Adding One Device at a Time (and What I Skip at Home)
Okay. We're near the end of this course, and I want to talk about pacing, because I think it matters more than any single setting we've covered.
Here's the thing—when people get excited about smart home stuff, they tend to buy everything at once. A doorbell, three bulbs, a thermostat, a couple plugs, maybe a lock, all in the same Costco run. Then they get home, open four apps, and by device number three they're frustrated and it all ends up in a drawer. I've seen it happen more times than I can count, usually with guys in my ward who ask me to come help "just get it all going" in one Saturday.
My honest opinion: start with one room, not the whole house. Pick one light. Get it working, actually working, the way you want it to work, before you add the next thing. That's it. That's the whole strategy.
Why one at a time actually works better
When you add one device, you learn your app. You learn how your router handles new connections. You learn what your naming convention is going to be, how your family's going to talk to it, whether voice control even makes sense for that spot or if a switch would've been fine. All of that knowledge carries over to the next device, so device two goes faster than device one, and device three goes faster than device two.
When you add six devices at once, none of that knowledge has time to form. You're just troubleshooting six things simultaneously and you can't tell which problem belongs to which gadget.
A confession about troubleshooting
I want to tell you about the hour I lost on a camera that flat out would not connect. I checked the app, checked the router, checked the camera's settings, restarted the camera twice, restarted my phone, read a forum post about firmware. An hour. Full hour of my life.
It was plugged into an outlet that Michelle had switched off at the wall. That's it. That's the whole story. The camera was fine the entire time. I just never once considered checking the actual wall switch because I was so deep into app settings and network settings that the simplest possible explanation didn't cross my mind.
I don't tell that story much, for obvious reasons, but I think it's a good one for this lesson specifically, because it's exactly what happens when you're juggling too much at once. If I'd only had that one camera going that day, instead of also fighting with a thermostat and a doorbell schedule, I probably check the wall switch in the first five minutes. When you slow down and add one thing at a time, you actually have the mental bandwidth to think clearly when something goes wrong.
What this looks like in practice
Pick your first device. For most people that's a smart plug on a lamp or a porch light, because it's cheap and forgiving.
Set it up completely. Name it something that makes sense. Get the schedule or the voice command working the way you actually want, not just "good enough."
Live with it a week. See if you use it. See if it annoys you. See if Luna, or your spouse, or whoever else lives in the house, has an opinion about it.
Then, and only then, add the next thing. Maybe that's a second plug, maybe it's the doorbell, maybe it's a water sensor under the water heater since we talked about how much I like those.
What I skip at home, on purpose
People are sometimes surprised at how little automation I actually run at my own house. I've got the porch light, a couple of plugs, the doorbell, water sensors under the water heater and washer, and that's basically it. No routines that chain six things together. No lights dimming automatically when a movie starts. No sensors on every door.
Not because that stuff's bad. Some of you are going to love building out routines and I think that's great, mess with it as much as you want. I just don't have the patience for it, personally, and I'd rather have a simple system I understand completely than a complicated one I have to think hard about every time something breaks. My house is simple on purpose. That's a preference, not a rule, so don't take it as gospel.
A real caution here: every device you add is one more thing on your network and one more app with your home's information in it. More isn't automatically better. Slower is usually smarter.
Before next time
Look around your own house and pick just one more device you're actually going to add, not five. Get that one thing fully working before you touch anything else. No worries at all if it takes you the whole week.