Shelly & SwitchBot are having Black Friday sales at the moment so it is a great time to buy something. Check the links in the video description for more info!
I have the Shelly E27 Duo RGBW bulbs and wanted to check with you if once you set it on White (5000K and above), is it really that white? or white with a pink tone? (Maybe I was very unfortunate to get 4 defective ones) I have 4 of them and it's very annoying! I can confirm that they are also running the latest firmware from Shelly.
Excellent video on the comparison of the 3 methods of converting "dumb" lighting into smart lighting! Another consideration for most would be weather you are a renting your home or apartment, a homeowner, or even a landlord. If you are renting, most likely the only option would be the first option of using smart bulbs as any type of re-wiring of a rental place would most likely violate a rental agreement. If you are a home-owner, however, you would most likely want to go the route of a complete replacement smart switch or the relay method. You will also want to give careful though on the type of communication method you are using for your bulbs/relays/smart switches. If you are going with all WiFi devices, depending on how many bulbs you end up converting, you will most likely put a decent strain on your WiFi connection to the point you will have not only issues with your bulbs not staying consistently connected, but you will probably notice slowness on other devices like your phone or your laptop. A good rule of thumb, if you are going to be using more than about 15 WiFi bulbs or combined WiFi smart devices, you are going to want to look at a different communication protocol and a good hub like HA (HomeAssistant), Apple Home (if you are iPhone/Apple user) or SmartThings. I use a combination of ZigBee and Z-Wave protocols as they both have been very reliable for me. Thread is a new and coming standard that I would personally recommend most everyone shift to ASAP as it will hopefully take over as the new standard, especially with the evolution of Matter Standard. One note on the increase in cost of using a full replacement smart switch is that even though you may not have the option to control color or change the warmth of your white light as with smart bulbs, you may actually save quite a bit of money using a smart switch. For instance, in my kitchen, I have 8 recessed can lights that are all controlled from 1 switch (a 3-way switch in my case, but for smart switch purposes, that's still just 1 purchase.). If I were to purchase all 8 smart lights, even the cheapest Shelly duo purchasing 2x4pack would cost me nearly $90 USD not including shipping, whereas I am currently using the Blue Series smart switch from Inovelli which only cost me $45 USD. I even bought the Inovelli Aux switch which gives me dimmer and scene control on the other end of the 3-way switch, which is optional and only cost me an additional $22 for a total of $67 USD and I now not only have all 8 dumb bulbs smart controllable, but I have scene control, notifications, and dimmer capabilities for a total savings of ~$23-45 USD!!! I really don't see a need/want for color lighting in a kitchen, but the dimming feature is a must have and scene control and notifications are a huge added bonus. All 3 bathrooms in my house also have 6 bulbs each fixture, so again, the much cheaper route is the smart switch for me which is overall cheaper as the minimum number of bulbs on one switch/fixture in my house is 2 bulbs, and I would much rather have the aesthetics and added scene control/customizable notifications at every switch for just a few more $$. On the last consideration, as a landlord where you use your home for a Vrbo or Air B&B, or vacation rental of sorts, using intuitive smart switches that act in a similar enough manner to dumb switches can save so much on electricity using smart calendar scheduling integrated directly with HA. You could have the porch lights come on for your guests at dusk if say the front door was never opened on a day that a scheduled guest is set to arrive. This would save much electricity as opposed to having the cleaning crew leaving it on from much earlier in the morning. You could also use motion detectors and advanced sensors like the Everything Presence One Sensor (everythingsmarthome.co.uk/the-everything-presence-one-now-available/) along with smart switches or relays to turn off lights in rooms when guests leave which can save so much on an energy bill and put that money back in the pocket of the landlord. I really love this YT channel and appreciate the cool content and projects. I previously converted a 2007 Class C motorhome myself into a smart RV, including heater, A/C using a Honeywell Pro battery operated thermostat, all lighting and exhaust fans using a combination of Zooz multi-relays and cheap tiny Zigbee 12V relays from Amazon. I also added relays to the front door power locks as well as a smart bluetooth lock for the main door to set up a nighttime routine to secure the RV with a simple "goodnight" voice command on either Google Home or Alexa. I also automated the hot water heater and the water pump for dry docking to both be smart/voice capable also using a Zooz multi-relay. I was starting on the level reporting for the various tanks and battery and propane tank when we had to sell the RV and I was sadly unable to finish the project as it was tedious soldering in across each LED on the level output to individual relays to report the levels back to HA. I am sure there was a