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The goal we had with my wife was to have modest lighting, and add a few other smart home devices to our house. This turned out to be a full-blown smart home makeover. We planned on just starting with four lamps, three of them in the living room while the other one we put in our daughter’s nursery.
We don’t know how we ended up with a smart home!
And I wanted to have the ability to be able to turn them all on or off whenever I felt like. I also wanted to be able to control them individually and set up some basic scenes like having the side lamps in the living room turn on while we were watching the TV.
Ideally, all these I wanted it to be done with just my voice and my smartphone and control everything that is necessary.
To enable me to do this in our home, I had to choose Google Home smart speakers that would just work perfectly for our home.
How do I use Google Home to Control my Home?
There are six categories of home automation technology that most people have ventured into. You may opt to go smart in one area of the category or go for full automation just like I did.
The categories are: security and access control system, energy management, home appliances, lighting/ window/ appliance, and healthcare/ assisted living systems.
Here is a List of What You May Consider for Automation
- Alarm and security systems
- Interior and exterior lighting
- Pool, hot tub and steam bath temperatures
- Door and window locks
- Thermostats
- Detecting gas and water leaks
- Home theater systems and speakers
- Yard irrigation
- Turning off or lowering water heaters and HVAC
- Shades, blinds, shutters, and curtains
- Control devices using voice commands
Google Home is good if you want to use it to control things around your home with your voice. Here are some few examples:
Control Entertainment Devices
You can use Google Home to control TVs to play shows or also specific channels. It can also request songs on your speakers, change the volume, and do more than you can imagine.
You can explore all the Google Assistant partners that you can use to control things around your room or home just using your voice
| How you can do this: | Say “Ok Google” or “Hey Google,” |
| And then turn on set-top box | “Turn on [name of set-top box]” |
| Change the volume | “Volume up or down on [name of set-top box]” “Volume up or down by 5 on [set top box name]” |
| Play, pause, fast forward, or rewind a show | “Play [show]” “Pause [show]” |
| Play a particular channel | “Play |
on TV” “Change channel to [x].”
Search and play content
- “Search [x] movies”
- “Play [x] album or artist etc.”
Launch channel
- “Turn on [show] on Netflix on TV.”
Control speakers & your A/V receivers
- “Play [song] on my speaker.”
Control Lights
Do you just want to control indoor lighting or do you also have outdoor lighting that you would like to control as well? Most people like to have the option of controlling their outdoor lights. If you are looking for nothing more than just some added security, then you would like to check my recommendations for smart outdoor lighting.
By having smart lighting like Hue, it is a very keen way that will make it look like you are home, even when you are not. This is one of the main reasons why we wanted a smart home lighting. If this is your main aim, then you would want it to become a reality. Your smart lights should run on a schedule that is specific so that it hides the fact that you have things automated.
They can be set on an auto timer with sunrise and sunset. A few months ago we left for eight days on a trip to Disney, and we set the lights to automatically turn on in the evenings. We received the funniest phone call while away from one of our neighbors. ‘Are you guys back, we thought you had gone to Disney?’ that helped us to get a good chuckle out of it.
You can use Google Home adjust brightness and turn on or off lights and more you can use it to control things around your home using your voice.
| Process: | Just Say “Ok Google” or “Hey Google,” |
| To turn on lights or off the lights | “Turn on <the light name>” |
| Dim the lights | “Dim the <the light name>” |
| Brighten lights | “Brighten the <the light name>” |
| Set brightness of the lights to a certain percentage | “Set <the light name> to 60%” |
| Dim or Brighten the lights by a particular percentage | Dim or Brighten <the light name> by 60%” |
| Change the color of the lights | “Turn <the light name> green” |
| Turn on or off all the lights in the room | “Turn on or off the lights in <the room name>” |
| Turn on or off all the lights | “Turn on or off all lights” |
Control Thermostats
Ecobee are making some of my favorite smart thermostats, and these thermostats are now getting pretty more capable with the support for Google assistant.
The Ecobee3, Ecobee3 Lite, and the Ecobee4 are now controlled from Google Home and any other devices that support the Google Assistant. This then means that one can use their voice to set and also check the temperature or nudge it in either direction using phrases like “OK Google, make my house warmer.”
