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