Comments by "" (@Green__one) on "Top 10 home automation ideas - Ultimate smart home tour" video.

@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!)
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Combined machines are convenient, but they are less efficient because of the extra moisture in the drum that the dryer has to contend with. Also, if you have more than 1 load of laundry to do (which we always do) having more than one machine is faster.
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Exactly the same thing that happens to your home. The smart lights can't turn on any more than the non-smart ones could. But don't worry about the door lock, it's battery powered anyway, so the power being on or off doesn't affect entering the code on the keypad, and even if the batteries die, the key lock still works.
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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.
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I use a combination of geofencing the phones, and motion detectors and door sensors. Basically, if there's motion in the house, the house is considered to be "occupied" until a door opens, regardless of if our phones are home or not. The house is also considered to be home if either phone is home. End result is that if my wife leaves while I'm still asleep (no motion) the house still knows it's occupied because my phone is still home. But if both of us leave, but a babysitter is there with the kid, the first motion will put the house into "occupied" mode and stop the thermostat from being turned down.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Nobody hacks smart locks to break into houses, it's far easier to put your boot to the door, or use a crowbar. So the security of the lock doesn't really change the security of the house at all. Cameras may be a different matter, and I so far don't have interior cameras for that reason. All my cameras are outside the house, and if you want to see my yard, it's just as easy to drive by than to hack the cameras.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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In my house I use home assistant, but the basic idea is that either a phone being home, or motion in the house causes the house to be occupied until both phones leave, and a door has been opened. End result is that if my wife leaves while I'm still asleep (no motion) the house still knows it's occupied because my phone is still home. But if both of us leave, but a babysitter is there with the kid, the first motion will put the house into "occupied" mode and stop the thermostat from being turned down.
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Excellent question, and it depends on a lot. I personally use Home Assistant for my automations because it's all local stuff that I have full control over and is never on some company's server. There is still some risk of someone hacking it, but if I'm perfectly honest, it would be a lot easier to kick in my back door or break a window, than it would be to hack the system to get in, so the reduced security is negligible. For cameras it may be a different matter. I personally don't have any cameras inside the house, only outside. Again, if you want to look at the outside of my house, it's easier to drive by than hack the cameras. I think if I ever put any inside I'm going to have to be extra careful on the security side.
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@UndecidedMF I'm curious how you square that response with the dryer device that you talk about being tied to one app on a single phone. It seems that this is an example of something that isn't tied into your local system, and relies on a cloud provider. I too keep everything local, but it's all either Z-wave, or custom built stuff communicating over MQTT. Nothing talks to the cloud, and everything on a single app.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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@UndecidedMF I use a different system (Home Assistant) but what I do in my bathroom is turn the fan on when the humidity exceeds 85%, and turn it off again when the humidity has been below 55% for more than 3 minutes. captures showers quite well. I don't wait for someone to manually turn on a switch because someone, who I dare not name for fear of having to sleep on the couch, can never remember to turn it on.
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"easily" no. can be hacked? probably. But realistically, no thief will ever do that, it's just so much faster and easier to use their boot or a crowbar to get in. You have to do some due diligence and not do anything stupid when setting them up, but in the real world the amount they decrease your home's overall security is negligible.
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You're looking at the wrong products. I absolutely refuse to buy any smart product that relies on a company's proprietary servers and apps. I only buy locally controlled things that I can connect to my automation system without an internet connection. Look at Z-wave or Zigbee products. Then look for a hub that's locally controlled (I use Home Assistant myself)
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@andrewcbartlett I think you misunderstand my motivation for avoiding such things. First, each cloud connected thing tends to require it's own proprietary app, so in a large Smart home installation, you quickly end up forced to use a dozen apps or so. This makes for a horrible user interface. Secondly there are far too many examples of companies who decide to shut down their cloud servers sometime after the sale but well within the lifetime of the product, turning your expensive smart home device into a brick. There are also other examples of companies who initially have free cloud access, but later decide to change the terms and start charging. You're entirely at their whim when they do so. When you use only locally controlled devices, it is much easier to make a single seamless user interface for all of them, and you never have to worry about the company changing their mind about the service that they're providing.
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@andrewcbartlett If you think google wouldn't discontinue an online service, you don't know their history. Also, none of the listed providers have all the things I want, some have one device, others a different one, so you end up with multiple apps, a horrible user experience. Instead I use Home Assistant and a mix of z-wave and custom built devices. Everything under one app, no remote servers that might shut down later.
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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.
