I ask professional smart home installers for their tips and product recommendations
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- Connor and Tez run a smart home consulting company. I ask them what devices and automations they recommend to their clients and they tell me everything they've learned along the way.
❤️ Found this video useful and want to support the channel? I'd love a donation at paypal.me/home...
@LuxeiaLtd 's Getting Started PDF: www.luxeia.co....
What a pleasant pair of guys!. So nice not to have experts telling us "it's too hard" to protect their business. I wish them well.
Thank you for the kind words!
I think that interview was priceless. More interviews with them would be good. Keep up your good work. I really enjoy your channel. I find it very informative.
Glad you enjoyed it!
We're really happy you enjoyed it! Hopefully you learned something new!
@@HomeAutomationGuy aI live in NZ, I’m currently in Texas on holiday. Returning to NZ tomorrow, I’m currently running SmartThings, on my return I’m going to setup up Home Assistant. This is how I found you channel. I’m really impressed with all of your videos, they all explain pretty much how I want to setup my automation, including the security cameras. I’m currently running ReoLink cameras using a Synology NAS. I was very interested in your setup using Frigate. I’m going to give it a try. Thanks very much. Keep up the good work.
@@barrymurray878 Thanks so much for the kind words 🙏
This was an enjoyable format. I’d be keen to hear more on how their business works. I would think they’d be getting contacted for follow-up support frequently. Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you for the comment! I believe you can buy a support plan from them which gives you post-install support.
Great interview. Super interesting to see how these guys have built a business around this - how they handle client consultation, maintenance/upgrades and have selected their go to Brands for reliability. Thanks for doing this!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This was a great watch! I truly enjoyed hearing the perspectives from folks that made home automation into their livelihood. They were well-spoken and did a great job of detailing not only their business but also smart home in general. I would love to hear more from them as well as more from your perspective for individuals who run their own smart home! Great job!
Thank you very much! We're glad you enjoyed it!
Hopefully we can share some more stories with Alan in the future 👀
This interview was fantastic! Thank you!
Thanks! I hope you learned something too!
Thank you! We're glad you enjoyed it!
What an awesome interview! Great questions and thorough and very thoughtful responses. Thank you for this!
Thank you! We really enjoyed doing this, and we're glad you enjoyed it too!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This was a great informative video. I really like the honest, non BS, answers the guys gave. The tips they gave will help me a lot. Thanks.
Thank you very much!
Really enjoyed the interview. Great job by everyone. Also appreciated the vendor recommendations.
Thank you! We're so happy you enjoyed it!
Love it! This type of video is very useful and I definitely support the idea of more of these in combination with your more usual formats. A very potent combination. +/- for me on the podcast idea.
Thank you!
Thank you so much! Fingers crossed for the podcast 🤞🏼
YES!!! A smart home pod cast! I also learned about the mm wave sensors from this video, so thanks for that!
Thanks all for this great video! This is very valuable information for "us" as hobby home automation guys. We don't have the time and money to compare different devices but they have done it and experienced it on a way bigger scale! I really like to see more videos like this. I'm also interested in even more professional smart homes where they use KNX etc. They use probably wired contact and temperature sensors? The documentation part is also important for us hobbyists, if the maintainer is not there anymore the home can then easily be restored in normal non-smart home again. They also mentioned something about hiding the sensors, I wonder how they do that. For example a contact sensor: In a wooden door you can hide it inside the top of it by drilling a hole to fit a small contact sensor but this doesn't work with a PVC door right? I'm looking forward for more videos like this!
Amazing video, and thanks to those lads for being so helpful!!!! Continued well wishes to them! Thanks to you for bringing them too.
Really liked this content, haven’t heard anything else like this
Great video.Very enjoyable to listen to 2 guys that live/work everyday in the home assistant smart industry.. My favorite automation I setup is the bathroom humidly/exhaust fan/flashing lite timer also. My smart devices are a blend of Agara and Sonoff as they just work. My bulbs are Yeelight and Xiaomi as they were expensive 4 years ago and my plan was to replace as they went faulty, however they just never go faulty. 95% of the sensors used are Zigbee with mqtt and the rest are Wifi in my home. A monthly Podcast type vedio would be real nice discussing new smart home tech and what works well.