They aren’t the first thermostats to add Google assistant support because Honeywell already did add Google Assistant support to several of their smart thermostats.
There are many options that are so many options that are out there for buyers to choose from, and thus it means there is less hassle if one tries switching systems.
This addition of Google Assistant support doesn’t change the fact that one cannot ask the Ecobee4 to Google something. This only means that the owners of Ecobee4 who have an Android phone have more than one way that they can control the temperatures in their homes.
Considering that Google home is enabled with setup support in the assistant for all the different versions of Ecobee, then it doesn’t really matter whether you are using Ecobee 3, Ecobee 3 lite or the Ecobee 4.
You can use this Google Home to control thermostats and more. You can use it to control things around your room or home using your voice.
| How to do this: | Say “Ok Google” or “Hey Google,” |
| To adjust temperatures | “Make room warmer or cooler,” “Raise or lower the temperature,” “Raise or lower temperature 5 degrees,” “Set the temperature to 60” |
| To switch the heating or cooling mode | “Turn on the heat or the cooling,” “Set thermostat to cooling or heating,” “Turn thermostat to heat-cool mode” |
Control Smart Plugs
This is another low-cost option and a great feature for lamps as well. We first had this before we went on to install the other smart home products that required us to get a hub. That was our entry point to home automation, and it cured all our interest to what else we could do.
You will find that some of them work with amazon’s Echo while some work with hubs. You should make sure that you read the description of the product first before you make your final decision on which one you are going with. You should make sure that it is either compatible with the hub you have or smart assistant.
These will typically plug into the wall sockets in your home. Although you can still get full smart outlets which can replace your existing outlet as well. You can still connect your lamp or any other electrical devices that you would like to control like coffee makers or TV. There is no need to have a new light bulb this time.
If you are interested in getting the one that works without a hub, you can then check it here .
You can use Google Home to control appliances around the house with smart plugs with just your voice.
| How to do this: | Say “Ok Google” or “Hey Google,” |
| Turn on or off plugs | “Turn on or off the [the plug name]” |
| Turn on or off switch | “Turn on or off the [the switch name]” |
Control Home Security
I can’t say enough of how much I love Blink XT cameras. I personally have two of the Blink XT outdoor cameras and I have just ordered the third one. I find that they are so easy to set up and also easy for day to day use.
You can use Google Home to control cameras and home security systems and more with just your voice.
| What to do | Say “Ok Google” or Hey Google,” |
| Start stream | “Show |
” “What’s on [the camera name]?” “[the Camera name] on [Chromecast device name]” “Play
on [Chromecast device name]” “Show
on [Chromecast device name]”
Stop stream
“Stop [TV or Chromecast device name]”
Control Appliances
There are not as many smart vacuums out there in the market, and so you could be asking yourself about which one you can get to control with Google Home.
If I can simply put it, Roomba is the best smart vacuum cleaner. I understand that some people may find the Roomba to be a little bit pricier especially if they have never owned a smart vacuum before. This can be daunting, and they may not have the interest in having one.
If this is the case, then I would recommend them to start with the Housemile smart vacuum. They can be found here on Amazon for checking their customer reviews and price range. But I would say that it would be almost impossible to find a smart vacuum out there for a price that is less, and they still work well with Google Home.
You can use Google Home to control smart appliances like washers, dryers, dishwashers, vacuums and more with just your voice.
| How you do this: | Say “Ok Google” or “Hey Google,” |
| Start the vacuum | “Start [the vacuum name]” “Start vacuuming” “Is the |
running?”
Stop the vacuum
- “Stop
” “Stop vacuuming”
How To Disconnect devices from Google Home
If you find that you no longer want to control your smart room or home devices using your Assistant, this is how you can disconnect your account.
- Open your Google Home app Google Home app.
- At the bottom right corner of your Home screen, tap Account.
- Make sure that the Google Account which is listed there is the one linked to your device. To switch the accounts, click the down arrow.
- Then tap Settings.
- Then tap ASSISTANT tab and then the Home Control button.
- In the “Devices” tab, at the top right tap More More and then Manage accounts.
- Tap the account you wish to disconnect and then Unlink the account and then Unlink.
