Ultimate Guide to Starting and Growing a Smart Home

hey what's up this is reed today i'm going to show you 10 different smart home categories to help you get started i'll show you what to watch out for and some of my favorite devices it's a lot to take in so let's start at the beginning in my mind there are three main ways devices can work together the first is cloud services like if this and that and all you have to do is download the app on your phone it's really easy to use you can set things up like if your garage door opens then turn on the lights in your house or if you plug in your android phone at night turn everything off in the house i wouldn't only use this solution because it's very limiting i try and only use ift as a last resort to get things to work together second are assistants like amazon and google these have routines and allow you to control multiple devices with one action i get asked all the time which assistant i prefer right now i lean towards amazon because i can trigger their routines with other devices for example if your doorbell is pressed then the lights can flash echo devices can announce someone's at the door someone is at the front door and this will only announce if it's not during baby's nap time google is going to update the routine soon but currently you can only run a routine with a voice command or from a schedule however if you use many google services like i do youtube google keep and calendar chromecast the list goes on google is a great choice i also like their displays better they are much faster and easier to control compared to echo displays both amazon and google are always updating their assistance to be better so it will really come down to your preference the last way devices can work together is with hubs like smartthings and home assistant these are able to control devices locally without the cloud allowing devices to turn on much faster and be more reliable they can also connect to way more sensors and run advanced automations i think home assistant is the most powerful and secure hub that you can use but it has a very steep learning curve smartthings has its quirks just like any other hub however i prefer it because i can still do advanced automations and it's fairly simple to use you might be wondering do i really need a hub technically you don't have to have one but it does help all the devices work together for example many sensors use z-wave and zigbee and you need a hub to connect to those as for routers make sure to get one with decent specs to handle all of the wi-fi devices i've still been using the griffin router and it hasn't had any issues with all of my smart home devices connected to it smart lights are probably the most popular thing in a smart home i'd recommend getting more smart light switches than bulbs though the wife approval factor can be higher than the smart light bulb it's way more family friendly because anyone can use it without needing an app or voice assistant you might be thinking okay all smart light switches are pretty much the same they can toggle and dim the lights right yes and no there's more to it the less expensive smart light switches do just that most of them use wi-fi and they work great at automating your existing lights in the house i've had the casa light switch for a while and it's worked well it even works with smart things if you have an older house it may not have neutral wires but you still have options one is lutron caseta which is a very reliable smart switch c by ge also announced one recently there's also innovate which is a z-wave switch what's interesting about innovelli and another company called zeus is that you can set it to control your smart lights and not cut the physical power to the switch you can even set multiple presses to trigger different lighting scenes which is pretty awesome then there are other smart light switches that get creative with the prime real estate on your wall they can have motion sensors amazon assistance cameras and touch screens there are a lot of really cool features and it will really come down to how much you want to spend smart bulbs are still nice for changing colors or if you don't want to wire a switch but there are a few things i would look out for warm and cool whites saturated bright colors reliability and a few extra features you might not have thought about if a smart light doesn't have good warm and cool whites i almost wouldn't get it having the lights automatically changed to be a cool white during the day can be very energizing then a warm white at night to help relax is one of my favorite things also look for saturated colors like lifx and yeelight the colors are fun for the kids and myself okay mostly for myself but the colors are useful to use them as notifications for example you can have the colors changed to let you know what the weather will be like for the day reliability is another big factor smart lights that connect directly to wi-fi can occasionally disconnect which is annoying bulbs that connect to a hub using zigbee and not wi-fi almost have no connection problems what about power outages some smart bulbs will turn on after a power outage even in the middle of the night i highly recommend getting one that returns to its previous on off state after a power outage of course all of these features to look out for also apply to smart light strips as well there are so many different automations you can do with smart light strips and bulbs and did a whole video on this that you can go check out like lights slowly turning on at sunset or slowly turning off when there isn't motion so you don't get left in the dark if you're still in the room if you want to take the automations up a notch with your light strips you could use them as a progress bar to know when you need to leave for work or my favorite when it's time for the kids to go to bed cameras and video doorbells can be a great addition to your smart home for doorbells there are three important things that you'll want to consider when you're deciding on what to get first is monthly fees yuffie is popular because they don't require a monthly subscription the battery version of the uf doorbell is what i'm using and it works pretty well the second thing to look out for is zone and