Ranking All My Smart Home Products and Projects. SMART HOME TOUR.

I've been automating for 4 years. Come take a tour of my smart home and hear my thoughts on the different projects and products that I've installed. This video was sponsored by Litom Solar LEDs Check them out here: (Amazon US): amzn.to/3gdLT5B (Amazon UK): amzn.to/3ifF0m9
Front Yard:
House LED Playlist: • Individually Addressab...
Security Camera Playlist: • Security Cameras
Video Doorbell Video: • 4 Battery Video Doorbe...
Smart Lock Video: • 5 Top Selling SMART LO...
Dining Room:
Shelly Lineup Video: • 5 New Ideas for Using ...
Robotic Vacuum Video: • 3 MUST HAVE FEATURES W...
Kitchen:
Smart Switches and Dimmers: • Smart Lighting Buyers ...
Desk Area:
UniFi Playlist: • Ubiquiti UniFi
Curtain Automation Playlist: • Automate Curtains and ...
Patio:
Motorized Roller Shades Video: • DIY Motorized Roller S...
Pool Automation Video: • Connect your pool to y...
Family Room:
DIY Ceiling Light Video: • DIY Smart LED Ceiling ...
Shelly Lineup Video: • 5 New Ideas for Using ...
Garage:
Smart Sprinkler System: Coming Soon?
Garage Door Automation: Coming Soon?
Energy Monitors: • Which Smart Energy Mon...
Upstairs Bedroom:
Door Sensors Video: • Add a door sensor to a...
Nanoleaf Video: • Nanoleaf Alternative? ...
Master Bedroom:
Blinds Automation Video: • Motorize and Automate ...
LED Sunrise Video: • RGBW LED Sunrise Simul...
Master Bathroom:
Shelly HT: • Battery Powered Wifi M...
Shower Alexa: • Shower Music! Speaker...
*As an Amazon Associate I earn a % of qualifying purchases at no cost to you.*
Visit my website: www.TheSmartHom...
Follow me on Twitter: @TheHookUp1
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.c...
Support my channel:
Patreon: / thehookup
Music by www.BenSound.com

[@CK-rg2ku]

Your channel is really the perfect mix between showing projects that are somewhat sophisticated, but on the other hand still focussing on what makes sense. Always something to learn when watching your videos. And by the way: My set of smart home projects looks very similar. The only thing I haven't done yet is individually addressable LED light strips. I think this will be one of my next projects...

[@KerrickLong]

I never thought about the use of smart switches and a centralized controller to join non-electrically-connected circuits together. That's brilliant!

[@paulhibbert]

Can't believe I haven't seen this before!! Wow, what a home. I am so jealous. Utterly stunning house and the automation is so tidy. Congrats man.

[@TheHookUp]

Thanks Paul!

[@RogerDonald]

This video is not way too long. It is extremely informative and very well put together. Thank you.

[@bobhunter7767]

Thanks for this discussion you have helped me make up my mind! Top of my list has to be a strong secure WiFi. Without that nothing else works! Then smart home heating/thermostats Then whole home audio linked linked to a smart TV Then security, door locks, door sensors, bells & video Finally automated widows & lights

[@joonasfi]

I loved the boyish grin you had when you were showing off the motorized couch recliner mechanism :D

[@AlexaMorales]

Excellent point that the couch motors could injure someone (child, elderly, intoxicated) if automated!

[@emritramharracksingh]

Where did you get that couch?! Can someone link me something similar

[@matthaisB]

I have never seen a couch with that top panel adjustable like that! I must get one.

[@AlGoYoSu]

Went from a manual to motorized couch. It is a danger if you have small children or animals that could get underneath. We don't recline when the baby is in the room to avoid this. Ended up popping a large ball that rolled underneath the legs when they were up. The ball popped right away when the legs came down. One big difference between manual and electric is how long it takes to get out your seat from reclined. With a manual recliner you are out within a second, an electric one will take several. Also may be worth plugging into a battery backup if you're in an area with frequent power outages. Don't want to get caught stuck reclined when the power is out for an extended period of time. I have the Malmaison-Ash, it's comfortable, affordable, and the seats are plenty large.

