Home automation does not have to be expensive or hard to set up. You do not need to hire a company or pay large monthly fees to start making your home a little easier to manage. In fact, everything proposed here can be implemented for very little up-front expense and, most importantly, ABSOLUTELY NO ANNOYING RECURRING MONTHLY FEES – you are in control of your smart home!
For many homeowners, a simple smart home setup can help with everyday things like checking if the garage door is open, turning lights on and off, giving a sitter a temporary door code, watching for water leaks, or controlling plugs and pumps on a schedule.
One easy and cost-effective option to consider is the YoLink smart home platform from YoSmart.
This is not a paid promotion or advertisement. It is just a helpful idea for neighbors who may want a simple way to add smart devices to their home over time.
What Can You Automate?
Here are a few common ideas that may be useful around the house:
Door Locks and Temporary Access
A smart door lock can let you unlock a door from your phone. This can be helpful if a family member, pet sitter, babysitter, or trusted neighbor needs to get inside while you are away.
Some smart locks also allow temporary access codes. That means you can give someone a code that only works for a certain time or certain days. This can be much safer than hiding a key outside.
Garage Door Alerts
A smart garage door sensor can let you know if your garage door is open or closed. This is helpful when you leave the house and later wonder, “Did I close the garage?”
You can also use alerts to remind you if the garage door has been left open too long.
These devices are compatible with any garage door, as they are two-sided taped to your door and it detects the door orientation (regardless of what kind of Garage door opener you have).
Temperature Monitoring
Temperature sensors can help you watch areas like garages, freezers, refrigerators, attics, greenhouses, or rooms with pets.
This can be helpful during very hot or cold weather. It can also help you catch problems early, such as a freezer getting too warm.
If temperature thresholds are hit, you can automatically turn on a fan or you can dispatch an alert, whatever your preference is!
Water Leak Alerts
Water sensors can be placed near water heaters, washing machines, sinks, toilets, or other areas where leaks may happen.
A small sensor can help give you an alert before a small leak turns into a big mess.
Additionally, YoLink sells automatic valves, so if you pair the two devices, you can even have your smart-home auto shutoff your main water line to prevent any damage from occurring while you are away!
Lights and Other Devices on a Schedule
Smart plugs and switches can turn lights and devices on and off by schedule. This can be helpful for:
- Christmas lights
- Indoor plant grow lights
- Outdoor lights
- Garage lights
- Vacation lighting
- Lamps inside the home
- Box Fans
- Any other device (even if you just want it on a smart plug so that you can remotely power cycle it – or power cycle it conveniently from your couch)
You can also pair these plugs with light sensors (to turn/off devices based on sunrise or sunset), pair them with Motion detectors (if you want a light to turn on when you walk in the room), or with any other sensor that detects activity in the YoLink platform.
Additionally, YoLink sells in-wall switches that can not only convert your regular light switch to a smart switch (to be controlled from anywhere), but also these switches have extra buttons to control other devices from the same spot!
Watering Flowers or Plants
A smart plug can control a small pump or watering setup. This can help water flowers, garden areas, or indoor plants on a schedule.
This can be especially helpful during hot weather or while you are out of town.
Bug Traps in the Garage
If you use a plug-in bug trap (such as fly zappers) in the garage, you can put it on a smart plug. You could schedule it to turn on at certain hours (such as at night for 30 minutes).
You can also create a routine where the bug trap turns on after the garage door closes, then turns off later. For example, it could run for 30 minutes after the garage door closes.
Hot Water Circulation Pump Savings
Some homes have a hot water circulation pump. These pumps can make hot water reach faucets faster, but they can also waste energy if they run all day and night (almost adding $50 per month to your energy bill).
A smart plug can help you turn the pump off when you are not home or while you are sleeping. This can help save money because the pump is not constantly moving hot water through pipes while no one is using it (so the water is not cooling down only to be re-heated for no reason).
Before using a smart plug for this, make sure the plug is rated for the pump and that it is safe for your setup (usually the 15A wall plug or outdoor plug is sufficient).
How to Get Started
The first thing you need is a YoLink Hub. The hub is the main device that helps the other YoLink devices talk to the app and to each other.
We recommend looking at the YoLink X3 Hub because it has battery backup and can connect by Ethernet or Wi-Fi. You can find it here:
https://shop.yosmart.com/collections/hubs/products/ys1613 ($60 at the time of this article, check price on Amazon for savings!)
Once the hub is set up, you can download the YoLink app and start adding devices.
After that, you can buy the smart devices that fit your needs. YoLink offers items such as smart plugs, light switches, garage door sensors, temperature sensors, water leak sensors, thermostats, and smart locks.
