[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house we've been talking about fall home security and smart home tech here today We were just talking about the different languages that these systems use and of course Trying to make sure that your Wi Fi is dialed in now One of the big things right now are security cameras and this is where I get a little trouble With what security cameras can do for you and what they don't and this is one of those things you go We're on the house show is brought to you by pyramid heating and cooling Serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area and Bend, Oregon, they are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.

[00:00:41] Eric Goranson: To find out more, head to pyramidheating. com. Oregon CCB 59382. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, but we've got you covered. This is Around the House. Welcome to the Around the House show, the next generation of home improvement. [00:01:00] I'm Eric G., thanks for joining me today.

[00:01:02] Eric Goranson: If you want to find out more Us head over to around the house online. com and we've got a brand new YouTube channel that we've been updating and putting out a bunch of stuff up there as well. On that same YouTube channel, we have the playlist for around the house Northwest. And so you can find it over there as well.

[00:01:20] Eric Goranson: Much easier to search and you can find all that information at around the house online. com. And if you've got a question for us, you can join us at 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44. That number again. 8 3 3 2 3 9 4 1 4 4. We're going to have a lot of fun today. We've got a lot to talk about here. And this is going to be one of those shows here that I think it's going to be able to help a lot of people, which I think is super fun for me.

[00:01:47] Eric Goranson: We're going to be talking fall home security mixed in with smart home tech. And these are things that we need to work together with, because I have a feeling that you probably agree that home security and smart home [00:02:00] tech can work. Yeah. Hand in hand together to give you a much better situation around your house.

[00:02:06] Eric Goranson: And I say fall home security, cause you know, the days are going to start getting shorter as we come into fall here. And it's a great time to start to think about that. So we get into fall, we get into school. Lots of things going on, package thefts, people trying to break in the holidays as we get into later in the year.

[00:02:22] Eric Goranson: So the first thing I think you should work on here when you're thinking about home security and smart home tech. Is to get your wifi dialed in and a really dialed in, get this thing. So it's working everywhere in the house, inside the house and outside the house. And one of the biggest problems that people have with their wifi is that one, they're not paying attention to where they located that to begin with, because think about it.

[00:02:52] Eric Goranson: It is a transmitter. So if you have. Your router that comes in and that is what's transmitting that wifi signal onto the [00:03:00] house. It's usually pretty close to where a cable box was or wherever it legacy of where it was put into the home. Many times though, that's going to be next to a fireplace or it's going to create a shadow behind some things like appliances, fireplaces, you get exterior walls or HVAC systems.

[00:03:19] Eric Goranson: And anything like that, water heaters, foundation walls, concrete, all this stuff makes it hard to travel through. Now in my house, for instance, I noticed since it was built in the seventies and it has a foil backed insulation, kind of old Owens Corning, if I remember right, it's got that foil insulation on it to try to make it more efficient 1977 science, right?

[00:03:41] Eric Goranson: The problem is it's not the best. For having signals come through because that foil does slow things down. So years ago, I changed over to a mesh wifi system. And what this does is this gives you multiple routers around the house. So now you have three places you're [00:04:00] transmitting from instead of one. So if you have three of those pox or whatever you want to call them.

[00:04:05] Eric Goranson: They go out and transmit from there. So you can put one towards the front of your house where you might have security cameras. You can put one out in the garage, maybe beyond that exterior wall. So it can talk then do anything, anything from streaming to a TV in the garage or. Any other smart equipment that you might have out there as well as up in a bedroom or things like that between floors where sometimes that signal gets a little weaker.

[00:04:29] Eric Goranson: Now, the cool thing is, is that you can really go around and place these by just looking at your phone and seeing how the settings are with it. Oh, wow. I'm only getting two out of three bars right here. Maybe if I move it over here, it'll be better. And you can really get a dialed in. So you have strong wifi anywhere in the house.

[00:04:48] Eric Goranson: And that's cool. If you're sitting down in the back patio, wanting to watch the game while you're barbecuing, it's really a great way to be able to do that. And it gives you really good flexibility. And I think it's the most important thing to start out [00:05:00] with. So when you add these smart devices. You'll have a good strong signal because if you're doing cameras and things like that that use video, those are things that really require a solid and fast signal.

[00:05:11] Eric Goranson: So first thing is get that dialed in and make sure you got that going. Now, here's the thing. If you have the ability, let's say you're remodeling. If you're remodeling around the house and you want to go But you got the walls open or you're running wires, things like that. Throw in some cat eight cable, six, seven, eight, whatever the best you can afford to put in there.

