Ultimate Guide to Smart Home Sensors + ideas

hey what's up this is reid i'm about to add new automations to my smart home which means it's time to buy sensors i already had a lot that i've gathered over the years but i wasn't sure if they were really the best so i went on amazon and bought any sensor with decent ratings that i didn't have already i'm going to show you some of the different types of sensors from several brands and tons of ideas for how to use these along the way stick around to the end because i'll tell you my favorites of all these sensors let's start off first with contact sensors and the least expensive one i found from linked these come in a pack of two for about twenty four dollars so twelve dollars each it's a pretty decent price but there are two major negatives one i had to jump through some hoops connecting it to smart things and it's not a huge deal because it worked well after it was connected the second is a large logo on the side i don't know why they did this it looks terrible it is only the small part so you could use a basic magnet instead of the ugly logo piece to blend in more this is something not everyone knows the small piece is just a magnet that you can swap out i can put the magnet on the bottom of my media cabinet door to trigger the sensor that way i can automatically turn on some light strips when i open the door with a cheap sensor another good option is the contact sensor from acara this one is smaller and way better looking than the first sensor i could put this anywhere and it would look fine because it's so small like on top of my refrigerator to be notified if it got left open the refrigerator door is open i am pretty sure it was luna the akara sensor is not expensive but it's not as cheap as the previous ones and you will have to jump through some hoops connecting it to smart things so keep that in mind eco-link is up next and this one does connect to smartthings without any hassle it also does not have any logos on it which i like there's even a temperature sensor built inside but don't get your hopes up because that part is not very accurate this sensor looks good on a door which you could use if toddlers were getting out of bed when they shouldn't but there's something to watch out for normally contact sensors are pretty quick to communicate if they are open or closed that way smart lights can be turned on right when the door sensor opens which is usually faster than a motion sensor but this eco link has about a second delay after opening or closing which is disappointing so i'm not sure if i would put this on a door for that reason if you already have ring sensors installed from their security system you can also use them in your automations i have amazon routines triggered by ring contact sensors and it works great to take it a step further i even have it toggle a smartthings virtual switch as an easy way to use these sensors with my smartthings hub this helps me run more automations like notifying me if i haven't gone out the side door to wheel out the trash or automatically turn on the porch lights if i open an exterior door late at night i also like that it has two coin cell batteries so they will need to be replaced less often as you might know smartthings stop selling their multi-purpose sensor which is basically a contact sensor on steroids it can monitor temperature vibration and has an accelerometer for movement aotech is supposed to make the same sensor under their brand and hopefully it comes out soon because there's a lot it can do the temperature sensor is accurate enough to automate your smart thermostat you can use a vibration sensor to run automations when someone is knocking on the door or use the accelerometer to trigger automations when the device is moving like a garage door opening the magnet on the sensor is also very strong it can be further apart than all the other sensors and the status will still be closed which gives it more flexibility when installing it now let's move on to motion sensors which has even more variation between them and some of these have a lot of sensors in one opening the door to way more automations starting off first with the ikea motion sensor this thing is dirt cheap at 10 and can connect directly with the smartthings hub the biggest problem with this motion sensor is the three minute cool down that means once it detects motion you have to wait three more minutes until it can detect motion again but it might not be as big of a deal as you may think let's say you normally have the motion sensor turn off the lights when no one is in the room i usually wait five minutes with no motion before i turn off the lights which will always be longer than the cooldown time anyways sonoff also connects easily to smartthings and is a small motion sensor not a huge fan of how it looks kind of like a lizard eyeball sticking out or something it works well and has a one minute cooldown so it's a decent option if you want a small motion sensor that works with smart things this could be good for hiding out of sight and having it automatically open up your smart shades maybe it's too small and now i can't find it in this messy toy room now those two motion sensors just mentioned can only detect motion they don't have any extra functionality and that's why they cost less which might be fine for you if you just want to turn the lights on or off for motion run a routine when you walk into the room or be alerted if someone breaks into your house the rest of the motion sensors are going to cost more but have extra features that could be useful like this smartthings motion sensor has a temperature sensor built in that way you could automatically turn on a fan if you walk into the room when the temperature is warm it's a good motion sensor but i'm going to focus on the others that you can actually buy right now because these aren't in stock like i mentioned earlier but you can get this motion sensor from philips hue it can detect temperature and light as well the light sensor lets you run automations to turn on the lights when it's cloudy outside because it can sense that it's dark in the room or when it's bright oh wow the room got brighter when you walked in thank you actually your phone flashlight's on what there's a few things i really like about this sensor it uses two aaa batteries that can easily last two or three years seriously the battery life on these things are amazing what's even more