Smart Home Tech I ACTUALLY Use!
čas přidán 31. 03. 2023
First video from the in-progress basement studio 👀
Thanks to @BestBuy for sponsoring today's video! Check out the smart home tech I showed off on my Best Buy storefront at bestbuy.7tiv.net/dox2Kj or the links below.
This is the tech I have set up around my home right now in 2022:
Nest Hub Max Smart Display at bestbuy.7tiv.net/AoZbQN
Google Nest Smart Thermostat at bestbuy.7tiv.net/RyQk3a
Google Nest Doorbell Battery at bestbuy.7tiv.net/GjWvk9
Google Nest Camera at bestbuy.7tiv.net/KebD3A
Google Nest Camera with Floodlight at bestbuy.7tiv.net/qnM7Xj
Google Nest x Yale - Smart Lock at bestbuy.7tiv.net/a1g0zo
Philips Hue Gradient Singe Table Lamp at bestbuy.7tiv.net/gb0272
NETGEAR Orbi AX4200 Tri-Band WiFi 6 Mesh System at bestbuy.7tiv.net/15xmkx
TP-Link - Kasa Smart WiFi Plug at bestbuy.7tiv.net/WD51zZ
Sonos Beam at bestbuy.7tiv.net/5brVG3
Sonos Sub at bestbuy.7tiv.net/kj6mv3
The links in the description are affiliate links, which means I will earn a small commission if you purchase through these links. For more information and details about these products and more, visit bestbuy.com
Thanks to @BestBuy for sponsoring today's video! Check out the smart home tech I showed off on my Best Buy storefront at bestbuy.7tiv.net/dox2Kj or the links below.
This is the tech I have set up around my home right now in 2022:
Nest Hub Max Smart Display at bestbuy.7tiv.net/AoZbQN
Google Nest Smart Thermostat at bestbuy.7tiv.net/RyQk3a
Google Nest Doorbell Battery at bestbuy.7tiv.net/GjWvk9
Google Nest Camera at bestbuy.7tiv.net/KebD3A
Google Nest Camera with Floodlight at bestbuy.7tiv.net/qnM7Xj
Google Nest x Yale - Smart Lock at bestbuy.7tiv.net/a1g0zo
Philips Hue Gradient Singe Table Lamp at bestbuy.7tiv.net/gb0272
NETGEAR Orbi AX4200 Tri-Band WiFi 6 Mesh System at bestbuy.7tiv.net/15xmkx
TP-Link - Kasa Smart WiFi Plug at bestbuy.7tiv.net/WD51zZ
Sonos Beam at bestbuy.7tiv.net/5brVG3
Sonos Sub at bestbuy.7tiv.net/kj6mv3
The links in the description are affiliate links, which means I will earn a small commission if you purchase through these links. For more information and details about these products and more, visit bestbuy.com
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Komentáře
A rule of thumb when installing smart home stuff - old functionality should still work. For example with smart lights the light switch on the wall should still turn them on/off. New ways to use the smart stuff should come as addition to old ones. Another good rule - try to make stuff work with less user interaction. For example when I come home and it's past sunset, the lights turn on automatically when I open the front door. Or in the morning the window blinds slowly open over 30 min to simulate sunrise. Voice commands and phone apps are cool to show off to friends but often not very convenient. And another important thing - the smart home shouldn't break when the internet is down. Local setups with Home Assistant are much better in this regard than cloud based stuff (and local means much more responsive too).
@damian007567 calm down boomer
@H S are you okay with living in germany before the second worldwar? Because this is the state your describing right now. And I think it's more than a little scary that you're not the only one with this ridiculous mindset
@Paul Stejskal Ideally, they should only need internet access for firmware updates, and if desired, for remote control from outside the home. Arguable as to the safety/privacy pros and cons of remote control via a cloud controller vs an in-home controller.
@archballz Local means there's a machine in your home controlling everything, such as a Home Assistant server. Cloud means everything is controlled by... well... a cloud server that's somewhere on the internet. Local has a few advantages. Better privacy and more control over your own stuff are the biggest for me. You're not signing up for any services with big companies or sending them any data. Also, if a cloud server shuts down, all your smart home gadgets are now useless paperweights. Not so with local, you're in control, not some greedy megacorp.
I agree, these are all excellent points. That's why I think smart bulbs are so dumb most of the time, you NEED an app/voice command to control them, not super convenient and not user friendly either for the less tech savvy. Smart switches, on the other hand, work without internet, and you can quickly turn them on or off with no apps or no internet. I also agree with the local control point you make. I think its beyond stupid to have a command from your phone go to some server thousands of miles away, just to go back to the switch that's like 3 feet away from your phone.
Depending on how much research went into your solar panel purchase could be cool to get a video on that. Different options and why you went with the ones you bought! Pros and cons
@Zachary Kurtz Sorry for the late reply, I've been out of town... but yes it's common in my area to have natural gas for heat. Coming from an 800 sq ft apartment that used electricity for heat, to a 2,000 sq ft house that uses natural gas, the house is way cheaper to heat than the apt ever was. Now solar will help you, but that just depends on how many sunny days you have in the winter.
