Happy Saturday everyone!! My new Smart Home is so flipping exciting!! If you’d like to buy any of the products featured in today’s video then check them out below!… As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. By buying through any of the links below I will earn commission at no extra cost to you :) AQARA Amazon UK: amzn.to/3GyhluB Amazon US: amzn.to/4a9yokk AJAX Amazon UK: amzn.to/3tcEzDJ Amazon US: Not Available :(

This time next year we will see Paul change all his batteries. Prepare for a full hour episode 😂

Congrats on the new home, Paul. A big change like that is always exciting. I just popped in to say, yes, Home Assistant can be a bit like a Tamogotchi, but you likely experience a higher level of instability because your job requires you to make many and constant changes to the system. Average users, once set up, don't have quite the number of headaches in certain you do. Heck, I've gone months before realizing i haven't checked for updates and my days of tweaking things feel like they are over. None of this is meant to discredit what you've said, just to provide a little "other side" perspective. Cheers!

Home Assistant is not so bad at breaking if you don't use custom integrations or bespoke configuration files. If you can do everything inside the UI, you don't really get things breaking as much. But if you want to be all in one ecosystem, then for sure you can ditch Home Assistant. Home Assistant is good if you have a bunch of devices from different suppliers. I think, having a bunch of Aqara stuff, it could be better for what you want to do . The issue with Home Assistant is a lot of people over complicate it, because it can be over complicated. The KISS principle works with Home Assistant too. If you keep it simpler, it doesn't break as much. This is coming from someone who has used Home Assistant since 2017 and also has a life, a partner and a child.

Gotta admit that you've convinced me a while ago that Aqara was the bee's knees, and it hasn't let me down yet. They do absolutely make amazing quality stuff, and I'm glad to have found them through your channel.

The setup in our home is fully Nest (Google) and Ikea-tradfri based (due to cost). It works pretty smooth, Ikea's switches are an awesome-cost affective way to get switches in a rental property and also use nest-speakers without having to replace any stuff. If we ever decide to leave I just pack it up, build it up again and it works again.

Hey mate, do you promise not to send Mr. Socky after me if I say you are overusing the phrase "changes everything"? With all these stuff changing everything every time you post a new video, then we are probably on a 360 degree change and back to the first place over and over again! I am literally starting to hump the air shouting "this changes everything, this changes everything, this changes everything!!!"

I use both Homekit and Home Assistant. Love Home Assistant because it is so powerful so I am not likely to give it up. What I would like to see is a proper integration in HA for bringing in the Aqara hubs (integrations exist buy they are not great). If we get a proper integration then all the Aqara devices can be both in HK and HA without any fuss. Lutron Caseta works like this and it is quite handy.

I like playing with Home Assistant, but it can take a lot of work. This looks like a great option for my parents. I don't wan to be their tech support when things go wrong, so easier the better. =)

I just got myself an exclusively Aqara home system too. Thermostats, tempature sensors and door/window sensors. Right now my smart home only controls my: * Thermostats OFF when any window is OPEN and Thermostats ON if all windows are closed. All thermostats have an associated external sensor for tempature detection. * Tempature/Humidity/TVOC sensors in every room automaticly remind me of when I need to air out my apartment. When I do that, it monitors all sensors and notifies me when all values is below a certain point. * Along with window sensors, all doors also have sensors on them, and if they change state during the time my alarm is ON, it raises an alarm and notifies me. * My Aqara alarm system then uses the sensors to monitor for change and too high/low values. Right now my tempature sensors is monitored for tempatures above 50C as that could indicate a fire. I'm planning to expand it with 5 waterleak sensors (one for under my dishwasher, refrigerator, sink in kitchen, sink in bathroom and toilet), 4 smoke detectors (one for each room), 4 pressense sensors (again one for each room) and 2 cameras (these can cover my entire apartment). Haven't done any smart lighting as I live in a rented apartment and am not allowed to rewire my electrical installation (even though I'm actually an electrician). I'm gonna have to be a little creative with the lighting part, but it can be done with the relays and just blanking off the light switches with a plate on top. 😉

Hate to say it and will keep using HA. but you are right. thinks will break. NEVER run an update before going to sleep.

