Smart Home Tech Youll Actually Use!.

Hey friends, Andrew here. Smart home tech, it's been around for a while and often I still find that it's tech for the sake of being tech. But when smart tech fades into the background and it just quietly improves your daily life, that's when I personally think it earns a permanent place in your household. So after years of playing around with smart home tech, here are the ones that I still use daily that you might want to add to your own home and most of it is controllable So first up is Tahoma Somfy right here. Now Tahoma Somfy is basically the app that I use to control all my smart blinds and shutters. So being able to conveniently open and close large blinds, particularly ones that are hard to reach is really convenient, but really it's all about the automations here. So basically I've got automated settings where the blinds will open and close 30 to 45 minutes from sunrise and sunset. So for example, by the time that it's getting dark outside, all the blinds will go down or when I'm up and I just woke up, the blinds are all up to let the sunlight in. It's completely set and forget. And so you can even set up geo-fencing so all the blinds close if you leave the house, for example. And for this setup, all you need is a smart hub connected to a router and smart blinds, but you can always retrofit blind motors, which is a relatively affordable way to upgrade to smart blinds. I also really swear by smart lights. So I use a bunch of different brands, but the main one that I use is Philips Hue and I've set it up so certain room lights will turn on during the night. And I've also set up a movie night mode where the living room lights will dim and match what's on the TV screen and all the smart blinds will go down. But the actual biggest reason that I use and love smart lights is for the red lights at night. So red lights are the longest wavelength lights and it helps produce melatonin, lower cortisol levels, and shifts your circadian rhythm to rest and relax. I know that it might sound all Andrew Huberman like, but honestly, I've been using red lights in the evening for almost a decade now, and I can say for certain it makes me feel relaxed and sleepy leading up to bedtime. Highly, highly recommend investing in a few smart lights. Also, you can at least try a smart switch adapter here, which is this thing. And basically this is a cheaper alternative if you just want to at least automate lights and get some lamps going with just the switch adapter here. So it's basically this thing here, and this will just plug in and allow it to speak to the app. And so you can automatically set up some automation here with just the adapter. Next up is the Holman app here. Now this is what I use to daily control the home irrigation system. So if you have plants or a backyard, you know how tough it can be to keep plants watered and happy. I'm not so great with plants, but this has completely saved my plants. And I've hooked up an irrigation system for only like $40 and it runs through the plants. And then the main unit connects up to a smart hub that you plug into a wall outlet. So now I've set up automatic watering times, and this also can be managed through a sensor so it can sense how dry the soil is, and then it will automatically start the watering. And in fact, the other week there was a scorcher hot day at home, but I was overseas. So I pulled up the app, I went into manual watering, and I was able to get some watering done halfway across the world. Very convenient. Next up is a robot vacuum cleaner. And since using one, I've realized I just don't think about vacuuming anymore. And that's what smart tech is all about. It's about convenience. And this one is the Eufy Omni S2. I've been using it daily. And for transparency, Eufy is kindly sponsoring this segment of the video. It actually handles carpets and thick rugs like this one incredibly well. It will automatically adjust suction power up to a hundred air watts, keeps pulling dirt out rather than getting stuck on the thick wall, for example. And it's pretty innovative with its multi-cone cyclone tech. So instead of just clogging up the filter, the airflow spins dirt and heavier particles out to the sides before it even reaches the filter. So it stays cleaner, maintenance is way lower, and that suction power stays consistent run after run. Then if you have tiles, concrete, or wooden floors like me, this is where the Eufy S2 really shines because it cleans the mop in real time while mopping the floor. So basically it's always using clean water and avoids spreading dirty water around. It's also genuinely hands-free with its clean mind AI system doing a solid job, avoiding cables, cleaning right up to the corners with corner to edge coverage. And it doesn't get stuck under furniture or need constant babysitting. So it vacuums, it mops, it stays clean while doing it, and it just quietly keeps the floor squeaky clean in the background. If you're interested, you can check out the link below. Moving on is my multi-room Sonos speaker setup. So I know that Sonos has caught a lot of flack in the last couple of years with their poor software updates and app redesign, but I personally still love my Sonos setup and use it every single day. So I've got speakers in multiple rooms that are all connected, automated, and controllable from the app here or voice assistant. I can basically wake up and have the music start playing in the kitchen, then move it into the office as I am working. And then from there, I can switch it to the home theater setup at night. It also ties into those routines and scenes I mentioned. So music, TV, audio, lights, and blinds can all work together as one system. And the sound quality is incredible, especially the ARC Ultra paired with the Sub 4 and Aero 300 in a Dolby Atmos surround setup. The app updates have been messy, but once it's all set up, this is still one of the most seamless smart home experiences I've used, and I absolutely love the sound quality. So another piece of smart tech that I actually use is a smart scale. So specifically, this is the one from Withings. And although a normal non-smart scale does the trick perfectly fine, this tracks things like body composition, muscle mass, even nerve health, and syncs it all up to my health apps. So unlike a normal scale where you just see your weight, I've started to see patterns in body composition when I sleep better, more regularly, or train consistently. Even when I travel, you can see specific muscle and fat areas on your arms, legs, torso. There's even a bone health and bone density. Again, I wouldn't say this is a must-have unlike smart lights or a robot vacuum cleaner, for example. But if you're also a bit of a health and stat nerd, the metrics and data here that syncs to your favorite apps is priceless. Another smart home tech I genuinely rely on are my NAS drives, specifically the Synology NAS drives, an app that I've set up here. Now, NAS drives are a pain in the ass to set up, not gonna lie. But once it's all up and automated, it's sort of like a private cloud that syncs up to your home, and I basically got all my work files, photos, backups, and stuff here. And it's all centralized in one app, one spot. And it's accessible anywhere from all devices around the world and my phone here, obviously. So instead of paying a monthly fee for multiple cloud and backup services, the NAS automatically backs up my phone, computers, and important hard drives, and then I'm mirrored in the background. So I still use services like Google Drive, Dropbox, et cetera, to collaborate with people because it is kind of slow collaborating with very large files over a NAS drive. And also, you don't need to go with Synology either. There are actually more affordable options out there like TerraMaster, which I've also used, and you can get up and running with a few hundred dollars. Now, an underrated piece of smart home tech is this water filter that lives on the kitchen benchtop. This is one of those upgrades you feel every single day. Specifically, it's the Drio water filter, and it cleans filtered water on demand and has an auto-fill mode to drink anytime without needing to constantly refill cups or jugs. It also tracks usage, how many contaminants it's filtered out, and lets you know when it needs replacing. This one is just more about having purified water that's ready to go and drink and is connected to your smart home ecosystem. And then, of course, one of the biggest quality of life upgrades I've made at home is the Eight Sleep Pod, which I'm sure you've heard me bang on about. So in the app here, you can see all sorts of settings and you can set the temperature, you can set the elevation, you can see all your health metrics just from sleeping on the mattress. And if you don't already know, it actively heats and cools the bed throughout the night, automatically adjusting based on the temperature, your stage of sleep, the biometrics that you have. It's pretty neat to have the bedroom automatically cool down, lights dim to red, and it just integrates into a night routine perfectly. It is definitely expensive, yes, but this is one of those rare pieces of tech where you can feel the benefit every single morning when you wake up. That about does it for the smart home tech I actually use on the daily. Drop the codeword comment, smart home, if you made it this far and let me know what smart tech you personally use. I know there's plenty of smart home tech that I could still implement, like home energy storage. So I am genuinely keen to hear your suggestions if you have any. As always, thanks for watching. Sub if you like tech videos and I'll see you in the next one.