5 Smart Home Ideas You Really Should Have Thought Of

With so much violence in the world, I think we need even more extended slapping in humorous videos!

Paul Have you tried Philips Wiz bulbs? Maybe a idea for a comparison v Philips Hue video

Paul I swere my mother goes out her way to turn off the light switches my dad dosnt give but my mum hosts out her way to turn them off

I hadn't realised you could type in commands to run, like show the front door cam on Fire TV. I've now set this up and it's awesome. Will have to think of more routines like this...

Here’s a challenge for you Paul. We have kids, you know the germ carrying small humans 😂.. anyway they are afraid of the dark. So we have an Alexa routine that turns their night lights on at sunset and off 30 min before sunrise.. all simple. HOWEVER we don’t have the kids all the time (blended family). So some days we have rooms lit up with no one in there! Is there a way of disabling Alexa routines based on events in a Hotmail calendar.. when we have the kids, enable the routine, when we don’t disable it.. if that’s possible that would really be a smart home 👍

Plan on making a new automation to turn in relaxing dog music based on me and my fiancé's phone being away from more than 5 minutes.

I think the fur kids will partially enjoy that, or we may create 2 mini Amadeus's based on all the classical music they're likely to listen to 😅

You suggest the SENCKIT Door sensor for the Gamepad , but previously you'd raved about the Aqara contact sensor, I know the Aqara one needs a hub and is a few £ more expensive, but long term wouldn't it be better to have the higher quality one with the better ecosystem,? Or am I missing something?

The contact sensor only works if its less than 3 metres away from my virgin hub 4

Great video.. gives me a good idea of what HA can do.. and FWIW, I think one of the problems in the world today is that there's not enough slapping going on. Stupidity should be painful.
:-)

I use the Home Assistant location tracking for keeping track of how long I am at work each day as well. When I leave work I receive an actionable notification where I can select if I'm on my way home or not. If I select that I am heading home, my Waze integration in Home Assistant determines how far I am from home and then sends my wife a text message letting her know I'm on my way home and how long until I'll be home.

Probably old hat now but I have an Alexa rule to monitor front and back door sensor and if they are left open for more than 5 minutes they switch off the heating. Teenager friendly 😁. Great video as always 👍

Another great video 👌🏻

Smart sensor on controller?

How about Sony PS5 and Sony Smart TV. Turn the PS5 on with the controller, and the TV (and soundbar) turn on with it.

Google can do the typed commands as well, as if you spoke them, but for the Camera on the TV, I'd use Home Assistant as it can be told not to do it when no one is home quite easily :).
Thanks for the great review of some really helpful automations

I use our location to send our shopping list to us when we go to our main shops- it comes from Alexa shopping into home assistant

Paul, how have you never used a sonoff mini. They solve your issue of the mrs turning off the switches. They’re awesome

My stupid stupid family ALWAYS turn of the flipping bulbs. So annoying.

As always Great video this week Paul.

Google should do what it does best and copy Alexa (and everyone else) by doing a PIP of who rang the doorbell.

What hub do you use with the IKEA sensors?
I got a Hubitat C-8 based off your review last year, but if I place my IKEA sensor just outside my front door (about 15 feet from the Hubitat) then no signal!

Great to see a return to automation ideas video, the geofencing one is something my family use frequently. I like the game control one but need to think of alternative starters for non-gaming applications.

My go to smart home recommendation for people early in their journey is always using motion sensors to turn on dim or low-level lighting at night as people move around the house. For example, if a child gets up from bed to go to the bathroom, have the lights come on at one percent for two minutes.

I’ve a notification saying “inbox me hun” when attending hospital, much saner than a Facebook post about it and probably more authentic in its care.

I am also playing around with NFC stickers on cards to load up audiobooks for the kids to listen to - removes the issues of shouting at Siri/whoever and also means youngest can identify the book he wants by sight of the cover. The biggest pain is wishing I could more easily play to the right speaker depending on what device scanned the NFC instead of always outputting to the same default speaker. It can probably be done so I’m considering this a PEBKAC error for now.

My best and most used automation is the morning routine that turns relevant lights on and then boils the kettle for me when my regular alarm goes off, or will also trigger if I turn my phone off sleep/do not disturb within 3 hours of the regular alarm time anyway so I always start the day with a brew ready by the time I am out of bed

I've got Shelly, Tado/Kasa and Smart Life products. Is Home Assistant really the only way to have them all come together on a single configurable control panel?

Neesha cameo in this one was spot on ... the annoying family. Little Mercedes? hmm... when are we gonna see her? Great video. My one and only automation gets Alexa to say " Welcome home, hope you're having a great day", and turns a light on when I unlock the front door. Need to work on some more.

to many comment to read and someones probably said ... "door bell" use your location "if not home" don't turn the TV on ... pretty easy fix

I often wonder who would win in a fight, Paul or Techmoan. 😂

Awesome videos sorry I’m Soo late

are you sure removing light switches is allowed (UK) witthout being an electrician or getting building regs? Been a while since I read rules, but altering a circuit like that strikes me as not allowed. NB not saying dangerous. Just against rules?
NB: Moving switches is definitely allowed though. So you could just put a new switch somewhere else without changing circuit.