Dear Paul, thats one more amazing video. I am switching `slowly` to Aqara as well, as i have been babysitting home assistant for three years now and now i am busy with my hman baby 🍼 I only planned to keep home assistant for dashboards to check for my Dutch energy and water meters. Additionally, sniffing and vomitting API like our online supermarket deliveries and tracking our post parcels before the mailman throw them on the street. Few questions i had! Dimmers: why not a cheap RF dimmer switch and use the mighty broadlink instead of home assistant? Thermostats: I am personally in love with a vintage honeywell product called multizone evohome. It just works!! 😅 And opentherm friendly. Also very energy saving in terms of learning the patterns of each room. How long it takes to warm up and cool down. Again, excellent video ❤

I have HA and I find it reliable. I have 12 Tasmota plugs, Aqura devices x 5, 3 x hue lights, 1 bellikn switch (first one I bought), nest connected… UDM cameras. I’m curious if your issues with it is because your testing so many different products all of the time ? Do you have a separate HA instance for testing. The biggest pain I have experienced so far is zigbee and pairing once paired fine, but the initial device discover is a pia!

Great piece, love the Aqara stuff I have, most reliable in my set-up. But, the lack of support for sockets, dimming, and bulbs is a real pain in the backside. Couldn't they just open up their ecosystem to other Zigbee devices? That would solve most of the problems. It seems the simplest solution is to move over to Homekit and use Aqara devices.

Aqara is hands down, one of my favorite smart home manufactures.

If you are starting fresh I do think that it is a great idea to keep with one company as you are more likely to have a more reliable system. Home assistant works well for those of us that have bought technology when it comes out "oooh shiny" approach so may have many different brands over the years. Then the problem with home assistant is they update to fix how they want something done and if youdid it a slightly different way it breaks. Then days of head bashing and hopefully all working again.

The one small thing bugging me is that the kitchen lights turn off before the dinning room lights turn on. Can a delay be added before the lights turn off when leaving a zone?

I have that exact arrangement in my house, 90% with aqara. Been working for 3 years NO STOP. Just add some fp2 and it’s everything amazing and “its just works” 😂😂😂😂

Well done Paul. I moved to Aqara last year because they are easy to set up and use, they use Zigbee, are affordable, work well with Amazon products, and are covering matter. What they are missing though. 1. A speaker system like the Echos so I can finally ditch Amazon. 2. A Smoke detector (not here in Europe) 3. A clever frame to mount two wall switches together (you had that problem to) 4. they have announced a european wall plug several months ago but still not seen 5. A triple plug extension lead for Europe which allows all three plugs to be smartly controlled. 6. A real door lock system which is not a strap on. What I dont like a) the curtain control unit does not fully close my pair of full height curtains, full open no problem but it struggles to close them leaving a gap (they are not heavy ones) b) the radiator control needs to be calibrated on a regular basis otherwise it just goes into full power heating up the room. This happens on all six of mine which I purchased over a peroid of several months so its not a batch production issue. c) LED strip far to expensive for only two metres.

I use homey (2023) with a lot of aquara stuff and even hue... Homey makes up for the things that aquara doesn't do, in an very easy way (if this than that principle. And its not a tamagotchi. It doesn't work with some of your stuff though, so you're probably better of with home assistant. But for new smarthomers, homey is very good!

Congrats on the new home - I'm so glad you've told us, I've been watching the last few weeks wondering whose house you were in 😂 When you reviewed the vacuums I was somewhat confused!

Damn man. Those sensors are awesome. I’m hooked and you haven’t even baited me yet

If I did it all over again I likely would go Aqara I don't get why Home Assistant seems to be such a hassle though. I mean all I do is install updates through the web ui a couple times a week. Mind you, I don't automate with Home Assistant, I just use HA to listen to my devices change state. I'm still a Node Red Nerd when it comes to automation. Haven't touched that stuff in months, stable as a rock

On the temperature sensors is there any heat coming off of the switch below. Remember Linus from LTT had a slight issue as his thermostats were above over switches (can't remember what) but the heat coming off of them was tricking the sensor into thinking the room was warmer than it was. Looking forward to more video's on the new house 👍

Good presentation as always. You are responsible for helping me choose Aqara for my automation needs in the future. Thanks for all your honest, fair and balanced reviews. Merry Christmas.