@speeddemon0712 Is it common in your area to do new construction with natural gas? The big drawback I see is the fluctuation of natural gas prices. Utilities also tend to raise there rates every year so just a year one analysis doesn't always paint the full picture. My house was built in the 1960's and we replaced the gas furnace with electric and added solar and the system will pay for itself in about 6 1/2 years.
@speeddemon0712 This is legitimately the type of comment I look for. Informative, real-world application with concrete numbers to back them up. Thank you!
@speeddemon0712 Yeah, then that could make it not worthwhile. Pretty stupid they can use your surplus electricity without paying you anything.
@Tal Lin It was just off the top of my head, not exact numbers, but yes there's interest. Our electric company does not buy back surplus energy produced, they keep it. That was one of the HUGE drawbacks for us. Our community is locked into this electric company as well, so we can't shop around.
This is really awesome. MKBHD started his channel from his bedroom in his parents’ house. And now, he is filming from his own basement. Kudos man. Really happy to see your success. I do second the Sonos speakers (Amazing). Orbi mesh network is also great especially when you have a multi leveled house.
One thing I didn't quite get is what for is he using the speakers? I recalled him recommending them when I was looking for ones for my TV and ended up buying the exact combo he mentioned but now I realize he didn't specify they were for TV and I see the Yamaha speakers behind him for the PC
An access point mounted on the ceiling in the middle of the house will do the same as a mesh network without all those devices cluttering up your house and probably perform better since you only have one hop to get to the internet from the access point.
agreeed
You forgot one buddy, home assistant, which makes everything compatible with all ecosystems
I have home assistant
He mentioned the google nest hub
@Khyle Atkinson home assistant, home assistant, HOOOME ASSISTAAANT
@Khyle Atkinson Hahaha only legends will get this!
@Average Car Guy Smart tech "hub" that's compatible with basically every ecosystem. Also data is stored locally and not on google/apple/amazon servers. In theory, if you avoided all "cloud connected" smart tech, you could have a fully private smart home service, with a voice assistant, though that route may be less user-friendly to get set up. You can limit what you expose to Google Assistant/Alexa/Siri so that they only have limited data on your usage. And the routine/automation options are so broad. My morning routine pulls my alarm time from my phone, turns my bedside hue light on at low red and progressed to cool white over a half hour to simulate a sunrise, turns on kitchen and hallway light, turns on the bathroom heater if outdoor air temp is too low, turns off bedroom ceiling fan, starts the coffee pot, and then turns off all the lights an hour after sunrise. I have another that I can trigger a button press when I leave for a motorcycle ride, switches my phone to "high accuracy location mode", and when I get within a block of my house, the garage opens and switches my phone back to "approximate location mode".
Definitely recommend setting up Home Assistant! It’s a game changer! Me and my roommates moved into a rental and we’ve teched the place out with Home Assistant being the brains. It’s super nice because it connects our lights from all kinds of brands, smart plugs, cameras, TV, google speakers, sensors (motion, temp, brightness) etc. The TV stuff is cool because we have a Harmony Hub (they don’t make them anymore 😕) but it can turn on the TV, game consoles, sound system, etc and switch inputs. We also have scenes set up for when you watch TV. We get alerts from our cameras and motion sensors when we’re away and we can see who is home. It’s also nice because the ecosystem doesn’t matter, most of us have apple phones but the one guy doesn’t, I’m the only one with an Apple TV and HomePod but they still integrate in and of course our google nest speakers integrate into the system so we can control the house and cast music throughout the house. We also have mixed brands of smart tech as well which is nice because we could use what we had and what is cheapest. Plus we only need one app to manage it once it is paired. We have a ton of automations set up, and it’s so cool to be able to walk into a room have it turn on and then know when to turn off. Or have the lights blink red when someone is at the door. Also, personally I do not like the google home app. You can’t easily control single lights in a room. It’s layout is poor and not customizable compared to Apple’s home app. The routines are okay but I hate that you can’t have a separate goodnight and bedtime routine as google won’t let you change the default words. They also are no where as powerful as apple’s automations/Siri shortcuts. I can have Siri get data from websites extremely easily (I used to use it to check if school was open). I also love the new design of the home app, it’s so clean!
Simple, proper and pain-free smart home setup, unlike Linus's 🤣
in this case he dosent have a smart home. he have some bits of smart stuff used in a wrong way. linus actualy have a smart home.
A dedicated home assistant setup is a game changer. Makes all of the standards talk to each other and allows so much customization
@Huegasm he acknowledged that this will be the video where he gets better suggestions in the comments about how to improve his setup. His self-awareness that he’s not an expert was disclosed.
@Huegasm did you…not read the title?
what is home assistant? how do I look it up on google?
@# it must have been a while since you looked at home assistant. Most of it can be setup via the gui nowadays. The progress in that area has been mind boggling.
@Huegasm The video’s sponsored by Best Buy, which he mentions. This is clearly not the video for enthusiasts, it’s a “baby’s first home automation” video.
I think hue lights in your bedroom is great. You can have the button switch next to your bed to easily turn on/off your lights. And you can set the button to a schedule, so in the middle of the night you don't have full brightness when you press the button.