[00:05:33] Eric Goranson: Those wired connections will always be a better connection. If you can do it, I've got a wired connection that comes out to my garage because I do so much out here in the studio and it makes things so much faster. And then what you can do is if you get the right hub system, that mesh network, you could hook that into that.

[00:05:50] Eric Goranson: And that'll give you even faster speeds outside or on a second floor in an office, wherever you're using the highest speeds, maybe it's the bedroom where you like to [00:06:00] stream your favorite movies and in 4k, it doesn't matter. Those wired connections will always be a faster, Connection. So don't abandon those, use them where you got them.

[00:06:11] Eric Goranson: And it doesn't take much to get that across. And it's just a more reliable connection. You don't have to worry about that. So wired is okay. It's actually better in my opinion, if you've got the right wire and you can go between those things that really Do well. So think about that. If you're setting the house up or doing some remodeling, doesn't hurt to add some cable in there.

[00:06:30] Eric Goranson: And quite frankly, if you want to use it for something later down the road, works pretty well. So think about how that could help you around your house with that. Now, if you're out looking At a mesh system. Take a look at wifi six or seven. I've got the six plus at my house here. I've had it for a number of years, but there's now wifi seven out there.

[00:06:51] Eric Goranson: And you know, something when you've got a fast service, like I do, I get, I've got the very fast service here. So I'm getting about 2000. [00:07:00] Megabytes per second download here in a 500 up. I'm Comcast, so Xfinity. So that's pretty good for coax cable at my house, but depending on what you're doing, pay attention to that and how your system's working.

[00:07:15] Eric Goranson: And one of the first things to do after you get this set up, make it a, make it a habit to restart your router every three months, every two months, kind of like your phone. Restarted every once in a while. Or if you're on a system like Comcast Xfinity, go through the troubleshooting every once in a while and do that.

[00:07:34] Eric Goranson: Now, how do you test to see how things are working? You can jump on speed test is Google up speed test and see how you're doing and see if you're comparing what you're getting. To the plan. Now, it could be something that you've got an older laptop or an older computer and that you're limited on your downloads, that that modem within that is only going so fast, that connector is only going so fast.

[00:07:57] Eric Goranson: So it could be your hardware, but with the speed test, at least [00:08:00] you'll get an idea of what's going on. And then so many people out there are getting lower speeds and what they're paying for. And that's not because the internet providers are doing something badly. Many times it's they haven't came over and looked at your system or tuned it up.

[00:08:15] Eric Goranson: I thought there's a lot of people in my neighborhood. I've got a school around the corner. When I called and had them take a look, they came out and went, Oh, wow. You've got a squirrel damage of them eating up on the pole. And they ended up getting a, it worked okay, but I could never really get it. When I had a tree come down and take out my line, they replaced it.

[00:08:35] Eric Goranson: Holy smokes. That got so much faster. So ask some hard questions. If you've got a cable line come into the house. Make sure that it's working correctly. Talk to your service people, make sure that's dialed in, but to take a look at it, my favorite brand and people always ask, what's your favorite brand? The most reliable one I've had for a, a mesh wifi.

[00:08:55] Eric Goranson: I love the TP link. Deco series. You can get that on [00:09:00] Amazon. You can get a best buy, I believe all those different places, whatever works for you, but that system works really well and has been super reliable and durable for me. And when I go to upgrade mine, one of these days, I won't have to for a while.

[00:09:12] Eric Goranson: Cause I did buy something that was very advanced at the time, but when I do, I will probably go back to a TP link and do something with that. So making sure that you can get the most out of your system is all about this foundational stuff. That goes with this home security. So make sure you've got this dialed in and make sure that you've got a good signal coming in and that you're getting the most out of what you're paying for.

[00:09:38] Eric Goranson: 'cause that's a big thing right there. To find out more about us, head to around the house online.com, we'll be right back. Don't change that dial. Should I be to so hot[00:10:00]

[00:10:10] Eric Goranson: to be around now? Show the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for. Thanks for joining me. I'm Eric G. If you're listening on the radio. Thanks for tuning in across the country and all five time zones that we're working with. We appreciate all you guys down from Tampa, Florida, up into Maine, and of course, across the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii and Alaska.