person detection if you get notifications when you shouldn't it can get annoying quickly yuffie arlo ring pro and nest hello all have these but some only offer it with a subscription last is automatically showing the live view on a smart display ring doorbells can do this on the echo show and the nest hello can also do this on the nest hub displays the nest hello can even detect familiar faces and announce their name which is amazing reed is at front door the displays are useful when you're in the kitchen to quickly see who's at the door without getting out your phone so if you're using amazon routines and echo devices don't get the nest hello because it's not compatible and vice versa if you're using google assistant don't get a ring doorbell as for cameras most of this applies as well and if security and reliability are your top priority like recording 24 7 you should consider paying a little extra to have your cameras wired but wireless cameras work well for me i've like using yoofy lately and i know a lot of people like blink cameras as well however right now yuffie cannot trigger an amazon routine when it detects motion like arlo and blink cameras can this can be nice for turning on an outdoor light from motion or announcing on an echo device someone is outside i think someone is outside what really i would definitely be worried right now it was nice knowing you okay um yeah i probably wouldn't set it up like that for smart locks i prefer locks that have a keypad built into the lock it's convenient to give out temporary codes to people like dog sitters there are more and more smart locks with fingerprint readers on them which make opening up the door much easier as you can imagine and i'll be covering more of these locks throughout the year i've really like using the schleig locks i have the connect which uses z-wave in the front the battery lasts a solid 12 months on it but it's not as user-friendly as the wi-fi schlagen code the battery on the encode only lasts about six months but it's very quiet and user friendly most smart locks can automatically lock a few minutes after being opened that way it doesn't get left unlocked i also have it automatically lock right before bedtime it's just one less thing to worry about so someone doesn't sneak into your house for thermostats i've enjoyed using nest honeywell and ecobee and each one is made for a different type of person though nest is perfect for someone who wants it to be as easy as possible you can set it up or it can set itself up by learning your schedule it's very good at switching to away mode to help you save money and nest mainly works with other nest and google products but that may change soon it has wireless temperature sensors however the sensors are a little too limited in my opinion the honeywell t9 also has sensors and much more flexibility with them as well it's very easy to use compatible with other systems and the home away features work well ecobee is much more customizable than the others but it could be confusing for some out of the box things didn't work as expected like the other two thermostats but if you're someone who wants to customize the exact temperature swing and change all the settings ecobee could be for you and i've loved using it for robot vacuums there is only one main thing i would recommend get one that maps the house using lidar it won't miss spots and you can avoid areas where it would get stuck also lidar doesn't require the lights to be on to work there are lots of other features that are nice mopping which works okay cameras to avoid objects on the ground and self-emptying bins i've really like using the robo-rock s6 pure but there are other good options out there they can work with voice assistance but i prefer to automate them to vacuum when everyone is out of the house for smart sprinklers i've been using ratchet and it's working very well it changes automatically with the weather and seasons i just set it and forget it ratchet is compatible with smart things and i thought i'd integrate it more into my smart home but i really haven't felt the need to so keep that in mind if that's a factor in buying one for a smart garage door there are only a couple of things it really needs to do notify you if the door was left open and be able to close it if you're away from your house i've been using my cue for a while and it checks those boxes it comes with a sensor to go on your door and the controller which uses rf it's compatible with many existing garage doors and it works well i've gotten the occasional faults alert but i have a camera in my garage to double check if my garage is actually open or closed i never have to wonder now if i left the garage door open when on vacation did you close the garage that's it i forgot to close the garage that's it now if you do want to buy smart home devices and only connect them with ift here are the devices i really like that are compatible these are the devices i like if you want to use amazon routines to run your smart home and only slightly different are the devices for google assistant for those of you who are using smartthings here are some great options homekit users i didn't forget about you i like homekit for the clean ui and everything works quickly it still has a ways to go before i'd fully switch over though finally the home assistant folks it's pretty much every device out there i know this video is long and thank you if you stuck around the whole time there's still so much to go over and i'll be doing more videos on how to automate all these devices so make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications i'll do my best to answer the questions down in the comments thanks for watching we'll see you next time hey where'd you get that cookie we're about to eat dinner grandma gave it to me [Music] you

Channel: Smart Home Solver

Views: 1,312,514

Keywords: Smart home beginner’s guide, smart home for beginners, how to make a smart home, how to smart home, smart home setup, building a smart home, make your home smart, smart home getting started, smart home tour, smart home ideas, alexa smart home, google smart home, smart home, home automation

Id: -_vtoUmkot4

Length: 11min 16sec (676 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 15 2020