impressive is the cooldown time is only 15 seconds you can use the magnet to attach it to a refrigerator or metal surface plus you can simply set it flat on a shelf seems basic but not all sensors can do this unfortunately also the temperature and light sensors are very accurate and it can connect to almost any smart home platform out there using the hue bridge or directly with smartthings because it uses zigbee and i really like this hue sensor but these neck sensors have even more bells and whistles like this one that plugs directly into an outlet so you don't have to worry about batteries it's the homeseer hsm 200 which can connect directly with smartthings and work surprisingly well this detects motion light and temperature it also has a status led that can change colors what's cool is that you can use the smart light app in smartthings to change the color of the light and automations for example you can turn the color red if the garage door was left open the light detection and motion sensor are quick and accurate with a one minute cooldown time on the motion the temperature reports often but was slightly off you can adjust it in the settings so it solved that problem this could be a great option to plug it in the hallway to turn on the lights or notify you when you walk by or the kitchen is a great spot since you can plug it in on the side of an island or above the countertop to not take up space and still see alerts from the led light the last sensor is from aotech and it has six sensors packed in there are motion humidity temperature light uv and vibration sensors this seems like a lot but a couple of them are not very useful i pointed the sensor outside and the uv index never changed so i'm not sure if that even works i mean it's arizona so yeah it's pretty bright out there the vibration sensor can detect when it's been tampered with but i don't know when i would need that on second thought the motion sensor is very accurate though and you can change the cool down time and motion sensitivity which is all great the temperature humidity and light detection all seem to be fairly accurate so you could automatically turn on a bathroom fan if the humidity gets too high plus you can either use batteries or plug it in for power which i'm a huge fan of put it on a dresser and hide the cord behind and never worry about batteries again before i get to my favorites there were a few motion sensors that i would probably skip let me quickly mention those this one from ax home is just way too big and ugly to put on a shelf it looks small on amazon but don't be deceived i really like wise sense for the price but they became too unreliable disconnecting all the time also the sensors can be ruined if the battery runs out i mentioned linked earlier for their contact sensor this motion sensor is also a hassle to set up and smart things and the price doesn't make up for it up next is a four in one sensor from innovelli with motion light humidity and temperature detection i really wanted to like this sensor since you can use a battery or plug it in for power the motion range is very limited it can only detect me when i was about five feet in front of it and you can adjust the sensitivity in the settings but when i did that the motion detection just stopped working all together for me zeus also has a four in one sensor and the motion detection was much better than innovelli's but its other sensors weren't accurate or reliable probably since it only runs on battery zeus did recently release a new version that can be plugged in for power that might help but i haven't been able to test it out yet alright now to my favorites and what i would buy again after testing all of them and everything will be linked down in the description first contact sensors all of my exterior doors and many my windows will have the ring contact sensors i just bought more because i like them so much for their reliability and long battery life i can use them for both security and automation so it's perfect for indoors i really like the smartthings multi-purpose sensor but who knows when it will be available through aotech and how much it will cost so i would buy the acara contact sensors they are small so they blend in better and seem to work great if the extra steps for adding it into smartthings sounds too difficult i would go with eco-link as for motion sensors the price is going to be the biggest factor if i'm on a tight budget or if i'm going to put a motion sensor in a room with less foot traffic than the ikea sensor all the way as long as it's in an area that i don't use often the cool down time won't bother me my favorite all-around motion sensor is from phillips hue it's very reliable and accurate it does cost more than the basic motion sensor but its light and temperature sensors battery life compatibility and fast cool down time are all worth it in my opinion my next favorite is the one from homeseer i love that it just plugs in so it's out of the way and you don't have to worry about batteries the rgb light is also a nice bonus it is expensive so i wouldn't put it in every room but for some spots it makes a lot of sense and if you want something that works directly with smartthings aotech 6 sensor isn't a bad option before i go i want to give you an important tip about sensors i've seen people say their sensors run out of battery quickly or lose connection often and this could be due to a poor signal to the hub in smartthings you can log in with the browser and view the signal strength to your sensors if they are low then get a repeater in between the sensor and the hub these are usually built into smart outlets and they can help with reliability and battery life hopefully you found this video helpful and we're able to find sensors and ideas that work best for you thanks for watching we'll see you next time whoa what that's hot yeah thanks i just shaved what no no no no the temperature sensor it's really hot in here oh yeah of course i thought you were talking about

Channel: Smart Home Solver

Views: 272,185

Rating: 4.9453926 out of 5

Keywords: Smart home sensors, smart home sensor ideas, smart home sensors alexa, smart home ideas, home automation ideas, home automation sensors, smartthings sensors, smartthings multipurpose sensor, philips hue motion sensor, wyze sense, smart home, smart home solver, home automation

Id: m_7lUFt6YOI

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Sat May 08 2021