[@TheDanielsherer]

I think your comments about the blinds are insightful. We have more than a few places where we just leave the blinds/shutters closed all the time because it's not worth the hassle to go around to all of them twice a day to open/close. But if we had them automated...

[@gabrieldaley5881]

Thank you for your honest assessment of each of these. In truth, I looked at the Sense energy monitor as well because it looked like something that could provide value. I am glad to hear that it has issues BEFORE I purchased. Thank you again.

[@Kevin-mb4xf]

Thank you for making this video. I love how you focus on usability, rather than seeing tech all over the place. It feels like a real house, rather than a showcase! Keep making these great video's!

[@RutgerSmit-RutgerSmit]

Double thumbs up for the countdown bar during the sponsor message 👍👍

[@TheHookUp]

I think it actually might make people more likely to watch it? If you know it's only 30 seconds long, less need to skip through it.

[@RutgerSmit-RutgerSmit]

@@TheHookUp definitely. Open and transparent, which makes it less/not sneaky and thus less ok-skip-this-sponsored-shit. Otherwise the viewer would think 'oh well, how long is he gonna talk about this stuff? Let me just forward 3 minutes, that would be sufficient' 😆

[@DaveMorris128]

For someone nerdy like me who has spent tons of money, committed countless DIY hours, and constantly angered my wife when things dont "just work" with a dumb switch, this video was the most useful single digital document Ive seen on the broad DIY smart homeifyng topic. very thorough, Well done. I have about half of the tech you mentioned and I know which ones I'm not gonna waste time on (did all of S, A , and Bs only C I have is the thermostat) next project will still be permanent outdoor RGB though

[@MikeHarris1984]

Having a good network is the #1 task for any smart home! I have a Full Ubiquiti network, but with over 120+ IP's, my smart home is very chatty, so you must have the switches, router, internet, and AP's that can support your activity.

[@SW-tech]

You might like the Tailwind smart garage door opener. It adds smartness to motorised doors. We've got it on our gates and it works realy well. Defeinitely worth the money and supre-convenient.

[@ethanchow9170]

We leave all the curtains open since living on the 4th floor with each unit being 2 stories means privacy isn’t an issue. Considered making the windows auto open and tying that with the ecobee as a ventilator accessory to allow for climate control by drawing in outside air. We already have a fan at each window that kicks on when the temp is low outside to remind someone to manually open the window.

[@Frraksurred]

For someone who hasn't started down this road yet, but would like too, this is perfect. Thanks for your helpful info, as always.

[@sysaeed7219]

Frraksurred how long it. Will last

[@MrPipe007]

@Chuck dude well thanks for telling him on the internet

[@DawnDupponmi]

Genuinely confused....you put WiFi network in the same tier as pool automation and RGB landscape lighting??

[@shubinternet]

Yeah, I think just about everything in that house runs on wifi. That’s gotta be S-Tier, for sure.

[@JoshuaSaundersAtLarge]

I love my garage door automation. I enhanced it with LED indicators in the house so i can see immediately if someone left the door open. I also get phone reminders. Strong A for me. Yes you helped me 😊

[@msdlebeau]

Where's the fish tank vid!! 🙌 let us see the fishies home automation vid!! 👏👏👏 Incredible work, man!! I've never known ANYTHING about automating.. ever. And now I went from searching a "how to LED strip" I was trouble shooting...to 3 things in my Amazon cart and a new obsession...! This is super neat. Thanks so much!!!!! (Also, for real about that fish tank video... 😅)

[@TheHookUp]

They are pretty cool. I have a custom script that uses the weather outside to change the lights on the fishtank to simulate (sunny days look sunny, rainy days are dimmer).