You can browse their smart home devices here for ideas:
https://shop.yosmart.com/pages/shop-home
Many YoLink devices are also sold on Amazon, and they sometimes go on sale. The YoSmart website is still a good place to browse ideas and see what types of devices are available.
Start Small
You do not have to automate your whole home at once. The easiest way is to start with one simple project.
Good first projects may include:
- A smart plug for Christmas lights
- A garage door sensor
- A water leak sensor near the water heater
- A temperature sensor for a freezer
- A smart plug for plant lights
- A smart lock for temporary access
Once you learn how the app works, you can add more devices over time.
Keep Safety in Mind
Smart home devices can be very helpful, but they should still be used carefully.
Here are a few simple tips:
- Use a strong password for your account.
- Do not share permanent access codes unless needed.
- Use temporary codes when possible.
- Make sure smart plugs are rated for the device you plug into them (YoLink has different plugs rated for indoor/outdoor and current draw, such as 10A or 15A).
- Do not use indoor plugs outdoors.
- Test alerts before relying on them.
- Check batteries in sensors from time to time.
Get Creative
Sometimes there is not an out of the box device that comes to mind specifically for the purpose you have in mind. You can always “think outside the box” for these. For example, let’s say you have a pump or condenser, and you want to monitor when it kicks on and off (or maybe you want to trigger something else to happen when it does). Yes, for this scenario there is not a “pool pump monitor” or a “condenser monitor”, but there is something simpler – you can use the vibration detection device from YoLink, which can be configured based on the sensitivity you require, to detect vibration – which your pump or condenser produce when they kick-on.
Additionally, keep in mind multiple devices can be used to accomplish similar tasks – for example, a motion detector OR a door sensor can both be used to determine if your mailbox door was opened – if you want to know when the mailman comes. The motion sensor can be mounted at the very back of the mailbox or a door sensor can be mounted at the mailbox door (we recommend the motion sensor approach more, as it is “out of sight”)
Finally, sometimes the activity you are looking for doesn’t rely on motion, but maybe an increase in power-usage. For this, you can use a Smart Plug with Power Monitoring (YS6602) to detect the power usage and trigger activity!
Real World Examples
Homeowners have quickly spun up the following:
- Smart Front and Back Door – using the YoLink Smart Deadbolt (YS7616) for the front-door and the YoLink Smart Lever Lock (YS7617) for the front door. This let’s you remotely let people in, be notified when certain FOBs or Key codes are used (such as when your kids come home from school), and allow for fingerprint access or re-using FOBs that you already have, so that you don’t have to fill up your keychain.
- X3 Smart Temperature & Humidity Sensor (YS8006) – use it to monitor home temperature (to know if you need to adjust your smart thermometer while on vacation), to monitor your pet’s environment, or your garage to protect your tools (if you have a dehumidifier that needs to kick-on).
- YoLink Smart Relay (YS5706) – Use this to control any devices that are 12v (such as LED lights or DC devices), if you need to turn them on and off. We have paired this with switches to turn on red indicator LEDs when the smart plug for the water circulation pump is turned on, so that there is a visual indicator of the pump’s on/off status.
- Garage Door Sensor (YS7706) – Used to detect if your garage door is open or closed, or can be used on your mailbox door, or can be used on any other door that opens up like a garage door (parallel with the ground when open or perpendicular to the ground when closed). Great to pair with turning on a fly zapper connected to a Plug Mini Smart Plug (YS6604) for 30 minutes after your garage door closes.
- Smart Plugs (YS6604) with On/Off Smart Fobs (YS3605) – Connect to hard to reach lamps (such as bed-side lamps) to be able to quickly turn them on/off with a remote or from the App. Turns any lamp into a wirelessly controlled lamp!
- Weatherproof Temperature and Humidity Sensor (YS8005) – Great device to always know what the temperature and humidity outside is, to monitor your outdoor shed, dog house, or to chain to other devices such as fans connected to plugs to auto turn-on based on your criteria.
For More Advanced Users
If you are very comfortable with technology, YoLink can also be used with some other smart home systems. Some users connect it with tools like Home Assistant, IFTTT, Alexa, Google Assistant, or API-based automations.
That is not needed for a basic setup, but it gives more options for people who like to build custom routines.
Basic setup through the Mobile app is usually sufficient for most users.
Final Thought
Simple home automation can make life easier, safer, and sometimes less expensive. It can help you watch your home while you are away, give temporary access to someone you trust, turn lights on and off, manage pumps, or get alerts before a small issue becomes a big problem.
You can start small with just a hub and one device, then add more as you find useful ideas for your home.
We hope this was useful – now go explore and automate away anything you want at a very affordable and reasonable budget that doesn’t break the bank and keeps you in control of the entire project and the speed of the project!