[00:10:28] Eric Goranson: We love all you guys out there. And of course, tuning in on the radio, we have all you. And of course, this podcast, you can hear on any podcast player and Hey guys, make sure you head over and find our YouTube page. I've got it over at around the house, online. com. Like subscribe, all those things over there and get notified when new stuff comes out.

[00:10:47] Eric Goranson: I'm going to be putting up our weekday special podcast up there in video form so you can see it. So make sure you catch that over there at around the house, online. com. And we've been talking here about fall home [00:11:00] security and of course, smart home tech. We've been talking about the basics here of basically getting your smart home system ready to build out.

[00:11:07] Eric Goranson: And of course that comes up to getting the wifi and the speed dialed in for that. But really the next thing you want to do is when you're coming up with a wifi smart home system here is once you get the wifi dialed in, you've got good signal around the house before you go out and start buying switches and sensors and cameras, you want to think about really what you're doing and what system you're going to run.

[00:11:32] Eric Goranson: And what I mean is what is the kind of hub of your whole system? Cause you don't want to have. 22 apps, one for lighting, one for this, you want to have the one stop shop for your hub. So there's a lot of different things out there. There's a new one called matter. There's Z wave, which is really smart things.

[00:11:52] Eric Goranson: There's Apple home, there's Google, there's all these different things out there. And so let's talk about the differences between those, because it really [00:12:00] makes a big difference on the direction you go. And more importantly, the pieces that you buy, because you're going to want to start out with this kind of being the language that you're going to speak in.

[00:12:10] Eric Goranson: You want to make sure everything speaks that language. And there's some big differences between these different ways. And it's going to decide where you're going to go in the pieces you buy. So I'm going to do my best here not to get into the weeds on this, but I think it's an important conversation we should have.

[00:12:25] Eric Goranson: Thank you. So matter is what they call a protocol, which is basically the language. That's going to be the smart home standards out there. So these are the guidelines regulations for transmitting information between like your internet connected appliances, devices, all those things. Now matter is a new one.

[00:12:43] Eric Goranson: That's out there. We've got Google, Amazon, Apple have their own kind of smart home protocols. But really matter is the latest that's coming out. And I tell you what, this is something that's out now. And the biggest thing is the keyword that we've seen in smart home stuff over the last [00:13:00] few years. And that is interop.

[00:13:02] Eric Goranson: This allows all these devices from different manufacturers to work together seamlessly. So without that, you really have limited choices. Of how things work. And so what's cool is, is that now you're sharing sensors between, between units. If the TV has a sensor and your smart home thermostat needs to see what the temperature is in that room, technically it could grab it from that.

[00:13:26] Eric Goranson: And so you have these different things where quite frankly, you could have competitors, Samsung and LG, for instance, working together to make sure that your system works correctly. And that's something very new because. Over the years, up until the last couple, these manufacturers have really had a death grip on their systems and didn't want to let access, especially to their competitors.

[00:13:51] Eric Goranson: So really, I think who first started out trying to do this with Samsung and their smart things, and I got to give them credit for that because they were both a manufacturer [00:14:00] and they had a smart home hub system. So they were trying to do that. So basically this matter system came out in about November of 22, and they had a big coalition of companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Nanoleaf, Wyze, LG, Eve, Samsung, all these different companies.

[00:14:18] Eric Goranson: So they're trying to make this increased compatibility between all of these. Which is really cool. So you have, for instance, if you just go matter, you get the benefit of reliability, interoperability. So things work together, security and a one source approach. And I think that's interesting because when you start comparing that to other things, it's really going to be kind of the best of the best.

[00:14:45] Eric Goranson: Now, another one that you see out there, if you're out shopping for devices is Zigbee, and it's another wireless communication protocol for smart home devices, all of those things. And it operates on a low power, low data [00:15:00] mesh, low data rate mesh network, which means that each device in the network can communicate with other devices.

[00:15:05] Eric Goranson: And act as a router. So it really extends this, but it's managed by the Zigbee Alliance, which is a multi stakeholder group, Cisco, Phillips, Samsung, Sony, that kind of stuff. So it has a lot of advantages, but I think. In my opinion, matter is going to go above this. And so it does have some interoperability, but not is the same as what you'll see out of matter.

[00:15:30] Eric Goranson: That's got a lot of advanced encryption. It was the new one here a few years ago. And so one of the things that I think we're going to see here. Is Zigbee is a proprietary technology. Why matter is built to be a standard that works out across. So you don't have to be a member of matter. You can actually go out there and create matter things.