[@msdlebeau]

OMGGG that's nuts! Thanks so much!!

[@dash1dash2]

Smart thermostats are extremely relevant wherever heat is used at least 30-50% of the year. You can save hundreds in the first year of using one.

[@FrankGraffagnino]

oh, another video i'd love to see you do... a shootout of doorbell cameras!!!! doorbell cameras that don't rely on the cloud are hard to come by!

[@caddy67]

In case you still have no bell, try the Eufy Doorbell with the Homebase that acts as a chime and storage. I have it for a year now. I'm really happy with it.

[@MrBundy15]

Sooooo, I’m stationed in Germany and stuck in base housing, been in base housing for 10 years straight. Retirement is right around the corner and I can’t wait to buy/build my house and smart it out.

[@NOTORIOUS404]

I'm under construction(ie: the house) right now and after seeing this I can't help but wonder how hard it would be to add certain functionality if it wasn't accounted for early in the construction process. Awesome stuff!

[@jacked_geek]

I love your home design centered around functionality vs being cool. I have been using smart home since 2013 and I have had my fair share of garbage products that is cool but not practical. The one I really want to do is the blinds. Definitely will be checking out your blinds videos

[@markferrick10]

Very nice Rob. Gives a good perspective on the your ranking of each project and WHY. Thank you. P.S. your house is way to clean. ;-)

[@TheHookUp]

Haha, I actually think it's a bit of a mess right now with all of the patio construction.

[@Monsterpala]

smart switches are underrated. The ability to control a switch without having to add a wire is giving so much flexibility and savin a lot of money. You want a timer, add one to the smart home. Combine funktions but most importantly you can add another physical remote switch and place it anywhere. Motion sensors, door/window sensors and temperature sensors can be added. Not to mention outdoor motion detection, wich in my opinion provide more security then cameras.

[@BeardedTechGuy]

They really are! In my kitchen I have 4 individual light switches to control different banks of lights. With the smart switches I can double tap up to turn all 4 on at once or double tap down for all 4 to turn off. This is a great time saver when I want all the lights on or off. There's also times were my hands are full and I cant turn the light off in passing, being able to ask Google to do it is really helpful. I also have lights on timers based on the sunset / sunrise so I don't have to turn them on and off every night. Good stuff

[@colepascua]

"maybe it's not that flashy as some of the smart home tours..." Me: looks at my manual switches and lights 😅😅😅 This is a dream house! I hope I get there too in the near future!

[@alexmasso6759]

Best video I have seen in a long time. Thank you!!!

[@maurosgarage]

your going to blow up soon. Trust me./ the youtube algorithm just picked you up.... congrats and thank you for your awesome videos.

[@stang70man]

I understand the frustration many experience with a standalone Sense Home Energy Monitor but coupled with Home Assistant, the Kasa emulation and several other power monitoring smart plugs it's become an important piece of my home energy monitoring. I use a power monitoring smart plug to catch those devices Sense can't seem to find and the Kasa emulation to pass data between Sense and Home Assistant.

[@lindenmeyer11]

I have a Project suggestion, Smart Shower!! An Electronic valve opening and closing water flow, and an Electronic mixer valve controling the temperature! That is a project i personally wanna take. Cheers! :)

[@nramos33]

Kohler has that. Although, I feel it's a bit much and I'd rather not combine water, electronics, and walls. Having a shower ready saves me a few seconds and like 1 calorie turning a handle. Then, you run the risk of others messing up your settings and yeah...idk. But if you want to do it, by all means do it!

[@paddledogs]

No Tivo? for us that's the best thing in the house. That and X10 was where I started. Also how about a look at your workbench where you do all your device upgrades.

[@TheRealAnthony_real]

I would also add to this BLE room presence detection with pi zero ... That would entirely change the way you can automate stuff ... even if you are in quarantine ;))

[@TheHookUp]

I actually mentioned that in the script, but cut it out when editing. Even if room based detection worked well I’m not sure I’d want it. There’s just no “typical” thing that I do every time I enter a room and I think it would be more of an annoyance, just my opinion.

