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HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Before you buy anything, figure out the one thing you actually want to fix. A dark porch, a doorbell you never hear, a lamp you're tired of getting up to turn off. Start there. Don't buy a whole kit for a whole house on week one — that's how this stuff ends up in a drawer.
Here's what you need, split into budget and nice-to-have. Prices are rough, figure them changing by the time you read this.
The Basics (pick based on your one project)
Smart plug — $10–15 This is where almost everybody should start. Plugs into any outlet, whatever's plugged into it becomes "smart." Porch light, lamp, fan. No wiring involved.
Smart bulb — $8–20 each Good if the fixture's hard to get a plug near, or you want dimming/color stuff. Skip these if a regular bulb in a smart plug does the same job for less.
Video doorbell — $60–150 Wired or battery, your call. Battery ones are easier to install (no electrical work) but you'll charge them every few months. Check that it works with the phones your family actually has before you fall for a feature list.
Water leak sensor — $15–25 Not glamorous, genuinely worth it. One under the water heater, one behind the washer. This is the cheapest peace of mind on this whole list and I mean that.
Hub or voice assistant speaker — $30–50, optional You don't need this to start. Plugs and bulbs mostly connect straight to your wifi and your phone. Get a speaker later if you decide you actually want voice control, not before.
Nice-to-Have (add these once you've got a win under your belt)
- Smart thermostat — $80–200. Worth it, but check your furnace wiring compatibility first. I did not do this and had to run new wire I wasn't planning on running.
- Smart lock — $100–180. Handy, but keep a real physical key somewhere. Anything wifi-dependent can lock you out when the internet's having a bad day.
- Motion sensor lights — $20–30. Nice for a driveway or a shed.
- Second doorbell or camera for a side door — only if the front one earns its keep first.
What You Don't Need Yet
Mesh wifi systems, smart switches that require rewiring your walls, anything that says "whole home automation kit." That's all fine eventually. It's not week one.
Shopping Notes
Costco and the big box stores up around the Point of the Mountain corridor usually have the mainstream brands (the ones you'll actually recognize) at a fair price, especially during their seasonal electronics pushes. That's honestly where I'd start looking before anything online-only or off-brand.
Speaking of off-brand — resist it. The $6 no-name plug from an unfamiliar seller online might work fine for a year, then the app disappears and your gadget's a paperweight. Buy from a company that'll plausibly still exist in three years. You don't need the biggest name, just one you recognize.
Check the box for a wifi frequency note — most of this gear wants a 2.4GHz connection, not 5GHz. If your router broadcasts both under one name, you may need to dig into settings to make sure you're connecting to the right one. We'll cover that in class if it trips you up.
Bring one item to class if you can, whatever you bought or already own. We'll get it running together. No worries at all if it's still in the box.
HandoutSmart Home Basics — Cheat Sheet
Smart Home Basics — Cheat Sheet
Print this out and stick it on the fridge or wherever you keep the wifi password. This is the stuff I keep coming back to, not the whole class crammed onto one page. That's what the other handouts are for.
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Before You Buy Anything
- Check compatibility first. I learned this one the hard way with a thermostat and a furnace wire that didn't match. Look at what phones and voice assistant (if any) your household already has, and buy things that work with those. Don't build a second ecosystem by accident.
- Pick brands that'll still be around in three years. Cheap off-brand gear is fine until the company disappears and the app stops working. Then it's a paperweight.
- Start with one room. One porch light, one plug. Get a win before you buy the twelve-piece kit.
Wifi Basics
- Most smart home stuff wants the 2.4GHz band, not 5GHz. If your router broadcasts both under the same name, that can trip devices up during setup. Some routers let you split the names — check yours if you're stuck.
- Devices connect during setup, not later. If a device won't pair, get your phone and the device close to the router for the first setup, then move it where you actually want it.
- Check the outlet isn't on a wall switch. I spent an hour once troubleshooting a camera that just wasn't getting power because somebody flipped the switch on the wall. Don't be me.
Troubleshooting Order (do these before you panic)
- Is it actually getting power? Check the outlet, the switch, the cord.
- Restart the device — unplug it, wait ten seconds, plug it back in.
- Restart the app. Then restart your phone.
- Check the device is still on your wifi list (router app or device app should show it).
- If none of that works, remove it and re-add it from scratch. Annoying but it fixes most things.
No worries at all if you have to do this more than once. I mess with my own stuff constantly.
