I just bought a second home and am planning to monitor it with SmartThings. I feel sure there are others here doing that and I’m looking for advice/suggestions…second hub setup, etc. I have no idea where to start setting up the second hub.
I’m currently using a V2 hub in my home with ST Classic and about 25 devices…no custom code.
A number of people have posted project reports on managing second homes. You can find these on the quick browse lists in the community – created wiki. Go to the bottom of that page to the “project reports“ section then look for the list called “second homes.“ A lot of these are about rental properties, but you can still see some of the issues involved in managing distant locations.
BTW, if you want to use Echo at both homes, The last time I looked this was much easier to do if you just set up each home as a separate smartthings account and a separate Amazon account.
Note that they have had this same text up for at least a year:
Can I control multiple SmartThings Locations with Alexa?
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No, not at this time. But we are working on an update that will allow multiple Amazon Alexa devices on separate Amazon accounts to control separate SmartThings Locations.
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/207808076#Locations
I’m using SmartThings for an in-town primary residence and a remote, rural cabin. Two hubs, two locations, one account. The second home (cabin) works just like the first in the app, and you can switch between them in the app pretty easily.
The second home is set up with different automations, of course. Mostly revolving around security, heating, and plumbing. It sure is nice to be able to bring up the heat to a more comfortable level when I’m still an hour’s drive away…
If you are adventurous, you might experiment with using the New App to put both Hubs in the same quote-Location-unquote, as then you can link them to a single Amazon Account and have Scenes and Automations span across your 2 homes.
Multiple Hubs in a Location is officially dis-recommended by SmartThings at this time, though they haven’t given the exact reason. Having multiple Hubs in a single large home might be worth the risk. For two completely distinct homes, there is less value to it - but, it could be a fun, adventurous, and risky experiment.
So… Using 2 distinct Locations, each with their own Hub:
Shameless plug here for ActionTiles as a very convenient way to Things in either/both Homes on any mix and match of custom control Panels. AT lets you seamlessly (unlike Alexa) place Device Tiles (and SHM Tiles, Mode Tiles) from either and both Locations on the same Panel.
For example, in your main Home Panel, you could add just a few key Tiles for your Second Home: Perhaps a few of the contact, leak and smoke sensors, so you can always tell at a glance that there is no problem there, while still having your current home’s controls concurrently accessible: No need to swap back and forth between distinct Location views as forced by the SmartThings App(s).