Building the Indian Smart Home (Part 1)

Working in the IT industry, the lockdown has meant that I have been working from home since the start of 2020. Although, the workload has increased more than I had imagined, it also gave me time continue on a project that I started in 2016 and combines my love of technology and gadgets - Building my Smart Home.

There’s a big difference when it comes to homes we live in as well as the technology and gadgets that are available here in India than it is in countries like the US. Keeping that in mind, I had to make sure my Smart Home works for an Indian home.

This is the story of how I converted by Dumb Home into a (almost) Smart Home.

What is a Smart Home to me?

When talking about smart homes, to me, the technology or gadget that I introduce should make doing a particular task easier and convenient. If the task get harder, then you’re either not using the smart thing correctly or you’re better off not having that smart thing in you home altogether.

The evaluation

I live in a typical 2 BHK flat, so I evaluated what tasks in my home I wanted to make easier and how I could achieve them.

What I wanted:

• Anywhere control: I wanted to able to control tasks from anywhere inside or outside my home with the use of my phone or laptop.
• Google Assistant integration: I wanted to be able to control tasks with Google Assistant, again, from anywhere inside or outside my home.
• Automation: I wanted to able to trigger some automations to do multiple tasks together or based on certain use cases.
• Management & Statistics: I wanted to be able to manage and receive statistics for all my devices, automations, media from a common location.

I also wanted to make sure that my Smart Devices work well with each other, didn’t want to get devices from too many different brands and wanted them to be from some reputed brands.

Let’s look at the devices I purchased.

Smart Speakers: Google Home & Google Home Mini

Being an Android user and an avid Google fan, it was an obvious choice for me to build my Smart Home around Google’s ecosystem.

I was already using Google Assistant on my phone to do typical things like finding and navigating to place, play music, set reminders and timers, etc. Hence, I decided to get my first Smart Speaker, the Google Home Mini for the Master Bedroom and used it as a base for my Smart Home project.

I have since purchased a Google Home for the Living Room and a Google Home Mini for the Second Bedroom.

I might purchase a Google Nest Hub if I feel the need for it in the future.

Smart TVs: Mi LED TV 4X PRO & Mi LED TV 4C PRO 32

I had only one TV in the Living Room which allowed me to watch cable from a local provider. I wanted to get on the Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar (now Disney+ Hotstar) bandwagon so I tried the Chromecast but the experience wasn’t so good for me. I decided to use the Chromecast for when I travel.

There were a lot of Smart TVs coming up in the market but I wanted one that gave me an Android TV experience keeping in mind my need for the Google ecosystem. I decided to go in for a 32 inch model for the Master Bedroom before I bought a bigger one to replace the Living Room TV.

I purchased the affordable Mi LED TV 4C PRO 32 and coupled with the Google Home Mini was able to play, pause, stop & mute videos and music from services like YouTube, Netflix and Spotify using Google Assistant.

Note: Taking one step back from being smart, the remote that come with the Mi Smart TVs are great but they don’t have a mute button which is kind of annoying. To overcome this, I used Button Mapper to program the long press of the Mi button on the toggle muting the volume on the TV.

I have since sold my dumb old 40 inch LED TV and purchased the Mi LED TV 4X PRO for the Living Room.

Smart Lights: Philips Hue Starter Kit, Philips White and Color Ambience bulbs (B22), Philips Hue Dimmer Switches, Philips Hue Motion Sensor, Philips Hue LightStrip & Philips Hue Go

I didn’t want all the lights in my home to be smart. The reasons being, I wanted to use Philips Hue’s ecosystem, they are a bit expensive and they aren’t as bright as I need them to be. I wanted to use them as secondary lighting, mood lighting, effect lighting or just playing show-off lighting.

I purchased the Philips Hue Starter Kit and made sure it came with the B22 bulb instead of the E27 as all the bulb sockets in my home are B22. I put the included bulb as the secondary bulb in the Master Bedroom and was now able to control this bulb using Google Assistant. It works great for mood lighting as well.

I did, however, want to be able to dim the bulb or change scenes using a traditional kind of switch. For that I purchased the Philips Hue Dimmer Switch.