[@TheRealAnthony_real]

@@TheHookUp yes .. it can be an annoyance depending on the automations you do .. I find out so many times that there is nobody in the particular room and TV is on lights on etc.

[@drewg742]

Excellent video, and the timer on the sponsorship portion is so appreciated. Well done sir.

[@WireShark]

Very nice video, congrats on the nifty automation you put together. I have to disagree with the smart thermostat ranking. My smart thermostat and wireless zone valves have paid for themselves the first 2 years, I cut my heating cost off the bat by 30% in the winter month. You probably only use your thermostat for cooling/AC. You should try to factor into the heating/cooling trigger geofence enter events (create multiple fences at different distances), GPS distance from home, humidity and temperature. If you have one external AC unit serving multiple inside units focus on the rooms you're most likely to use first. I only trigger a 21k btu AC unit in the living room when I'm returning home on a hot day 25-30 minutes before arrival (based on GPS distance).

[@TerraMagnus]

I had the Eufy doorbell for about a month. Didn't like it. It doesn't record 24x7 even though it's hard wired. I switched to the UniFi Protect doorbell. WAY better. And it gives me sensors & an RTSP feed for Home Assistant integration. Home Assistant presents it to Apple HomeKit so I get the cool features around HomePods chiming and AppleTV showing the view automatically when someone rings the doorbell.

[@TheHookUp]

Ah, yeah, that Doorbell is not made for 24/7 recording.

[@nwilliams1022]

That's a great use of automation. I was wondering if you knew of any physical remotes that would control smart devices. I guess I'm thinking of something similar to the kind that used to come with the 3 pack remote outlets they sold on amazon. My primary use case is I would like to use smart switches for my shopvac in the garage and I would like to have a few switches around in different locations. The dash hack would have worked but amazon discontinued those. Thanks for all the great automation videos.

[@RubenKelevra]

I'm surprised that you don't use color temperature changing LEDs in the whole house. That would be my top tier Smarthome feature, apart from connecting devices like the TV to light modes etc. and of course the roborock vacuum cleaner with a mop :)

[@NoTechHacker]

I was mostly agreeing until you go to indoor RGB’s. I’ve loved colored lights since I was kid and it still brings me a ton of joy to have them now as an adult. Not really worried about whether or not they’re tacky. Color is life, especially in my home studio. :-)

[@chefbennyj]

Hmmm.... Networking in the B tier? I might have to disagree. Networking, be it hub or modem, is the backbone. Is it not?

I guess the grade is a result of cost/use. The unifi system is quite expensive, i recently upgraded from Google wifi (5 devices) to the unifi system with 4 PRO APs, 3 switches, and the USG. And yes, i consider it to be worth the money i spent on it, but on the other hand, i did it to get PoE+, VLAN for IoT/guests/and in the studio apartment i am renting out in the basement. And ofcourse to get presence for non-companion app using persons. So in a home automation perspective, it is a hefty pricetag for what you get, if you are not diving in full on, i would probably not recommend getting such a pricy solution either, at least not sto start with

[@liambowers666]

@ the unifi is expensive? It beats everything else in the market. You literally just need their AP's, not their switch and USG (router/Firewall) and put the controller either on a PC you always have running or even a raspberry PI. I think proper Wifi should be in S. Your smart home is going to struggle unless you upgrade from the ISP's included Wifi on the router (still use it for routing/FW, just disable wifi).

[@TheHookUp]

The idea behind “S” tier is that they should be in every home, not just tech focused homes. My parents are totally fine with their WiFi from the ISP, but a robotic vacuum would be high impact. Even though robotic vacuums are definitely considered smart home gear, they could easily be the only gadget in your house and still be just as effective.

