+1 on water sensors. These things have saved me multiple times over the past 12 years. Also, temp sensors in fridges and freezers. I lost well over $1k worth of meat in my freezer a couple of years ago. Since I have installed temp sensors, they saved my main fridge food, and the food in a different freezer (I hate grocery shopping and buy in bulk).
I have tilt sensors to monitor garage door status, and the buttons are wired to relays on my Elk. Having garage door control from the phone or Alexa is pretty awesome.
Do you have a reco for which brand you use for the low temps?
+1 on Water Sensors, I'm in an old house and just in 1.5 years they have detected leaks that- while small and didn't cause a ton of damage - for sure saved me way more hassle then their cost.
I have successfully used Iris V1 and V2 contact sensors in refrigerators and freezers. The larger CR2 batteries hold up to the cold temperatures. I have one in every freezer and fridge now. The SmartThings contact sensors with button batteries do not cut the mustard.
@tcc I've read most of the posts in this thread thus far. I see that the Xiaomi sensors were mentioned, so I'm going to pipe in. Please research Xiaomi in the forum as a whole. You need to know what you're getting yourself into. Cree bulbs. I'm just going to get them out of the way as well. Just don't buy them in HE. In any case, please make sure that you research the recommendations people are giving you before you buy because they may have the ability to make them solid out of know how. You may not have those resources like an extra hub at your disposal. Please just keep that in mind. I do see a lot of great recommendations here, but you should still research before you buy and check the compatibility list so that you know what you're getting yourself into. Just search the threads. You'll read the things people aren't bothering to tell you.
Wow, thank you everyone again for all of your recommendations and uses. I will definitely do my due diligence in researching recommended products as i'm very picky anyways
I started with Lowe's Iris (version 1) back after we had a break-in while we were away visiting family. I wanted something that would work and not cost a small fortune to have installed and another small fortune over the lifetime of the unit for monitoring. Iris met the need for self-install and initially had no cost for use. I opted for the premium (pay) features and added more sensors and a couple of cameras. Iris had its growing pains and updates frequently broke things that further updates fixed. Then Lowe's released version 2 which meant I needed a new hub. The migration was a real headache. After a number of months, Iris support helped me to fix a broken migration and the system became really stable. Unfortunately, Lowe's decided to drop Iris which left me in the lurch. Fortunately, Lowe's did a reimbursement for costs of equipment so I got a credit of over $700 which helped ease the transition.
Hubitat has the advantage of local processing. It is not reliant upon a service like Iris that can shut down and essentially brick the system. If Hubitat were to cease, my hubs would continue working with what I have. That is a plus.
Other things I have are some Iris V2 smart buttons (used for various purposes such as panic alarms or to control lights), a ThirdReality Smart Switch (goes over a standard switch to automate it), a couple of 3A Smart ZigBee 3.0 Light Dimmer Switches, model HGZB-02A (these are what are in my ceiling fans to control the lights), Aduro ERIA Smart Switches (more accurately, button controllers) to control the dimmer switches, GE Zigbee smart switch and smart dimmer, and the Iris V2 Smart Fobs which not only can arm/disarm the HSM, but act as presence devices (very reliable).
You will find things that work for you. You will likely wind up with quite an assortment of devices to meet needs that you have. Best wishes on your search for what will work for you.
On this. Do the Echo Shows or Google Home let you load any dashboards we could get to work with HE? That would drastically increase my WAF/PAF drastically. I'd prefer to not go the custom android/ipad tablet kiosk route if possible.
I'm not thinking that running a Hubitat Dashboard on these devices is something many users do, but I really don't know for sure. I believe the Google Home devices might allow you to interact with smart home devices that are linked to the Google Home ecosystem, but I don't believe it allows one to build a personalized dashboard from those devices.
I do this with all of my echos. I have the Silk homepage set to an HE dashboard. The only issue is when it times out you have to tell Alexa to open Silk or manually launch it. Not a big deal but I wish I could make that the default screen.