LIFX rocks
Another nice feature is a motion sensor in the kitchen for the light, so when your hands are full with dinner leftovers and plates, your light turns on for you! And during the wee hours when you need some water its set up to 20% to not fully wake you up
Yep, and also set the lights to fade on gradually before you're going to wake up.
Can strongly recommend motion sensors in hallways or bathrooms. Using Hue ones, and they work great. Esp since you can set the light brightness to times of day, so during the day the light is brighter, and from 9 it gets quite low, to make winding down and going to bed easier :)
As a Home Assistant / big home automation nerd myself, I use a lot of these and really liked this video. Definitely going to steal some of your routine! Questions: 1. How does Apple play into this ecosystem (I know this is probably a dumb question). I'm considering trying Apple, and I'm wondering if Assistant would still work with all of this. I know I wouldn't have Google Assistant on my phone anymore, but can I unlock my doors, control my lights, etc? 2. Have you messed around with any smart appliances, tv, fridge, washer dryer, etc,? I've done some of these, and I've had the most problems finding a good Google T.V.
I have a little over half the lights in my house on smart switches and it's really nice to run scenes like "coming home late" and "cooking dinner". But the best bang for your buck is definitely exterior lights and entryway lights. It's really nice to have those go on and off when it gets dark or light and/or when you come home. Also nice to be able to turn at least a few lights on and off when you are out of town so the house doesn't look vacant.
I think home assistant is also up there if not above with the 3 home environment you mentioned and with the recent HA UI change and matter this is arguably going to be way batter then other options.
Can we just take a minute of Silence for those who are watching Tech Videos without buying anything
The ones who can afford everything dont even care about these things 🤣
its just satisfying
literally all of us
Finally I'm getting noticed
I don't get it ,you don't work ?
I own the hue paddle, the hue button, and the lutron dial smart switches. The lutron dial is by far my favorite; however, the branded switches are incredible because you can setup time of day profiles. The switch in my bedroom is super dim in the morning, so I don't wake my wife. It's a nice little touch.
I love the Taylormade Stealth driver :). Btw I see a great function in Philips hue lights with white ambience, which is turning on the lights automatically the right color temperature depending on the time they are turned on. It works when pressing their on/ off switch or using a hue motion sensor. It's the only bulbs that have this feature I think. I see a future in the space!
I'm actually starting on the basement build-out project which has started me down the smart home path. I have even less smart products than you but look to expand on those in the coming months. the one thing that I'm really interested in are smart down lights, especially in the studio and office. my design is pretty heavy on lighting so I want to have more control over them. I would love to replace my existing thermostats with Nest but, since I work from home, I don't adjust my temp very often so I wonder how much I'd actually use them.
I have a little bit of smart home stuff, some smart home bedroom lights, but by far the biggest game changer for me so far has been the smart light switches I got from global suite. I’m an avid reptile keeper and have 4 big beautiful bioactive tanks on display in my home. Before smart stuff came out every day and night I’d run around like a complete mad man flicking on and off 20 nights and I’m not kidding. 20 fixtures to switch on and off twice daily. When I first found out about the smart switches I was a little skeptic on the idea because any malfunction could lead to a sick animal and even death. But after I realized how great the switches were I put a smart plug on every single fixture for my reptiles ( yes I know I could just put a switch onto a bar but I have multiple lights that do multiple things for day and night) overall smart home has made my life 100% easier
Interesting stuff. Will mention, we used a previous version of Netgear's Orbi for a small office with thick walls. It did great but shortly after the two year mark, the satellite died and we couldn't get a replacement of the same generation. Eventually, the original main unit got demoted to serving wifi around the archive hall. Good performance, good software with decent frequency updates but the reliability seems to need some work in our case. Before dying I should mention it would connect devices to it, assign IPs but not pass internet. So watch for that in case things start to misbehave. It MAY be a sign of the device on its way out.
Marques is so wholesome. Still keeps it real and isn’t worried about always having an overkill setup. It’s the simple things that make the quality of life improvements.
Ya this guy is worth 40+ million dollars and that’s his house? My fucking ass
@venom5809 ok weirdo
No way that’s his real house, there was a $50 basic Brother printer on that desk and that doorway was jacked, needed fixing and painting. Dude is playing you all. 😂
@Diwa Alejandro Galvez easy to get carried away with tech and end up making things less intuitive.
And also, working in it takes the magic off of useless products. For non techsavvy guys some products almost feel magical for being abled to control a relais via voice control. From an it guys perspective it sounds stupid and simple. So you have a different opinion on most products just from the get go.
I have almost the same setup (Nest Thermostat, Nest Doorbell, 2x Nest Mini, Nest Hub, Hue in most rooms and 2x Chromecast) and I just wanted to add that the Google Home app also works great on iOS so no worries there :) The Nest Hub is a great device for the kitchen by the way. Yeah it's a glorified egg timer but it can handle multiple timers with labels so when cooking I can just say 'hey G, start 10 minute timer for X' and it works it's magic. Great for random food/cooking questions too and FINALLY they've added the date on the homescreen which is very handy for checking use bys etc.