much easier way to go about the level reporting using some resistors and a single relay, but I was already on a limited time restraint and did not get to finish the project even as is. But it was still pretty cool to be able to automate everything I was able to get to. I also used humidity sensors to automatically activate the exhaust fans and if the humidity was ever high enough, all exhaust fans, including the stove exhaust fan would activate until the humidity dropped below a specified threshold so that we never had any issue with excess moisture, even if we were not in the RV at the time since it was all automated. I also used geofencing to automate the HVAC so we were not using more than the electricity or gas than needed. I even installed a smart faucet in the kitchen as water conservation is one of the most important features in an RV, especially while dry-docked. We were also able to eliminate several measuring cups from our kitchen supplies as the faucet allowed for precise measurements and even precise temperature using voice command which eliminated so much wasted water! I was also able to eliminate the extra battery pack on the smart faucet just using a DC transformer and the 12V wiring in the RV. I am really excited to see how far the project comes on this channel! Thanks again for all your hard work and awesome content! Keep up the amazing work!=]
Wow Patrick, thanks for the long & informative comment. You did an amazing job giving additional information about the Smart Lights and different real life examples. You also described very well all the modifications that you did on your RV. So sorry that you had to sell it, as it seems that you put a lot of passion & efforts on it, but I guess it is never too late for another adventure. Can you share what was the smart faucet brand & model that you used. Thanks one more time for this great comment.
No problem at all! Happy to help share my love and limited knowledge of the Smarthome Automation and RV Automation world! I actually ended up loving the Smart Faucet I chose for the RV so much that I am using the same one in our Kitchen in our new house. The only difference is that in my home install, I ended up using the AC adapter and splitter so that the faucet has constant power because I would rather not have to worry about changing the batteries every couple months. It also seems to keep the WiFi connection more stable. Voice control seems to be more consistent in Google Home, but it also works for the most part in Alexa. It's made by Moen and the model is 87014EVSRS I didn't buy mine through retail, but found it brand new for under $300USD on eBay:)
Many thanks Patrick I also considered Smart Faucet for the RV, but they are quite expensive and I didn't find a Home Assistant compatible one, also if I mange to find one I'm not sure if I will be able to use it for something more than a smart water meter, so I parked that idea for now. Anyways, thanks for sharing this I will check this Smart Faucet out (in eBay as well) 😉
@@KPeyanski Happy to provide the info! I was actually unsuccessful myself when researching smart faucets to find one compatible with any hub or controller platform. In the RV, I was using Home Assistant mainly, but at the moment, I'm using a combination of Smartthings and HA in my current house. In my house, I'm using Virtual Switches configured as contact sensors which are synced and usable by Alexa to trigger routines based on status. I just created a few virtual switches to turn on and off the faucet or change the temperature or start a preset from the Moen App, all by matching the status of the respective Virtual Switch and starting a custom routine with the exact voice match command of the Moen Skill as if you were asking it directly using your voice. I know it only provides automation control and it's only a 1-way automation control as status reporting would nott work, but for the purposes I've needed in my home, it's more than enough to kick off needed automations. Namely, I'm using a leak detection sensor under the sink and if for any reason, the presence of water is detected, The Virtual switch is triggered to turn off the faucet and will continue to send the command every minute until the contact sensor has been returned to a dry state. I also use geofencing automations when I leave the home to not only lock and secure the home, but also confirm that the faucet is turned off by switching the virtual switch off that sends the custom routine to Alexa. I know the price is a little high, but it has been the best smarthome investment I have made so far, right next to the safety and comfort of using z-wave smoke and carbon monoxide sensors also with virtual switches and lots of safety routines to make announcements on all echo devices, send push notifications and text messages, as well as unlocking all doors, setting all lights in the home to 100% brightness and opening the garage door to allow safe exit in the event of a fire, as well as to allow instant access for neighbors or fire department, if the entire house is in a deep sleep or if for any reason we are away from home during a fire or CO2 event. Then, I would just use my cameras to confirm there is a real present issue, or if it's a false alarm, I could easily close the garage door it locks the house back up from anywhere.. I know it's also possible to set up similar virtual contact sensors/switches in HomeAssistant which should perform exactly the same with custom Alexa routines. The infinite power of automations and routines!!!