[00:15:50] Eric Goranson: And so it does, it's got a lot more operability into that or to say that word so many times, but that's what it is now. Z Wave is a wireless communication [00:16:00] protocol as well. Now it's managed by the Z Wave Alliance, which is like 700, 800 companies, lots of different manufacturers. Now again, it works really well.

[00:16:10] Eric Goranson: It has a lot of advantage of advantages of capability of wide range of manufacturers over 700 of them. That's awesome. It's like a mesh network. So that works, but it is limited on bandwidth. So it's not great for high data rates like video streaming, and you need to have a Z wave controller, which, of course, that can be if that controller goes down.

[00:16:33] Eric Goranson: The whole network can come down and that's a problem. So those are some of the big ones. Of course, there's wifi out there Which is another technology that we see out there where it's just super convenient But really that's not what you're seeing out there. You're seeing more z wave zigbee and now matter And so that's what you need to know before you get going with this.

[00:16:55] Eric Goranson: And it's a little, I'm trying not to get into the weeds here with this, but that's really what helps you. [00:17:00] So you want to figure out what system you're going with. And to me, the most, the most access, accessibility is probably the thing to get, what can I get out there for products? They're going to work in my home and what's going to be easy to use.

[00:17:13] Eric Goranson: And so my opinion, I was using a lot of Z Wave, I'll be upgrading into matter. Okay. But Samsung smart things has been probably the best use and it's now called really smart things, but smart things has been the easiest to use with the most products out there. And that has been a big help because that means I have one controller to control my lights, my alarms, my door locks, all those different things.

[00:17:41] Eric Goranson: And so this is really where that comes to play. So you want to have that hub or that language so you can have that one app to control it. And that's going to make life so much easier for you. The last thing you want to do is be spooling through your phone, looking for an app and all of that. So the language that you're using is before you go buying it is to [00:18:00] get this part hammered out.

[00:18:01] Eric Goranson: If you're just starting out, matters can be the way to go. If you've got some older pieces around, you're going to expand out. Maybe the Samsung smart things. With with Z Wave or any of these others might be the way to go for you, but I would sure take a look and see what you can do to upgrade things as you go.

[00:18:18] Eric Goranson: And that's something that I've been doing. I've been doing a lot of testing on products. And so I have some companies, I've got a couple of light switches in my house that were neat. A new company and they just didn't make it through the pandemic and they had some issues and funding issues And all of a sudden they're gone.

[00:18:34] Eric Goranson: We'll talk about that and so much more We're going to start talking about security cameras in this next segment that I don't want you to miss around the house We'll be right back To find out more about us head to around the house online. com. Don't change that tile. We'll be right back after these important messages.[00:19:00]

[00:19:13] Eric Goranson: To the around the house show, the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. If you're listening on the radio, you can find out more about us and around the house online. com. And don't forget to catch the podcast, which is two hours each week. That airs on Saturday. And of course we have our midweek update that airs on Wednesday.

[00:19:31] Eric Goranson: That doesn't end up on the radio. We've been talking about fall home security and smart home tech here today. We were just talking about the different languages that these systems use. And of course, trying to make sure that your wifi is dialed in. Now, one of the big things right now are security cameras.

[00:19:47] Eric Goranson: And this is where I get a little troubled. With what security cameras can do for you and what they don't. And this is one of those things that you go, Hmm. Okay. What are we going to [00:20:00] do here? Now, when it comes to security systems, a lot of people go, Hey, I put up all my cameras. I'm good to go. The quintessential failure of a camera system.

[00:20:08] Eric Goranson: That's not guarded by somebody. Is you're the guard. You're the one that has to sit there and every time a cat walks across from your neighbor's house and sneaking into your yard to a kid cutting across the lawn trying to get to the school bus and take a shortcut, you now are the security guard 24 7 and I don't know about you, but my phone gets turned off a lot at night.

[00:20:30] Eric Goranson: And I'm not paying attention to it. Or if it's on, it's on a turndown. So every little beep ding doesn't wake me up throughout the night. It's not a good thing to have that going on all night and waking you up. You need your sleep. So what happens is, is now you're not even watching this. Your camera system ends up being a documentation of who did the crime.

[00:20:52] Eric Goranson: Not that somebody broke in and stole the catalytic converters. I've got cars in the driveway. Didn't stop them a bit. They waved at the camera, even with the mask. [00:21:00] But were you able to go out there? No, because you slept right through it. Like most people do, this stuff happens. So the best way to handle this, in my opinion, is to turn around and go with a security system that has a guard.

