Home automation/security

[Yaz4Ever]

My wife and I just purchased a condo at the beach. It is roughly 4 hours from our house, so we'd like to be able to monitor it from home. Luckily, we have a friend who lives 15 minutes from the condo who is happy to respond if needed.

I'm thinking cameras inside (and possibly one outside to check for rising water and to see the balcony area), leak detectors under sinks and at the water heater. Anything else I should consider? We don't have blinds, it came with plantation shutters, so I don't need the blind controls. It already has a Honeywell thermostat similar to the ones we have at home, so I'm hoping I can add it to the app we're already using at home.

Bonus points, I guess, if the new things can be homekit compatible as we are all in on the Apple ecosystem. It's honestly not that big a deal if I need to use different apps for the different devices, but all-in-one would obviously be better.

What else is available that I don't even know about? Brands to avoid? Thanks in advance.

 

[axx]

All I've heard about the cameras are that they are a security and privacy nightmare.

 

[AlNipper49]

I’m in a similar situation and ended up rolling my own with Reolink stuff. For one-offs like water detection I just use whatever is cheapest and works with my automation system (Home Assistant). I like the Reolink cameras a bunch and like that it has local recordings as I’m not confident in the internet here (we are a few trees away from being able to Starlink). We have a weird hybrid DSL setup that has been amazingly stable

 

[Yaz4Ever]

I’m in a similar situation and ended up rolling my own with Reolink stuff. For one-offs like water detection I just use whatever is cheapest and works with my automation system (Home Assistant). I like the Reolink cameras a bunch and like that it has local recordings as I’m not confident in the internet here (we are a few trees away from being able to Starlink). We have a weird hybrid DSL setup that has been amazingly stable

We just had Spectrum 400Mbps installed yesterday. I'm home, but my wife is down there until Sunday. I don't NEED to set anything up immediately, but it would be nice to do while she's there so I can test from here while she is available to test on her end.

@AlNipper49 something like this? Reolink system

@axx my son works for a security contractor and is very well-versed in security and privacy areas. He is insistent that I avoid Alexa/Google and says that Apple, while not perfect, is far more secure in protecting our privacy.

 

[jayhoz]

Like @AlNipper49 I'm on HomeAssistant and love to tinker with it. Bit of learning curve, but worth it in the end IMO.

Some things to consider. Some of these may not be needed depending on the layout of the condo.

1) Smart lights and switches that can be set to come on randomly in the evening to make it appear as if someone is home.
2) Video doorbell that lets you respond to the visitor with voice to again appear like you are home.
3) Some camera systems can detect the sound of breaking glass or smoke alarms and send you an alert.
4) Basic motion sensors that will ping you if someone is in the house.

 

[SumnerH]

+1 on Reolink and Home Assistant. That's what I use, good equipment without the security and stability concerns of the hosted crap.

Home Assistant is designed from the ground up to protect your data and keep it away from third parties (eg Apple, Amazon, Google) unless you explicitly want to give it to them for some reason. It has support for Alexa/Siri/Google Assistant if you want that. Their one sentence marketing line is “Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first.”

Easiest way to get going is pick up a Home Assistant Green hub for $99, it's plug and play. You can also install the software for free on an existing desktop/server if you're moderately technically inclined.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

+1 on Reolink and Home Assistant. That's what I use, good equipment without the security and stability concerns of the hosted crap.

Home Assistant is designed from the ground up to protect your data and keep it away from third parties (eg Apple, Amazon, Google) unless you explicitly want to give it to them for some reason. It has support for Alexa/Siri/Google Assistant if you want that. Their one sentence marketing line is “Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first.”

Easiest way to get going is pick up a Home Assistant Green hub for $99, it's plug and play. You can also install the software for free on an existing desktop/server if you're moderately technically inclined.

moderately, but I know a few guys on a message board (hint, hint) lol

 

[Yaz4Ever]

Like @AlNipper49 I'm on HomeAssistant and love to tinker with it. Bit of learning curve, but worth it in the end IMO.

Some things to consider. Some of these may not be needed depending on the layout of the condo.

1) Smart lights and switches that can be set to come on randomly in the evening to make it appear as if someone is home.
2) Video doorbell that lets you respond to the visitor with voice to again appear like you are home.
3) Some camera systems can detect the sound of breaking glass or smoke alarms and send you an alert.
4) Basic motion sensors that will ping you if someone is in the house.