When you mentioned getting a smart light switch for your office, you should consider using google or siri voice commands for it. I have a google home in most rooms and setup all my hue lights to a specific room then tell google "turn on My Office lights". Works like a charm
Thanks for all your hard work it really shows keep it up! Hope everyone apperciates the time he spends on his content!
I had a universal smart IR blaster that would learn from all my IR remotes and trigger from Google Home. I had set it to flip my TV on, toggle AC & adjust temperature and roll the motorised curtains up and down. Very handy if you have a bunch of remote controls. It was an unbranded Chinese one from Aliexpress for $20-25.
Thanks for this! I just upgraded to the eero WiFi 6E Pro and I'm pulling 900Mbps as well, iPhone and iPad. Changes the home game, no buffers anywhere 🙂
I picked up some WiFi plugs the other day. Being able to pair them up with Google assistant routines has been so handy for saving electric, and was damn effortless to set up
@Jacob S not everyone is a rich capitalist.
Yeah I love the smart plugs. And most are compatible with everything. Google, Amazon, etc... I use them for Xmas tree in December, to having schedules to turn off my kids reading lights when they fall asleep and forget to turn them off.
@Bradavon I don't have easy access to all of my sockets unfortunately. I have one behind a sofa, and one behind the drawer unit of my desk. I can certainly get to them if I try, but if anything, the convenience of the plugs is more than enough to make them worthwhile
@CopyrightStrike I have 3 of 4 running on extension leads. One has TV/ console/ soundbar, one is used for my PC setup so tower/ monitor/ speakers etc, one is used in the bedroom for charging cables, TV etc, and the final one is used for kitchen lighting.
Hey man! I'm sure you've got a bunch of people suggesting it! But if you want to take your smart home to the next level, you could try out Home Assistant. It's got a ton of automations, also integrates well with Google Home. If you're looking for some hardware, there's always something available that works with Home Assistant :) I've got my solar panels, dishwasher, TV, AVR, Security cameras, Lights, thermostat and a bunch of door, motion and temperature sensors as well.
I heard you mentioning about that smart plug that can be used for Christmas lights... and all i could think was "Why not Twinkly?" If you like putting up Christmas decorations, as a nerd, it's the best thing you could buy. It allows setting up routines, 3D mapping of the lights for some cool effects, and integration with Nest/Alexa and Homekit for newer devices.
For Hue lights, I strongly recommend the Lutron Aurora Dimmer smart switch. They just screw onto your existing switch, and are super easy to set up and use. Phillips also sells a module that you can wire into your existing switch to make it control your Hue bulbs
You just validated all the smart home choices I made. I literally have exactly all the same smart home equipment in my home. Thank you.
I have the battery nest doorbell too. It'll trickle charge off your doorbells previous wiring too. It'll keep you from having to charge it during all except for the coldest months. Once you get below 30° though, it won't charge and you'll have to charge indoors again. And I highly recommend Kasa too. They have power strips and outdoor weatherproof power strips too. I use them for our grow lights, Christmas Tree, and outdoor Christmas Lights and decorations. Have worked flawlessly so far. One recommendation is to use their app for timers and schedules. I used Google Routines at first, but sometimes communication breaks down after updates. Kasa firmware updates usually fix the issue, but the gap sometimes is not tolerable when it comes to grow lights that keep indoor plants alive, lol.
We have the Nest smoke detectors and I’d highly recommend them. When there’s too much smoke from the food I’m making, it’s really easy to dismiss the alert from the app instead of having to touch the physical device to silence it. I also like that they’ll alert you if the battery is getting low, instead of chirping obnoxiously in the wee hours of the morning.
I bought tuna smoke detector that does the job, but the wifi is just a bonus. Pretty useless wifi.
@impino26 CO2🙀😁😉. I think you meant CO (Carbon Monoxide) which is poisonous ☠️
@brownboii305 My nest detectors are smoke/Co2 detectors so, yes, they do
@DRIXXER yea it detects co2 haha it’s a $100+ smoke detector. It’s for sure. A combo detector
My namë
For a smart light switches, I would highly recommend Lutron Caseta. They are the best "smart" things I've installed in my house! Plus you can get a remote that can then be programmed to interact with multiple devices. You didn't show us the smart blinds, but mentioned them at the end. Which ones did you end up going with?
Great video, just wanted to add some info. I work in heating in cooling, those Nest thermostats can be a real nightmare! For the less tech savvy, the learning function can be very frustrating basically only allowing climate control whenever it chooses and ignoring manual inputs from the home owner in an effort to be efficient. They also require what’s a called a “common wire” in the wiring, to power it as they don’t have an on board battery. The nest is considered power stealing and can wreak havoc on your low voltage wiring and control boards on your heating and cooling equipment. I’ve gone to many service calls that entire control boards need to be replaced for hundreds of dollars and throwing Nests in the garage! They are hands down the best looking thermostats on the market but also come with some caveats. Just wanted to make that known
Long time watcher, first time commenter. Really loved this video from you Marques, would love to see what kind of improvements come to your home / studio setup in the future. Love your work dude, thank you!