[00:21:15] Eric Goranson: There's two ways to do this. You can get ahold of ADT or one of these other Comcast has their Xfinity home, all these different security systems. But now you're waiting for an alarm to be going off at night. If someone broke into your house, it's not dealing with somebody messing with your cars, but it does give you that break in thing.

[00:21:33] Eric Goranson: But the problem is. Is it all it takes is a windstorm or a glitch or a battery running out and all of a sudden you've got a false alarm. You've got to pay those alarm fees to the year, to your city, county, state, whoever does that, if they do it in your area and you've got to pay that license fee. And then if you have problems, you run the risk of having to pay a fine for false alarms.

[00:21:53] Eric Goranson: And let's be honest, the police don't like to show up for false alarms. When they see a [00:22:00] door code open door at this residence, so many times you're going to go, Oh, so there's a wind today. Somebody didn't do it, but I'll pop by in a minute after I'm done with this call, so much different than if you had a guard calling it in or someone that's doing it.

[00:22:12] Eric Goranson: And that is why I have been a believer of a system from deep Sentinel. And you've heard me talk about it here before, and we'll have them on this fall again on the show. But deep Sentinel is the king. Of security and I've got it at my house. So what you do is you mount up cameras around. There's no wires.

[00:22:30] Eric Goranson: They run off a battery that lasts for a long time. You can get, depending on the traffic, you can get months out of that battery. That's rechargeable, which is great. You mount these up and they are a high speed camera with, I think, like 140 decibel speaker on them. And so what happens is, is when somebody comes up Let's say it's an Amazon delivery driver dropping something off in your front porch guard.

[00:22:54] Eric Goranson: I'll see that it's something's coming on there. And whoa, we got a person. Let's take a look up. It's the Amazon driver. You'll [00:23:00] get a nice little message saying delivery notification. You have a box on your front porch and you can go back and look at the video, but here's the cool thing. And this is where the security makes a big difference.

[00:23:10] Eric Goranson: If you have one of these, let's say on your front porch or across the front of your house, and you've got one in front of your cars, If someone comes up and starts peeking in the window of your cars at 10 o'clock at night while you're asleep thinking about what you did last weekend and what you're doing next day for work, you're out like a light.

[00:23:28] Eric Goranson: Somebody's trying to bust in, take your catalytic converter, steal the stuff out of your car. They now go, Hey, what are you doing? Give me your identification. And if it's a prowler, they have the ability to call 911 for you at your residence because they've got a quick line into that. Now, the cool thing is they can say, Hey, it was a white haired, long hippie, tattooed guy trying to break into a house.

[00:23:50] Eric Goranson: And you know, what's going on now? The police go, Oh, we have a prowler. We have a description. We know that they're wearing a hoodie with rolled up [00:24:00] sleeves, shorts, and tennis shoes, and they're about 40 years old bingo. Now they got somebody they're looking for. And that's really, you'll get a completely different police response in many situations.

[00:24:12] Eric Goranson: Then, oh, there's alarm code and quite frankly, frankly, an alarm system wouldn't have done anything with that. And so what happens is, is now that guard jumps on and goes deep Sentinel, Sentinel security. And what happens is, is if they don't get their attention and, Hey, I've already called the police you're prowling, get out of here, they have 140 decibel siren that they can kick off.

[00:24:32] Eric Goranson: That will get everyone's attention and they're not just going to go hiding behind the neighbor's car because everybody's waking up and seeing that there was an active prowler. And the cool thing is, if it's you going on to get your sunglasses out of the car, because you forgot to put them in the other car that you're taking tomorrow, you could wave at him.

[00:24:48] Eric Goranson: Everything's good. And they'll ask you who you are. And everybody's really cool. Now, where this makes a difference is on your front door. If someone's prowling, if they come up. I even had this at my house and it's a funny story, but [00:25:00] it made a lot of sense. And one of my kids was running out of the house on the holidays.

[00:25:03] Eric Goranson: They had a Vitamix that they had gotten their grandmother and we're taking her to over to the house. It was walking out in the rain. It's dark black hoodie on black pants, black boots. With a Vitamix box under their arm, Deep said, I'll stop them. Hey, identify yourself. Got their attention, figured out it wasn't a crime being committed, and off they went.