I am thinking of doing a couple of smart lights - probably just go with the plug in things for the wall outlets on a couple of lamps. I will definitely be adding a Ring camera.

 

[SumnerH]

I am thinking of doing a couple of smart lights - probably just go with the plug in things for the wall outlets on a couple of lamps. I will definitely be adding a Ring camera.

Reolink has doorbell cameras that don't send data to Amazon or another third party, fwiw.

 

[luckiestman]

Reolink has doorbell cameras that don't send data to Amazon or another third party, fwiw.

Interesting, I have been planning on doing a ring this week but this data thing has been in the back of my mind.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

Reolink has doorbell cameras that don't send data to Amazon or another third party, fwiw.

well, there we go ... I assume it would tie in directly to the system I liked above in response to Nip?

 

[SumnerH]

well, there we go ... I assume it would tie in directly to the system I liked above in response to Nip?

Should, yeah.

 

[cgori]

well, there we go ... I assume it would tie in directly to the system I liked above in response to Nip?

https://reolink.com/us/product/reolink-video-doorbell-wifi/

Says "works with Reolink NVRs" so presumably, yes.

 

[ColdSoxPack]

Check out Blink. I have 3 cameras that I can monitor from my phone. Nothing ever happens though.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

Check out Blink. I have 3 cameras that I can monitor from my phone. Nothing ever happens though.

i have blink cameras at my home. Don't like Amazon having access.

 

[Oil Can Dan]

I am interested in dipping my toe into some home automation stuff and this HomeAssistant looks interesting. How technically inclined does one need to be to get this up, running and useful?

 

[Zedia]

+1 on Reolink and Home Assistant. That's what I use, good equipment without the security and stability concerns of the hosted crap.

Home Assistant is designed from the ground up to protect your data and keep it away from third parties (eg Apple, Amazon, Google) unless you explicitly want to give it to them for some reason. It has support for Alexa/Siri/Google Assistant if you want that. Their one sentence marketing line is “Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first.”

Easiest way to get going is pick up a Home Assistant Green hub for $99, it's plug and play. You can also install the software for free on an existing desktop/server if you're moderately technically inclined.

So these are all wired? Are there any wireless versions?

 

[AlNipper49]

I am interested in dipping my toe into some home automation stuff and this HomeAssistant looks interesting. How technically inclined does one need to be to get this up, running and useful?

Kinda sorta. I think that you would be able to swing it. There is a bit of a learning curve but it’s not too bad. The worst case if there is something manual to be done you edit a text file in YAML format which is the way to understand. CharGPT/Grok can spit it out for you too, I’ve used both and both are pretty damn good for HA.

Plus you have my number and I can jump on and help ya

 

[AlNipper49]

So these are all wired? Are there any wireless versions?

There are, and they work great. I used wired in my house since it was easier running POE rather than extending outlets. But my two big boy outdoor ones are 1080p and I’ve never noticed a single issue. On the Reolink someone has a google sheet of what exact model you can buy. I forget exactly what mine are but my indoor ones were like $60 Poe and the outdoor ones are these awesome motorized ones that were a little north of $200.

 

[Zedia]

There are, and they work great. I used wired in my house since it was easier running POE rather than extending outlets. But my two big boy outdoor ones are 1080p and I’ve never noticed a single issue. On the Reolink someone has a google sheet of what exact model you can buy. I forget exactly what mine are but my indoor ones were like $60 Poe and the outdoor ones are these awesome motorized ones that were a little north of $200.

Thanks. I use cheap wyze cams, I know there’s been security issues with those, so I was wondering if these would be safer.

 

[AlNipper49]

I don’t trust any of them, of course the worst case the bad guys get nothing on my network but I do have a separate network for just my cameras. It’s extremely likely that is an over-engineered part of my plan. One judges security by risk and impact. While the cams may have elevated risk the sad fact is if a bad guy was on the inside the impact would be minimal. I also block the cameras on the internet. I use Tailscale on an internal box to get to them, but that’s more of a Home Cameras Advanced Class thing.

 

[uncannymanny]

I have a house full of Hue bulbs and we just moved. We need a lot more smart switches to make proper use of them since they were bunched up more in our last place.