Expanding on the person tracking, I have multiple shopping lists in Home Assistant and zones setup for the relevant shop. This way I get a notification for each place which links to the correct shopping list. Just today I went to the hardware store and was automatically sent the shopping list notification.

How can I hide my home from my stupid, stupid family?

We need more Red Dwarf clips dammit! Thanks for putting that in, it made my day ya smeg head. ❤

Whoever wrote the comment about extended slapping, please get a life lol. I remember the extended slapping joke and it made me laugh… a lot (seriously)! Don’t stop being you Paul, you’re amazing!

There has to be some logic that you can program into the app to check if cec triggered tv turn on. i.e. if (doorbell pressed && (tv ontime <= 120 seconds) tv off.

Omg Paul with hair... 😳 What a difference...

“Why break the habit of a lifetime”…. Omfg, BRILLIANT!

Also, wonderful Paul, nothing ever happens to the roadrunner, it’s always that Coyote that gets the pain. 🤣

This was a great video. I liked that you showed how to setup routines in the Alexa app.

<swooosh>. Meep! Meep! <ka-pow!>

"I've made loads of really cool automations over the years.": Aside from the platform fan-boys who absolutely must tell you what platform they're using and why you should be using it too, this is perhaps the most common way that home automation enthusiasts can cause their friends, relatives, and people standing in the grocery check-out to glaze over in the eyes and try to find some way of being anywhere else.
I'm not sure it's a full solution but I restrict myself to mentioning or showing one automation to folks who, for some reason I can't fathom are rather uninterested in home automation. It helps if they're the ones who bring it up.
On the other hand, the folks that are here are already interested in home automation (unless, of course, they're here for head's exploding and doing things on the fly.) So, they've tacitly given you permission to turn on the deluge of automation ideas.
Your videos often give me ideas of what I'd like to buy, but this one gave me ideas of automations I would find useful and could do myself. (So, mission accomplished. Good work.)
I have a set of automations that I'll mention that's about mid-level:
It's for lighting the back porch/deck. The standard operation is to turn the deck light on when motion is sensed and turn it off after there's no motion for two minutes, but only if it's between dusk and dawn. However, sometimes we sit outside on the deck, and I'd like the lights to stay on. So, I have a virtual switch that determines whether motion or lack thereof will switch the light. I've added one more automation that switches off the lights and turns motion triggering on at 11:30 pm in case I forget to turn the lights off or turn motion sensing back on.
Presence sensing with notifications: I do this too for the same reasons you mentioned. Home assistant lets you set up "zones," each with a location. I have an automation that lets my wife and I know when we arrive at and leave several common locations. This information also shows up on the dashboard so we can see where the other is at a glance. (It's sort of like Mama Wheazley's clock.)
Thanks again for some neat automation ideas. I'd like to see more of that.

I like the smart bulb idea outside, hopefully the bone-chilling cold we get this time of year (Michigan) wouldn’t destroy them
like it does my will to live every morning. (It’s a joke, nobody sic the community mental health authorities on me, I’d have to explain all of the tin foil!)

I got the geofencing notifications for me and my wife as well. We both receive a home assistant notification whenever we enter/leave home, our works and some other frequent visits. It saves us from separately sharing location or send a message we arrive.

Also, I've got a small overhead light right outside the entrance door. I have it set up to turn on whenever my wife or I arrive home after dark so we can open the door inside. It will turn off after the door has been closed for 5min. This light also turns on whenever we pass through the inside motion sensor and open the door in the nighttime. This serves to properly close home and to welcome guest into our home.

Next, we have a couple of automations that will turn on a small indoor water fountain from 7am to 11pm, only if either or both of us is home. If we both happen to leave home in this time slot, the fountain will turn off... And will turn on again when we arrive and open the front door (only if isn't past 11pm).

Finally, we leave our cat a small bulb that will only turn on when nobody's at home and is nighttime, and will turn off whenever we arrive home.

Big wall of text here, but I do love sharing my smart home automations!

Love the videos Paul. Always great info. I’d be interested in the automation systems you use for outdoor lighting. You turned me on to the Aqara system from Hue and the routines work flawlessly, but not sure if their P1 is IP rated. A single eco system is also the way forward in my view especially when you take into account Alexa routines only work 2% of the time and I have no interest in home assistance. So a single ecosystem for outdoor motion that enables lights and opening doors to turn lights on would be amazing

Great video this week Paul. Idea for the door bell. My ring turns on my tv to show the feed, then if my LinknLink radar, yes I followed the link 😉, doesn’t detect anyone one in the Livingroom, or bedroom it turns that TV off. Lights to if they are on. I’m using all this to stop my kids leaving everything on ask the time. Working well so far.

How did you link your Flic Twist to Home Assistant?
Got any tutorials, links, ...?

I have no home internet for a week and it's been very bad to control my devices. Yet I didn't have patience to set up home assistant. 🤪