[00:25:25] Eric Goranson: It was all cool. But if that would have been somebody that had snuck around the system, and went bailing out the front door, now we had a description, and automatically they looked up at the camera, and you have a thing going there. So it's really cool how that works. And I think it's something really good to take a look and they have stuff for commercial.

[00:25:43] Eric Goranson: I think they had one that have some new stuff coming out where they've got pepper ball and smoke where it can launch pepper balls and put out smoke. So if you have it inside of a entryway for your business or something like that, you're going to actually smoke them out of the place and get their attention.

[00:25:59] Eric Goranson: I think that's [00:26:00] really cool as well. So there's a lot more over there. So check out deep Sentinel for home security to me, a little more expensive than what your usual. All your ADTs and all your other alarm companies are, but not much. But to me, it's the ultimate because you're catching them before they break in.

[00:26:16] Eric Goranson: With the other systems, they have to actually break through a door. You're already got them in the, in the act. This one is truly the only one out there that I see. That is preventative for that. So check out deep Sentinel. So otherwise you're stuck in an alarm system that will work. Okay. But, and the other thing too, you can do with this, which is cool is if you get you and your neighbors, let's say you're in a higher crime neighborhood.

[00:26:39] Eric Goranson: Or your neighborhood has gone sideways and is getting to be a higher crime neighborhood. You can get three or four neighbors down there, get these things almost put together. And now all of a sudden you're going to get the attention of these criminals coming through there that might be breaking into houses, breaking into cars, Or maybe it's just the homeless person that's trying to sleep on your [00:27:00] front doorstep.

[00:27:00] Eric Goranson: I live outside of Portland. I know plenty of people are firing, fighting with that one. They wake up to go head out the door to go to the office in the morning and they've got somebody blocking the screen door because they camped out on the front porch because it was a place for them to sleep out of the ring.

[00:27:14] Eric Goranson: So these are issues that we're seeing in major cities and it's something that might be something good for you and keep your house safe. And what I like about it is if your car is parked in the front driveway and you've got it set up correctly, you now, as you're going out to your car, if someone comes up and approaches you and you've got a problem, you've got somebody watching your loved ones coming in and out of their car, which is not a bad little deal.

[00:27:37] Eric Goranson: So take a look at that. There's different ways to go. Nothing wrong with camera systems. It just makes you feel better. Be the guard to do that. And many people have had break ins and you have a great picture of it, but that's all you have. And so something to think about taking that to the next level for your safety and security.

[00:27:56] Eric Goranson: So think about that. Now one other thing here too that I [00:28:00] want to talk about with smart homes is we're seeing a lot of smart appliances and we come back. I want to talk about how these can make your life a little bit easier. How you can use them correctly. And there's some stuff out there that's really dumb that I'm not a fan of.

[00:28:14] Eric Goranson: We're going to talk about the pluses and minuses that before we go out to break, I just wanted to mention for all of our new listeners to the podcast, to the national radio show, I appreciate every single one of you. If you want to find out more about us, we have our website, which is around the house online.

[00:28:29] Eric Goranson: com. We also have our YouTube, which is on that same thing there. Just look for the around the house show. We've got it right there on the front page. Of the website around the house, online. com. You can find out way more information right there. After these important messages, we return. Don't change that dial.

[00:28:44] Eric Goranson: Back[00:29:00]

[00:29:10] Eric Goranson: to the around the house show. The next generation of home improvement. You want to find out more about us. If you're joining us on the radio, you can catch us over at around the house, online. com. We've got all our stuff over there from the TV show to the podcast. To everything else out of there. We got some great new stuff coming up on the TV show.

[00:29:26] Eric Goranson: So if you are a viewer of that and you like the stuff, just wait, I'm in the middle of doing some cool stuff here. And we got some new stuff coming around the corner that is going to be absolutely spectacular. So make sure and check out our YouTube channel and all of that. I've got a YouTube channel, which is just around the house show, and you can find that online and we've got a link to it at around the house, online.

[00:29:46] Eric Goranson: com. And that makes it really easy for you to find us 'cause we're really doing more to help you explain stuff to you in the video format so we can help you with those DIY projects. 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44 is the number here. That number is [00:30:00] 8 3 3 2 3 9 4 1 4 4 for your home improvement question. All right guys, we've been talking about, uh, fall home security and of course a mixture of smart home tech.

[00:30:10] Eric Goranson: Which is always fun stuff to talk about. We've got a lot going on with that here today. And so we've been meshing these two subjects together. Now, when I went out to break here, we were talking about smart home appliances and smart home appliances are one of those things that can be a pain for some people and maybe not for others.

