My BUDGET Smart Home Setup 2026!

Hey, what's up? Alex here. Feels like a very long time since I last drew a YouTube video here. Sit in front of the camera. Okay, one of the most common questions people love to ask me is How much does it cost to prepare a smart home? It's important to understand that everything has affordable options. Among the choices, it's expensive. It's the same for nearly everything in life, like crystals. Take for example Gate covers, you can always find affordable 2YAR products on Shopee or AliExpress for just a few dollars. And on the other hand, you have the luxury creator cover of Morgan can pay you around $800. So that's simply 50X. In other words, It can become long-term. What causes the price difference can be specifications. Quality, brand, design, technology. So in today's video, I want to share my selections. Long-term, meaning it must be expensive but also good enough to reach a certain level of acceptance. First of all, we need to choose a smart home platform. I've said this many times before. Decide on your smart home platform first before purchasing smart home devices. So between Google, Apple, Alexa, SmartThings, Homie, and Home Assistant, I want to go with one. which can enhance the smart speaker with a voice assistant. Meaning, Home Assistant. Homie, SmartThings. Of these three, I want one that supports ZigBee and It's a long-term trait. So we have Alexa. With Alexa, you also have various choice. Whether you want a screen with the Echo Show 8 or 11 or 15 or 21. If not, then the Amazon Echo Studio or the most affordable option is the Echo Dot Max. If you truly want to go with The platform is good, and so is AI. Just keep in mind that some traits I will share It might not work with that platform. Let's start with the smart cover first. In my opinion, this would be the end of Aqara, but it's not. I think if you're going to go with Smart cheap cover, it won't depend on anything. So I'll go with a smart relay. Shelley is the first smart relay company, so their products won't be the cheapest. So, my suggestion here is the Sono Fusion series. They have long-range Wi-Fi. Only $20 on their website. It is a long-range Wi-Fi, so as long as you set up your Wi-Fi properly, What you should do is, then you won't need to hesitate about the signal. No hub is required, unlike ZigBee or Thread. It works across all smartphone platforms. As long as there is a long-term guardian. In this preparation, Echo DotMax is the guardian. If you purchase Sono Fusion, it looks like an ordinary smart cover, but it's actually a relay. can be removed. Then, the smart cover section is merely a dry contact cover, meaning it is very depending on the fact that the dry contact cover does not have a cheap or complicated mechanism here, is actually easier than a regular smart cover. Usually, the problem with using a smart relay It doesn't have enough space behind the smart box to install the relay inside, does it? I'm developing the Fusion series, so you won't have issues like this. Another thing I like about this is that they have recordings for two or three covers. in places. Its aesthetics simply appear much better. The entire Fusion series has There are many different types of relays, indicating that you might want to install a lamp that can be cooked in place. your bedside table. You have the option to get a relay baked, mixed, and suitable for What do you want from these friends? Alright, so that's the move for a bad light. What if you want A smart lamp that can adjust brightness and color; therefore, my recommendation here is the smart lamp from WIS. If you didn't know, WIS and Philips Hue are both under the same company called Signify. They obtained WIS to establish their long-term offer. With WIS, you have a long-term products. In addition to long-life GU10 and E27 LED lamps, they also offer cover lamps and floor lamps, desk lamp, and even the TV back light. WIS also uses metal Wi-Fi, so once again, Any platform, no hub required, no need to worry about signals. So if you're planning to install Smart lamp, you still need several types of wall connections. Here, I recommend Wireless Amazon Basics. They cost about $20 on Amazon and come with four buttons. You can configure it with one press and hold. Two links for each button. This only works with long-term Amazon, so make sure you have a long-term one that isn't too far from long-term. And also technically, you can use this long-term one to control All other smart devices in your Alexa smart home, not just the WIS smart lights. For the long term and long-term, if you are above long-term supply, then At first, you shouldn't have received a long-term smart module or a long-term module. We will only use IR or IR Blaster for long-term and long-term control. Therefore, I recommend using the Broadlink RM4 for RF and the Broadlink RM4 Mini in each room to control long-term infrared and other long-term treatment possibilities. They are very easy to use and expensive now because I feel Broadlink is focusing on RMMAX. what I have already seen in CS. If you decide to use Apple Home, Then you can obtain RMMAX for RF, as it supports long-term