At night, to go from the Bedrooms to the Kitchen or Living room, we need to go through a dark Hallway whose switch and dimmer switch is from the Living Room. I sourced a Philips Hue Motion Sensor from outside India to automatically switch on the Hallway bulb at night when someone enters the Hallway and switch it off after a specified number of minutes if there no motion detected.

For the Living Room Smart TV, I wanted to have effect lighting in the background. I purchased the Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus. This looks especially great when watching anything with all the lights turned off. Since I didn’t want to stick the lightstrip directly onto the back of the TV, I bought a flat aluminum rod and created a bracket that mounts over the Smart TV mount. I then stuck the lightstrip onto the aluminum rod. It doesn’t quite look as good as shown in some YouTube videos but it does the job.

Finally, I don’t know why I bought it, but the Philips Hue Go is a handy addition to the Philips Hue ecosystem that works as a conversational starter for when guests are at home or is used when there are power outages since it super portable.

I have since added Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Bulbs (B22) as secondary lighting as well as Philips Hue Dimmer Switches in the Living Room and the Second Bedroom.

I may eventually replace all the bulbs in my home with Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance Bulbs (B22) but I am waiting for an upgrade that would provide more lumen output. I may also look into the newer options Philips Hue has to offer.

IoT Gadgets: Okos Universal Remote Controller & Okos Smart Fan Regulator Switch

The only other appliances that I really wanted to make smart was the air conditioners and the ceiling fans. The real struggle is when you don’t want to get up from you comfortable position but really need to switch on/off either appliance or change the temperature/fan speed.

For the air conditioner:
Replacing the air conditioner didn’t seem feasible as it wouldn’t provide much of an upgrade as I got with the Smart TV upgrade.

I opted to instead purchase the Okos Universal Remote Controller and installed it in the Living Room. It is a compact IR Blaster that can be used to control any device that uses IR like air conditioners, TVs or Set-top boxes via the Okos Smart app or via Google Assistant.

This device also comes with temperature and humidity sensors which can help trigger some cool automation.

For the ceiling fans:
I had a similar predicament with the ceiling fans that I had with the air conditioners. Replacing the ceiling fans didn’t seem feasible. Smart Fans are expensive costing upward of ₹3,500/- with the added hassle of installation. I wanted something that would work with the existing ceiling fans.

I purchased another product from Okos, the Okos Smart Fan Regulator Switch and again installed it in the Living Room. This neat little product replaces your existing ceiling fan regulator with a smart one that works exactly the same way as any normal regulator would but with touch controls and can be controlled via the Okos Smart app or via Google Assistant.

Both the devices from Okos are a bit expensive but they get the job done exactly as I need them too and are of excellent build quality.

Apart from the aforementioned automation with the temperature and humidity sensors, automation can also be done based on geo fencing and more.

I have since purchased another two Okos Universal Remote Controllers for the Master Room and Second Bedroom. I plan to replace the rest of the ceiling fan regulators with the Okos Smart Fan Regulator Switches and to replace the geyser switches with the Okos Smart 32A Wi-Fi Modular Touch Switches in the future.

The only thing that I miss from the Okos ecosystem is Home Assistant integration. More on Home Assistant in Part 2.

Security Camera: Mi Home Security Camera 360°

I am a little paranoid so for security reasons, I purchased the Mi Home Security Camera 360°. It streams and records 1080p video, can rotate 360°, comes with a speaker and has motion sensing abilities.

The only problem I have with this camera is that it does not integrate well with the rest of my Smart Home ecosystem. I may consider replacing this camera the Okos Home Security Camera 360° in the future.

Conclusion, Part 1

My Smart Home journey so far has been fun and a tab bit expensive, owing to the fact that my Smart Home ecosystem contains premium brands, but it has been worth it as I am more control of my home that ever.

I’ve connected all the above devices to Google’s ecosystem via the Google Home app and they work seamless together. I had even setup a couple of IFTTT integrations (but for some reason these no longer work). More on IFTTT in Part 2.

Has it made me lazy? Maybe a little but it’s more a matter of convenience for me. And with technology and gadgets coming out ever so often, this journey is bound to get more exciting.

In Part 2, which will be a bit more technical, I’ll talk about IFTTT integrations and how I used a Raspberry Pi to setup a Plex Media Server, IoTLink , MQTT and Home Assistant to provide more advanced integrations and statistics for all the devices in my Smart Home.