I rewired my parents’ boiler’s programmer unit many years ago (it was in an inaccessible position where you couldn’t see the date, time or temperature settings and I was fed up being woken up at 5am when I stayed there because they couldn’t change it when the clocks went forward (it wasn’t a one of the units that can do it themselves). Anyway, only mentioning it because there were 79 connections to make. (There was a couple of metres of trunking and L-shaped angles having to get the wires out of an alcove round an external corner and navigate around awkwardly positioned surface mounted plug switches.) 79 connections. Best job I did for them (it worked). Did I mention there were 79 connections? (Only bragging because I can’t do that stuff any more and am heartbroken.) Love to the gerbils. And you both of course. 😘

Very healty and refreshing commentary. I'm also slowly preparing to leave HA - test other platform check other possibilities. HA after initial hype for tinkerers is getting problematic - many simple problems with overcomplicated solutions for each of them. Thanks.

The Tomogatchi and Homeassistant comparaison is pure gold 😂 The issue is that if you don't buy a well preconfigured homeassistant green/yellow box, creating your own out of a raspberrypi can lead to serveral issues like you encoutered during all those years as you mentionned (mainly the sd card dying by constant writing, during initial setup i set it up as such so it writes to RAM first then the SD later, but you can't expect anyone to br able to do that)

I love Aqara! They just work!

Any chance you can ask Aqara to make a smart lightbulb with a presence sensory built into the lightbulb? I ask this due to their presence sensor’s “fall down detection” only working if their sensor is mounted on the ceiling, so putting it into a light would mean it would be powered by built-in power for the lights (so no ugly wires or having v to change batteries), and would be in the right position for fall-down detection to work. It would be a game-changer for elderly and people living with disabilities. 💙

Really wish they had uk plugs and/or sockets. Also if they sold their door locks over here too! Great vid, thanks Paul

I do think Aqara makes great kit and they are my go to zigbee brand. The real issue is that HA is never going to run on Raspberry PI4 or lower without care and feeding. Yes using a USB based SSD will make it better. But after moving to a decommissioned Chromebox with a very average SSD; I've had zero issues in the two years since making the change.

Bugger! Just bought a load of Tuya smart, touch switches (and yes, they do 4 gang switches). Really simple to install, needing only one live input and then one connection to each light (similar to a radial circuit, not a ring circuit).

Just out of curiosity, what do you mean you need babysit HA? I've installed it, it works and unless I need new device, I don't need to do any updates or anything. So same as any other system, if you get it into working state, just don't touch it. How did HA then let you down?

I'm just getting started with Aqara and finding my way. I do have the G4 doorbell camera and up to now I'm a bit disappointed with it. It misses quite a lot of things. I might need to study the settings a bit more to hopefully resolve this.

The new place looks great!

I'm sure there was a black mask and a cape in the bottom of that box too. 😆 But the presence and temp sensors look pretty good.

Great loghts demo, BUT I would get pissed, and piss the sensors off if thse lights turning off imediatelly i leave, thy should only turn on imediately and turn off after cetrain delay and gradually dimm not shut off, then it feels smart.

Spot on... they all don't actually have a full range.... non do... In Australia they are actually just sensors no lighting bar led strip's. The in wall/roof smart relays are available at 70 bucks each 🤯🤯 Shelly's are under 30...

The only problem I have is that you are now dependent on Aqara for all of your stuff. Not that I think they're going to go under anytime soon. But when they do, or decide to stop supporting your older hub, you're going to wind up with a ton of work rejoining devices and reworking rules. And let's be honest, larger companies (*ahem, Lutron*) have fallen. Sonoff has a controller that can do all activity locally, or via network. It has an open API, and clearly marked hardware ports for flashing alternate firmware, like Tasmota, which can connect with NodeRed, FHEM, OpenHab, and yes, Home Assistant. Don't get me wrong, Aqara is a great brand. 1/3 of my home devices are made by them. But relying on outside services will always bite you. Ask any Sears, Walworths, Toys R Us, or Thomas Cook customers, and they'll agree.