My biggest gripe with the nest x Yale lock is that you can't automate unlock procedures "for security reasons". August smart lock will do it, but I prefer to have everything in the nest app so I'm kinda tied to it. I just think it'd be so awesome for the smart lock to unlock when: A) the doorbell cam detects a familiar face B) my car pulls in driveway, or when my phone unpairs with my car Bluetooth
I highly recommend Flic buttons for smart light control. I put it right above or to the side of my switches and it works with Hue lights and is/will be Matter compatible. They are fantastic and relatively inexpensive. They even have a new one coming out with dimmer controls. Battery lasts a year or more with a 2032 watch battery. They are also easy to hide in places like under a desk.
That whole thing of not touching your phone until you're actually out of bed sounds like a great plan. I'll usually check my phone and lay around for longer than I care to
@Ben Fulford I personally sleep great even with it in my room(I read books before bed on my phone with either greyscale on or night light with tints the screen yellow for keeping your sleep from being affected) It's just the waking up part which I'll now know to not touch my phone and just get ready for the day BEFORE I touch my phone.
Don't take your phone into your bedroom. By not having your phone in your bedroom at all, your sleep will improve massively
You feel good when you see Marques call out your exact smart home hardware for what he's doing with his own.
Looks good so far. I can't seem to ever get started tying all of what I've collected so far into Google Home. If you keep doing these, maybe I'll get inspired to finally make something work.
Great video! Thanks for getting more personal with us and allow us in one of rooms. This really helped out of what I need to put in my home.
@MKBHD Just a recommendation, if you’re willing to configure (or pay someone to configure) the Home Assistant project within your house, you can merge different ecosystems under one central portal, it’s rock solid
The trifecta is complete. First Quinn from Snazzy Labs retrofitting his 100 year old home, then Linus from LTT with his new home build and now Marques is letting us into his lair! So stoked.
Are those smart golf clubs that automatically blur when on camera?
@M. Rony well i can tell you that there is a taylormade stealth driver😂😂
He used his lens on f1.4 so the depth of field is too shallow to be in focus there. 👀
@Chinni Diwakar dude why
@M. Rony Very common thing to do in Indonesian TV shows
My name*
I'm really liking these types of personal "less professional" videos. Don't get me wrong your super crazy reviews with amazing shots with the robots and stuff is incredible and super high quality, but there is something about these videos that seem very personal and down to earth and abit more "real" if that makes any sense. But yea love both styles just nice to see videos like this.
Very interesting insights Marques! Would love to see how you're set up for video calls and video meetings given that's something a lot of us do now so frequently. Like this video, it would be good to see what you do now, but I'm sure it would generate a ton of good suggestions.
This is one of my favorite videos you’ve done in a while because I’m not overly techie but when I see you do things like this it makes me want to do more! Wish I had suggestions…maybe install a cat or dog lol
Nice one MKBHD! I have a similar setup with Google Assistant. If you don't even want to touch lights, speaker volumes, alarm system etc., I suggest to play around with a Raspberry Pi and Home Assistant which is super easy to set up, configure and automate. It is compatible with practically everything!!
I love how you're literally one of the only CS-tvrs who protects their home and not posting everything online.
Motion detection helps a lot for automization. In the home or outsids. For now we use it outside the most. We have lights in the garden at the front door that light up. Super handy when coming in the dark, while its also helpful for security.
@NaveEn KumaAr wym no one, don't hurt the feelings of your dead great grandma smh
All fun until they light up when no ones around..
I coincidentally chose almost all the same stuff, and am firmly entrenched in the Google ecosystem including the most current Pixel Pro phone. Would love to see a video on the inconveniences of running a Google Smart Home on an iPhone, Samsung, or any non-Google phone.
I actually went the other way with the Apple ecosystem, as I had an older Apple TV sitting nicely in a room. Used it as a hub and connected it to some smart power outlets, added about 30 Philips Hue lights, spots, bands and senzors, smart blinds from Ikea (lol). Still building on the system, looking for some smart thermostats and smoke detectors. I haven't found a way yet to connect my smart vacuum to all of the above, but still a work in progress. To be fair, it is actually cool to set some trigger words for Siri when you want a more...romantic moment [cough] (pulls a proper playlist, sets fireplace on tv, lights dimmed to a certain scene, blinds down and all that) :D
I have home bridge on a 13” m1 MacBook Pro with a broken Touch Bar and it works great with unsupported HomeKit devices like my lift master garage door and Rachio 2 sprinkler controller.
Really looking forward to Matter. The segmentation in home automation products divided by which digital assistant you choose to use is a huge hinderance in home automation taking off
I’d love way more smart home tech videos. This is something I’m interested in but have no idea what’s available
I work for Geek Squad and go to clients’ homes and install smart home and home theater stuff all the time. Sonos is incredible, wire management makes everything better, I personally love Eufy products, the home security stuff is cool too, mesh network systems are super popular for Best Buy to sell too these days. There’s a ton more crap you could do to be honest haha but some things are overkill
You should invest in the Lutron Caseta light switch system for the whole place. Basically turn all normal lights into smart lights. It's regarded as the most reliable smart switch system that works with Google, Alexa, and HomeKit. Worth the price in my opinion!