Voice Control vs. Switches
Use voice when your hands are full or you're across the room. Use a regular switch for everything else — it never loses connection, never needs an app update, never argues with you about which lamp you meant. I'm not against voice control. I just think people over-use it and get frustrated when it hiccups.
The Non-Negotiables
- Water leak sensors under the water heater and the washer. Twenty bucks each. Cheapest peace of mind you'll ever buy. I've seen what a slow leak does to a subfloor over a winter and it's not pretty.
- Never put anything critical on wifi alone. Smart lock, garage door, whatever — keep a physical backup. Real key, real button. Internet goes down eventually. It will happen on a day you need it not to.
- Narrow your motion detection zones on cameras. Otherwise a flag moving in the wind or a tree branch will blow up your phone with notifications until you give up and turn the whole thing off.
Quick Reference: What Goes Where
Task Good fit Skip it here Porch light on a schedule Smart plug — Front door camera Video doorbell Skip fancy AI features you won't open the app for Bedroom lamp Voice-controlled plug Fine, but a regular switch works too Water heater / washer Leak sensor — Door lock Smart lock with keypad Never wifi-only, keep a physical key "Whole house" automation One room at a time Don't start here That's about it. If you only take one thing off this page, take the water sensors. Everything else is optional. The leak sensors aren't.
WorksheetHandout 3: Your Home Setup Checklist
Handout 3: Your Home Setup Checklist
Fill this out as we go through class today. Don't try to finish it all in one sitting at home — pick one room, get a win, then come back to this sheet for the next thing. That's the whole approach.
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Step 1: Pick Your One Room
Not the whole house. One room.
Room I'm starting with: ______________________
What's the actual problem I'm trying to solve? (Example: "porch light so it's not dark when we get home")
_______________________________________________
Step 2: What's Already There
Before you buy anything, check what you're working with.
- [ ] Wifi name and password written down somewhere I can find it
- [ ] Wifi is 2.4GHz capable (most smart devices want this band, not 5GHz — check your router app or ask me)
- [ ] Phones in the house are: ☐ Android ☐ iPhone ☐ both
- [ ] I checked the actual switch/outlet type before buying anything (some smart switches need a neutral wire — if you're not sure, that's a "call an electrician or ask Cameron" thing, not a guess-and-hope thing)
Step 3: Device Info
Fill in as you set things up in class.
Device Brand Connects to app: Works with voice? Step 4: The Backup Plan
Here's the thing — anything that only works over wifi is a problem the day your internet goes down. For anything that matters, write down the non-smart backup.
- [ ] Smart lock backup: real key location: ______________
- [ ] Smart light backup: normal switch still works? ☐ yes ☐ no
- [ ] What happens if the router's down and I need this device right now?
_______________________________________________
Step 5: Voice vs. Switch
Voice control is nice, but it's not always the right tool. For each device, mark which one you'll actually use day to day.
Device I'll mostly use: ☐ voice ☐ switch/app ☐ voice ☐ switch/app ☐ voice ☐ switch/app If you marked "voice" for something in a room where your hands are usually free anyway — ask yourself if a normal switch wouldn't just be faster. No judgment. I do this too.
Step 6: Leak Sensors (the cheap thing nobody buys)
Twenty bucks apiece. Worth it.
- [ ] Water heater — sensor placed? ☐ yes ☐ not yet
- [ ] Washing machine — sensor placed? ☐ yes ☐ not yet
- [ ] Any other spot I'm worried about: ______________
Step 7: One Thing I'm Taking Home
Write down the single device or fix you're actually going to finish this week. Not the whole list — one thing.
_______________________________________________
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That's about it. Bring this sheet back next week if you want help troubleshooting whatever you set up — half of learning this stuff is getting something to not work, then figuring out why. No worries at all.
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — When Your Smart Stuff Won't Behave
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — When Your Smart Stuff Won't Behave
Here's the thing. Everybody hits a wall with this stuff, usually in the first week. That's normal. I still hit walls with it and I've been messing with this for years. Below are the problems I see over and over, in the order I'd check them.
1. Device won't connect during setup Nine times out of ten it's the wifi band. Most smart plugs, bulbs, and cameras only talk to 2.4GHz, not 5GHz. If your phone auto-connects to the 5GHz network, the device can't find it. Check your router settings for a way to split the two, or look for a network name ending in "2.4" or similar.
2. It worked yesterday, dead today Router probably restarted or your internet blipped. Unplug the device for 30 seconds, plug it back in, give it a couple minutes. That's about it. If it's still not showing up, restart your router too.