Very interesting... so Silk can run on any of the Echo shows? And I imagine you can bookmark any dashboard so I could build a layout specific for the show?
Been doing more research and was wondering what smart doorbell integrates well (if at all) with HE? I was looking at the Ring (of course), google and eufy.
I'm pretty interested in the eufy because it has local storage and you don't have to pay a monthly subscription.
Want to get the Echo dot with clock but the wife is having none of it because she's paranoid about privacy and the "listening" aspect of the device I even told her the mics can be disabled but.....
Regarding the Zooz 4-in-1 motion sensor, does HE utilize all of it's features? And can the sensitivity be adjusted with HE?
I’m in the Ring boat for reasons outside of Home Automation. And the excellent unofficial integration and superb, as is what you can do with Alexa routines and virtual switches.
Having said that if you want a pure local approach there are multiple posts you can find including a more recent one for the aeotech z-wave doorbell.
Really depends on what your needs are. For me video and two-way audio was important.
If you do not need video or such there are always options like the SAGE Doorbell Sensor that hooks into your existing doorbell so you can detect when it rings.
My main goal is for security. I want to know who's at my door. Case in point I had someone at my door yesterday soliciting a service and although I have a peep hole I thought it was someone else and opened the door. DOH!! But the one caveat of any smart doorbell I'll encounter is in the installation. The current location of the doorbell is in a narrow spot on the door frame with brick right beside it and since the Ring is quite wide I dunno how I would go about installing it in the exact location.
I, personally, had the same problem with no room for the ring doorbell. I decided to install the Blink XT2 camera. No, it doesn't directly work with Hubitat, but through IFTTT, i have it turned on when I turn on my Hubitat security monitor alarm and have it turned off also using IFTTT with a Hubitat presence sensor. If your home, you get a notification on the app on your phone and can see and speak to who's at your front door through the app or even an Echo show if you have one.
I also have the Sage doorbell sensor that you can get for $5.00 on ebay that works great with Hubitat. So if your away from home and didnt turn on your blink camera, you'll get a notification your doorbell was rung and then you can turn on the camera and see and talk to them through the Blink XT camera. I'd, personally, rather have HSM turn the Blink camera on automatically. It ends up being cheaper then purchasing a Ring doorbell.
Whats FANTASTIC with Hubitat is that it offers many great alternatives.
The only one concern I might have is that the location that the camera could be installed in might be easily accessible to “unwanted guests”. So it could be stolen.
What’s your experience with battery life? Is night vision really blurry as most reviews indicate?
Well even the video doorbells can be stolen lolo. I placed my Blink above the door frame using one of those outside Blink enclosures you can get on Amazon. Its high enough that you'd need a step stool to get at it, BUT I don't think a burglar will get close to it because they don't know if its on or off and recording their sour puss lolo. As for the picture quality. Daytime is great and yes nighttime isn't as clear as I would like. For almost 1/2 the price of these video doorbells and a great app that informs you of movement and allows you, FREE ,to store a number of clips (Ring charges you), not to mention you can also email the clips from the app to the police , I really think they serve the purpose at a reasonable price. Concerning batteries, they use standard lithium AA batteries. Most of my use of these cameras, and I have a number of them, are used when I leave the house so their not on 100% of the time and believe it or not, I'm past the 2 year mark and they still show good battery levels. I have the Echo show, and you DON"T need to have the camera's running 24/7 for it to work with it. I can just say, Alexa show me Blink front door and Alexa WILL TURN ON the camera allowing me to see the front camera. When I'm finished viewing , I simply say, Alexa turn off front door Blink camera. Of course you can view your camera from the app on your phone, but for quick access , I love the Echo Show.
Hope that helps you out and DONT forget about the Sage doorbell sensor. Nothing fancy to install. Just 3 wires that match your Chime wiring. Installation can take as little as 15 minutes including the pairing to Hubitat which works great and just $5 on Ebay
I even told her the mics can be disabled but.....