@Wendell Laidley Yup just tested, disconnected my internet (through assigning the wrong port as WAN), Google inaccessible, entered my home assistant through my local IP, switched a light off, worked as normal, great you also have this option, I didn't need a bridge for it though
@Wendell Laidley Well, my internet never came down, but even if it did, AFAIK Kasa switches can work if reached through a local network, which I believe is what home assistant does (reach them through the local network), so, same here sir.
@Tim Biscotti Lutron has always been the best; even for non-smart home equipment. Superb customer service and amazing equipment. Their competitors like Leviton are a disaster.
@Gabriel Garcia I switched from Kasa to Caseta. Caseta relies on a network bridge (like Hue) that allows you to continue using smart functionality if your ISP has an outage. Have had no issues with switches randomly disconnecting either.
Lutron is an absolute no-brainer for anyone that wants serious light/fan/shade control. Kinda pricey, so obviously not for everyone -- but they're considered the best in the pro home automation space by a mile.
I have a Phillip's Hue in the bedroom. The TV is also Homekit compatible. The Hue is great for being able to dim the light rather than have to deal with a mechanical dimmer switch. I also love just being able to say "Hey Siri, goodnight" and have my tv (along with anything connected to it) and light all turn off together. So far impressed with the lifespan of the Hue bulb too. Haven't had to change it yet.
I have the Google Cameras and the Kasa plugs for a bunch of things. Routines are also super helpful and easy like turning off the lights and TV and other things when you leave the house automatically. Also the Echo Dot 4th Gen has ultrasound motion sensing so when I walk into a room the lights automatically turn on when I'm there or turn off if I'm not in the room. I also have it set up so lights and thermostat and other things turn on when I pull up to the house and then turn off when I'm a certain radius away. Also the Echo Dot 5th Gen have been upgraded to where they can now act as Mesh Wi-fi extenders and the 4th Gen will get the update in a few months. Routines and automation make life easier and just more fun.
Cool insights. I do have a variety of smart home devices. So I tried Openhab an Home Assistant, both are open source. No I work with Home Assistant which is amazing. Only Google Nest products are a bit weird to integrate. Hope matter will make a big leap forward in this field.
I just started making almost every aspect of my house smart now using HomeKit and various connected devices, like door sensors, wifi plugs, Philips Hue, Nuki door lock, HomeKit enabled TV and many more to come. It's so much fun but rather expensive if you decide to upgrade every aspect at once.
About to turn in for the night and will try not to touch my phone upon waking. Definitely going to try those smart plugs and/or buy those smart lights. They've been on my mind for a while now. After moving overseas I have not bothered to set up my Google home features. I miss it because it really is so convenient.
You can also get NFC tags that you can place around your house and you can program them pretty easily (just with shortcuts on iOS) to do various smart home stuff
@Asif Nabi i also ended up with about 50 shitty nfc tags off amazon so i’m not sure lol. i found out how good they can be by testing the one on my bus pass and it’s so sensitive it goes off when i accidentally put the two too close together
@BrGr I have a QR code on my bathroom door (on the inside), which I have to scan if I want my alarm to turn off.
@Omar Khan that explains why I experience this issue every day, I thought that’s how Apple’s NFC was. Do you recommend any reliable NFC?
NFC related: I have a clock app that requires me to turn off an alarm by scanning an NFC sticker in another room. I've never been late for work.
@Daniel Slowen if you connect nfc tags with automations and short cuts you can do a lot of things. they can be used like a light switch or a light controller, to change the color, intensity, or animation on your lights. you can use it to unlock smart locks, change smart thermostats, and basically control all sorts of smart devices. some people think you could use a smart speaker like google nest to accomplish the same thing but i dont actually like to talk to google most of the time and i prefer to tap my phone on nfc tags.
My main setup is Samsung SmartThings, which interconnects with Google Home, Nest, and Philips Hue. I use timers, motion sensors, and magnet sensors which is particularly helpful to turn on the hallway/stairwell lights just walking through instead of having to flip switches. Ring cameras, Level Lock door locks, and Chamberlain MyIQ garage doors too. Just yesterday got a smart smoke detector listener, which works with older interconnected style smoke detectors to alert when not home (way cheaper than upgrading everything to Nest Protect). I use that type of smart plug you have via SmartThings to control my holiday decorations as well! Also to turn on and off my 3D printer and my desktop PCs, so I can turn them on when not home to remote into.
Highly recommend Lutron for the smart switches. Replaced every switch on every level of my house and absolutely no regrets. Gets easier after the first 2-3
Just bought my first house and I've put Kasa Smart light switches everywhere. They're surprisingly cheap, look great and work flawlessly. Easy integration with Google routines as well. Highly recommend!
These kinds of setup are the best, no nonsense fancy items but rather making all available things "smart" and interconnected 🧠💡
Read my name..(
Betul tu
Home Assistant setup would be awesome content. Somewhat more DIY than others but you can customize it to your hearts content and have an amazing setup where all the ecosystems are integrated. Would recommend out of 10
Would you go Wi-Fi, Zigbee or Z-Wave?
