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In this video we will go over the Best Smart
Home Automation Ideas. Ones that are actually helpful and avoid the
ones you will pay a bunch of money for and never really use! There are 5 basic parts of Home Automation. 1) A device acts as a Trigger (Like a motion
detector) 2) A device that completes an action when triggered (Like a Smart Vacuum Cleaner)
3) A device that can do both (Like a Door Lock. It can be locked by something triggering it
or Locking it can trigger something else).

4) Apps that get everything and all the devices
to work together and do a sequence of actions. I only use devices that work with three apps
the Stringify app, the IFTTT app, and the SmartThings App. And 5) A hub for the all the devices to communicate
with, so it can then communicate with the three smart Apps. In my home I mostly use the Smartthings Hub. Lets start with my Door Sensors because they
are consistent triggers. They work almost 100% of the time which makes
them very reliable and really effective. My favorite use for them is in my balcony
sliding door. I have it set to turn on my Outdoor strip
lights to a blue color every time someone opens the door but I preset stringify to do
this only at nighttime . Now, you don't just have to use the door sensor to control them,
you can also use the smartthings app or any trigger device that works with any of the
three smart apps. Now these same type of door sensors can also
turn on my pantry light every time I open the pantry door.

It is really helpful as this is one of the
lights people forget to turn off all the time and I know I want my pantry light to turn
on every time I am in the Pantry. The pantry lights turn on by triggering my
smart light switch. So I can still also use the light switch to
toggle them on and off too. As another idea you can use your door sensors
on your window for security and hook them up to a alarm siren. This helps keep intruders out and can in some
cases keep sneaky teenagers in. This works because the siren is also a smart
device. The siren works as a good deterrent because
it has a strobe effect as well as the siren that goes off.

IF you don't want the siren going off every
time you open the window, in stringify just set them to go off only during certain hours
or when your house is set in away mode. And I'll explain that in a little bit. Now this is my favorite smart home device
and this might surprise a lot of people. It is a smart outlet with a power button on
the front. It really takes your smart home to the next
level. The beauty of this device is that you can
turn most dumb things into smart things. For example, if you plug this normal Humidifier
into a smart outlet you can now turn it on and off a variety of ways: from the smartthings
app, your voice, on a schedule or use whatever other trigger you want to turn it on with.

But you can also just turn it on and off from
the power button on the outlet and this is really important if you have people that won't
be comfortable with smart appliances. This is one of the 2 important reasons for
the power button on the outlet. Take this space heater for example you can
start heating a room up in the morning before you even get out of bed by telling google
home, or scheduling it in stringify, pressing on in the smartthings app or just press the
physical button on itself. In fact you can smart control the on and off
to any device that can turn on and off by just plugging it in. Let me explain. This fan is turned on. I unplug it, then I plug it back in and it
is still turned on.

Therefore this smart outlet can make this
fan smart. Contrarily this second fan I have is turned
on but when I unplug it then plug it in again it doesn't automatically turn back on so this
device won't become smart with the smart outlet. I have found this to be particularly useful
with curling irons in the house. For example, you can have them on a timer
in stringify that once you turn them on they will automatically turn off in 30 minutes. You could still make sure you didn't leave
it on and turn it off from where ever you are in the world so you don't have to worry
about always leaving a curling iron on. As you can see you can take almost any of
your electric devices and make them somewhat smart.

I even plug my washer and dryer into the outlet. Lets say I want to turn on the washer an hour
before I come home so my clothes don't sit wet all day. Or let's say I want a hot blanket ready when
I get home on a cold night. I don't know. Do whatever you want… that's the point. And here is something crazy.

You can even turn a normal TV into a smart
with just this outlet. I did this with my old TV in my Garage Gym. Then I hooked up a chromecast to it and it
pretty much is a fully smart tv now. More to come on that in just a bit. Now like I said once a device is hooked into
my smartthings network any device can trigger another. So I can literally just use this Smart outlet
button as a smart switch for anything else. Look this outlet has no device plugged into
it. Yet I use stringify so I can turn on this
other light that is plugged into a different smart outlet by pressing the button of the
outlet with nothing plugged into it.

So this means in the morning from my bed I
can just press a button near my bed to start up my coffee maker. In fact this coffee maker wasn't even a smart
coffee maker until I hooked it into an outlet as well. If you want to get really fancy look how nothing
is plugged into this smart outlet. Yet I can literally turn on and off all these
lights and devices including my fireplace by just tapping a button. It can do this because this is a preset I
made in the stringify app. The more you become familiar with Smartthings,
IFTTT and Stringify the more stuff like this you can do.

And it is not that hard. Now here I just did that by pressing a button,
but actually in my house this is my light setting preset for when guests come over. I turn them on, not with a button, but with
my voice sensor! You probably don't call them a voice sensor
though. You probably call them Alexa or Google home,
but when it comes to home automation, to me, these are just sensors that use your voice
to trigger actions. Most of my house is set up to do certain action
sequences in response to my voice command. My fireplace is something I always use to
turn on and off with my voice. In fact it is one of the only devices I use
that doesn't have a physical switch or toggle on and off.