3. The app says "offline" but the light still turns on with the switch This one got me once, took me a full hour to figure out. Check if it's on a switched outlet — some rooms have an outlet controlled by the wall switch. If someone flips that switch off, your "smart" plug isn't smart anymore, it's just off. I do not tell that story often.
4. Motion alerts going off constantly Your detection zone is too wide. Almost every camera app lets you draw a smaller box or a specific area to watch. A flag moving in the wind, a tree branch, a neighbor's cat — all of it will trip a default setup. Narrow the zone down to the sidewalk or the porch, not the whole yard.
5. Voice assistant doesn't hear you or mishears the name Background noise is usually the culprit — TV, fan, dishwasher. Get closer, speak at normal volume, don't shout. If it keeps mishearing the wake word, check the app for wake word sensitivity. And if you gave it a weird name (ours is Toast, don't ask), make sure everyone in the house is actually saying it the same way.
6. Automation runs at the wrong time Double check AM versus PM. I wired my very first schedule backward — porch light off at dusk, on at dawn — and didn't catch it for three days. Nobody told me. Read the schedule back to yourself out loud before you save it.
7. Device shows up in the app but won't respond to commands Try removing it and re-adding it. Annoying, but it fixes more than it should. Before you do that, check if there's a firmware update sitting there — outdated firmware causes more weird behavior than people expect.
8. Thermostat or anything wired doesn't match the instructions Every furnace is wired a little differently and the fancy box doesn't always match the wires you actually have. If the colors don't line up with the manual, stop and look up your furnace model instead of guessing. I once bought a nice thermostat before checking this and ended up running new wire. Humbling, for a guy who works with pipes.
9. Multiple people's phones fighting over the same speaker or screen This happens at bigger gatherings — a ward activity, a family party. Somebody's phone auto-connects to a shared speaker and suddenly you're all listening to a podcast nobody asked for. Turn off auto-connect/auto-join on your phone's Bluetooth or casting settings if you're bringing it somewhere with shared devices.
10. You changed the wifi password and now nothing works Every device needs to be reconnected manually after a password change. There's no way around this one. Set aside twenty minutes, go device by device, don't try to do it while frustrated. Get a drink of water first.
If none of this fixes it: unplug it, walk away, come back in ten minutes. Half of troubleshooting is just giving it a second try with a clear head. No worries at all.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —and he goes three nights without saying anything, just letting his wife come home to a pitch-dark porch every single night.
CAMERON: I want to be clear, I wasn't doing it on purpose. I set the schedule backward. Lights off at dusk, on at dawn. Which is the opposite of what a porch light is for.
JESS: This is Cameron Dillard, by the way, if you're just tuning in. Plumber by day, smart home guy by accident.
CAMERON: That's the accurate title, yeah.
JESS: So walk me through it. You bought the plug because—
CAMERON: Because our daughter Luna didn't like coming home to a dark house. Simple enough problem. I got a cheap smart plug, twelve bucks, figured I'd have it done in twenty minutes.
JESS: And?
CAMERON: And I got the on and off backwards in the schedule. Didn't check it. Just assumed it worked because the app said it worked.
JESS: And Michelle didn't say anything for three days?
CAMERON: Three nights. I guess she figured either I was doing it for some reason, or she didn't want to hurt my feelings. Finally she just goes, "hey, is the light supposed to be off when I get home?" And I go check the app and sure enough. Backwards the whole time.
JESS: That's a good one to open with because it's basically the whole class in a nutshell. You mess it up, you figure it out.
CAMERON: That's really it. Nobody's basement floods because a porch light schedule is backward. That's the part I like about this stuff. Low stakes. You poke at it, you get it wrong, you fix it. Worst case you unplug the thing and start over.
JESS: Okay, give the people something they can use right now. Something they don't need to sign up for the class to get.
CAMERON: Sure. Here's the thing—if you're going to buy exactly one smart device this year, and you don't know where to start, get a water leak sensor. Twenty bucks, maybe less if you catch it on sale. Stick it under your water heater, or behind the washer.
JESS: Why that instead of, like, the doorbell everybody thinks of first?
CAMERON: Because a doorbell tells you somebody's at the door, which is nice, but a leak sensor can save your subfloor. I've been in enough mechanical rooms for work to know what a slow leak does over a few months. It's not dramatic, it's just quiet and expensive. Mine went off at four in the morning once—turned out to just be condensation, not an actual leak—but I was glad it woke me up to check. Cheapest peace of mind you'll buy, I think.
JESS: And that's it, you just put it on the floor?
CAMERON: Just sits there. Battery powered, sends an alert to your phone if it gets wet. No wiring, no router setup beyond the initial pairing, which takes about five minutes. That's about it.
