tips for the most seemless setup?
At this early stage of smart homes, the only "seamless / one-device type control" setups are very expensive. Most of the big named brands work fairly well together, but things can start getting expensive.
As you're starting from a blank slate, i would first think what it is that would make your life easier at home that a smart device could provide help with.
Having a few lightbulbs that you can switch on from your app isn't a "smart home". You've been able to control the function of a lightbulb remotely for at least the last 10-20 years (timers or remote switches for example).
A couple of examples that i've integrated in my home:
- Door contact sensors/motion sensors in the hallway, so lights come on as soon as i open my front door - no faffing around trying to find a light switch (especially useful if carrying shopping etc)
- Temperature/humidity sensors in each room - will come in useful for when i eventually install smart heating
- Smart blinds - i have mine on a schedule to open/close in the mornings/evenings, could also have them automated to close when you start a film
- Automations on washing machine and dishwasher - i'm a nightmare for putting a wash on and forgetting about it - so i now get an announcement through my smart speakers, and a push notification to say the washing machine has finished - same for the dishwasher
- Smart plugs - for various things i might want to switch on or off at certain times - i envision that eventually electricity tariffs will be charged dynamic rates based on time of day (Agile Octopus), so being able to switch things on/off based on the unit cost of electricity would be a big thing
- Security - smart alarm, contact sensors on doors/windows - this is more useful in the summer where i can quickly glance at a panel and see if we've left any windows open etc.
- Various hardware tracking - helpful to ensure things like disks are running cool, or CPU's aren't overheating
- Other tracking - monitoring upload/download speeds (you could set up an automation to reboot your router in the event of an outage), i also track my DNS stats, so response times and frequency of blocked requests
- Power monitoring - good to see which devices are consuming most of the electric
- Device that tracks soil moisture/temperature/conductivity, so i can get notified if plants need more watering etc
- Media stuff - Plex tracks quite well, can view usage stats etc
I've got various other projects i plan to do this year:
- Sensor on the waterbutt to track the level of water in the tank - i have a backup tank for water storage that's not connected to the guttering, so helpful to know when the main one is running low on water - also helpful for tracking how much it rains
- Irrigation system for greenhouse/garden - using perhaps some sort of moisture probes in plant pots to switch an irrigation system on - there looks to be quite a few of these types of projects
- Heating - with individual TRVs
- Possibly a robovaccum for upstairs (would probably get mauled by the dog if it was downstairs)
- Security cameras - but not cloud based, and would like to add things like facial recognition to it
- Temperature probes that i can stick in the fridge/freezer, so i can get notified if the temperature drops - door accidently not fully closed, or fridge/freezer died etc.
I'm sure there's others on the list.