It is. Smart switches! Make some videos about the no neutral- no capacitor ones. I’m testing some from Moes on Aliexpress and work pretty good with some issues when you plugin a lawn mower or something similar.
I use tasmotized switches, but even now I cannot fix my lighting to work properly :( I use fibaro motion sensors that open up the lights and in the same time open some timers based on time of day like: evening, midnight after midnight sunset sunrise etc. BUT fibaro motion beings on batteries they report next movement after 3 min I guess so the minimum time must be 4 min to turn off the lights and it's too long for smart especially when you have pets, which often set them on. So, the truly smart light will be a radar sensor I guess or somebody have a smarter automation ideea? I know you are talking about hardware but a software automations ideas will be nice too. BTW I don't like your case 😋
Clearly, you have no taste. The phone case is great and it cost almost $3, so it is not for everybody 🤣 Just kidding here 😂 The phone that I'm holding is not even mine :) I just use it to shoot that B-Roll :) Anyways, regarding the motion sensors, I'm happy with Shelly Motion sensor as it have very fine sensitivity menu, where you can set it in a way not to detect pets. Also, blind time of the sensor can be set to 1min as minimum.
@@KPeyanski I was sure it's not your case, of course... I think will try some shelly because is black friday, but fibaro was soo expensive and now to throw them to garbage 😔😔😔 the battery was good tho, hope in Shelly will be too. Thanks for suggestion, I think it's the best way to fix my lights
Shelly & SwitchBot are having Black Friday sales at the moment so it is a great time to buy something. Check the links in the video description for more info!
I have the Shelly E27 Duo RGBW bulbs and wanted to check with you if once you set it on White (5000K and above), is it really that white? or white with a pink tone? (Maybe I was very unfortunate to get 4 defective ones)
I have 4 of them and it's very annoying! I can confirm that they are also running the latest firmware from Shelly.
Excellent video on the comparison of the 3 methods of converting "dumb" lighting into smart lighting! Another consideration for most would be weather you are a renting your home or apartment, a homeowner, or even a landlord. If you are renting, most likely the only option would be the first option of using smart bulbs as any type of re-wiring of a rental place would most likely violate a rental agreement. If you are a home-owner, however, you would most likely want to go the route of a complete replacement smart switch or the relay method. You will also want to give careful though on the type of communication method you are using for your bulbs/relays/smart switches. If you are going with all WiFi devices, depending on how many bulbs you end up converting, you will most likely put a decent strain on your WiFi connection to the point you will have not only issues with your bulbs not staying consistently connected, but you will probably notice slowness on other devices like your phone or your laptop. A good rule of thumb, if you are going to be using more than about 15 WiFi bulbs or combined WiFi smart devices, you are going to want to look at a different communication protocol and a good hub like HA (HomeAssistant), Apple Home (if you are iPhone/Apple user) or SmartThings. I use a combination of ZigBee and Z-Wave protocols as they both have been very reliable for me. Thread is a new and coming standard that I would personally recommend most everyone shift to ASAP as it will hopefully take over as the new standard, especially with the evolution of Matter Standard. One note on the increase in cost of using a full replacement smart switch is that even though you may not have the option to control color or change the warmth of your white light as with smart bulbs, you may actually save quite a bit of money using a smart switch. For instance, in my kitchen, I have 8 recessed can lights that are all controlled from 1 switch (a 3-way switch in my case, but for smart switch purposes, that's still just 1 purchase.). If I were to purchase all 8 smart lights, even the cheapest Shelly duo purchasing 2x4pack would cost me nearly $90 USD not including shipping, whereas I am currently using the Blue Series smart switch from Inovelli which only cost me $45 USD. I even bought the Inovelli Aux switch which gives me dimmer and scene control on the other end of the 3-way switch, which is