JESS: Love it. Okay, one more thing before we wrap this one up. You've got a whole list of opinions you hold pretty strong on this stuff, and one of them surprised me. You're not big on voice control?
CAMERON: I'm not against it, I just think people over-buy it. A light switch works every time. It doesn't need wifi, it doesn't need an app, it's not going to lose connection right when you want to use it. Voice is great when your hands are full or you're already across the room. Otherwise, just use the switch. My dad's actually the best example of this—I tried to get him set up with voice-controlled lamps and he point blank refused to talk to a machine. On principle.
JESS: What'd you do?
CAMERON: We compromised. Big physical button next to his recliner. One push, lamp's on. He's happy, I'm happy, nobody's yelling at a speaker. Sometimes the low-tech answer is just the right one. I respect it, honestly.
JESS: That might be my favorite thing you've said all episode.
CAMERON: He'll be glad to hear it made the podcast.
JESS: Okay, so next session, what are we covering?
CAMERON: Doorbell cameras. Which ones actually matter, what to look for, and I've got a story about a neighbor's flag setting off two hundred motion alerts in one day that I think people will get a kick out of. We'll do the compatibility stuff too—what works with the phones you've already got, so you're not buying something that only plays nice with one ecosystem.
JESS: No spoilers on the flag story.
CAMERON: No spoilers. Bring your phone next time, we're doing hands-on setup in class, so if you want to follow along here too, have it charged.
JESS: Perfect. That's episode one. No worries at all if half of this didn't make sense yet—that's what the class is for.
CAMERON: That's about it.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —and I said, Cameron, if you tell me one more time that it's "just a $12 plug" I'm putting it on a t-shirt.
CAMERON: It is, though. That's the whole thing. People hear "smart home" and picture some big control panel. It's a plug.
JESS: Okay, for anybody just tuning in, this is episode two, we're talking through Smart Home Basics, the class Cameron teaches down at the community center. Last time we did the big picture. Today I want the real stuff. Doorbells, right?
CAMERON: Doorbells and the whole notification thing, yeah. Because that's where people either get hooked or get annoyed and quit.
JESS: Tell the flag story. I love the flag story.
CAMERON: Oh, the flag. Okay so I set up a doorbell camera for a neighbor, nice guy, and he's got a flag on his porch. Standard motion alerts, right out of the box. First day he gets like two hundred notifications on his phone.
JESS: Two hundred.
CAMERON: Every time that flag moved in the wind, ding, motion detected. He almost boxed the whole thing back up and returned it. He genuinely thought it was broken.
JESS: But it wasn't broken.
CAMERON: No, it was working exactly like it was told to. That's the thing people don't realize — these cameras don't know the difference between a person and a flag unless you tell them where to look. Took me ten minutes to go into the app and draw a smaller detection zone, just the walkway and the steps, cut the flag out of the frame. Notifications went from two hundred a day to like three.
JESS: Should've done that from the jump, you always say.
CAMERON: I say that about most stuff. Should've checked first. But it's an easy fix once you know it's there to fix.
JESS: Okay so that's the practical tip, right? Anybody listening who already has a doorbell camera and it's driving them nuts —
CAMERON: Go into your app, find the motion zone or activity zone setting, most of them have it, and just narrow it down to where a person would actually walk. Skip the street, skip the neighbor's tree, skip your flag if you've got one. You'll cut your notifications down by a ton and you'll actually start looking at the ones that matter.
JESS: See, that's the kind of thing you could do right now, pause the podcast—
CAMERON: Pause it, go mess with it, come back. No worries at all.
JESS: I do want to ask about the joke thing though. You told me once your daughter broke your voice assistant somehow.
CAMERON: Oh, Toast. That's a whole separate story, that's how it got named Toast, I'm not getting into that again—
JESS: No, the joke thing.
CAMERON: Right, so Luna went through this phase, six weeks, every single morning, first thing, "Toast, tell me a joke." And it's the same handful of jokes on rotation. Why did the scarecrow win an award. Outstanding in his field. I have heard that joke probably two hundred times. I hear it in my sleep at this point.
JESS: You're mildly haunted.
CAMERON: I am mildly haunted by a scarecrow joke, yeah. But that's the thing about voice stuff, it's fun for that. Kid wants a joke, hands are full making breakfast, you're across the room, sure, use the voice command. I just don't think you need it for everything. My light switches still work fine. They've never once lost connection to the wifi because they're not on the wifi.
JESS: Controversial opinion corner.
