How To Build a Smart Home - 101

It's not easy to build and love a smart home. The list of products, technologies, services, and more that you can use and buy is huge. You get terms like Zigbee, Z-Wave, Thread, and you have struggles with WiFi, and that's before you decide what to buy.

Is Google Home or Amazon Alexa better? Is Apple HomeKit or Samsung SmartThings the best? Should you buy a new router, or should you get mesh WiFi? Is Home Assistant right for you? Who has the best smart home hub? What does local home automation mean?

The list of questions you'll have goes on and on, and I answer them all in my guide for how to build a smart home 101.

Timecodes for today's video:
00:00 - How to Build a Smart Home 101
1:11 - What Can a Smart Home Do?
6:55 - What Is In A Home Automation?
9:31 - How Does a Smart Home Work?
14:18 - What Is In a Smart Home?
24:04 - The Best Smart Home Platforms
42:30 - Build The Best Smart Home Now

Links For Other Tutorials:
The Way

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Thanks for watching, and Don't Hate, Automate.

Brian

[AutomateYourLife]

Links For Other Tutorials related to today's video
The Way

[kevinhenryviii]

My thoughts on this video. I wish I would have seen something like this a few years ago. I made so many expensive mistakes because of my lack of knowledge in home automation. The onset of YouTube streamers in the past few years, like yourself, has been a great help in reducing my expense and improving my home automation. With the constant development I suspect in a couple of years time this video will probably be a bit dated. But for now thank you. 👍🏻

[joshuamarchner]

As someone who is just getting into smart home tech, I really appreciate this video. It contains very thorough explanations of all the basic knowledge you need to get started.

Looking forward to a new hobby of automating my home!

[TonyLewis]

I’ve been a long time subscriber, YouTube stopped recommending your videos for the last year. I gotta say your camera presence and on screen speaking has improved dramatically. Truly incredible how good you’ve become on camera. Keep it up and thanks for the great content.

[markmceathron]

Skip to time stamps!?

Never!

I'm here to keep those YT metrics up, amigo!

I'm playing every second, and watching every ad. (Might even click on a few....)

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

[casperlad]

I'm only 15 minutes into this video and have learnt so much. I am only just starting to look into setting up a Smart Home system so this is a great video for me. On a side note, your presenting style is fantastic! Calm, relaxed and easy to understand. Top marks, a new subscriber for sure!!

[DanielCollignon]

I'm 1/5th through the video and you explaining how this would improve people their troubleshooting. That was the best way to explain something so easily overlooked. You have my respect and I have no clue what your profession is; but you should teach! This is not just a 101 in a terms of guides. Great video!!!

[andytv]

Finally a guide I can refer to anyone asking about home automation. Brian while I donn't like the way you talk, but the level of sincerity you show in helping your viewers kept me subscribed to your channel, and you just showed how much you care with this informative video. Thank you sir

[briancantrell]

Paul Hibbert sent me, I was not disappointed great content.

[eclampsium]

Only thing to add here is 1st thing of all for someone building a new home is to focus on as much cabling as possible and infrastructure for cabling. Then go on a huge PoE switch connected to a router and spread as many modern Access Points possible/needed to have good 5/5.8Ghz data coverage in your mobiles and good connection range for other infrastructure devices… today I’d simply go back this route and use cheap Tuya devices…

[makeitworktech]

Brian, this could be a Skillshare course! Very well done!! And that thumbnail is great! This is definitely something I will recommend to new smart homers who are just starting out.

[axx]

Just found your video. and it is very informative, As a long time Google user I can tell that despite my hatred for Amazon and their business model Now (Jul 2023) Amazon's Alexa is (for me) by far the most useful, accurate and almost instantaneous . Yes I would have never thought I would say this about an Amazon product. Google has taken a dive lately. Simple commands take forever to complete or I get nothing. I use a combination of Amazon and Homekit and seems to be ok.Again this is my own personal experience

[HeyTechi]

This is exceptionally well done video Brian, I think this just might be the best explainer video of its type I've watched yet!

[BrianKotoka]

Such an important video. I’ve watched it several times. I love that you taught the concept so anyone with any ecosystem can take to and run.

[marlenehod]

Thank you for the information and your service to us through teaching, Brian. I am a grandmother in my 70's and some of this information is hard for me to grasp. I have a daughter that lives in a not very good rural area and has had her 3-bedroom home broken into 3 times by people looking for drugs. She has two teenage kids. I bought her (with the limited funds I have) an "Amazon Echo Show 10" in January 2024, and some light bulbs. two Sengled soft white, one colored (Sengled - Smart A19 LED 60W Bulb Bluetooth Mesh Works with Amazon Alexa - Multicolor). Then kids wanted their own colored bulbs, so I bought two Wyze Bulbs Colored, 1100 Lumen WiFi RGB and Tunable White A19 Smart Bulb, and they all say they work with Alexa, so I am assuming they work with the Amazon Echo Show 10. My question is: What would you recommend I buy next that is not over $200 to make them safer, and that will pair with the Echo Show I bought her. She is not tech-savvy and is a bit intimidated in setting anything up yet, but plans to this week. Any advice would be helpful.

[jakobwatts]

This is the first video I’ve seen that gives a description on how these things work. 👍🏾

[davidr]

Great video.

The only things I don't quite agree with you on is, what folks will start with first.

For example, I simply bought a Ring doorbell and Amazon Echo Dot, since they were on sale. I then added some basic smart plugs and a smart bulb or two.

Once I started liking how things worked together, I jumped into the ancillary (Tier 2/Tier 3) devices.

People's experience may vary, but IMHO, it's been my personal experience that devices like Dots and Ring Doorbells are way more likely to be the "gateway devices" that most folks use to begin building a smarthome.

[AlexTeo]

Great video brian! watched the entire 45mins. One thing I would like to add is what devices are available and supported is different from region to region or even country to country, so consumers please research and reference from local context

[coolvibesradio]

I have a question: How to build a smart home? you've succeeded to illustrate so many things but you fails to explain the process.

[ssatori]

This video is fantastic!! I am buying a new home next month and I am still torn about buying too much HA equipment now versus waiting for Matter to shake out. I've subscribed and think you will be a great resource to track the progress. Thank you.