[00:30:27] Eric Goranson: So, Let me talk a little bit about this because I think it's one of those things that really makes a lot of sense for some people where I think smart home appliances make sense is if you've got a cooktop and you've got a hood across it, a top of that, that when you turn the cooktop on, it turns the hood on automatically.

[00:30:43] Eric Goranson: I think that's great. I think being able to look and see the status of the dishwasher. Or your washer and dryer. That's probably the biggest one that I love doing. I don't have to go out in the garage and check and see how the washers dryers do. And I have an LG one and I can sit there, take a look on the app and it [00:31:00] goes really well that way.

[00:31:01] Eric Goranson: And you can just see, Hey, wow, I got 20 minutes left or I got a minute left. I can go out and get those machines swapped around. Or I can download settings for blankets and towels and in those weird situations where you're trying to clean something a little bit different and you're not sure what setting a lot of these companies have those specialized settings.

[00:31:20] Eric Goranson: And of course they warn you many times that when you need service and things like that. So things to think about. Now, the other thing to take a look at with them is refrigerators. You can have them, they have cameras inside. They'll, you can turn on the refrigerator features like a quick, a quick eye said, Hey, I got a party tonight.

[00:31:36] Eric Goranson: Got friends coming over. I got a barbecue this weekend. Let me make sure that ice bin is full. I used a lot yesterday so you can get some of that quick ice and things like that. And of course What are the lifespans of the filters and things like that? So smart appliances are great to the stuff that I don't like, or some of always make fun of it, but it's the rice cooker that gives you the weather, that kind of useless stuff.

[00:31:54] Eric Goranson: But I think smart appliances talking together is going to be the wave of the future [00:32:00] and getting different brands to talk together is going to be the wave of the future as well. What I like is if you want to, you can set it up where, you know, the dishwasher reorders the detergent from you for you from Amazon or whatever.

[00:32:12] Eric Goranson: So you always have some there. Of course, it's not going to go get it from Costco for you, but it's one of those things that you have some options there to do that. So think about those smart home appliances. It could be really smart and really help you out. With some things and I think laundry and cooking and maybe preheating that oven things like that could be really easy.

[00:32:33] Eric Goranson: Now the advantage to having some of these smart home appliances is that I've seen people get new features when they do an update and all of a sudden That convection range now has a feature on it. And I've seen this happen. I think it was GE that did this a few years ago. All of a sudden they're like, Hey, we can change some programming on this thing and give it another feature.

[00:32:51] Eric Goranson: And he gave it an air fryer. So these people bought a range, didn't have it. And now the oven has an air fryer feature just because they had the stuff in it to make it that, [00:33:00] and they added the programming and an over the air update and it fixed it. So something to think about, they got an added feature out of it, which is cool.

[00:33:08] Eric Goranson: Not going to complain about that. So think about that. Now, one of the best savings you can have, it's talking about smart stuff is smart thermostats. And we've talked about this in previous episodes, but the first thing I would take a look at is one, pop the cover off. Of your thermostat. If you don't have one for your HVAC system, and if you've got a two wire system in there, like an old seventies eighties unit, okay, it's going to be tough.

[00:33:33] Eric Goranson: You're probably not going to do a smart thermostat. However, you really want to make sure you've got a common wire. Now there are some solutions out there. That common wire is basically what's going to power. That unit coming from there. So if you don't have enough wires, that can be a problem. Sometimes you can rewire it.

[00:33:48] Eric Goranson: Sometimes they have little units you can put in there that will power it. And you're just going to have to keep swapping batteries out. So that's another option as well. But think about that. Now that is one of those [00:34:00] things with smart thermostats. Now, the thing is I can get you some savings on that. It's depending on what freedoms of your temperature you want to give out many.

[00:34:09] Eric Goranson: Many utility companies out there are giving away either free or nearly free smart home thermostats to save money on that. Now, one thing to be careful with, like my utility here, if I go for the maximum rebate, I also give them control of my thermostat so they can move it on a, like a heat day. If it's cranking, it's super hot.

[00:34:30] Eric Goranson: It's one of those things are using a lot of power and they need to reduce power consumption. They have the ability to go down there and change your thermostat a handful of degrees. To lighten the load on the grid. Now, some people, I know I was not super stoked about doing that at my house and a lot of people are struggling with that.

