Moving Smart Homes – Lesson’s Learned

A few months ago, I was offered an opportunity for a new job. That new job would require us to move halfway across the country. After spending some time to talk it over with my family, we decided that it’d be a great place to live and the job would be an awesome new challenge.

After working out all the initial moving requirements, the time came to start packing things up. I had to decide whether or not I would leave all the smart home devices that I’ve written about here or take them with. It was tough leaving this awesome home that I’d built out, but I also saw the chance to build out an all new home. Take some of the lesson’s learned and make it even better.

Device Selection

In order to buy a new home, we had to sell our current one. That played a lot into what devices stayed and what came with. I decided to pick devices that required easy setup for the new homeowner. I also wanted to make sure they didn’t require any additional services to utilize. That automatically ruled out all the Z-Wave devices I have.

All of my smart light switches and outlets came out. It also meant my SmartThings Hub had to come with.

That left all my Google Home devices, my thermostat, my Sprinkler Controller, my Nest cameras, and my Nest doorbell.

The Google Home devices were an easy call. Very portable, easy to move. They came with.

Next up was my Nest thermostat. After talking with my realtor, she informed us that people really like having a Smart thermostat. Sounds like my Google Nest Thermostat was staying.

Removing the Nest doorbell was a pain, so I decided to let that stay. That’s no fault of Nest – all smart doorbells are hard to install and remove. What I liked about keeping it is the curb appeal. People saw that the home had some nice upgrade before they even came in.

Last was the Rachio Sprinkler Controller. I really loved my sprinkler controller. I wasn’t sure that the new home would even have sprinklers, so I let that stay as well.

In Between

After several months of home searching, which included figuring out how to move and live in a world now plagued by a pandemic, we found a home that really worked for us.

In between the move, we were able to rent a temporary place to stay. Dumb thermostat, dumb doorbell, dumb everything. It reminded me of how convenient it is to have a smarter home.

New Home

The new home offers a lot of opportunities. It was built in the early 70s and the outlets and light switches were original. It’s also a bit bigger and the electric bill isn’t cheap, so there are some quick upgrades we made that’ll help bring that down.

Over the next few months, I’ll be talking about some lesson’s learned that I’ll be applying to this home. You’ll remember that I had Belkin Wemo devices. Great devices, but ran over Wifi. I decided that I want all light switches and outlets to be Z-Wave, so I won’t be re-installing them. That being said, I do really love the portable Wemo outlets and will continue to use those.

I’ll also be upgrading SmartThings hubs. There’s a v3 out that I’d like to check out.

Conclusion

I’m really excited to bring you along as I build out my new home. Solar, Home Batteries, and other things that make a home not just smarter, but more efficient too.

On to new adventures!