[@Aikano9]

Google sent me three Google Home Minis for some reason ~3 years ago. Have pretty much exclusively used them to turn on and off the light.

[@PennyAfNorberg]

I live in a apartment and without kids for the moment. I have some ikea trådlös and an harmony connected to a HA now and my near plan is living room shades z-wave (we use a projector), Ambilight 3 sides of screen. A dinner table lamp which will be z-wave. I had a automatic vacuum but it bugged some, I might get it again later. In the future I might add masking to the frame.

[@servant74]

Your vids are some of my favorites.

[@TheHookUp]

Thanks!

[@thomasr1051]

Found your from Linus tech tips! Hopefully restrictions ease and your able to make an appearance as he upgrades his house

[@chimeranzl9147]

Very similar to my house, except I don't have so much LED lighting ;-) I'd agree with a lot of those ratings, and especially Roborock S5 vacuum definitely a good buy (at least, my wife thinks so!) A lot of my home automation is customised via ESP WiFi boards too (mostly Wemos D1 mini's) - like one that does Wifi to IR for front door lock, an ESP that's wired into the house alarm that detects if PIRs are triggered and responds via certain rules (eg: if in 'away mode' and PIR is triggered it will send a notification to my phone, if kids PIR is triggered at night then flash our ensuite lights 3 times) It is all tied into Alexa as well, with groups to perform a sequence of actions so I can say for example "Alexa, turn on movie night" so she will turn on the TV, set it to Netflix, dim the lounge lights to 20% and turn off kitchen and dining lights. Or "Alexa, good night" - she will turn off all living area and outdoor area lights, close the blinds if they're open, turn off the TV, turn off the Magic Mirror, lock the front door, turn on the hallway sensor light for 30 seconds (so we can see our way to the bedroom) and so on. The one thing I do need to automate is curtains. I have blinds in hallway, kids rooms and rumpus etc all automated, but have not been able to find a cost effective curtain motor for the living area. One thing I'd add to that list you should check out - if you have a heat pump, is Ambiclimate. This is Wifi to IR smart temperature controller for your heat pump basically with a phone app, really good for controlling room temperature, via Alexa or scheduled on/off etc. Basically I think home automation becomes useful moreso when you can perform a series of actions in one go.

[@anonimo_surfeador]

I didn't really need to see this. Now I have more projects added to my to do list. It's nice to see setups similar to mine.

[@yarnykh]

Thank you for the interesting tour. Could you make a video what automation scenarios you use. For the example, I have automated recommendation to open window and rollers when rooms temperature is higher than outside, pollution level is low and the sun is on another side of building. Second one is to notice me by email and sms, when pollution level is high. Do you have this kind of complicated scenarios ?

[@Alphasig336]

I love my MYQ garage door opened and for $20 infinitely worth it

[@chriswalker9350]

'Smart homes' - adding unneeded overly complicated and expensive technology to simple mechanical systems in order to convince people to replace working appliances. One of the most idiotic concepts yet imagined by marketing ghouls.

[@sikkepossu]

How much time it takes to maintain and upkeep all this technology in your house? How often you have to reset, reboot, switch off and on again something? How often you lose your temper when something is not working AGAIN!!?

[@TheHookUp]

Not a lot. Last week we had 3 hour power outage and my server battery backup lasted through while my network ups ran out of juice, when I came home nothing was working and I needed a full power cycle to get things up again. Those occasions are few and far between though.

[@wantafastz28]

You should give brultech a try for power monitoring....so so so much better

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Rob.

[@adarlington]

For me, smart switches are pretty important. I don't like relying on an Alexa (or other assistants) to deal with lighting. I think anyone in my house (including guests) should be able to use the lights as they normally do, which is why smart switches are so useful. But in addition to lighting, you can use them for other automations. For example, in any room of my house, if I double click the light switch, my Roborock comes and cleans that room. (I have normal scheduling for the vaccuum, but it's nice to be able to summon it to clean a specific room without having to pull out my phone.) I also have lots of other automations and functionality built into the switches (timers, linking electrically separated lights, etc.). Smart switches are the most-used smart home devices in my house.