[00:34:47] Eric Goranson: Some people don't care. Some people go, I don't want anybody to have control of anything in my house. I completely understand that as well. So think about that. You can get, I've seen some people giving away these things for free. 25 bucks [00:35:00] neck and save you a hundred, a hundred and a half by doing that. So think about that, take a look.

[00:35:04] Eric Goranson: And then of course, make sure like we talked about earlier, what system does this work with? So is this going to work with your smart home system? So this can all work together. So something to consider there now, smart lighting. I'm a big fan of two companies for lighting. Lutron Casita is my favorite around the house.

[00:35:23] Eric Goranson: If you want a more expensive, more feature filled with a video set on it, take a look at the brilliant setup. Both of those are great. The Lutron app has always been a great one and has been just absolutely an industry standard out there. And it's very simple to set up. So something to take a look at there.

[00:35:41] Eric Goranson: And before we go out, I want to make sure that we talk about smart safety for a minute. And a lot of companies are giving this away for free. And I'm talking your homeowner's insurance company. And that is a company called TING, T I N G, Whisker Labs. These guys make a device that plugs into an outlet for your home, [00:36:00] and it is monitoring your electrical system all the time, and it will sense out shorts or electrical faults and tell you what's going on, as well as giving you a 1, 000 basically fund to have an electrician come out if it finds something.

[00:36:15] Eric Goranson: So they'll pay for that, up to a thousand bucks for the electrician to come out and take a look at what that is. So many electrical, it's saving, like the last number I saw was 50 or 70 thousand fires that stopped before it happened. In homes. And so insurance companies are like, wow, if I can nearly eliminate the risk of an electrical fire by giving them this, this 300 piece.

[00:36:36] Eric Goranson: Sweet. This is awesome. So contact your insurance company. They'll probably get you one for free if you ask for it. If not, you can jump on there. Just take a look at whisker labs and Ting. This here could save your house from an electrical fire. And if you've got an older house, even more important, But what's cool is it basically tests everything all the way up to the pole to that transformer and you can look at it and see what another [00:37:00] quick added feature to this as well is that it actually will tell you when you are, geez, let's say you have a power outage, it'll text you, hey, power's out of your house.

[00:37:09] Eric Goranson: So now to deal with it, maybe you didn't realize it, but that will let you know. And if you're having electrical issues, it will do the same thing. Maybe you've got low power coming in. So maybe you're only running in 110 versus what it should be there. Like one 12 to one 20. So if you get into a low power or overpower situations, it really sits there and tells you, Hey, you got a problem.

[00:37:32] Eric Goranson: Last thing you want to have is a Brown out and burn out a bunch of appliances. So take a look at ting. Now, as far as stopping packages, take a look at a previous episode. We've done the box gobbler. Take a look at that. This is a package safe that goes on your front porch. I'll put some things down in the notes on the show here, because the box gobbler is something that is very important.

[00:37:53] Eric Goranson: If you're having package thefts that Amazon or UPS or FedEx packages are getting taken off the front porch, [00:38:00] this is the way to stop that and put one into my house. They're absolutely amazing. And it really helps that. So one other quick thing before we go to break here and wrap up this. Episode here is take a look at exterior lighting, make that smart.

[00:38:15] Eric Goranson: So a well lit front yard is a great deterrent for people coming around your house. If you are the best lit beautiful house in the neighborhood, many times there's no place to hide for those criminals. And so it's another great safety tip around the house. If it's well lit, you've got really nice lighting.

[00:38:33] Eric Goranson: It makes the house look beautiful. And of course it makes it safer by sending them down to the darker houses where they might not get caught. Hey guys, before we go out to break, I just wanted to mention for all of our new listeners to the podcast, to the national radio show, I appreciate every single one of you.

[00:38:48] Eric Goranson: If you want to find out more about us, we have our website, which is around the house, Online. com. We also have our YouTube, which is on that same thing there. Just look for the around the house show. We've got [00:39:00] it right there on the front page of the website around the house online. com. You can find out way more information right there.

[00:39:06] Eric Goranson: And of course, Instagram, Facebook, all of that. And if you dive deep into our. Our YouTube page. You'll also see the segments that I'm putting in there in a playlist from the around the house, Northwest television show over at Fox 12 plus, you can grab it right there. And if there's something you want me to talk about it in a future episode that maybe we haven't talked about, hit me up.

[00:39:25] Eric Goranson: Just send me a message over to around the house online. com. I always will get back to you. Thanks for tuning into around the house. We're just getting started.