not nearly as easy as the simple button. For all the other interfaces, sometimes a button really is the best interface.
I want to make my porch light smart, i placed a smart ligt and want to place a motion detection but can't find a way to automatically switch it off again. how did you do that? Now I'm using Kaku (klik aan klik uit) (zigbee) and Google home
Hi Matt, I see from the video, you are using home automation products from different brands. Are they interconnected to work like an integrated solution?
Another Home Assistant user here. I use a combination of commercial z-wave devices, and my own MQTT creations (ESP32/NodeMCU with wired sensors/relays) I do also have a single tasmota device connecting through MQTT. Home Assistant also connects seamlessly to my Google Assistant devices, and integrates my Tesla as well.
I've started some "smart home" functions via Alexa but the costs are just too high right now to go full smart house. Maybe, by the time I'm ready for my next house, the prices will drop enough, or become standard (smart door locks for example) for new homes in about 4 years.
Oh the horror! LOL I'm sitting with 4 different systems trying to automate my home and not everything is a bowl of cherries. I get ready to jump ship from my dingy to the yacht but then find the yacht is sinking because it has been bought out, out of business or no longer compatible. I get it. It's like the new car you purchase- drive it off the lot and it's suddenly 5 years behind in times. Maybe rake them all in the trash can and start over?
This is why I refuse to buy anything that is reliant on the manufacturer's severs. If I can't control it locally from Home Assistant without a cloud connection, I will never buy it.
Hi Matt .... you could become future COO for a Tesla Smart Home. You would be the MAN ... seriously ... solar roof, Tesla car, energy management, etc !!
Ha! Thanks for the thought and vote of confidence. Tesla could really make a meaningful dent in smart homes. Not the whiz bang flashy lights stuff, but reducing energy use and optimizing the things that are at the heart of the home. That’s the stuff that gets me most excited about smart homes.
I’m setting up my house right now, so at the moment I’m just looking to set up the most smart lights I can (have 2/3 bulbs, a couple of lamps and some leds, all from Hue); the automation for the tv looks very interesting and I’ll look into it!
The laundry notifications are kind of awesome. Get why a lot of people aren’t on board with cameras around the house. I’m more of a fan of cameras on the outside vs. inside myself.
The first half of this video is what I call a “security fetish” - the never ending attempt to resolve internal anxiety. Move somewhere where you don’t need to lock your doors. Having kids in that house sounds bizarre. They can’t be like the kids of every generation before them - no sneaking out. No cookie jar theft if there’s a motion sensor camera that tells dad where you are after curfew. Straight up dystopian
There's a place for Vivint type systems, for those who don't like to tinker with this stuff themselves. If you need someone else available to do all the installs and troubleshooting, something like Vivint is great. But if you enjoy the tinkering, and have some aptitude for computers and electronics, you can get far more, for far less on your own. I have far more equipment than any Vivint system I've ever seen (over 50 sensors and devices), it's all controlled from a single app, I don't pay a cent in monthly fees, and most of the equipment cost dramatically less up front too. It's also much more tailored to my own specific wants and needs. I use Home Assistant with a combination of z-wave and custom made equipment.
I tried a Lenovo humidity detection switch in my bathroom and despite my trying differerent settings, I could never get it to turn on and off at the correct time, so I had to remove it. That's a shame, and it dented my faith that other systems like that could work.
95% of smart home products are complete and utter garbage. The other 5% are absolutely brilliant and you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. The challenge is always in figuring out which is which. I'm not familiar with the specific one you're talking about, but I know for myself I use a cheap humidity sensor (DHT22) wired to a microcontroller (NodeMCU) to detect humidity, and then a z-wave switch to turn on/off the fan. I turn on the fan when the humidity goes above 80% and turn it off when the humidity drops below 55% for more than 3 minutes. Works pretty much perfectly.
I'm excited to start home automation with Home Assistant. Then robotic arms, 'cos I'm so lazy. The ideas are limitless: do the washing, hang the washing, fold the washing. Automate 3D print farm for business. Automate 3D print house to live in. Automate electric car for free travel around the world. Automate kitchen for UberEATS. Automate property for AirBNB business.
All these innovations look and sound great but some can be hacked into very easy. If there is a power outage you are locked out or into your own home so you would need your own backup power supply like a generator or solar panels to make sure you never lose power.
For your first complaint, thieves don't hack into homes, just like they don't pick locks. Thieves break doors and windows, it is MUCH faster, and MUCH easier. You do have to be conscious of the security implications, but as long as you didn't do something stupid in your setup, the security implications are negligible as the existing ways into houses are so much easier. For power outages, there's no problem. First, the lock itself is battery powered, so the keypad works just as well with, or without, power. If the batteries die, the lock still has a physical key, just like it did before you made it "smart", so you can always do that. If you design a smart home properly, as he says in the video, it always only adds to existing, and never takes away. So losing power to a smart home is no different from losing power to a non-smart one. Sure the smart lights don't work, but then again, the old non-smart ones don't either.