[@adarlington]

Also, I love your channel! Thank you for all the work you put into sharing your knowledge!

[@TheHookUp]

No doubt switches are great. I think the problem comes when someone says "I need to make all the switches smart" and then goes out and spends $500 on a bunch of switches that really didn't need to be automated.

[@dustinfigueroa1205]

What kind of fish tank are those? They're beautiful.

[@johnwalker3180]

Congrats on your subscriber milestone! I've been a fan of your content for a while now. Can you share how you automate the initial brightness of your MJ dimmers? I've been wanting to do that but haven't been able to find how to do it. Is it a Tasmota command or setting that you can control with MQTT without turning on the light? Thanks in advance!

[@jonathanochs8552]

Blind automation's are an "S" IMHO. They set the mood of the room, save money on electricity by closing and blocking out the sun at the correct time of day, and allow blinds that would go years without ever being touched to actually have purpose. Other flashy, look at my home automation videos on youtube just annoy me and are generally made by some newb who doesn't even know what Home Assistant is. Not the case with The Hook Up! Great video!

[@TheHookUp]

I really love our blinds automations, so nice just to set it and forget it.

[@buildwithtom]

I've watched a lot of your videos but the nod to dark souls with your grading system seal it for me. Great vid!

[@rchltrrs]

Where is your couch from? I think my husband would love it!

[@georgeshu321]

I would like to know this as well!

[@georgeshu321]

I found it!! www.jeromes.com/furniture/living-room/reclining-sectionals/jensen-power-reclining-sectional

[@TheHookUp]

We bought it from Rooms to Go in Florida. It's called the "Sofia Vergara Turano".

[@crispyair3338]

Mans cosplaying Uncle Roger LMAO

[@coriding]

Awesome review, thank you! If you were running new cabling in a home today, any big recommendations either high or low voltage besides CAT 6 for cameras? There's now a lot of wireless stuff that makes it unnecessary for smart home automation, so I'm torn on what I should hard wire other than that.

[@mertcapkin7263]

is there a video of the outdoor roller shades with stepper motors project?

[@TheHookUp]

It’s an older video: DIY Motorized Roller Shades + Wireless MQTT Smart Home Integration kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZSygGBujcRgiM0

[@riffdood]

Nice, great video! Can you detail how you attached the valance to the Zemismart curtain track? I'm thinking of doing the same thing in my living room but concerned about the added weight on the track.

[@TheHookUp]

My Zemismart curtain track came with brackets that had a L shaped bracket at the end to attach a valence.

[@Dazdigo]

wireless power is a myth. The amount of losses makes it unreasonable. The only wireless power that makes sense is solar.

[@khatuntsovmikhail6223]

Disagree with smart thermostat conclusion. It is important! Especially if you live in cold climate.

[@joeny1980]

Yeah for sure. I have Nest E-Thermostats which are about $100 (he mentioned $200). You can disable presence sensing (Home/Away) if its annoying. But just the ability to say "Alexa turn the temperature to 74" is great. Otherwise, you almost never touch it. Simply not needed. It learns your schedule, it learns how long it takes your home to heat vs outside temperature. Overall saves you money.

[@bokenrosie]

Great video. Was hoping to find a list of products at the end. Especially the shelly stuff that I have not used. I've been with Insteon and would consider changing.

[@enockroki6370]

very helpful

[@pingpt]

I'm surprised you don't have an electrical standing desk :) I'm sure that's probably on the list

[@TheHookUp]

I’ve thought about it, but all the desks in the house have a more built in quality and I didn’t want to lose that.