optional and only cost me an additional $22 for a total of $67 USD and I now not only have all 8 dumb bulbs smart controllable, but I have scene control, notifications, and dimmer capabilities for a total savings of ~$23-45 USD!!! I really don't see a need/want for color lighting in a kitchen, but the dimming feature is a must have and scene control and notifications are a huge added bonus. All 3 bathrooms in my house also have 6 bulbs each fixture, so again, the much cheaper route is the smart switch for me which is overall cheaper as the minimum number of bulbs on one switch/fixture in my house is 2 bulbs, and I would much rather have the aesthetics and added scene control/customizable notifications at every switch for just a few more $$. On the last consideration, as a landlord where you use your home for a Vrbo or Air B&B, or vacation rental of sorts, using intuitive smart switches that act in a similar enough manner to dumb switches can save so much on electricity using smart calendar scheduling integrated directly with HA. You could have the porch lights come on for your guests at dusk if say the front door was never opened on a day that a scheduled guest is set to arrive. This would save much electricity as opposed to having the cleaning crew leaving it on from much earlier in the morning. You could also use motion detectors and advanced sensors like the Everything Presence One Sensor (everythingsmarthome.co.uk/the-everything-presence-one-now-available/) along with smart switches or relays to turn off lights in rooms when guests leave which can save so much on an energy bill and put that money back in the pocket of the landlord.
I really love this YT channel and appreciate the cool content and projects. I previously converted a 2007 Class C motorhome myself into a smart RV, including heater, A/C using a Honeywell Pro battery operated thermostat, all lighting and exhaust fans using a combination of Zooz multi-relays and cheap tiny Zigbee 12V relays from Amazon. I also added relays to the front door power locks as well as a smart bluetooth lock for the main door to set up a nighttime routine to secure the RV with a simple "goodnight" voice command on either Google Home or Alexa. I also automated the hot water heater and the water pump for dry docking to both be smart/voice capable also using a Zooz multi-relay. I was starting on the level reporting for the various tanks and battery and propane tank when we had to sell the RV and I was sadly unable to finish the project as it was tedious soldering in across each LED on the level output to individual relays to report the levels back to HA. I am sure there was a much easier way to go about the level reporting using some resistors and a single relay, but I was already on a limited time restraint and did not get to finish the project even as is. But it was still pretty cool to be able to automate everything I was able to get to. I also used humidity sensors to automatically activate the exhaust fans and if the humidity was ever high enough, all exhaust fans, including the stove exhaust fan would activate until the humidity dropped below a specified threshold so that we never had any issue with excess moisture, even if we were not in the RV at the time since it was all automated. I also used geofencing to automate the HVAC so we were not using more than the electricity or gas than needed. I even installed a smart faucet in the kitchen as water conservation is one of the most important features in an RV, especially while dry-docked. We were also able to eliminate several measuring cups from our kitchen supplies as the faucet allowed for precise measurements and even precise temperature using voice command which eliminated so much wasted water! I was also able to eliminate the extra battery pack on the smart faucet just using a DC transformer and the 12V wiring in the RV. I am really excited to see how far the project comes on this channel! Thanks again for all your hard work and awesome content! Keep up the amazing work!=]
Wow Patrick, thanks for the long & informative comment. You did an amazing job giving additional information about the Smart Lights and different real life examples. You also described very well all the modifications that you did on your RV. So sorry that you had to sell it, as it seems that you put a lot of passion & efforts on it, but I guess it is never too late for another adventure. Can you share what was the smart faucet brand & model that you used. Thanks one more time for this great comment.