That was a great interview and super helpful. Thanks for sharing and setting up.
Definitely more of this! I really enjoyed their insight and experience
Thank you!
Great interview! These kids are great, great knowledge and great communicators. I´ve learned a lot and confirmed many of my own oppinions. Well done!
Thank you very much! We're glad you've learned some new things!
This is a superb video. Great content. The interview is seemless. Nicely edited.
Glad you liked it! ❤️
We're so happy you enjoyed it!
Great video. Smart home videos don't all need to be about the latest things to buy, the knowledge behind what best fits your situation is invaluable, for me at least. This video has prompted me to re-evaluate some of my decisions and practices, although most of what I run is what these guys do which is nice to see.
I agree! It's refreshing when other people use the same things as you isn't it - makes you feel like you're on the right track!
Thank you! We're glad you enjoyed it!
Yes, Yes and Yes to the three questions at the end! Thank you for all the great content!
Thanks for letting us know!
Great interview! It was great to hear what some of the tried and true components and methods they are using after all that real world testing.
I hope these super smart gents _don't_ end up with a locked down Sonos system and explore something else, maybe with Music Assistant, that would be a more open and flexible system and then come back on for an interview on how they solved for a really truely smart whole home locally controlled music system.
One other question I was curious about is that if they have their customers buy a Nabu Casa subscription?
I'm just exploring whether music assistant can meet my needs of requesting locally stored music to play on a specified speaker WITHOUT the need for internet.
Thank you! We're glad you enjoyed it!
To answer your question, yes, we definitely use Nabu Casa!
Not only is it supporting the amazing work the Home Assistant community does, but it is simple and secure.
This is was a fantastic video! Super useful and insightful. Definitely would love to hear more from these guys. They talked about everything I tend to face with my smart home and would love to see more content like this. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much! We're glad you enjoyed it!
What great people. Great to see this kind of business too and a lot of wisdom there. Very refreshing to hear and I appreciated the advice in there. Great interview. Would love more of that.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Really useful video would like to see more like it, or from these guys again.
Nice to hear these guys' opinion. I get that this isn't always an option, especially in retrofit situations, but seriously: HARD WIRE EVERYTHING! Not only is it frustrating to figure out why something isn't working, only to find out it's an (half) empty battery, it's also a constant hassle of keeping enough of the right batteries on hand. It may seem almost irrelevant to swap some batteries, but don't forget that batteries never die at the same time, so you're constantly changing a single battery.
Obviously, you could just periodically change all of them, but that's quite wasteful. Relying on the device to tell you when batteries are low is also risky. First of all because some sensors will start degrading in quality based on battery voltage, and secondly because we're humans, and humans are lazy, so they put off changing the battery until something fails.
Seriously, if you have the option, hard wire every single thing.
I 100% agree, hard wire when possible! I wish I did that with my blinds!
We completely agree! Hard wired is always the superior option when it is practical.
I totally agree but the problem is all those cables you have to hide again after installation. Do you use also for all you doors hard wire contact sensors? And all temperature sensors? I'm really curious how this looks like and how you can install this in an existing house.
Thnx guys. A very useful interview that inspires to further develop my smarthome.
Good luck on your smart home journey!
Great interview! Yes to the podcast idea.
I think for most of us, we buy the bulbs first because well, it is changing a light bulb. Easy to do, and very simple setup. It is a minimum investment of money and time. Hiring an electrician to install may be a too large a leap at first. 100% agree on the switches verses bulbs.
Thank you!
100% agree with you on the reason for buying smart bulbs. Truth is, it is one of the very first smart devices I (Connor) purchased when I began dabbling in smart homes long before forming Luxeia with Tez, because it was simple and I didn't know any better!
I followed a similar journey, buying Hue lights as my first devices when I lived in a rented apartment. But as soon as I bought my own house, which allowed me to rewire things, I went straight for switches!
@@HomeAutomationGuy I started with Google starter pack, 2 GE bulbs and a smart plug 6 years ago. As a recent widow coming home to a dark home was a bit unnerving. And then I was bit by the automation bug so to speak.