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99% of WiFi and Bluetooth home automation products are completely reliant on some company's cloud servers, and require their own individual apps which work only for that specific device. It's a horrible overall experience, and the reliance on the company servers has led to many past issues as companies shut down or change the terms of their service after purchace. I always recommend a protocol you control locally. Good examples are Zigbee or Z-wave. You can use Wi-Fi as well, but you have to do a lot more research first to find products that you can make work locally, usually by flashing new custom firmware.
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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.
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@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.
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Yes, but realistically the existing doors/windows are orders of magnitude easier to attack than the digital side of this, so the real decrease in security is negligible. People always worry most about people hacking the smart lock, or in the olden days, picking the lock. Real thieves never do either, they use their boot, or a crowbar to force the door instead. Much easier, and much faster. It's good to think about security when designing these systems, and you shouldn't cut corners in that department. But it also doesn't make any sense to lose too much sleep over it, houses just aren't all that secure to start with.
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Outdoor motion lights have their place, but they aren't useful for everyone. In fact, I ended up disabling the motion sensors on mine and tying them into our automation system instead. I was tired of them triggering on every leaf the wind blew by. Now my lights come on when you open the door if it's dark out, and stay on for 5 minutes after you close the door. I can also turn them on from my phone or from the smart speaker whenever I want, and if I forget and leave them on, they'll turn themselves off after a certain amount of time, or when it gets light out in the morning.
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@---GOD--- I just turn on the light when expecting anyone to visit. I'd far rather turn it on manually (or by voice) once every few weeks, than have it turn itself on every few minutes when a moth flies by.
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@---GOD--- My friends aren't so inconsiderate as to show up unannounced. Food delivery only happens if I order food, and package delivery only happens during the day. So yes. I do know the time for every single time someone comes to my house after dark. My home automation system is light years ahead of the best motion lights on the planet. I would never go back to such things.
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@---GOD--- Also, because I turn on my outside lights, people can read my address from the street. If I left it to the motion detector they wouldn't be able to see the address until they walked up to the door. Useless.
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Motion sensors and door sensors can handle this. If there's motion in the house, then someone is obviously there, and they will continue to be there until a door opens. I use that on my system for that exact purpose. I also use geofencing our phones so that if my wife goes to work while I'm still asleep (no motion) the house will stay in occupied mode because my phone is still home.
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Most are pretty secure against hacking, and realistically no thief will ever try hacking when a boot or crowbar will get you into any house much faster and easier. The info collected may be a more pertinent question, and is why I avoid any cloud connected products. Everything I do must be locally controlled. I use Home Assistant as my hub, with z-wave or my own wired devices for all automations. I have a connection to my house through the internet, but it's all controlled 100% by me. No company has any connection to any of my devices.
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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.
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There's a whole range of possible systems out there, and each have their own pros/cons. Systems like control 4 or savant are aimed at the top of the top end of the market. They cost an absolute fortune, but come with full support and you know they'll "just work" without you needing to do a thing yourself. Below that are things like Vivint which are still quite expensive, and come with support, but aren't quite as high end. Then there are things like in this video which are much cheaper, pretty easy to setup, but don't have the support, or the slick interface (often multiple apps to each control one or two things). And then at the other end you have systems like Home Assistant which are dirt cheap, extremely flexible, and provide slick unified interfaces, but require a lot of technical competence to setup and have no support. As the old saying goes, pick 2: easy, cheap, good (where "good" in this case is a single slick interface, and reliable system). Control 4 gives you easy and good, but not cheap. The mix of products shown in this video gives you easy and cheap, but not "good". Home Assistant gives you cheap and good, but not easy. There are always trade offs.
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Costs are extremely variable depending on the system. The top end systems cost thousands, but are well supported and very slick. The systems like Matt is talking about here cost about 100-200 per item, and work ok, and a full DIY system using something like Home Assistant can be quite affordable depending on what you want and how much effort you're willing to put in (my garage door controller is a relay, 2 microswitches, and a microcontroller for a total cost of less than $10 vs the professional systems like Matt shows which are 10 times that price)
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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.
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@expressfashionman89 I hope not. motion sensors use Infrared, not microwave.
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In the video he states that he uses hubitat and IFTTT. My personal platform of choice is Home Assistant.
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If you design your system right, your worst case scenario is that your home reverts to it's old non-smart equivalent. That said, most of these things are electrical, so it doesn't matter if they are smart or not, sure the smart lights don't work in a power outage, but their non-smart predecessors didn't either. The door lock is battery powered, so will still work with the touch screen, but if the batteries die, it still has a key lock just like the door before you installed all this. In my smart home, even if the whole smart home system stops working, everything can be controlled however it was controlled before (light switches still turn on/off lights, doors still unlock with the key, etc) As he says in the video, a smart home should only ever add to the existing, never subtract from it. (I have no interest in taking away a light switch to force control through an app on my phone, that makes things harder, not easier.)
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