use. Subsequently, Get the long-range SwitchBot Heart Mini version for every room in your IR setup. Next, regarding sensors, there are several options. You may consider The latest sensor released by IKEA. You can select it directly in IKEA stores. It functions over the long term and for the long term, meaning it is better to have economical equipment. which is almost close to the location where you will place this sensor. I bought them when I was in Vegas to try them out. I think in Singapore, Contact sensors and motion sensors are not available. Therefore, you may also consider ZigBee sensor, because the Amazon Echo also functions as a ZigBee hub. Usually, I prefer sensors from Third Reality, Sonoff, and Shelly. If you don't want to deal with batteries, then I would recommend to use the Shelly Presence Gen 4 sensor, especially for the bathroom. I like this because You don't need to worry about signals anymore, especially regarding Wi-Fi. If you decide to hire a house assistant, you may consider that everything is Presence 1. Louis, the creator of the content, developed this independently, and I use it for my own preparation. The final bathroom fixture is the window cover, which I consider to be one of the most useful ones. And there must be one for me. The cheapest way to do it is, of course, using a retrofit solution. What is meant by window, you may use a window switchboard. They are located Between the windows, they will only move left or right, pushing the windows throughout the journey. For windows and doors, there is equipment that manually opens the window for you. Broadlink You have it, Shelly has it, it's up to you. But I need to remind you, such retrofit solutions are not depending, it may require a re-scan every few months. So if you can install The motorized window or window, that would be much better. For a smart window, I recommend Smart window. You've seen it many times during the launch of my Smart Home; it can connect directly with Amazon Echo, support Matter, and even has a good PoE option because there are many BTO and the new condo already have a point at the window corner. For paper condo, I like going with Shelly. Actually, the 4TEC Gen Shelly window is the best window on the market today. The combination of protocols they support, Bluetooth for initial setup, then it connects to Wi-Fi. They have internal Wi-Fi and, at the same time, can connect to the Shelly cloud. In addition to the mobile app, they also have a web client. Support matters, particularly for Apple Home users. Smart windows are often placed at several corners of a room, thus providing multi-layered protocol support. Meaning, you don't need to worry about the signal. You have three rules for window speed. The window is quiet enough, very easy to use and reliable, so I'll always back this up for any kind of provision. Well, the bonus section for the network and cameras, even if you're not building a smart home. You've seen this in many of my Smart Home Tour videos, the RouterKam POE RedJet switch. and RedJetWall AP. Good for regular apartments since it can only support up to 4 APs. Usually three is enough. The last port I recommend assigning to the POE video door switch. I always recommend a PTZ camera for budget options, and this one comes with a built-in camera. If you need another camera for your home, go with the E1 series—it's affordable and reliable. This is a budget option; otherwise, I recommend going with the Unify provision. If you ultimately purchase a number of Unify products, you may wish to install them indoors. The mini rack that brought me to today's sponsor, DeskPi. In the company's data center, you will see all 42U racks fully filled. For the home, you can install mini shelves like this. They come in various shelf size options. The smallest one is T0, and this is T1. With a mini shelf like this, you have the perfect place To install all these network devices, the smart home hub or mini PC, make sure to keep the following matters absolutely correct. It is necessary and advisable to do so, especially if you intend to install it in an open area. There are many different accessories available to take from the table. Or if you have a 3D printer, there is a community that shares all kinds of lighting. For Singaporean viewers, if you'd like to get it locally, I will be listing it on my carousel account, and you can purchase it from there. Thank you to Despai for watching this video. Alright, so that's my complete budget proposal for a smart home. It's not the best, but I would say it's good enough for me to be willing to support it. this provision. So if you need assistance in designing and setting up your entire smart home, you can My messages have always indicated that you wanted the preparation of this budget. But directly, these products are the ones I Share only in this video. Okay? Please don't look for me if you've already bought it. A selection of random Tuya products. Otherwise, feel free to install everything yourself at any time. All of these products are either tagged or linked in the video description. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next video. Goodbye.