@@karasummers7286 And once you're bit, you can't stop! 🤦♂
@@HomeAutomationGuy So true! We no longer have a home office, we now call it the IT room. Just had some upgrades made to this old house's electrical system. It needed it anyway, but we added a few more outlets and a couple new dedicated circuits. Like I said, it is an old house.
This is a really useful video, thank you. Great to have the input of people who have done a reasonable amount of research, who have a lot of experience, and who focus on quality and reliability, with (presumably) no incentive to sell any particular product. I'll bw saving this to come back to.
I'm glad it was helpful!
Excellent video as always. With the video format it might be worth showing all of the presenters in a single view to make it a little more inclusive for all participants. Just my two quids!
Thanks for the feedback!
Great video ! Now I know that I'm on the right patch .
I remember the video of the music that followed you. I thought it was really well executed. I haven't set that up at home yet. I still need to install Music Assistant, so I'll do it after I get that setup.
Thank you! We're glad to hear you enjoyed the music automation!
Great video as always! I would have loved to hear more about their experience with clients post installation and set up. Do they get a lot of questions/complaints, and how they deal with it all (I can see clients calling or emailing to say, “hey, I went in the room and my light didn’t turn on”)
The biggest question seems to be regarding the aftercare. It was certainly our biggest concern, as we didn't want to be handling issues with existing clients all of the time, and clients certainly don't want to be encountering issues every day. Two of our company values are Exceptional Results and Customer Focused. If the client is constantly encountering issues with their smart home, then we are betraying these values and failing our clients.
It is not very often a client calls with an issue, mainly because the programming is flawless 😉 All joking aside, we take what we do seriously, and perform rigorous checks once everything has been installed and programmed. We will test every automation, every device, every button on the dashboard, every script, every scene, and any other component(s) that may need checking. There are also multiple features in place to notify us of any potential issues, usually allowing us to rectify them before the client is even aware. Combine this with our aftercare plans and 24/7 system monitoring and you start to get a better understanding of why we hardly get call-outs.
We will usually get calls from the client for the first couple of weeks to perform adjustments to automations, or even add more automations, but after this initial "settling in period" we hear very little from clients. This is certainly a big topic that we could delve into in the future.
@@LuxeiaLtd that’s amazing! I always worry about devices disconnecting from say the Zigbee network. I’ve encountered this with Aqara devices (rarely, but depending on the number of devices the chances of something disconnecting increases).
Great content and very informative. These gents have a great approach to the business. I’d love to hear more from them.
Thank you for the kind words! We really appreciate it.
Home automation podcast would be increíble, there is one already in the spanish community but only once a month, so it doesnt feel enough :(
I wish I understood Spanish so I could listen to it!
Superb video - thanks
Yes! I would love a home automation podcast!
Ooooh - exciting!
Really informative video - a list of the recommended products for each use case discussed would be super helpful!
Awesome video. Def going to try the moes ceiling sensor out
Thank you! Highly recommended the moes ceiling sensor. It has been flawless!
Fantastic.
Really helpful. These guys are really cool
More of these guys please !!
Would also love to see a video about Smart Electrical panels, which I think you have. Curious about their capabilities, data, and whether they can be turned on and off whenever wanted without damaging the circuit breaker (my goal is to upgrade my current one for lower electric consumption at night or when I travel)
Loved the video. Learned a lot from it as well. Thank you so much and hopefully we have a a lot more of such discussions. You’ll should definitely start a podcast! I have been on my smart home journey as well and being in India, we have to deal with ceiling fans. Is any reliable presence detection sensors/ solutions that can take into account ceiling fans as mmWave sensors get triggered by them.
We're glad you enjoyed the video!
The only possible solution I can think of would be to create a zone that encompasses the fan so any motion detected in that zone doesn't trigger the sensor. I have not used the Aqara FP2 personally, but I believe this is possible with the zoning feature, and should be possible with any other brands that allow zoning. A potential issue is that fans can cause ripples through the air that the sensor detects as breathing, which may happen outside your configured zone. Unfortunately, ceiling fans are basically an unavoidable problem with presence detectors.
Great interview and a lot smart and good suggestions ideas
Thank you! We're glad you enjoyed it!
@@LuxeiaLtd KISS
Keep
It
Simple
Dumb...
many interesting tips, thank you
Our pleasure!
Thank you!
