Make your house smarter with these home automation ideas! Follow me on my smart home tour through a typical day filled with automation. I use Alexa and SmartThings for most of these ideas, so you can easily copy them for your own house.
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Disclaimer: Smart Home Solver was sent Wyze Cam, Nest, and several other products featured in this video for previous unbiased reviews. Other products were purchased with our own money. As always, our opinions are 100% our own and not influenced.
In this video, I'm gonna be going over 25 automations
I've set up around my house,
starting when I wake up in the morning
and going throughout the day until I go to bed.
Now, this video won't show you step-by-step
how to do all of these automations,
but it's meant to give you ideas.
I wrote everything down so you can check out the article
showing you how to do them.
If you don't like reading, I won't be offended
because my name is Reed, but you should subscribe
because I'll be covering how to do these in future videos.
All right, we got 25 automations to cover.
Enough of this talk, let's get into it.
Every morning at 7 a.m., I have the light next to my bed
slowly turn on to a nice cool white over 30 minutes
until it's at full brightness.
That way, it's much more comfortable to wake up
and feel energized by the cool white temperature
of the light.
Also, Alexa says good morning.
Good morning, Reed.
I hope you slept well.
Time to start waking up.
Tells me the weather in a nice low volume.
In Mesa, there's an excessive heat warning
in effect until Wednesday, August 21st.
Then plays a song that gets me motivated for the day.
In bed, I need all the help I can get.
Maybe you should think before speaking next time.
Ooh, yeah, I mean, I didn't mean that.
I mean, I am fine in bed.
If the weather is rainy or too windy,
my sprinklers will automatically not water the grass
like they normally do early in the morning.
That's because I have a smart sprinkler controller
to help me save water.
Once I walk into the office to answer emails,
a motion sensor triggers a routine
to have my calendar items and news read to me.
Here's your news from ESPN.
That way I can get some good multitasking done
when I'm on the computer.
This next idea can be really helpful for you
if you're late to things a lot.
Have all your Echo devices in your house
announce how much time you have till you need to leave.
Two minutes till you have to leave.
Oh, okay, gotta go.
All right, family, let's go, let's go.
When everyone's trying to get ready in the morning
and you might be waiting for someone
to be done with the bathroom,
have a smart light change colors
when the bathroom is occupied so you know when it's free.
Shout out to all those who suggested this
in a previous video.
Also, if you have any automation ideas you like,
let me know down in the comments.
I would love to hear them.
While coming home from dropping off the kids at school,
if I'm the only one home,
music will automatically be playing for me
when I walk into the door.
If the wife and baby are home,
then it won't play music in case the baby is asleep.
Having the AC not run as much saves a lot of money.
However, trying to control the air temperature
by turning a fan on and off can be annoying.
The SmartThings Motion Sensor
has a temperature sensor built in
and it can automatically turn on a fan
if it starts getting hot
and turn off the fan after it cools down
if you're in the room.
Speaking of saving a lot of energy,
when I'm doing laundry,
I can be notified when my clothes are done drying,
even if the timer's still going.
I'm just using this little device
that you can add to any dryer.
It just magnetizes inside the dryer
and it will notify you when your clothes are done drying
or if the dryer stops and your clothes are still wet.
And it kind of feels like it's in beta,
like the app and the device,
but it worked pretty well for me.
When I'm working with headphones on,
I can't hear if someone's at the front door knocking
or ringing the doorbell.
I have my lights in the house flash
when someone's at the front door
so I don't miss signing for a package.
As I'm walking towards the front door,
I can see who's there on the brilliant light switch screen
that's automatically shown.
Oh, I thought it was gonna be a package,
but instead it's just someone who looks exactly like me.
What a disappointment.
Time to pick the kids up from school and run some errands.
If the door lock was open,
then it will automatically lock
and the robot vacuum will start up when I'm gone.
Starting the cleanup.
I'm not too worried about coming home to any surprises
because of a water leak sensor
that will notify me if there's a leak.
Also, if any smoke alarm
or carbon monoxide detector goes off,
then my Wyze camera will alert me.
Pretty cool for a camera that's only $25.
The smart thermostat uses my geo location
and changes to away mode to save power and money.
Most people might know this already,
but it's worth mentioning.
Oh, shoot.
I left the garage door open again.
If everyone is away from the house,
the garage will automatically close and I'll get notified.
If I'm home, I'll only be notified.
I can check the Wyze cam to make sure no one's entered
or stolen anything, even though I'm not at my house.
Also, when I'm driving home and the garage door is closed,
it can automatically open, which is really convenient.
And when I'm away and my kids are home,
I can get notified if something's open that shouldn't,
like a safe or an alcohol cabinet,
or more importantly, a cupboard full of snacks.
Make sure to put the sensor inside the door, though,
so it doesn't stick out
and can't be removed without opening.
This is actually backfiring on me
because it's exposing how many times I open it as well.
It's homework time, so the Griffin router
automatically turns off the kids' device
from using the internet.
It's much easier than fighting with them.
As it starts getting dark,
the main lights automatically turn on,
as well as the porch lights.
This is a must-have for me.
Now that we've had some good family time,
it's time for the kids to go to bed,
so the lights are gonna automatically turn warm
to help them feel a little more tired.
I don't think it's working.
Once the kids are in bed,
I can use the Harmony Hub to turn on my TV
and change all the lights at the same time
by pressing a button on my phone
or saying an Alexa command.
But what if my wife doesn't wanna say the command
or use the app and she just wants to use the remote
that came with the TV or the remote for the Fire Stick TV?
I can have the lights change with any remote
using a smart plug, monitoring the energy usage.
When the TV turns on, the power usage increases
so the lights automatically dim,
making it more comfortable to watch a movie.
When the TV turns off, the lights turn back up,
and all of this only happens at night.
The voice assistant reminds me
to take the trash out to the curb.
Take out the trash.
When I open the back door, the back porch light turns on,
as well as the string lights plugged into a smart outlet.
Solar lights light up the side of the house
automatically with motion.
If I go into a room at night,
the motion sensor will turn on the light automatically.
And for a place like a dark closet,
there are motion LED lights that will turn on
and make a huge difference.
What's really cool about these LED lights
is that they're rechargeable
and they connect to the ceiling using a magnet,
so it makes it really convenient to pull down
or put back up when you need to recharge it.
If a kid gets out of bed,
the contact sensor on the door
triggers the hall lights to turn on
to help them see in a visual cue
that a child is out of their room.
And if they go out the front door.
Front door is open.
Then the system will announce it.
At the end of the day, I'm tired
and I don't wanna check if all the doors are locked
and turn off all the lights around the house.
That's gonna happen automatically.
If I want the automation to happen earlier
because I'm ready for bed,
then I just close my bedroom door.
I also have LEDs under my bed and in my bathroom
automatically turn on so I don't have bright lights
in my eyes to help me walk around at night.
Hopefully this gave you some ideas on automations
that you can do around your house.
And I found some of these in a Reddit mega thread
that I'll link down in the description.
If you found this video helpful,
please share it with one of your laziest family members
or friends because they probably need some automation
in their life so they can stay on the couch.
Thanks for watching and we'll see you again next time.
Next time on Smart Home Solver,
check out my new pet I found in my backyard while filming.
Oh look, it learned a new trick already, playing dead.