Great video, as always. I have some of these (or equivalents) in my home, but I've found that I need to use several different services to get everything that I need (Philips Hue, Google Home, Nest (now part of Google), Tesla, Withings, WeMo, and IFTTT). This works well almost all the time, but there are several single points of failure, and they all rely on Internet service being up in order to access different API endpoints. What I would really like is a single system that can control everything and operate when internet service is down, but that has a management API that can be accessed over the internet when it is up. I know I'm just dreaming!
Samsung Smartthings controls most if not all of these things, you will still need any bridge specific items though(Philips Hue Bridge)I have heard some rumblings about a monitoring system app that will work with Tesla Power Monitoring and different smart hubs(Alexia,Google and the like) but nothing of late, hope that helps
You're not dreaming, I'm already there. I use Home Assistant, and all devices are either commercial z-wave devices, or custom built MQTT. Nothing connects to "the cloud", but I can still access it all remotely from a single app on my phone. There is a learning curve to the setup, but the end result is a beautiful, seamless experience that works 100% locally under your own control, but still with remote access.
You did some great work but why are you adding sensors for everything? To me it looks like we can do most of the functions except a water leak without sensors.
Information is the key to any smart home system, the more sensors, the more the system knows about what's going on, and therefore the more you can make it do. He explains some of the things the sensors allow, such as knowing when the laundry is done through a power sensor for the washer, and a movement/humidity sensor for the dryer. Motion sensors let you turn on lights when you enter a room, door/window/motion sensors let you know if someone is home to alert you to intruders, or adjust the thermostat. Humidity sensors control de-humidifiers, or bathroom fans. In my house (not an extravagant one by any means!) I have 13 motion sensors, 5 door sensors, 4 temperature/humidity sensors, a light sensor, 3 doorbell press/motion sensors, 4 power usage sensors, 2 push button sensors, 4 water sensors, 4 smoke detectors, and a sensor watching a power LED on our furnace. Each one provides more of a picture of what's going on in the house, and each one allows me to do something specific based on what's going on in the house, anything from turning on a light based on how dark it is, and where there's motion, to warning if a door has been left open, to turning off the water and notifying us if there's a leak.
thanks for the inspiration - particularly liked the announcement that the laundry was done but how do you get alexa or google assistant to make such an announcement? I settled for a smartplug so when the electricity drops below 0.01, then turn on a light, but i would have preferred an annoucement - seems that is not so easy to do
Great video Matt. I am such a nerd and want to do home automation so badly. I didn't realize you were listening in on our dinner conversations this weekend where I talked about looking for the "killer app". Even with your help, I can't see the value or wow over-weighing the hassle. Thanks for trying,...
Ha! That's the balance you have to find. If you're doing home automation for the wow factor, you're doing it wrong. But if there's something you do, or need to do, on a regular basis that could be helped with automation ... that's where to focus on. I've been slowly building the home automation in my house over the past decade. Just chipping away where it made sense, but looking at it all now it looks nuts ... like I just went all in at once. Lol.
Having the garage door auto close makes me nervous. So, I just have it send an alert if left open. I then check a camera and validate all is clear before I remote close.
The doors have safety tech built into them already, so they won't try to close if something is in the way, and they'll auto-reverse if they hit something. So the risk is pretty low. Mine will try to close itself after 8 minutes, and if it's still open, again at 8 1/2, at 10 if it's still not closed it will notify me that it's still open so I can manually intervene.
smart smoke/carbon monoxide and heat detectors would be great, some automation should include displaying video of the area (assuming a camera is there) so you can qyuckly visualy check and if true call the fire department if you are not home
I have been using Insteon products for about 3 years - from internal and external cameras (useful for proving FedEx did not deliver when they claimed they did), motion detectors, thermostat, door sensors, water leak sensors, garage openers, front door locks, lights switches, etc, Multiple devices can be controlled through "scenes" and states of devices can also trigger other devices and so on , like turn TV on if motion detected while away. However, Insteon stopped providing support for remote front door openers which was a pain (I suspect insurance issues). I'm about ready to move from the Insteon hub to another more "open" system. It seems you like hubitat. What are its pros and coms? Do you use just the one systems or do you have many and if so how well do they integrate?
How do these devices work during power or internet outages? Obviously I wouldn't expect to be able to see security camera footage, but is it safe to assume the door locks still lock and unlock when you're physically present?
That's why I use hone assistant, or hass.io which is the pi fork. You can access it through a browser and I internal stuff doesn't have to touch the internet. I e example is the integration that turns home assistant into ADB network server, paired with shield tv and you can use any command or launch any app. For $5 a month they will set up hey server so you can access it externally. Anyone that has had to deal setting stuff up like that knows that's a good deal. It also can be pushed to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. That way you get these the same trigger words on all devices. oh, outside the $5 a month fee if you want to access that externally it's 100% free and open source. It's by far me best pi project. Do so e googling, watch a few youtube videos, heck, One guy even said up an integration for his ID so he can start, start, turn on the heat, turn on heat or seat cooling and control the air conditioning. He had to work with Audi to get the keys and everything sent so some of the h HACS stuff can be harder to setup unless you are technical.