I don’t want wireless switches except as additions in certain places, so I’m looking at the various wired options. We have a couple of these Lutrons but they fit over a switch, not a toggle, and I’m not keen on that style in most of the house. Plus they’re $40 a pop.

There are “Friends of Hue” switches and I’m not sure if this gets me anything over the Matter-based Kasa switches, for instance. I know I don’t want any of the models that require their own hub (e.g. TP-Link Caseta), but I'm not easily making sense of this. Anyone a Hue house?

 

[jayhoz]

I have a house full of Hue bulbs and we just moved. We need a lot more smart switches to make proper use of them since they were bunched up more in our last place.

I don’t want wireless switches except as additions in certain places, so I’m looking at the various wired options. We have a couple of these Lutrons but they fit over a switch, not a toggle, and I’m not keen on that style in most of the house. Plus they’re $40 a pop.

There are “Friends of Hue” switches and I’m not sure if this gets me anything over the Matter-based Kasa switches, for instance. I know I don’t want any of the models that require their own hub (e.g. TP-Link Caseta), but I'm not easily making sense of this. Anyone a Hue house?

What action do you need the switch to perform on the Hue bulbs? If it is simply on/off then a standard dumb switch will do that.

 

[Oil Can Dan]

Kinda sorta. I think that you would be able to swing it. There is a bit of a learning curve but it’s not too bad. The worst case if there is something manual to be done you edit a text file in YAML format which is the way to understand. CharGPT/Grok can spit it out for you too, I’ve used both and both are pretty damn good for HA.

Plus you have my number and I can jump on and help ya

I only understood like one third of the shit you wrote here but fuck it - I just bought a Home Assistant Green. Giddyup.

 

[cgori]

I know I don’t want any of the models that require their own hub (e.g. TP-Link Caseta), but I'm not easily making sense of this.

Why? I have a house full of Caseta switches and the hub. They work great, but I have no Hue bulbs - everything is either (switched) outlets, a smattering of lamp controllers, or built-in LEDs (under kitchen cabinet, over vanity, etc). As I understand it, the Hue bulbs want to be always on and not switched off at the switch.
So, seems like wireless switches (or scene controllers) are almost exactly what you want for your case to control the Hue bulbs? Unless I don't get what you are trying to do with the Hue bulbs.

I have a few of the Caseta wireless switches and they also work great for handling lamp controllers, which is about how I would imagine the Hue control to work.

 

[jayhoz]

I only understood like one third of the shit you wrote here but fuck it - I just bought a Home Assistant Green. Giddyup.

You’re in for a treat. You will soon be able to do such super useful things like having chargpt generate an image of the current weather conditions with your dog dressed in weather appropriate clothing and have it shown on your kitchen display!!!

 

[jercra]

It's really a bunch of tradeoffs. Anything on WiFi is fundamentally insecure and unreliable and can easily be disabled. If you want true security and a very hard to corrupt system then you need wired cameras and something like ZWave/Zigbee for lights, locks, open/close sensors, etc. Wired cameras can be very expensive if you have to run all of the wiring. Systems like ZWave and Zigbee can be expensive as well and the choices are more limited than WiFi based IoT things. The controllers for those systems can also be a huge PITA to setup and manage. You also need to deal with having some kind of offsite storage for video/data which inevitably leaves you either building systems for your home or landing on a cloud-based service of some sort.

For the "Security as a Service" type of system, IMO, Wyze is the best bang for your buck. They have lots of devices that I've found to be pretty good quality (especially the cameras), with lots of features, including fully monitored systems. The downside is that all of your data is basically their data to leak, and their system outages are your system outages. But, you can get your entire place setup for a few hundred bucks without having to run any wires, and you can easily share/unshare access to others as needed. You also get access to their AI so you get detections of when a person, a package, a vehicle, a known person, etc. is seen on video (available at different subscription levels).

After being all ZWave at my last house, I went all Wyze at my current house and haven't had any issues in the 3+ years since. I have also resigned myself to the fact that my data is not my own if I want to participate in the modern world.

 

[SumnerH]

As a friendly reminder from someone who just got clobbered by a hurricane, if you are relying on things going to an outside/cloud server it's not just a privacy issue—if you lose Internet, you can lose total or partial control and access to anything that's network-reliant.

