As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

what's up guys i'm ben from authentech,
and welcome to the ultimate smart home episode one now obviously smart home
tech is always changing and advancing and innovating so this will be an
ongoing series make sure you subscribe so you don't miss future episodes second
this isn't gonna be one of those multi-million dollar futuristic smart
home investments that's just too crazy and out of budget instead these are
mostly semi affordable tech gadgets that you can buy yourself set it up yourself
and that way you can slowly build out your own smart home over time I'll show
you all the smart gadgets that I've come to love and use each and every day
alongside some smart automated routines that I've set up a great way to have
some fun and streamline your systems all product and video links that I'll
mention will be down below without further ado let's jump right in first
and foremost the essential brains of the whole system now I went with the Samsung
smartthings hub and specifically the z-wave protocol the basic idea is you
want a hub that's as open as possible one that plays well with others we want
freedom of future expand ability to use other companies products and services
down the line both ZigBee and a z-wave are fantastic protocols that support a
wide range of different products the smart things app works quite well here
are some devices that I have in my home with simple on/off toggles here this is
a GE plug-in dimmer outlet Merry Christmas everyone
so we can easily set dimming here as well this is my Bose sound bar which
actually has z-wave built-in so it connects with my smartthings hub that
means I can control it in the app as well
volume presets loads of other stuff one last quick example I really like the
August smart lock system check out my full review here and since it has ziwei
built in we can control it as well through the app and add a quick widget
control on my Android home screen lock or unlock my door under automation we
can create routines which are kind of like presets of multiple tasks like here
in my studio I have a few lighting setups studio 2
a chill calm IT studio 3 is filming time so certain lights switch on and off here
in the studio I use a small variety of smart switches a few Wemo Wi-Fi switches
that I had laying around from an old video review these work ok and super
quick you might be wondering well those don't have z-wave built-in right well
you're correct however another great feature of Samsung smartthings it can
still add a ton of other non z-wave devices and services like if this then
that and lifx bulbs and a whole lot more the smartthings hub is actually fairly
cheap the latest 3rd gen model is currently only 63 bucks so since we're
starting here in the office studio a few other gadgets I like inside the wall are
a few GE z-wave light switches these weren't great one other gadget I was
testing was the bond smart home controller I feel like it has a ton of
potential but it's still working out some of its bugs for a little while I
had it controlling my ceiling fans throughout my home using old-school
radio frequencies and when it worked it was pretty neat I could simply voice
control my fans to a certain speed it's a cool idea
my current smart thermostat is the Eco b4 which I really like I have three
extra room sensors spread throughout my home and those are helpful for averaging
out temperatures and then placing higher priority in certain rooms like the baby
room at night the Eco B also has a LexA built right in which is pretty sweet but
more on this shortly the other central hub system that I prefer is Google home
now I've tried Alexa and it has some benefits but overall I think Google is
way more powerful and advanced however I appreciate the healthy competition so
here in the kitchen I'm using the latest Google Home Hub
it's 149 and has this beautiful little touchscreen display built in loudspeaker
with voice or touch I can control my other smart devices like lights and more
I love the visual multiple timers when cooking or baking I love being able to
see who's at my front door when the doorbell rings
also very cool Google recently released a new routines feature to Google home
app I actually made a whole video showcasing how to set it up here you can
customize preset routines to simplify your day like Google good morning and
I'll automatically do X Y & Z one of my favorites Google I'm heading out and
then it could auto lock the door set thermostat to away arm the security
system turn off all your lights and a whole lot more also here in the kitchen
I have a couple z-wave switches but this one is a dimmer switch and then I
installed some LED lighting over and under cabinet nothing too fancy but with
the dimmer switch I made sure it was compatible with voice or in the app I
can set it down to different dim percentages also I can set automatic
routines like at sunset have it auto dim down to 10% this is nice moving over to
the living room area I have a Logitech Harmony hub it's basically like a