Nice interview! Learned of a couple new devices/brands. Would also love to see them on as guests once in a while, maybe show some actual automations that they did.
As for video production: I would love to see all your faces at the same time, instead of switching between them.
Thanks for the feedback! I've never edited a video in this format before so I appreciate it 🙏
Thank you so much! We would love to come back. The community here is so friendly ❤️
would like to see a demo of their house with the automations running
A demo could be a possibility in the future. The problem is, our home is a testing and development ground for the business. So it wouldn't actually make that good of a demo, as things are always changing and being worked on!
Are they roommates?
Really excellant. It’ll be a challenge to beat that one. But I hope you try
Thanks for the kind words!
The theater/AV to home automation pipeline is real.
There are many pipelines - I've seen several Electrician to Home Automation journeys as well!
Interesting approach choosing to avoid Docker, which is used by big companies and home-users alike for the benefit of things like reducing blast radius of security issues but also importantly for me, to prevent a system crashing due to things like out of memory (OOM) crashes. With Docker you can easily implement controls to prevent this affecting the whole system so you can recover it easily, nothing worse than the OS killing your management access because another processes needed more RAM! Limiting updates to yearly isnt a particularly 2024 approach to good service operation practices?
The video was good though, and fair play to the guys who have seized the opportunity!
I am so happy I went with a Docker install over a year ago. I have a weekly cron job to pull the new Docker images, and I have not had a single restart issue due to incompatibilty. If there was an issue, I would easily be able to revert to and earlier image, and restoring the data folder if necessary. You do need a bit of IT skills, but the flexibilty and control is well worth it.
Hello! That is just the approach we take, there isn't really a big reasoning behind it. There are no major security issues as we use Nabu Casa for remote access, and ensure the clients network is well protected by utilising VLANs and firewall rules to divide devices accordingly. A backup is taken on-site after the initial handover, and subsequent backups are taken on a weekly basis via the Google Drive Backup add-on. Most importantly, a backup is also taken before pushing any updates. We have been trading for 2 years and have built a generous pool of clients, yet have never ran into the hardware issues you mention, primarily because we take our servicing and aftercare seriously.
As for the servicing. We are not limiting updates, we simply enforce an annual service to ensure everything is kept up-to-date and fully secured. If a client wants to update on every release, they can if they are willing to pay for the call-out, but obviously this is excessive. If we are on-site at any point for troubleshooting, additions, or adjustments to the system, we will always run updates that are available anyway.
We're glad you enjoyed the video and we hope this clears some things up! Maybe it's worth us doing some more business related content over on our channel to touch on these kinds of subjects 🤔
Absolutely terrific video. Alan you mentioned that you are no longer using the docker container approach to running Home Assistant and instead you have reverted back to HomeAssistantOS and i am very curious about the reasons that drove you to that change.
I moved to using Proxmox in my new house instead of Docker, and it was really easy to install Home Assistant OS so I thought I'd give it a go. It's honestly no better or worse than the Docker method. I'd happily recommend both!
It's also easier to make TH-cam videos showing Home Assistant OS as that is the more popular way that people install it, but I doubt normal people have that problem 🤣
Can you put out a list of things they are using
Yes please. Pin it :) great video and it needed to be this long I just didn't have the time to watch it all. Thanks heaps for this video. More like this would also be a good addition to your channel :)
We will get this sorted for you!
@LuxeiaLtd thanks for sharing!
I was wondering why you prefer Moes over Aqara for the mmWave sensors?
@@paulmoers I went for Moes due to them having a ceiling mountable version. I wanted it to be "hidden" and aesthetically pleasing. By mounting the sensor to the ceiling it is flush, and there are no visible cables.
Basically, it was just personal preference!
Send me a list with links and I'll add it to the description!
Love your intro logo!
Thanks!
Fantastic interview!!!
One question though, HA is open source, so are we legally allowed to use it for commercial purposes?
Thank you!
Home Assistant was released under the Appache 2.0 License. This actually allows you to sell Home Assistant as long as you comply with the terms stated in the Appache 2.0 License.
However, we don't sell Home Assistant, as there is no charge for the software. Clients are only paying for our time. They get Home Assistant for free like the rest of us!
Ye I loved the video. Podcast would be a good idea, I’d subscribe.