HA is running smoothly for like 3+ years for me, updating it monthly and for like 1-2 years I had NO breaking changes to take care of. Now there is one regarding the Ping integration which I use, but nothing major. If you keep it relatively simple it works fine.

Good use of skits, Paul! Usually you tend to overdo them, but this was proper

Nah I'm with you. Aqara are scarily good. I've done the same thing as you and now balance just 2 hubs.

I love that you're so easily amused. It reminds me of when I wasn't dead inside.

Congrats on the new home. We have a lot of Aqara devices in our home and I completely get the attraction of a single platform controlling everything. However, there are so many things that Home Assistant can do that pre-configured systems cannot. Plus, our own Home Assistant instance takes very minimal maintenence to keep running smoothly. I spend about an hour once a week doing updates. The biggest time expense for me is if I add new functionality to Home Assistant, such as our TTS voice announcements over "she who must not be named". Anyway, keep up the good work and have a great 2024 when it comes.

Congrats on the new home! Looks amazing and starting your smart home from (almost) scratch must be fun!

Honestly...Aqara is great, as is Shelly as is Switchbot and also Homematic IP...but at the end of the day, none of them makes everything, so, Home Assistant, while it does require attention and tends to break things with Updates (though some of the issues are down to manufacturers changing the API or blocking it) it is the only system I know that can (relatively) reliably connect everything and make it work together. A Vaillant Heat Pump, Homematic underfloor heating controller, Huawei Solar system, Tibber electricity, a Tesla, some Switchbot stuff, Hue, Govee and other lamps? Ikea switches and so on and so forth...Home Assistant links it all up easily.

If you had philips hue bulbs you could map your house in the aqara app and then have the light literally follow you around the house. Only have the bulb directly over top of you on

Yep I so luv Aqara also. Australia here. Got a few Aqara things.

I'm currently having issues with Alexa routines with Aqara. All my routines have stopped working. I was having to relink the skill to get them working again, however this week even that hasn't worked. Currently switched to link n link sensors, and testing Aqara daily. Today is the first day for a week it seems to be working. Maybe it's the update just received has fixed the issue. I do love the aqara gear. I'm hoping to enable my routes soon.

Having just done my annual X-Mas viewing of Die Hard, I really smiled at the your choice of music @ 1:00 ish... 👍👍

Thanks! I picked up two, and I know I'm going to immediately regret it (not buying more!)

Aqara is one of the best product I have no issue at all

Try/test Homey, I think you will be suprised how well it works and what it can do......

I have a love/hate relationship with Aqara. First, they make things that nobody else does (like my blinds rollers). Second, they look nice. Third, they have multifunction uses that I find very handy. The big downside for me is that they don't follow the zigbee protocal exactly, which means that sometimes they don't do what I want exactly the way I expect. Oh, and their vibration sensor is crap and won't stay connected to their hub even when it's only two feet away. However, I also love Home Assistant, even if it means I'll never have sex again :) So I do love the fact that it works pretty well with HA :)

Good timing. A friend is just getting started with home automation, so I’ll be steering her to this video

Can confirm that Home Assistant configs can get messed up. Mine recently got into a horrible state with the december update. I ended up just reinstalling from scratch and ignoring backups. I've ditched as much tuya stuff as I could, moving to Zigbee.

Hey, it's your house, you can pick any Smarthome platform you like. I just hope you don't forget about home assistant compatibility, coz a lot of your viewers rely on HA as their main hub.

Actually having a "smart home guy" steering people away from home assistant is quite refreshing!, do you do any network segmentation between your smart home systems, your home life kit (personal laptops, phones ets) and your work life/production equipment? Congratulations on the new home!