To be honest I had to rig it that way because
my fireplace could only use a special device to plug it into the system to make it smart. Your fireplace may be different. I will link to this device along with every
device I talk about in this video below in the description. And since it works with the three smart apps
anything can control it. I also use my voice sensor to turn on and
off my whole Garage Gym by simply saying it's workout time. It turns on my garage lights, TV, Fan, and
my Garage door. This is the beauty of having everything set
up with the big 3 smart apps: Smartthings, IFTTT, and Stringify. And, I normally don't get any devices that
don't connect to at least one of those three apps. Because If I do I cannot plug them into a
string of events like I did here with my garage gym setup. I do have 2 devices that are exceptions that
I don't use with those 3 apps. The first is my dog feeder. I have it feed my dogs twice a day and I never
worry about feeding my dogs besides that.

It even informs me if there happens to be
an error or doesn't feed them for some reason. You can also control the smart feeder with
your voice, it's app, or a button on it. I like my smart feeder cause its the best
one on the market but I don't love it because it doesn't connect to any of the 3 smart apps.

In Fact, Post below if you know one that does. The next thing I control on a time schedule
is my smart vacuum. Its nice to have a freshly vacuumed house
every morning. Especially with shedding pets. Now when we have guests coming outside of
the schedule I can still control it with it's own app or Alexa. I love this vacuum because it both vacuums
and mops.

Okay if you are ready I am going to show you
something that changed my life. I now control everything on my TV with my
voice through Google Home. To do this I subscribed to YouTube TV to replace
our Cable, I then connected my TV to Chromecast and also set up the Logitech Hub (This hub
controls my TV better than my Smartthings Hub). Using Google Home I am then able to completely
replace the need for the remote and I just tell the tv what show or channel I want to
watch. Or How long to rewind or what time or second
in the show I want to skip to. All other smart TV combinations at this point
are not as good as this setup.

I have another video that gives you more specifics
on this. I will post that video at the end of this
one. And don't worry you can still use your phone
app too to control and surf the TV as well you don't have to use your voice. The biggest expense I have for my smart home
automation are my smart light dimmer switches. I literally switched out every light switch
in my house with a smart dimmer switch. Here you can see I control my chandelier with
my dimmer switch to turn them on off and to increase or decrease the brightness. In case, you aren't already getting the pattern
in this video I can also use my voice or any other trigger to turn them or control them. People ask why I use smart dimmer switches
instead of buying smart light bulbs. First, expensive Smart Light Bulbs you have
to replace when they die or break. Second people always turn the light switches
off that control smart light bulbs and they don't work if the light switch is off.

Third: people that are smartthings illiterate
can still turn on and off the lights without even knowing the difference if you use smart
dimmer switches. Like the outlet button, what is cool about
these switches is that you can have them turn on any device or string of actions you have
preset. Here you can see I can turn 2 separate lights
on with one switch. That entry lamp is controlled with a smart
outlet so now one switch turns on all my lights in my entryway. Or if I want to that switch can control something
completely else as well. I could even unscrew that light bulb and control
just the entry lamp with the switch or really any other device I wanted. For example that light switch can now control
my space heater or turn on all my gym lights if I wanted to control it that way. I do have some smart light bulbs in my home
but those are in areas mostly where I want to switch the color and tone of the light
and not just the brightness. So with smart white light bulbs you can switch
the tone of the white light.

I can make the lights more yellow and subdued
and romantic or more bluish which makes things feel more clean and bright. If all you want to do is change the white
tone I recommend these bulbs. They are less expensive and I will link to
them like everything else in this video, below. Then there are smart colored light bulbs. If you go with colored lights I recommend
going with Philips Hue light bulbs. Their lighting apps are far superior and make
the lights do all sorts of tricks.

Like I can set them as pulsing Christmas lights,
or a fiery lava ambiance, or even give them a lightning bolt effect or I can have them
match the colors that are on my TV. But there are tons of 3rd party apps that
can do much more impressive stuff than even these ideas. Osram bulbs are like Phillips Hue but they
are cheaper and have some different type of bulbs that Philips Hue doesn't.

But once again both work with Smartthings
to simply change the color of light. Arrival or Presence Sensors are the next smartthing
that I use. First off they can work as a beeper to find
your keys… very helpful to me. But they are meant to detect whether you are
present or away from your home. I used them in the past when I have to leave
town I attach them to my dogs collar and they notify me in case my dog gets out. Stringify sends me a notification the dog
is missing if they pass outside the certain present area. Then I can let the dog sitter know right away
if my dog escapes. I also use my arrival sensors to turn on my
outside lights as soon as I get home. And some people use them as a way to make
sure their garage is closed by getting a notification of the garage door's status when your sensor
is detected that you are away from home.