Thanks for letting me know! ❤️
Thank you! Fingers crossed on that podcast 🤞🏼
One of your guests mentioned a client that wanted linear lighting in their kitchen and they used a cob lighting strip. What is the name of the strip that they used? I’m in the USA. Thanks. I also wish a list of products that they mentioned were listed in the description or the “more”section.
We use the seamless strip range from LEDSpace. They do not ship to the USA, but I am sure there will be a supplier somewhere near you.
Thanks
Hey guys thanks for such amazing video. Can you please recommend some door locks?, I want to use something local and not depend of WiFi or internet. Maybe the YALE Bluetooth version or any other?
Yale is a solid option for door locks. I would utilise their Z-Wave module for making it smart as it is more secure and reliable than Bluetooth. We are currently testing door locks for the UK, as there doesn't seem to be a huge selection available here.
Bedankt
Tell them to check out the monoprice multizone amp with whatever source they like, much cheaper than the sonos
I'm looking for a multi channel system that my partner and I can stream Spotify to - each person streaming to a different room at the same time if required. Any suggestions?
@@HomeAutomationGuy I don't know which devices Spotify supports, as I believe they no longer support Google cast, but the monoprice amp is still a great amp for the task, you'll just need to see if something like an echo can receive Spotify, then use the headphones out on there into the amp
Thank you for a great video and alot of tips.
But heard you talking about he phone HA app geofence, which works sort of ok for myself, but of some reason, my wife and kids phones keep all the time to stop tracking them. It seems like it suddenly can take for ever to get update on where they am . position last changed/updated 3 hours ago is quite common, which makes it difficult to create automatons based on their position.. any idea why it is so?
Thanks
This sounds as though the phone or Companion App settings are causing you issues.
For Android. In the Companion App you should ensure that Background Access is enabled. You should also make sure the correct Location Sensors are enabled. As standard I will enable Background Location, Location Zone, and Single Accurate Location. If I am experiencing issues with all of this enabled, I will then enable High Accuracy Mode. You should also make sure your phone settings are set-up correctly. If you're using Android, you should ensure the Battery Usage is set to Unrestricted. This will allow Home Assistant to operate in the background. Also make sure Location Permission is set to Allow all the time.
For iOS. Make sure Location Sent is Exact under the Companion App server settings. Make sure the Location Permission is set to Always, Location Accuracy is Full, and Background Refresh is Enabled. Make sure all of the Updates Sources are also enabled. Go into the iOS settings and make sure these same features are also enabled here.
Be aware that enabling these features (if they are not already enabled) will likely increase the drain on your battery. I hope this helps you solve your issue.
I was wondering if they use Sonoff Dongle-P and Z2M then how those Aqara devices (H1 switch and contact sensors) behave for them, I just decommissioned all of those contact sensors because I've had enough that they only work on Aqara routers and get disconnected after a power-outage. Had the worst experience with Aqara/Xiaomi (LUMI) devices on the long run.
FYI, at least for the Aqara contact sensors which I use, you DO NOT have to use the Aqara hub! I am using the (so far) excellent SMlight POE device as a coordinator. so far, my zigbee installation (only about 2 weeks old) has been rock solid. I am currently using a few carefully placed sonoff zigbee plugs as routers as well. Also using zigbee2mqtt.
Just pair them to a aqara router. Like a relay that is always powered. Your problems are a thing of the past
Hello! That is our exact set-up, and we haven't had any issues. Aqara devices take longer to reconnect to the Zigbee network after an outage, but they do come back.
Again, this is just our experience. But we aren't doing anything special with our set-up.
For presence detection is there any way to differentiate pets from people? I like the idea of touch free lighting, but I don't need to light the cats.
You can do it if you're willing to put cameras in your house and use AI to determine what object it is looking at, but that is a bit extreme and not 100% accurate. My dog likes the lights turning on for him though
Not really, unless you go down the route Alan has suggested.
If you used a standard PIR sensor instead, they have a limited field-of-view which is usually detailed in the user manual. For example, Aqara sensors have a field-of-view of 170° for up to 2 meters. Knowing this you could position the sensor so it doesn't catch the floor, where your pets would be walking around, but will still catch people walking around. This still isn't a perfect solution, and can take lots of trial and error.