[@garyjs3]

Always awesome to see other peoples' setups! However, one thing I noticed you don't have is motion sensors. I found motion to be a huge improvement over switches/voice. You walk in the room, lights turn on - and of course to varying brightness depending on time of day. Turn off after a while when there's no motion detected. With some logic, you can also make it so when you turn the lights off manually (via voice, etc) the home automation system knows to pause the motion activation. Motion is also useful for other things, like security or just checking for occupancy for various other automations. Still, thank you for the overview of your home and experiences with different systems.

[@haltsmaul.]

I feel like having motion sensors for lighting in a hallway, basement, fridge etc makes sense, since you don't stay there for as long as the timer you could set for those lights. But I think you are not considering how challenging it might be to reliably determine if my office, bedroom etc is occupied.

[@atvking535]

@@haltsmaul. I use motion sensors (Xiaomi aqara linked to HA via z2m) in my home office and various bedrooms and they work very well as long as they are pointed in the right direction (i.e in a way that includes my desk chair or bed). Where I do have trouble sometimes is in my bathroom. Having a shower can be an issue as the motion sensor is not able to see into the shower and the lights will turn off after some time unless I turn on "shower mode" in my HA instance, which I often forget to do.

[@robk5969]

@@atvking535 maybe use a moisture sensor, with the probes in the bottom corner of the shower or a humidity sensor (then you can keep the exhaust fan on long enough)

[@RalfVogler]

@@atvking535 I installed Aqara door sensors and increased the timeout for motion to 5 mins when the bathroom door is shut. The motion sensor reports every 10s, timeout handling is done in node-red. I also installed a flow meter to track shower usage which has the benefit that the light will not turn off (even w/o motion) if water is running. Kitchen and hallway are also motion controlled and work without problems. Just being able to walk around and not having to toggle switches is at the very top of my smart home convenience list. github.com/vogler/smart-home/

[@mattzimmerman5269]

Sounds like you don't have pets at home 😁

[@akbalmcdozeface]

Great video I think we're due for a 2023 update. Love your work

[@nestordiaz4839]

Can you please explain the wiring\setup for your garage lighting? This is exactly what I need. Pleaaasseee

[@smithleon]

Great vid. I have a bunch of those things but not a RoboVac so really interesting that you put one of those up high. I didn't quite follow the Alexa groups you had to play music downstairs though. Could you explain that? I have Alexa devices grouped by ROOM and then have 3 speaker groups; downstairs, upstairs and everywhere, but you seemed to be using traditional room style groups instead of speaker groups - is that right? Many thanks.

[@michielvanschoor]

Opensprinkler is also a good option

[@clay3094]

I came here from a Linus Tech Tips video, Keep up the great content!

[@noahcanoa]

Loved your vid 😀 Can you make a vidio of a cheap blu iris set up😀👍?

[@vsanssouci556]

Is there any possibility of you reviewing BackStreet Surveillance ProKit8-3KCombo in the near future. I was very impressed with their Proview NVR software demo.

[@johnmerryman1825]

I use a Brultech GreenEyeMonitor to monitor my electricity usage by circuit (with individual CTs per circuit). It has been VERY useful in lowering my electricity bill, and keeping tabs on my many systems - especially when I'm out of town. It has 32 channels for monitoring, plus provisions for pulse counts (which I use for a water meter) and OneWire temp sensors (which I use for monitoring the HVAC in/out temp)

[@senses70]

Great.... until you have a power cut and all your toys are useless!

[@fantasma62]

Believe it or not, I’m extremely interested in the garage lighting. You didn’t really get into it much. Can you expand a bit? My garage lighting is just a little better than a dungeon...

[@nestordiaz4839]

Saammmeeeee.

[@diez66]

I have a motorised couch, love it. My only problem was, which it is't; early on, sitting fully reclined one day, the house phone rang and previously, "slam your legs down, get up and answer" now were were sat there and it took a real long moment to find the control and then wait for it to, oh so, slowly grind down so we could get up to answer the phone. First World Problems eh!!