I use them mostly as a conditional device
in stringify. Let me explain what that is. In Stringify you can have lights turn on lets
say… on the condition that it is nighttime. But with these presence detectors you can
have things only happen on the condition that you are home or away, whichever you desire. Here is an Example: my front door locks at
10:30 every night if all my presence detectors are in present mode or in other words if everyone
is home in my house.

Or my windows being opened only triggers an
alarm if all my sensors are set to away. Meaning my sensors are outside of the detectable
presence. Like a presence or arrival sensor I can use
my phones GPS to detect when I have entered or left a larger area than just my home. I use this to trigger my smart thermostat. When my phone enters or leaves a radius from
my home I can have the thermostat turn on or off. This is good cause my thermostat can start
cooling my house a few miles before I get home from work instead of right as I arrive
or being turned on all day. I set this up in the IFTTT app. I recommend other smart thermostats than my
own but this was the only smart one that worked with my house's warranty.

BUT since it works with Smartthings I can
still use my voice, phone, schedules or other devices to control my thermostat. But back to my point you can sort of use your
phones GPS much like an arrival sensor. Both have a few different advantages and disadvantages. My Smart Doorbells are another life changing
device. I can see who is at my door anywhere in the
world to decide if I want to answer or not. This is awesome!! We don't even have to leave the bed to see
if we want to answer the door. Also this device has both a doorbell and motion
detector on it that work as triggers because this works with smartthings as well. So this records any time there is motion or
the door bell is pressed. BUT because this also hooks up to smartthings
you can use it to turn on the lights at when motion is detected at night. Or you can be fancy and have it change the
light color when the doorbell is pressed. I like this one better than Ring Doorbells
even though ring is more popular.

I think it looks better and it doesn't require
a monthly fee like Ring does. And a link to that doorbell is found below
this video. Despite what these doorbell companies claim
they are not that good at catching thieves or for security purposes. I don't really use it as my security camera. Watch my video on security camera setups if
you want to know the best way to do setup for cheap, without a monthly bill, and find
the best camera and and position for security purposes. But also, while I love my security cameras
I don't really use them for smart home reasons which is why the smart doorbell camera is
so useful.

My Smart Door lock is another life changer. I don't even know where the keys to my front
door are at anymore because I don't ever use them. I just plug my code in and it locks and unlocks
my front door. Also, on my phone I can unlock the door from
anywhere I want in the world as well. However my door lock is also a smart triggering
device. I have my entry lights come on whenever I
unlock the front door at nighttime. Also I have a routine when I tell google home
that I am leaving it waits 20 seconds enough time for me to leave and it turns everything
off, it sets my thermostat and it locks my front doors.

Ok. Now we move on to motion sensors… though
we did already sort of just talked about the one on my doorbell. Most people want to use motion sensors to
turn things on and I do use them to turn on my closet lights. I also use them to turn on the night lights
in my kitchen if they sense movement but only after the hour of 12 AM. However, I find Motion Detectors more useful
in turning off devices. For example turning off my closet light if
no motion is detected for 10 minutes. Or closing my garage door if there is no motion
in the garage for 20 minutes and so forth. These can really cut the electricity bill
if used right. I found them also to be useful in areas and
times you want to be notified if there is movement.

You can have it trigger your siren alarm when
you are on vacation and there is movement in your bedroom or somewhere in your house. Or receive an alert if someone enters your
room when you are gone to work. You can put one wherever you hide the Christmas
presents or on the stairs if you have a crawling baby and you want to be warned in those moments. Next is the wet sensor. People use this to put under their sinks or
near their washer so they can catch a leak before it gets bad. I have found a more frequent use though. Now, I have tested this out and found that
you can use it to catch the person peeing on the toilet seat. I put mine on the toilet seat and it can notify
me whenever it senses the wetness of urine but also when the pee is no longer detected…
hopefully meaning they cleaned it up.

Okay back on a serious note. These multipurpose sensors that I will link
to below not only work as open door sensors and temperature sensors but also Vibration
and Tilting sensors. They are really good. They sense the slightest movement both when
I hit the counter or just tap it. Attach this to the baby crib and you will
be alerted when they are awake and start moving, for me I have it set to trigger and turn on
a red light when the baby is awake. Also, you can attach them to trash cans so
you know when animals are getting into the trash as the trash cans will start to vibrate
or tilt.

You can then either have it turn on a light
to scare them away or send you a notification to catch them in the act. Let me now show you my favorite cascade of
events that I have my smart home do. After I give google the command �time for
bed� all my lights turn off, my front door locks, my thermostat changes and the garage
door closes if I forgot to close it before. This footage comes from my video Showing Google
Home Automation in Real time. If you want to see how fast this all can happen
give it a watch. Once again every device I use is found in
the description below this video. If this video helped you out give it a like
and subscribe to the channel. In the comments let me know of any better
devices you find, questions you have about smart home automation, or helpful smart home
videos you want to see made.