DON'T make my mistakes! What I've learned...

I have 100+ home automation ideas in my smart home! I’ve learned A LOT over the years, and I want to share so you don’t make the same mistakes as me.

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0:00 Intro
0:27 Don’t rely on automations
2:00 Invisible home automation
4:36 Simple vs complex?
5:59 Is it ALL worth it?
7:22 Keeping organized
7:57 If all else fails…

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MUSIC

Rinse and Repeat by DivKid

The End by EVA

[SmartHomeSolver]

Ok so, does your family love all your automations as much as mine does? 🙃

[mattnewman]

I think this is one of the first videos I have seen that deals with the best practices of home automation. Few have touched on it in passing, but I can't think of anyone who has dedicated an entire video to the subject. Most videos focus on the "how" but not the "why" or even "should" you do something. I lived in a house with a very high-end home automation system that when out due to a lightning strike. For 6 months the only way to turn on the lights was to go to a central closet and find a dip switch in the dark so I appreciate the concept of "what happens when it all fails" and modular DIY home automation.

When designing a system too often people forget that they are not the only user and don’t take into account the disruption and ease of use to the rest of the users. No matter how great the system may be, user/family acceptance will be low.

[BeardedTechGuy]

The way I've found to make sure my more complex automations don't break causing issues is to "play test" each automation several different times tweaking scenarios and conditions throughout to make sure the automation is going to run as expected. After several dozen or more iterations of testing I then let others try the automation out a bunch to see if they can manage to break them. And the biggest thing that helps me is to make my automations all follow a similar logical setup. It makes troubleshooting issues a lot easier, which means things are broken for less time!

[Ultimaus]

I'm now reasonably adept at running a bunch of smart home automations. I moved into a 3 story townhouse last year and it's my first home. Not my personal preference but it's what's apparently affordable for me. A 4300sqft house would be like 3 million usd in my area. Anyway because there are compromises with my home I have adapted automations and smart devices to help keep the peace. The ground floor is basically never used but I still need to turn on and off the lights lock and unlock the doors open and close the garage doors. Now that's kind of standard, however in a 3 story kitchen and living room spaces are on the main or 2nd floor. Which means I have to go down the stairs to check if my lights are on and check all that other stuff.

With the power of smart home switches and cameras combined with routines and buttons I'm able to turn off and lock everything with a routine. Those of you who have it can probably understand the power but for those of you that don't or don't live in a 3 story. Let me tell you that smart home is literally keeping my marriage together.

Before I implemented all the automations to turn off automatically complete with exceptions. I really was contemplating murdering my wife when she went to sleep.

We don't argue about much... But it's always... 11pm Are the lights off downstairs? Is the garage door open? Is the door locked? Guess who has to check? I'll give you a hint it's not her. But now with my automations it's not me either.

I activate the automation verify through the app and confirm with the cameras.

Sounds like overkill? Well I actually love setting up routines and making sure it's all running. However I actually think smart home is under marketed as useful and over marketed as cool.

How many times have has it happemed left home it's been more than 20 minutes and mom or the wife or whoever you live with asks... Hey did you lock the door? And the sheer feeling of dread runs down your spine.

Smart home literally offers you the ability to delete this possibility from your life. what can you honestly say you spent money on that allowed you to do that. A constant problem just vanishing with not a subscription but a single purchase. I would argue that's money well spent.

Keep up the g ok I'd work Reed! 😃
Onward smart home heroes!

[Bradley-Thomsen]

Hey! You should do a video on your wife’s opinions on your automations! My wife is curious to see what her perspective is

[andym]

I like your idea of describing all your automations in a single place. Most platforms do not excel 😁 in self-documentation. Furthermore, if you are using a variety of platforms (depending upon device support), it’s difficult to always remember where any specific automation is executed from.

[Mantse_]

Happy to hear you have a lot of videos in the pipeline! Currently working on finishing my home. Keep them coming!

[NMBRPL]

If you explore Trigger IDs and the choose function you could probably consolidate that 100 automations down to 30 or so - you can also assign each trigger whatever friendly name you like. It makes it super easy to find everything related to the living room lights in one automation for instance, instead of hunting through multiple automations to find which one affects that function.

[jamegrabham]

Hey Reed...thanks for the video...I always enjoy yours... light-hearted and uplifting...I have had the conversation with friends and family, "why not just get up and turn off the switch, NO BIG DEAL"...LOL...also thanks so much for the spreadsheet and the links...very, very helpful...I use HA and home automation is my hobby...sometimes to my detriment (wife)...:) NOT GOOD...Please keep up your good work My Friend...🙃

[striderstache]

Thanks for the spreadsheet. I saw you mention it in another video and tried to make my own but this is a sweeter solution. This is one of your best videos to date. Thanks for taking other people's experience into consideration.

[TomParish]

Excellent. Love the easy pace. So many of these home video automation things they speaker seems to be in a race to convey everything verbally and on the screen, often, leaving out important details. Looking forward to seeing more!

[adamjj]

Love your channel Reed, great job on all the automations and thanks for sharing them in spreadsheet form! The family humor is a nice touch too! ;)

[ToddLagerberg]

Yes! I see an Inovelli switch. Love those switches.

[DragonSilverSky]

Thank you for the XLS; I just setup Home Assistant the other day and am having some success & playing some playlists via Spotify on a Sonos by clicking a Wallmote button. Weird though... my wife was thrusting her hips yelling "HOME ASSISTANT" afterwards.

[dcshoemank]

Smartthings, Amazon Echo and the custom device handler for the Alex virtual switches allows for quite complex conditions with ANYTHING Alexa compatible, even if not officially supported in Smartthings. I also have Aeotec buttons placed strategically throughout the house to completely disable individual and large groups of sensors. Like if you wanna take a nap on the couch but don't want pets setting off the laundry room, pantry sensor, etc.

[Knolraab]

The key is your automations need to be so good that even the family likes them :-)

[MannyHaarp]

Just moved into a new construction and I'll be going through your vids for lots of ideas! Looking forward to the new stuff.

[MartynSmith]

Really loved this video - Great Info but loved the humour especially the subtle bits.

[JonathanBaileynu]

Wonderful video! I have been wanting to get involved with home assistant since it’s birth, and just really haven’t had the right time.. until I became semi disabled. And let me say… I am hooked… and now subscribed to you… loving your simplicity.. 🙏 I just downloaded your spreadsheet. Thank you.

[pandraus]

I came here for home automation tips and got a comedy video! Totally worth it!
(not about Top Gun)