Voltage Tester

“co lee lechner and be sure to check out all the colors and options they now have alright so let's get into what you came here for when we bought this house these four windows didn't have any blinds normally for a stairway that would be fine but unfortunately we've noticed two issues it's cost for one the sunlight heats up the area like no other even in the winter and the second issue is the lack of privacy at night so to solve this i chose to go with a company that makes automated smart shades called smart wings to get started i needed to measure the horizontal and vertical dimensions of each window seal on each third of the window to find the smallest dimension of each one not all windows are perfectly square so that's why this is necessary once i had that i was able to customize each blind's dimensions down to the last eighth of an inch i then selected all the extra features that i wanted and finally placed the order for the blinds we went with the 50 shades as we still wouldn't like to come in but we wanted to block a lot of the sun from heating up the upstairs area i chose to add on the solar powered option to avoid having to charge the blinds up but if you want to keep the window clean from using a solar panel definitely just stick with the standard option if you're good with charging them every few months i also added the remote option so that if anyone was visiting they could easily lower the blinds without knowing what our smart device commands are installation was actually pretty easy i just needed to screw in the mounts about four inches in from each side added the solar panels as high as possible and next to the motor and then i finally attach the blinds [Music] the solar panel is attached to the window direct using a pre-attached mounting adhesive and then plugs into the motor using a usbc cable after i finished up the first blinds i moved on to the next ones and then just repeated the process i would then use the remote just to test it out just to make sure each one was working and then it was connected to the correct channel my only complaint about these blinds was getting them set up with alexa as they're currently not listed as a branded device so you have to hold the blind sync button down for several seconds and set the blinds up one at a time using the other option in the alexa app it was a little frustrating to get all four shades to connect at first but once i figured it all out they were all pretty solid open upstairs blinds [Music] once i got it all set up i put the blinds on a schedule they would open halfway right at sunrise and then they would close completely 30 minutes after sunset so that we'd have privacy at night the way i did this was as easy as it gets i just set up a scheduled routine using the alexa app there you can schedule when they go up or down and how high or how low they go these blinds do require a device that has zigbee so i ended up purchasing the echo 4th gen since it has pretty nice sound quality for when we play music and it has a built-in zigbee smart home hub not all alexa devices have zigbee though so be sure to check if you choose to go that route out of all the devices in this family this one is the cheapest for zigbee and the nice thing about adding this to our collection of devices is that i'm able to play music across the entire house for days that we have guest over are for when i'm working on home projects hello your device is ready for setup you don't have to have it next to the blinds just somewhere in the house but i did still want an alexa device for this area so i actually found this outlet mount that keeps the wires from showing and is actually super nice way of adding echo dots throughout the house where we need it open upstairs shades okay our next issue we wanted to address was our utility bills going from a small condo to a house meant we were spending way more on heating and air conditioning so we wanted to address this by automating our thermostat we ended up getting the google nest thermostat from krupa's cousin as they had just moved so i wanted to show you what this process looks like in case you were to purchase something off of facebook marketplace rather than paying full price for it brand new the process is basically the same except that you'll need to add batteries and scroll to the bottom by sliding down the side of the nest and tapping on factory reset in case the previous owners didn't already do so once complete we just go through the instructions and begin setting it up the first thing i did was to power everything off and then use a voltage tester to ensure the wires were no longer live next i took a photo of the existing wire setup for future reference and then began disassembling everything unfortunately the nest was smaller than the previous thermostat so before i installed it i patched the holes and touched it up with paint there are plates that you can buy to use as a cover but i preferred not going with one next i followed the instructions and labeled the wires as instructed and then attached the mounting plate once attached i installed the wires to the appropriate slots you need to ensure the wires go incorrectly or will not work when you first try it out [Music] finally i was able to add the nest to the plate turn the power back on and follow the instructions to set it all up after working with it for a few months now we've implemented an automated schedule that during the winter it will lower the temperature 5 degrees in the morning and then start the process of returning back to normal about an hour before we get back home to save on utilities but because we have different schedules the nest is also programmed to stay the same if it sees that one of us is still home using present settings we've set up a few other automated schedules as well including night time versus daytime shifts and usages and from what we've seen so far we should be on track to save about 120 to 150 dollars per year plus installing the nest actually qualified us for a program with our energy company in which we received 50 for joining so be sure to see if your local provider offers anything as well and finally the last home automation product we added to our house was a robot vacuum as some of you have seen we have a small dog named dexter we weren't 100 sure how he was going to deal with it so rather than out the gate dropping 500 plus on an advanced version we wanted to test the waters with this version of the shark ion vacuum one of the really nice perks of a version like this is that it was super easy to set up basically i just needed to plug it in install the brushes and set up the device using the app where i was able to put it on a schedule rather than having to press clean every time we wanted it to run on top of that we didn't have to map out the rooms as the way it works is it goes in one direction until it bumps into a wall or an object and then it switches directions currently we automate it to run three days a week not five like i'm showing in this clip as it's been more than enough to keep our upstairs clean plus we can always run it as needed with one click of a button since we got it the vacuum's worked great at picking up dexter's hair and as you can see he's not bothered by it at all the only cons i can think of is that we have to remember to empty out the tray when it gets full but that's pretty much expected and there are a few things that it doesn't do well with such as our bathroom rug and any cords or cables that may be on the ground other than that it's been a game changer at vacuuming up dexter's hairs getting under areas like our bed and reducing the overall amount of time we have to spend cleaning each week alright so that about wraps up this episode of our smart home progress i'll link everything that i used in today's video in the description below if you enjoyed this video please be sure to like and subscribe to my channel and be sure to let me know down in the comments if you have any questions feedback or suggestions for future content with that said i'll see you all next time”