@Jason Swearingen you can buy homey pro that’s not cloud based (cloud based only for backups). It works without internet
Does matter 1.0 protocol make this redundant?
@Jason Swearingen Yeah I was thinking of their local box, I do not approve of the cloud based system.
@Autunite homey looks to be cloud based, unless you pay for their local box? Home assistant runs on a raspberry pi, or a VM on your pc
I use most of the products you mentioned already. I will say however, I opted out from using googles security cameras as I found them a little too finicky with video playback and functionality. I prefer the Ring products as they have a much better platform/ user friendly interface and the video playback is a lot smoother. The ring system also has an option to always record but only send you important notifications for motion detection based on your preference. Only downfall is it doesn’t pair with google but the ring app alone is great. The Yale door lock is not bad it has good reviews but give Eufy’s (made by Anker) fingerprint door lock a chance it’s a solid beautiful product and it pairs with google’s eco system. Hopefully you’ll make a video about those products I mentioned sometimes in the future, been a long time subscriber and would love to know your thoughts.
Fake news Google's cameras are great and have never failed me
@51D6.7 yea I think it was a different system before Amazon acquired them. The app can be downloaded over multiple platforms to access recordings, you can also access your recordings through the website if you choose to use a desktop. I’ve had to download a clip of my recordings before and I had no issues using IOS or Android.
For security cameras is there centralized software you can you on your pc/phone to view all live cams/recorded footage? I checked into this a long time ago and remember this Blue Iris program but it looked ugly.
I've got assistant war in my home with both Google Mini and Alexa. With the Mini in my bedroom, it's less intrusive, but effective. My primary routine are a great way to wake (temporarily increases volume on the Mini, plays specific song and turns on bedside lamps). Not to mention the evening routine which turns on selected lighting around my home.
It would be interesting to see a video on some smart home equipment for apartments. Apartments are a little harder for things such as locks.
Would love to see what all the other tech's use around their home. Curiosity needs to be fed now!
It's always fun to see what other CS-tvrs are actually using
It's wicked to see some of the tech you live with on a day-to-day basis! Of all the smart tech I live with I think my favourite has to be the Fyrtur blinds from IKEA - super affordable & battery powered so no need to hire an electrician either. Would definitely love to see the solar panel setup tour too!
I love the Lutron Aurora Smart Bulb Dimmer Switch for Philips Hue Smart Bulbs. Solves the problem where the light switch is off making the smart bulb unavailable. Looks and works like a normal dimmer switch. Thanks for the great videos!
Have you considered a personal hub like home assistant? It requires a lil bit extra configuration, but then you won't care have to care (to a certain degree) if the device supports Google home or not. I understand the appeal of Google home or Apple home, but something like Home Assistant opens up a lot more possibilities...
Not sure if you looked at ubiquity's WiFi mesh. Those are little disc shaped things and they perform way better for me (in an old Victorian house with thick walls) than anything else. Maybe they would come in handy for you too?
The best smart home feature in my house is to connect all halway lights to motion sensors and apply the following rule. "detect motion; after sunset; turn on light for 30 seconds" this has probably been one of the small things that really makes a big difference
I needed this so much. Just moved into a new apartment and trying to make it a smart home from the ground up. Thank you!
When I lived by myself I had a smart home security system set up. I used ring and didn't pay any subscription fees. (Those services I missed out on were mainly stored recordings and they notify police if the alarm goes off). So if you live by yourself I recommend it because it helped me feel less paranoid something would happen, especially at night
nothing like having to pay to call the police ROFL
Read my name plz
Ajax?
I replaced almost every light switch in my home with the kasa smart switches (roughly 30 or so). It's a game changer being able to go to my room at the end of the day and say "hey google, goodnight" and watch whatever lights the kids left on go dark, my bedroom fan turn on, etc. Would highly recommend replacing light switches with smart switches. The kasa ecosystem overall is not bad, but it's connected support for google routines is lacking at times. This mostly comes to light when you have two people in the house, both talking to google (not at the same time). Sometimes google won't be able to properly execute some kasa commands unless you are the own of the google account that the products are registered under.
@Walter White we had the same issues and it drove me nuts. Every time Comcast had an outage, everything would get disconnected. I threw in the towel and switched everything over to Lutron Caseta (which has a network bridge/hub) and haven’t had any issues.
Only issue i have had with mine is after a power outage, flicker or reboot of my wifi access the switch will not reconnect automatically...happens once and a while....
I've got sort of a smart home too. All lights and light sensors are Philips Hue, Wifi is Nest, as is my Thermostat. Speaker system is Harman & Kardon that also works with Google. And camera system is Nest as well. I don't have a smart doorbell yet, but that's maybe a thing for the future. Btw love your reviews, still!
In addition to paying money for those smart home tech, assembling them together and making them work properly is the most difficult and complicated part for me, though they are pretty dope. I need a guy preparing all the stuff for me cuz I gonna spend lots of time picking those products as well as having a proper installation.