No problem at all! Happy to help share my love and limited knowledge of the Smarthome Automation and RV Automation world! I actually ended up loving the Smart Faucet I chose for the RV so much that I am using the same one in our Kitchen in our new house. The only difference is that in my home install, I ended up using the AC adapter and splitter so that the faucet has constant power because I would rather not have to worry about changing the batteries every couple months. It also seems to keep the WiFi connection more stable. Voice control seems to be more consistent in Google Home, but it also works for the most part in Alexa. It's made by Moen and the model is 87014EVSRS
I didn't buy mine through retail, but found it brand new for under $300USD on eBay:)
Many thanks Patrick I also considered Smart Faucet for the RV, but they are quite expensive and I didn't find a Home Assistant compatible one, also if I mange to find one I'm not sure if I will be able to use it for something more than a smart water meter, so I parked that idea for now. Anyways, thanks for sharing this I will check this Smart Faucet out (in eBay as well) 😉
@@KPeyanski Happy to provide the info! I was actually unsuccessful myself when researching smart faucets to find one compatible with any hub or controller platform. In the RV, I was using Home Assistant mainly, but at the moment, I'm using a combination of Smartthings and HA in my current house. In my house, I'm using Virtual Switches configured as contact sensors which are synced and usable by Alexa to trigger routines based on status. I just created a few virtual switches to turn on and off the faucet or change the temperature or start a preset from the Moen App, all by matching the status of the respective Virtual Switch and starting a custom routine with the exact voice match command of the Moen Skill as if you were asking it directly using your voice. I know it only provides automation control and it's only a 1-way automation control as status reporting would nott work, but for the purposes I've needed in my home, it's more than enough to kick off needed automations. Namely, I'm using a leak detection sensor under the sink and if for any reason, the presence of water is detected, The Virtual switch is triggered to turn off the faucet and will continue to send the command every minute until the contact sensor has been returned to a dry state. I also use geofencing automations when I leave the home to not only lock and secure the home, but also confirm that the faucet is turned off by switching the virtual switch off that sends the custom routine to Alexa.
I know the price is a little high, but it has been the best smarthome investment I have made so far, right next to the safety and comfort of using z-wave smoke and carbon monoxide sensors also with virtual switches and lots of safety routines to make announcements on all echo devices, send push notifications and text messages, as well as unlocking all doors, setting all lights in the home to 100% brightness and opening the garage door to allow safe exit in the event of a fire, as well as to allow instant access for neighbors or fire department, if the entire house is in a deep sleep or if for any reason we are away from home during a fire or CO2 event. Then, I would just use my cameras to confirm there is a real present issue, or if it's a false alarm, I could easily close the garage door it locks the house back up from anywhere..
I know it's also possible to set up similar virtual contact sensors/switches in HomeAssistant which should perform exactly the same with custom Alexa routines. The infinite power of automations and routines!!!
It is. Smart switches! Make some videos about the no neutral- no capacitor ones. I’m testing some from Moes on Aliexpress and work pretty good with some issues when you plugin a lawn mower or something similar.
Thank you sir.
Most welcome Ron, as usual ;)
I use tasmotized switches, but even now I cannot fix my lighting to work properly :( I use fibaro motion sensors that open up the lights and in the same time open some timers based on time of day like: evening, midnight after midnight sunset sunrise etc. BUT fibaro motion beings on batteries they report next movement after 3 min I guess so the minimum time must be 4 min to turn off the lights and it's too long for smart especially when you have pets, which often set them on. So, the truly smart light will be a radar sensor I guess or somebody have a smarter automation ideea? I know you are talking about hardware but a software automations ideas will be nice too. BTW I don't like your case 😋
Clearly, you have no taste. The phone case is great and it cost almost $3, so it is not for everybody 🤣 Just kidding here 😂 The phone that I'm holding is not even mine :) I just use it to shoot that B-Roll :) Anyways, regarding the motion sensors, I'm happy with Shelly Motion sensor as it have very fine sensitivity menu, where you can set it in a way not to detect pets. Also, blind time of the sensor can be set to 1min as minimum.
@@KPeyanski I was sure it's not your case, of course... I think will try some shelly because is black friday, but fibaro was soo expensive and now to throw them to garbage 😔😔😔 the battery was good tho, hope in Shelly will be too. Thanks for suggestion, I think it's the best way to fix my lights