I was just looking at Valetudo for this reason last week and didn't bother switching to it (a mistake I will soon be rectifying), which meant that my robot vacuum/mop was a brick until network came back. No roomba is not the end of the world, but the more stuff you lose the more annoying it is, and I'm super glad that I wasn't relying on Internet connectivity for things like locks, lights, cameras, music, movies, ebooks, radio, etc. You still need power for internal networking, but that's a lot more robust and a lot higher priority for authorities to restore quickly in a crisis.

At a bare minimum, if you do have stuff in a cloud service make sure that you have some access plan for critical stuff in an emergency—and practice it enough that you're familiar with it when you need to be.

Or use an internal solution like Home Assistant, which doesn't rely on external network connectivity.

 

[jercra]

As a friendly reminder from someone who just got clobbered by a hurricane, if you are relying on things going to an outside/cloud server it's not just a privacy issue—if you lose Internet, you can lose total or partial control and access to anything that's network-reliant.

I was just looking at Valetudo for this reason last week and didn't bother switching to it (a mistake I will soon be rectifying), which meant that my robot vacuum/mop was a brick until network came back. No roomba is not the end of the world, but the more stuff you lose the more annoying it is, and I'm super glad that I wasn't relying on Internet connectivity for things like locks, lights, cameras, music, movies, ebooks, radio, etc. You still need power for internal networking, but that's a lot more robust and a lot higher priority for authorities to restore quickly in a crisis.

At a bare minimum, if you do have stuff in a cloud service make sure that you have some access plan for critical stuff in an emergency—and practice it enough that you're familiar with it when you need to be.

Or use an internal solution like Home Assistant, which doesn't rely on external network connectivity.

And/or have a cellular/satellite connection as a backup. My WiFi router lets me switch from hardwired to tethered, so when my internet dies, I use my phone. I also have a UPS and a generator. This is, of course, no help if you are not at the place that loses connectivity.

 

[SumnerH]

And/or have a cellular/satellite connection as a backup. My WiFi router lets me switch from hardwired to tethered, so when my internet dies, I use my phone. I also have a UPS and a generator. This is, of course, no help if you are not at the place that loses connectivity.

I have cable and T Mobile cellular data as a backup. Doesn't help when a hurricane takes them both down. We got just enough cell back Monday to text and, with enough patience and refreshing, post on SOSH at some hours of the day, but nothing stable enough to rely on.

Satellite and a ham radio are on the agenda once logistics stabilize.

 

[canderson]

I ditched all my Nest cams for TP Link cams. SD card complaint, no subscription and can tie into HomeKit. 2K video is good. Very reliable. I’m pleased. YMMV.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

I'm seriously considering getting one of those Delta Pro type battery backups for the beach condo, which will eventually be our retirement home, but I have no idea what size to get. I've seen plenty of videos of people having it connected directly to their breaker box so it kicks in automatically when power goes out. It's under 1500 sq feet, will just be the two of us, and I'm sure we can do without certain "luxuries" like washer/dryer and dishwasher if it saves us on the battery size need. A/C would likely be nice, but we can do fans as well. Definitely want the refrigerator to work throughout and I'd like to have lights and TV (to stay updated). Anyone have experience with them? Love this guy's stuff.

 

[luckiestman]

As a friendly reminder from someone who just got clobbered by a hurricane, if you are relying on things going to an outside/cloud server it's not just a privacy issue—if you lose Internet, you can lose total or partial control and access to anything that's network-reliant.

I was just looking at Valetudo for this reason last week and didn't bother switching to it (a mistake I will soon be rectifying), which meant that my robot vacuum/mop was a brick until network came back. No roomba is not the end of the world, but the more stuff you lose the more annoying it is, and I'm super glad that I wasn't relying on Internet connectivity for things like locks, lights, cameras, music, movies, ebooks, radio, etc. You still need power for internal networking, but that's a lot more robust and a lot higher priority for authorities to restore quickly in a crisis.

At a bare minimum, if you do have stuff in a cloud service make sure that you have some access plan for critical stuff in an emergency—and practice it enough that you're familiar with it when you need to be.

Or use an internal solution like Home Assistant, which doesn't rely on external network connectivity.

Something being called Vale Tudo is very funny. That is a precursor to MMA