I am building my own smart home system in the future for sure, but for now a smart charger is enough for me. Created an iPhone shortcut which turns off the charger after 80% and another one which notifies me when the battery drops below 20%. After I started following these rules, my battery health did not decrease a bit, which makes me think what a great investment was to buy the charger :)
@51D6.7 if by that you mean waiting for my phone to die before charge it to 100%, then no, it does not happen
So your phone never really completes 1 cycle of charging?
I work in home automation and control4 and savant are pretty neat systems. You need some pieces of hardware but I feel as though home automation is all about how convenient you want things and what you want simplified
Probably the ONLY area in tech I'm on par with Marques. I have most of the same set up as you do in terms of smart home stuff. I tend to keep the smart home stuff around the house light. Regular bulbs/lamps with smart switches smart plugs and door bells all connected through Google Home
I also have a google setup. I use voice commands to turn on and off most of the lighting in my house. I touch maybe 1 lightswitch a day. Big fan of routines as well. Having multiple things happen from one voice command is a must.
I'd like to point to Wyze family of smart home stuff. Works great with the Google ecosystem, they are easy to install, and have a lot of great features. One big plus at least with the lock is you can install the smart locks on existing deadbolts, and if you want a keypad lock you can add it on. I liked this because I have all my locks keyed the same, but I don't have smart locks on all of them. They are also very affordable. The rgb light bulbs they have come in a 4 pack and cost what some single smart bulbs do. Their app support seems to be great as well. In the last year I've seen them pack all kinds of features like routines, personalized themes, and a lot more. I use the Arlo doorbell, but just looking at the Wyze app, it looks like their new doorbell matches it in features.
I love this video bro Would love to see you review more sustainable tec - e.g solar panels etc Loving the sustainable aspect of this video
Ikea tradfri lights and gateway. Works on its own without opening an app, the 5 button switches work awesome and last about a year before changing the battery and their integration to home assistant is pretty awesome
Thanks for the review. I also have the Nest Yale locks and then V1 doorbells. A big miss for me is on the Nest Yale locks, you can't give someone a code for just one. So if you have a workshop garage, utility room and so on, you are giving some access to all. I have 5 so it's not great. Also, 2 of them are making noises and slow to open close and Nest/Yale don't care. They are/were a few months out of warranty and they do not repair, do not sell part, do note give any maintenance instructions. I installed them all so the deadbolt makes no contact with the doors when closed but they still seem to die after a few years. Nest/Yale only offered to sell me a new one. :(
My dad’s contemplating on making his home solar powered so it would be dope if you could share some of your experiences with us :D
I'd love to see more detail on your solar/battery setup. I'm considering this for my house going forward.
Currently renting a small studio apartment thing and have added smart home devices to it. Started off with the thought "automate everything" then decrease any I didn't need or like. Motion sensors with smart lights in every room and would turn on or off if people were in or out of it. Had button pushers to help with intercom answering, switches that were hard wired into devices(Gas heater, ventilation fan power). Smart plugs for simple fans and turning on or off appliances when they did or didn't need power (speakers etc). Also a smart IR blaster thing to control Air conditioners, act as remotes for projectors etc which can all be activated alexa, google assistant etc. All of mine currently are all from Switchbot but mixing them with kasa smart plugs and other makers is definitely possible. Heck can even try their curtain bots or blind turn bots if you want to automate those as well but I think the more expensive ones from lutron etc are probably a bit more silent. While google is pretty good, Alexa can also help with setting things like IF X happens do Y and even adding "wait" in between. Certain makers have their own app as well to do so or use something like IFTTT. Hope that helps.
Pretty simple and very close to my setup. I have a couple of additional things like a smart vacuum but keep it pretty streamlined.
I'm surprised by how simple your door lock was. I mean, there are plenty of models in the market with many authentications, like tags, fingerprint, bluetooth, proximity, voice, face recognition. And yours only use... code number. Is there a reason to choose this one?
I've got all google/nest in my house. The nest thermostat craped out on us after 5 years. Other than that we love it the kids love it. One of the best decisions I've ever made.
I love how MKB has a routine asking about traffic going to work. He can't be late. He's the boss.
@Barry Puckett My father was late to work all the time and it didn't matter, a little hard to start surgery without the surgeon 😉If you were ever a boss in life you would know that bosses take time off all the time, that's why you hire people. I made probably $20,000 in the last week and I did maybe 5 hours of actual work and it might be $30,000 by the weekend.
@Ashmit Verma checkmate. 👑
I'm the boss (not a brag, it's a very small low profit company!) and I gotta be there on time to let other people in! 🤷
@Zaydan Alfariz he lives in Jersey, not actually in NYC. Just outside the city
"He's the boss" It's MrwhosetheBOSS who is the boss
Hey Marques, amazing video, as always! Did you ever think about making a video on electromagnetic smog indoors? Your opinion on that topic (which must have crossed your mind at some point) would be very much appreciated! Also what about the hidden and active microphones in some google nest products? Any thoughts about that? Best regards!
The most important thing about this video is that Marques himself also watches reviews to make purchase decisions. That makes the case for genuine CS-tv reviewers.
A little suggestion is the Nanoleaf Smarter series. Yes, it works with Google Assistant.
From your parents house, to your apartment and nownin your own house. You are an inspiration man!