Few of you Smart Home youtubers (mostly you Paul, Lewis is just perv) convinced me to stick with Aqara, now i'm renovating my flat from zero (wasn't used for a while) and all I got for the start are only aqara switches, M2 hub, radiator thermostats and some smaller things like aqara smart button. So hyped to put it together and run homeassistant on my rpi4, would probably stick only with aqara but there isn't any option for smart door lock than Yale Linus when it comes to flats. love your vids, great job

Yep, got the exact same Aqara live and remote switches, works perfectly with HOMEKIT - no need for HA

I'm a big Home Assistant user and their 2023 12.2+ releases broke ZHA (zigbee integration) and all my zigbee devices stop responding a few hours after each reboot (Fixed in 12.4) which was not mentioned in the release notes. The coder mentality of treating issues like this as normal is totally infuriating. Commercial developers don't release unproven code into the wild and neither should HA. Unfortunately there simply isn't an alternative that offers the breath of support or configuration granularity so I'm stuck with it for the time being.

Good video as always 2 weeks ago i was decorating and clipping my fiber optical cable killing my Internet, turning my smart home dumb it was the longest 5 days of my life until it got repaired nightmare .

How is the "Ready Room" progressing? Or has it been put on hold due to the move.

Enjoy the video today. Lovely house by the way. Very posh.

Just an fyi, who the real heros are here is Texas Instruments. They are the ones who designed the internal radar sensor Aqara uses that make all this possible. Credit where its due.

Hi Paul I dont think you are far wrong, I am a big fan of Home assistant, but I find it infuriating when I do an update and a load of my stuff stops working. The reason I watch your vids(apart from the comedy value) is that you are like me nerdy but not quite as nerdy as the the home assistant nerds, and the fact that you do test lots of nerdy stuff that can work alongside HA. I am similar I use the Tuya smart life and the Ewelink apps along with home assistant for the more technical automations. I havent gone down the Aquara rout as I dont want a fourth app I already struggle to work out which app is controlling what thing in HA if I had another it would muddy the waters more.😉

“It just wooooooooorrrks!!!” 🤣

Good advice Paul. Aqara makes very good stuff, and the écosystem is nice for starters. I've got plugs, switches and motion sensors to trigger lights everywhere in my place (like yours) and it is very reliable. It also works great with HA. I wanted to use it for my automations BUT... As it can't control my covers, radiators, energy sensors, presence sensors, media players, i would say HA is still needed if you want to make some advanced stuff. I have already installed an appartment and a house with HA + Aqara stuff, and it's fine : low maintenance needed. I think you start getting problems with HA when you put too many brands/écosystems in it and/or try to do too complicated things.

I personally love Homeassistant for the logging. I havent seen others like Apple, Alexa, and Google do things like that with their systems. Hell if apple went and sold a home cloud like they used to that enables the feature or enables it for apple icloud users id probably convert now!

Do you think that HA is the fastest evolving ecosystem right now? If not, what do you think is? Homey? Hubitat?

I loved the Aqara motion sensors & Presence sensors too but then they stopped working for no apparent reason then they became tempremental and worked some of the time so now moved onto Kasa / Tapo

Based on your previous recommendation, I'm buying Aqara whenever i have a choice. The FP1 seems handy for lights but having lights flash off and on as I move around a space would drive me nuts. I use HA to keep lights on for 2- to 3-minutes in corridors and 5 or so minutes in busy areas like the kitchen. How are you getting on with your implementation now the novelty has worn off?

I like the way... IT JUST WORRRRRRRKS! I'd love to do that to my house, ya know, the overkill of tech... I haven't the energy or the $$. Older homes are fun to rewire, aren't they?!

Another great video ! However the reliance on Amazon Alexa is a frustration for me. I do use Alexa around the house just for music and a couple of routines. But mainly I use a cheap zigbee hub for everything to work locally. I have no neutral light switches and motion sensors (all zigbee) and zigbee current sensing plugs to activate routines. Been in place for 2 years and all works well even without the internet. Aqara is great - I have the curtain motors and a few sensors to ensure the little one closes the fridge properly 😂

I just wish the radiator thermostats would come to the USA. Those would be a game changer for us. We have the manual ones, but having ones like yours would be awesome. I do love Aqara, but it doesn't always work as well as I would like with Alexa.