What do they recommend for dimmers?
Candeo are a great choice for dimmers. The Shelly Pro Dimmer 1PM/2PM and Shelly Dimmer 2 are also solid options!
@@LuxeiaLtd Thanks
Beware of Sonos… the app debacle was annoying
Why do I have to have a Sonos app and a Sonos S1 app 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Put time stamps !!!!!!!!!!!!
The guys mentioned @24:26 that they use the Moes mm radar sensor. From what I can tell, they are not supported in HA. Or, do they work/integrate?
The MOES sensors are definitely supported in Home Assistant with Zigbee2MQTT as that is what we run them through. You get access to Detection Delay, Fading Time, Maximum Range, Minimum Range, Radar Sensitivity, Lux Sensor, Presence Sensor, and Target Distance Sensor.
@@LuxeiaLtd Thank you. I am leaning toward using these, but I am reading that they are 'chatty' where a number of them can flood the Zigbee network. Have you experienced this? Thank much in advance!
I don't agree with the recommendation for the home network from these guys. Being in the IT Industry, I have found issues with unifi hardware, especially with IPv6, which is CRITICAL for matter support. You can get Matter to work, but the network needs to be totally flat, but restarting home assistant could take a lot of matter devices offline until the unifi stuff is also rebooted. It's way too complex for majority of home network. Majority of home users are better off with a much simpler mesh style system. Nest Wifi or similar would be ideal for 99% of home users. Keeps it simple, and doesn't have the maintenance and complexity that unifi has.
I use Unifi and have had very few problems with it, but then again I don't use IPv6 or Matter devices so I can't comment on their support for that.
Aren’t Hikvision cameras infamous for being easy to hack and/or send data to China?
I don't use Hikvision, but even still I try and put anything like this on a separate VLAN on my home network, that is denied access to the internet, making it very difficult for things like this to "phone home"
@@HomeAutomationGuy Separate VLANs and firewall rules that appropriately isolate these types devices is a must for home network security, regardless of manufacturer!
first
Cool
I love what these guys are doing however I think they need to be a little more honest about it. They’re essentially repackaging an open source software (home assistant) and selling it with their own brand. Not discounting the great work they do but I think they should make that clear through their website etc.
And donate a portion of their profits to Home Assistant or contribute in some other way
Thank you!
We aim to be extremely transparent and honest. Home Assistant is one of many systems we install, it isn't our sole service. However, your point still stands. Home Assistant does need to be more present through our website, and we will implement this.
Our clients are always informed of Home Assistant during consultation, and we make it clear that the system is not our own. But again, we will implent changes to our site to better reflect this.
@@lewiskelly14 I believe they support Home Assistant by signing up their customers to Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa
Also charging for services is one of the rights enshrined in the FSF vision of free software. Free as in libre, not as in beer.
@HomeAutomationGuy That's right. All clients use Nabu Casa if they want a remote connection or use of a voice assistant.
At 18:20: Thanks @paulhibbert, I can't hear someone say "Phillips hue just works" with out you popping in my head for some reason.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I've often wondered if there were people out there commercialising the install of HA. When I look at what some of my friends have paid for C4 and the results they've got, I wish these blokes all the best. It's great to see some young guys having a crack
Thank you, we really appreciate that!
I saved this conversation. I'm an electrician and I'm sure I will be looking for help from these guys in the future
They're great guys!
Loved this interview. Definitely encourage a podcast! It is a dream of mine to do similar installations for those who need them.
Thanks so much 🙏
Thank you! I am sure you'll get to live that dream someday!
Can you please release a video about your controlled charging of your wall mounted home hub? 👍
This is on the schedule! It should be out within the next week if I find the time to edit it.
It was kind of a podcast on itself, I liked it TBH, but maybe because they were recommending would u learnt is best for the most part?
I found a lack of details on what kind of HACS addons they use, or how their dashboards look like.
All in all, it was good and I'd likeyto see more like this, but I kinda got the feeling of a brand not wanting to share details, while you've been to me a source of free inspiration to do cooler stuff at home!
It was more that we wanted to make it a discussion about smart homes, rather than showing off their business too much. We wanted it to be genuine, not an ad
great video
Thanks!