CAMERON: A little. I'm not anti voice control. I'm anti using it just because it's there.
JESS: Fair. Okay, last thing — what's next session, so people know what to bring or think about?
CAMERON: Next time we're doing water leak sensors and why I think they're the most underrated cheap thing you can buy. Twenty bucks, sits under your water heater, and if something starts leaking at four in the morning it'll actually wake you up before it wrecks your subfloor. I've seen what a slow leak does over months and it's not pretty.
JESS: You've got one at your own place.
CAMERON: I do. Went off once at 4 a.m., turned out to just be condensation, not an actual leak, but I was glad the thing worked. Cheapest peace of mind I've bought in years.
JESS: So bring your questions on that, or just bring yourself.
CAMERON: Just show up. We'll get everybody set up one sensor at a time, that's about it.
JESS: That's episode two. Thanks Cameron.
CAMERON: Thanks for having me. Go check your doorbell zones.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —so you're saying the flag was the whole problem.
CAMERON: The flag was the whole problem. Guy's got a little American flag on a pole by his porch, totally normal, and every time the wind picked up, motion alert. Ding. Motion alert. Ding. Two hundred notifications the first day.
JESS: Two hundred.
CAMERON: He text me like, "I think I bought a broken camera." I go over there, and it's not broken, it's just watching the whole yard. Took me ten minutes to narrow the detection zone down to the porch and the walkway. Should've set it up that way from the start, honestly. That's on me.
JESS: This is Smart Home Basics, episode three, by the way, in case anybody's just joining us mid-sentence like usual.
CAMERON: Yeah, sorry, we do this every time.
JESS: It's fine, people like it. Okay so today's session was doorbells and cameras.
CAMERON: Doorbells and cameras. And the flag thing is a good example of what I keep telling people in class, which is, the camera's not the hard part. Anybody can stick a camera by the door. The settings are the hard part. Where it looks, when it alerts you, what counts as motion versus what's just Tuesday.
JESS: So what's the actual tip. Like if somebody's listening to this and they're never going to take the class, what do they do.
CAMERON: Narrow your detection zone before you do anything else. Most apps let you draw a box, like, only alert me if something moves inside this area. Do that first thing, day one. Don't wait until you've got two hundred notifications and you're ready to return the whole box.
JESS: Draw the box.
CAMERON: Draw the box. That's about it.
JESS: I like that it's such a small fix for such a big annoyance.
CAMERON: That's most of this stuff, honestly. It's never as complicated as people think it's gonna be. It's usually one setting.
JESS: Okay, so, doorbells in general. People always ask you which one to buy.
CAMERON: And I always say the same thing, which is they're more alike than the boxes want you to believe. Get one that works with the phones your family already has. Don't pay extra for some feature where you gotta open an app you're never gonna open. Most people just want to know who's at the door and whether the package showed up.
JESS: Very reasonable.
CAMERON: I'm a reasonable guy.
JESS: You are. Okay, before we run out of time — next session, what's coming up.
CAMERON: Next one's water leak sensors and, kind of a grab bag, backup plans. What happens when the internet's down, what happens if your smart lock's acting up. I feel pretty strong about this one. Twenty-dollar water sensor under your water heater is the best money you'll spend in this whole class, in my opinion.
JESS: You've said that to me outside of class too.
CAMERON: Because I mean it. I put one under mine. Went off at 4 a.m. one night, scared me half to death, turned out to just be condensation, not an actual leak. But I was glad it worked. I'd rather get woken up for nothing than not get woken up for something. I've seen what a slow leak does to a subfloor, it's not pretty, and it happens quiet. You don't hear it happening.
JESS: Cheap peace of mind.
CAMERON: Cheapest I've bought.
JESS: Okay. Anything else before we wrap.
CAMERON: Just, bring your phone next time, we're doing the setup live again. And if your camera's giving you two hundred notifications a day, go draw the box. No worries at all.
JESS: Draw the box, everybody. That's the episode.
Videos worth your time
Hand-picked by your instructor, with notes on what to watch for.
- Smart Home Basics: Everything You Actually Need to KnowFoxy's Lab
Watch for the plain language explanation of what a smart home actually is and how WiFi ties devices together.
- Smart Home For Beginners - TechnologiesUndecided with Matt Ferrell
Watch for the rundown of core smart home technologies covered in this first episode of a beginner series.
- Smart Home Automation: The Ultimate Beginner's GuideyoyoTech
Watch for the simple approach to starting small by looking at devices you already own before buying anything new.
Practice corner
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