I have not yet purchased st yet. I’m finishing a house and need the following things installed and am looking for the best products to go along with smart things.
alarm. Preffer to get honeywell. But will it work with st?
thermostat. I think I preffer the nest. I read it works. But is that the best choice?
locks. I bought a fancy Samsung lock. The best one they make. Dont have model number right now.
Also bought yale for a side door.
Take a good look at Ecobee. I looked at both, hard, for several months and it had the better offering, especially with flexibility with various heating and air conditioning scenarios.
On the locks, I made mine all the same brand and keyed them all the same as well as put the same codes in them, too.
Alexa has done a lot for me and seems to have more for household things, but I am seeing more for Google home on entertainment. They are about neck and neck on things and when one excels on something, the other catches up and excels on another.
Make sure they pull neutrals to all your switch locations. Power over Ethernet will be your friend for cameras.
Welcome! It may be hard to believe, but at the present time the Samsung smart locks are not compatible with the Samsung smartthings home automation platform. They’re made by two different divisions and they don’t work together.
We need to ask what region you’re in (North America or UK/EU), because Device selection does vary somewhat.
As far as alarms, if by that you mean security system, then the only model line I would personally recommend is the ADT/smartthings security panel. It’s the only one that has enough reliability for security. If you follow any of the links on the SmartThings website to “security” they will take you to that specific model line. If instead you just meant siren or something, then give us a little more detail.
Smartthings doesn’t really work well with any camera except Arlo. So it depends on exactly what use cases you had in mind as far as how much integration you can get.
You might also look at the project reports in the community – created wiki for “whole house” projects as there’s a lot in there on wiring requirements, etc., which would apply pretty much whatever Home automation choices you made.
Look on the quick browse lists in the community – created wiki then down towards the bottom of that page for the project report section, and choose the list" whole house."
Nest does not have native integration with SmartThings. You must use 3rd party DTHs and SmartApps. I had to do that for my smoke detectors. Ecobee works with the native app or with the 3rd party ones in here if you want more functionality.
I have the ecobee and really like it, but I buy all my devices so that they also work with Apple HomeKit, which Nest does not. Different things work for different people.
Lutron are excellent devices, that’s what I use at my house, Plus some Phillips Hues for where I want color.
The biggest advantage for SmartThings applies only to the classic version of the app, not the newer, more simplified “connect” version. But with the classic version, the biggest advantage that smartthings has is that if you want to, you can set up really complex rules. See the following (this is a clickable link)
Which Lutron Hub are you planning to use? If you want to future-proof your investment a little, I would recommend getting at a Caseta SmartBridge PRO (vs just a Caseta SmartBridge.) The reason for getting the Pro version is that it supports Telnet over the LAN, which can be used directly with Hubitat’s Elevation hub, should you ever want to explore that option. I use a bunch of Lutron Pico remotes around my house, integrated with my Hubitat hub with supports local processing. During Hurricane Florence, here in Wilmington NC, my hub and the Pico remotes worked perfectly without an internet connection for 8 days. Just something to consider when designing a new home. Get at least a SmartBridge Pro. It will work with ST (via Cloud to Cloud integration) or with Hubitat (via Local LAN integration).
Also if you want the Lutron pico remotes to work with SmartThings, you have to have the Lutron smartbridge pro ( Plus yet another server).
The point is just that the pro model let you use a number of additional integrations that the basic model does not. But again, different things work for different people.
Suggestion if your house is still being built and the drywall isn’t up yet.
Run some cheap Cat5 cable to wherever you might want to install sensors, smoke alarms, door/window switches and the like. The point is not to use the cable for data but to a) provide local power to devices that would ordinarily use batteries or USB power and b) allow dry contact (magnetic) switches to be routed to a central spot.
Your smoke detectors should be hardwired with a contact pair running to this central spot as well. If you have Kidde detectors you can get aftermarket add-ons that provide dry contact output that can then be tied into Smartthings via modified door/window sensors or the ST_Anything/Arduino approach (preferred)
For battery powered devices, you can buy small inexpensive 3.3v regulators off ebay and put those in the battery compartments of your sensors. You then supply power to the regulators via your Cat5. Power draw is minimal so the voltage drop is as well.
Lutron uses a proprietary RF protocol called Clear Connect. Since most consumer level home automation hubs do not natively support Lutron’s Clear Connect RF protocol, you will need to buy a Lutron bridge/hub. I would recommend a minimum of the Lutron Caseta SmartBridge Pro2 due to its greater flexibility and capability. You should be aware that the Caseta line of products is limited to 50 devices per SmartBridge hub.
The best sourceI have found online, from a reputable dealer is
I dove ina and started using lutron caseta. If I exceed 50 devices can I use a 2nd breidge?
Also do the pico switches count as devices? Specifically using lico remotes ams 3 ways.
Need to make a decision on alarm and smoke alarms. Adt or honeywell for alarm. I would say honey well but Samsung seems to push. adt and make quite a few accessories for adt.
Smoke alarms. I could just go with regular ones but this is my 2nd home and would like to know if my smokes are going off. I hard wired the smokes with 14-3. Nothing else.