Philips Xtra? Looks like we have the same TV. I'm devastated that it has no Hue Sync integration, not that it would bother you.

Very cool! Did you set up all the lighting automation triggered with Aqara through the Alexa app?

would love to see how to get an LG tv to work with Alexa. preferably without HA. thanks

I have no trouble with my HA Setup since I run it in a VM on my Synology Nas. But I get where you are coming from, I was there before I had my current setup :) So, currently, I am using Aqara and HA in tandem too. All devices are present in both systems and through HA I am exposing certain devices to HomeKit because I use it as a sleeker UI interface an my iPhone. Automations get made in HA since it is my HUB for all the devices from different manufacturers. And the Voice assistant of choice is Alexa, since I am heavily invested in Echo Dots.

I really hope Aqara Bring out one of their smart door locks here… the u 100 deadbolt would be great.

Hello Paul, Im glad to hear about your new home. I think it looks outstanding. I presume that it was a considerable amount of work. I have observed a considerable delay when entering a new area. I am curious as to whether you have configured it in this manner or if it is a default setting. I look forward to hearing about your pushback home assisted somewhat and how it fares.

Congratulations on your new place! I’m going through very similar pains getting rid of bl**dy dimmer switches and other insane wiring!

I wish Aqara's automation or scenes could pass a trigger to Alexa.

Another benefit of the Aqara system is that as it's mostly Zigbee, it will still work if the internet is down. Just had to deal with converting a 4 gang light switch to a 2x 2gang light switches. However finding the FP2 mapping range is not that long as you managed to get it? Was there any additional way or setting you did?

Paul... Did I see a philips hue device at 1:48? 😂 (don t worry, got the same as a night light in my kitchen)

So what hub is required to work locally when the internet is done? Does the USB one work in this manner?

I like Aqara. All my cameras are Aqara. My main door lock is Aqara. My basement light automation is Aqara. It’s not perfect (the U100 lock is a bit of a battery drainer and sometimes doesn’t lock/unlock on the first try) but I still recommend it. NOTHING is perfect, but for the price and given the features it’s hard to go wrong with Aqara.

Is it really automation if you aren't constantly making manual adjustments and tweaks?

If you still want to leverage from your non HK accessories Homebridge whilst not as flexible as HA is relatively trouble free. Also I’d recommend Casambi (professional grade accessories) for dimming at the fitting with their tiny CBU-TED as an example. I have lots of them and HB helps to integrate. Also EnOcean switches require no power and no batteries!

I got some GU10 Wifi light bulbs and they are rubbish. They wont connect to the router that is under 6M away. Will try out the Ajax

Hi Paul. I have a mainly aqara ecosystem but the reason I have been scared off from going all-in is that I have a bigger house and know that not all devices would reach a single hub. That's why I have gone Z2M on home assistant and used ZigBee powered devices to extend the network.... But it can be flakey. Have you needed to get around this? How? I don't use homekit and the only solutions I have seen use that to possibly join 2 aqara networks. I am looking for a way to ensure that I cover the house. Thanks

Congrats on the new place!

Another great video. Aqara makes great products, but I agree that Aqara still has some gaps which is why I moved my Aqara devices directly into Home Assistant.

Having the light turn off behind me and then switching it on in front of me after a second would drive me nuts. Can you make the zones overlap, so it turns on when you transition and turn off when you actually left?

Home assistant has been great for me for over 2 years now

IMHO I prefer the delay to be less between entering one area from another. IE Walking downstairs to the dining area. I want the new area lights to come on just a second or two sooner. Especially if I were in a hurry. And vice versa.

Now... Aquora needs to make a whole home generator cuz none of that will work when the power is out.

Worst thing about HA (which i still like for some reason) is that each update has breaking changes and you need to reconfigure stuff all the time

I'm impressed that YOU changed everything out and not your brother! 😂