[@Coecoebrown]

From experience, yes, couch actuators can indeed crush bones :)

[@TheHookUp]

Ouch

[@bitterrotten]

This video’s thumbnail has John Cleese Rat Race energy.

[@ConradCowlrick]

great vid. Interesting and helpful!

[@axa.axa.]

Florida man with yearlong outdoor led lights. Now im understanding the value of an HOA.

[@maximusutube]

I used a sonoff to replace my broken remote. I also saw your other video on replacing pentair lights with individual addressable led. Can I keep the sonoff and still go for your led light solution

[@EricHicks]

I like how you built a lot of functionality into the light switches so they also trigger other lights and different light levels over the day. That's something I'm going to start looking into.

[@UltimateTechHub]

Really good video. I am a tech junky. My house has a bunch of tech and home automation. I am currently in post with making a similar video. But mine is a simple tour of my network rack!! Good job and just subbed.

[@loicpiernas2529]

Euuaaark amazon echo and privacy is a concern in the same video

[@TerraMagnus]

This was a really solid video. Lots of great ideas (and great warnings). I, too, find indoor RGB to be tacky for grownup spaces. But I've found one use that I like: circadian lighting in the darker corners of the house. I put an RGB bulb into an accent lamp and let Home Assistant keep it running 24x7 via the Circadian Lighting integration (via HACS). It's a great way to keep a little flavor of natural lighting in a room that normally wouldn't get it. At night you can have it shut off, or it dims down to an effective night light. On security cameras, the added pain of running ethernet cabling for PoE cameras is very worth it, I think, over the apparent ease of installation offered by battery-powered cameras. I'm pretty excited to get into the Home Assistant Companion for macOS. It offers up some sensors that will let me automate things like turning on my LED soft box and an "on the air" light outside my office when my webcam is on.

[@PrismaticSpray]

'capitalist hell-scape tech review channel leaves man questioning whether his species deserves to exist beyond the present'

[@AlexaMorales]

I have always worried that home vaccuums would be too loud? How long would it run & how loud would a Roomba or equivalent be for 1100 square feet in an old bungalow with many small rooms?

[@chrisc9213]

Good video, hey what is the brand of couch?

[@TheHookUp]

We bought it from Rooms to Go in Florida. It's called the "Sofia Vergara Turano".

[@eclecticlife]

Rob, you should do a video evaluating 3D printers. :) That's would be so useful to all of us.

[@alanmccormick6911]

Hey, is that a Rosewill case in the Startech rack? I have the same case, but I was disappointed that the sliding rails didn't fit with the width of the case. I believe the cases is slightly out of standard spec for width. It looks like you mounted it directly without rails? But, surely you have it secured to the rear posts too? If you can tell me what hardware you used to mount the rosewill case to that rack, I'd appreciate it.

How about buying a bunch of Shelley's power monitoring switches instead of relying on the power sense detecting everything automatically? You wouldn't be able to cover everything, but you could easily keep tabs on the most power hungry appliances.

[@JJnATX]

second the vacuum; we went from vacuuming about once a week to once every 6 weeks. Another use for LED lighting is providing lighting in a stair case when all the lights are out.

[@tylersheehy3918]

Expand on reliable security cameras please

[@jwunder246]

Awesome vid, how have the diy horizontal blinds been holding up since you installed them?

[@TheHookUp]

Going great! We use them every day, no problems yet.

[@gabrielflores9565]

Thank you for making this video. I love how you focus on usability, rather than seeing tech all over the place. It feels like a real house, rather than a showcase! Keep making these great video's!

[@TheHoustonian25]

this smart home mad my smart home look like some rookie stuff ....wow the allseason rgb lighting is hot !!! i wanna do that one !!!

[@foakingphelp]

No alarm system??? I am eager to find out your recommendation as I'm looking for something I can hopefully tie into Home Automation Assistant and not attach to a cloud. If no single system, what automation and devices do you use/recommend?

[@smartassist9700]

Do you have plant water sensor and water pump setup?