universal IR hub blaster and it can control all sorts of entertainment
center devices and then there's this one controller it's like a universal remote
it can control the TV and sound bar and more with voice control through if this
then that if I say google turn on the TV it will use the harmony to turn on both
systems a little while back I purchased the Bose sound bar now it's not cheap
the price is actually way expensive in my opinion but it actually sounds really
nice as that great virtual surround sound and it can be controlled through
apps like its own harmony z-wave and more I have some outside laser Christmas
lights and right now I'm using the Neo z-wave plug it's probably the smallest
profile out there and probably the cheapest unit out right now though it's
still not super cheap like 30 bucks each which is kind of lame but I can't wait
till these z-wave controllers come down to like five or ten bucks a pop and you
might be wondering why don't I just buy those cheaper Wi-Fi plugs on Amazon
which they are more affordable but you got to remember each device that we add
on to our Wi-Fi network can slowly bog down the system over time so for me
personally I don't like to have a ton of Wi-Fi devices if not necessary so from
my set up I'll use ziwei as a more efficient protocol for those
little smart home gadgets and while we're upfront here I really really like
my front door setup my smart doorbell camera that I've been using is the nest
hello it has some really sweet features like a super high quality HDR wide-angle
camera 24/7 non-stop cloud recording facial recognition and announcements on
my Google homes check out my full review here and then on the other side of the
door I really like my August door lock and key pad system it's secure fast easy
way to lock or unlock my door from anywhere in the world using my phone and
there's a lots more features check out my in-depth review here in the laundry
room and garage I have a couple of these First Alert two on one z-wave smoke
detector and carbon monoxide alarms now they're not super cheap at about 45
bucks each but safety and peace of mind is sort of important these are fantastic
because if the alarm goes off and I'm not at home I can still be notified on
my phone wherever I'm at and while we're stepping out into the garage I have a
few more fun and helpful smart home gadgets here as well on the door I have
a GE door hinge sensor which activates each time the doors open or closed
there's a lot of fun things we can do with a door sensor like this for example
I have it notify me on my phone whenever the doors left open longer than five
minutes also right here at the doorstep I converted over a few more smart light
switches a few these control my outside lights so from the smart things app I
create a sunset routine so then every evening at sunset these certain lights
pop on and then at sunrise they auto turn off up on the ceiling I have a
massive array of these crazy bright LED light panels they easily daisy chain
together fast to install they're actually pretty affordable and I made a
whole video on these as well a very awesome smart home gadget that I use
multiple times every day is my garage door opener now at first I tried that
popular go control z-wave opener but sadly it seems kind of outdated it often
won't work with newer garage door openers for security reasons I tried
multiple ways of hooking it even tried soldering it to a circuit
board and nothing worked so instead I went with the Mike you smart garage door
opener from Chamberlain it's not super cheap but not too expensive I found one
on Amazon warehouse deal for like sixty four bucks install is easy which I
appreciate and though unfortunately I can't control it from my smart things
app they have their own app which works fine we can open or close the door a view history feed even add custom
alerts like notify me when the door is left open longer than 15 minutes I also
appreciate they have a web dashboard with full control here as well and last
but definitely not least if any of you have a yard sprinkler system you've got
to check out their ratio it's a smart Wi-Fi sprinkler controller with super
easy install and then a ton of powerful controls and customizations in their app
scheduling your sprinklers has never been easier and with finer tune controls
like local weather skips and intervals soaking cycles each watering zone has
crazy detail like grass or shrub type spray heads soil even the slopes for
water runoff and soil permeation they too have a nice web application just
look at this there's root depth crop coefficient nazil inches per hour it's
amazing and insanely detailed okay so that's my smart home tech episode of one
it's always changing and adapting new gadgets coming in and out make sure you
stick around for more smart home videos like this in the future all links to
products and videos will be down below let me know down in the comments if you
want to know more info on any of these products or how they're set up until I
see you next time let's live authentic