How does this software compare to home assistant if you have compared to two? Also how much is this software? I can look it up but after all the work I did for home assistant I doubt I'll be changing
Please provide the link of items explained in the video. I really like Automatic lighting (outside) . In my garage generally, I forget to switch it off. I don't want to use simple motion detection, because in some case, may be I am working in garage, and I want it to be on continuously.
Really frustrating to wait for a multi point smart lock which can do bluetooth proximy and/or biometrics. Unfortunately in the UK we have front doors which use a multipoint locking strip, and the few locks I can find just dont have the unlocking convenience I would want to make the jump. What is the point in a smart lock if you still have to get your phone or a fob out to unlock it, might as well be using the key!!
Thanks for all of the clear advice although it comes at me rather quickly - but clearly! I am part way through connecting my lighting, front door access, video doorbell, Nest Thermostat and Nest smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.I have the Insteon system of switches, dimmers and outlets basically installed. I also have the Nest Thermostat and 3 Nest Protect devices installed. Then I have the newest Eufy video doorbell 2K as suggested by you. (Thanks) The Eufy is battery powered and I have purchased the very same 24volt transformer so that I can plug it into the wall. This means that I have the Eufy Homebase 2. I want to find out if there is a base system that I can add that will link all of these devices. I had purchase the Insteon switches, dimmers and outlets prior to my limited knowledge of bases to which I can go to link all of my current items. I am completely at a dead end and ideally would like to employ someone to help me finish the project. I have had nothing but problems with my Nest products. I've had the thermostat replaced 2 times and hired a Nest Pro prior to the 3rd unit in my home. The Nest Protects (3) have all been replaced twice and one of them three times! They seem to be 'working' now. I got a false Carbon Monoxide reading once and Protect did turn off my Air Conditioning system as it should. Can you think of any base that will link the Insteon, Nest and Eufy products? And an installer? Sorry for length. Ron
Thanks for watching! You can get the Insteon hub working with other systems like Smarttings. Same for Nest. Eufy on the other hand is still the odd man out. There’s very limited integrations at the moment. For you, I think your best bet is something like SmartThings, which will get Nest and Insteon pulled together. It’ll also give you more options down the road as you keep adding things. Fairly easy to set up too. Not sure about installers though.
@Matt Do you have any concerns around privacy of data? Are you worried at all that these systems are hackable? You seem to put a lot of faith into these system.
All systems are hackable, but generally not easily. But the bigger secret is that all physical locks and doors can also be defeated, so is it easier to hack into the system? or just kick in the door? Realistically, you are far more likely to be a victim of the latter than the former, so as long as you don't do anything stupid in your setup, the decrease in security is negligible.
@@Green__one I get the security aspect but I was really asking about privacy and data collection by these companies against their customers' best interest.
@@patkanman it depends heavily on what you use, I only use devices which are locally controlled from my hub. I refuse to use any device that is cloud connected to a company's server. In this way I have complete control of the data. Look at devices such as Z-Wave or zigbee, these devices don't even have their own internet connection, so can't phone home. You end up with complete control.
Hi. Can you suggest a few options to control a water geyser. Would you use a Thermostat ? We don't really have home heating in South Africa. We have created a Googlesphere with Google mesh and 5 Google assistant's around the house. Thank you. I wish I was in the USA!! We are so far behind and I have had to import most of my smart stuff.
That's a lot of batteries to have to manage. :v If there was a way to do a smart home that was fully wired and self-hosted I'd be all about that. Basically, no changing batteries, and no dependence on the Internet (it needs to work on my own home network, using the Internet only to extend its functionality to when I'm not on my home network)--that's what I look for in smart home tech. It also needs to be secure and get regular security updates (and I should not need to replace it down the line due to a lack of ongoing support).
In an ideal world I agree (about the batteries), but thankfully the stuff I have lasts a long time. I have some things that I still haven't changed the batteries on after two years. 100% agree about trying to go the self-hosted, local route for security and control. The majority of my system is local (habitat running most everything locally), but I do have a handful of things that are cloud powered (Eufy security cameras for one, Ecobee for another) ... and I've opened up some of my devices to cloud control through Hubitat. That's the biggest selling point for Hubitat for me. It's locked down by default and you have complete control over how much you open up, if at all.
Realistically, nobody picks locks to break into houses, and similarly, nobody hacks smart locks to do it. It's just so much faster, and easier to take a crowbar or boot to the doorframe.
Has anyone any experience with Smart floor vents or deduct dampeners that work with Ecobee or similiar platform. Looking for ways to adjust temperatures by room, big home, and as a result big differences in temperature by floor. HELP need ideas. Thanks.....
That’s one of the things that I will be looking into after we move (we have hot water baseboards here, so not much can be done) because the idea of meatlockering the living room so that the master bedroom upstairs is comfortable is outdated.
