Episode 2020
Bonus Episode! Aqara Deals and Home Builds: Who’s Winning?
Eric G is back with a juicy extra episode where he dives deep into the world of Amazon Prime Day Deals, specifically spotlighting some stellar finds from Aqara. Spoiler alert: you might just be shocked to discover that the Habitat for Humanity homes popping up in his neighborhood are outshining those flashy million-dollar builds. Yep, you heard that right! While those high-end homes are cutting corners on weatherproofing, Habitat is throwing down some serious building science magic. Eric’s got the lowdown on all the cool smart home gadgets that are not only affordable but also top-notch in quality. So, if you’re on the hunt for some sweet deals and a little home-building wisdom, stick around—this episode is packed with insights and a sprinkle of fun!
Amazon Prime Day has once again graced us with its presence, and you know what that means—sizzling deals and must-have gadgets galore! In this bonus episode, Eric G dives headfirst into the world of Amazon Prime Day deals, focusing on the latest and greatest from Aqara. If you ever thought smart home tech was just a passing trend, Eric's here to convince you otherwise. He highlights the Aqara camera G100, designed for both indoor and outdoor use, boasting impressive 2K resolution and night vision capabilities. With a price tag of just $34.99, it's hard to argue against bringing this little slice of tech joy into your home. And let's not forget the Aqara Dimmer Switch H2, which not only makes your lights smarter but does so without breaking the bank—at just $49.99, it’s a steal! Together, these products underscore the idea that you don’t have to spend a fortune to elevate your living space into a modern, tech-savvy haven.
But wait! The episode doesn’t stop there. Eric contrasts the lavish million-dollar home builds in his neighborhood with the solid, yet humble houses being constructed by Habitat for Humanity. It’s a tale of two builders—one focused on aesthetics and price tags, while the other prioritizes durability and community impact. Eric shares his observations about the construction quality (or lack thereof) in those high-end homes, where corners are cut and weatherproofing is an afterthought. Meanwhile, the Habitat team is out there doing it right with full liquid membranes, ensuring these homes stand strong against the elements. It’s a refreshing reminder of how true craftsmanship can outshine flashy price points, and Eric gives a well-deserved shoutout to Habitat for their commitment to building homes that last. So grab your popcorn—this episode is a delightful mix of tech talk and real-world building insights that will have you questioning what really makes a house a home!
Takeaways:
- Eric dives into some seriously cool Amazon Prime Day deals, especially with Aqara's latest tech.
- Surprisingly, Habitat for Humanity is building homes that might outlast those million-dollar houses.
- The new Aqara camera G100 boasts some impressive features, making home security a breeze.
- Building science is key, and Habitat for Humanity really nails it compared to local builders.
- The new dimmer switch from Aqara is a game changer for light control, especially in older homes.
- Eric's insights on local builders reveal a critical gap in quality compared to affordable housing projects.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Monument Grills
- Aqara
- Amazon
- Apple Home
- Alexa
- Google Home
- SmartThings
- Home Assistant
- Homey
- Samsung SmartThings
- Habitat for Humanity
To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.
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Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:The House with Eric G. Your go to source for everything home improvement.
Speaker B:Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric.
Speaker A:G. Is here to guide you through.
Speaker B:The latest tips, tricks and trends.
Speaker B:So grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap and let's get to work right here on around the House with.
Speaker A:Eric G. Welcome to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker A:This hour is brought to you by our friends at Monty McGrills.
Speaker A:Check them out at montymcgrills.com for the next barbecue that you need in your backyard.
Speaker A:Tell you what, I've got two of these things, one at the beach house, one over here at my other house.
Speaker A:I tell you what, these things are amazing.
Speaker A:You want to check them out@monimcrills.com Lots of power, lots of stainless steel.
Speaker A:These things are built stout.
Speaker A:Today we are doing our second midweek special on a Thursday for you guys.
Speaker A:Thanks for tuning in today and there's so much to talk about out there.
Speaker A:I thought let's do another one.
Speaker A:I teased you on Tuesday when that one came out about some of the the Amazon buys out there.
Speaker A:And I tell you what, the prime deals have been amazing this year and last year I dogged on them a little bit that there just wasn't a lot of great stuff out there.
Speaker A:This year, man, there has been a ton of stuff.
Speaker A:And first off my friends at Acora, so it's a Q A R A these guys, I've got a lot of their stuff.
Speaker A:I do a lot of testing other stuff at my house and they have come out with some great products today.
Speaker A:And let me tell you what's cool about this.
Speaker A:They came out just releasing today their camera G100.
Speaker A:So it's the Aqara camera G100 and this is a great buy.
Speaker A:Couldn't talk about it before today, but this is designed for both indoor and outdoor use.
Speaker A:The camera G100 features a compact IP65 rated design, 2K resolution color night vision with spotlight offering 24.
Speaker A:7 protection for your property even in low light conditions, which is super cool.
Speaker A:It's got a wide compatibility with major smart home platforms including Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home and SmartThings with RTSP support and can also stream to Home Assistant from forget Blue Iris and other compatible software with a strong focus on privacy.
Speaker A:The cloud storage is end to end.
Speaker A:Encrypted and recorded videos can be stored locally to a Micro SD card and an NAS server So super cool how this works.
Speaker A: field of view and it's got a: Speaker A:So that is a great deal with that.
Speaker A:There is so much stuff.
Speaker A:It's got local and cloud AI detection for smarter security, anti theft lock, integrated events, voice changing.
Speaker A:It can actually there's options there.
Speaker A:So this is a really cool system here for such a great deal.
Speaker A:So impressed with this.
Speaker A:And I tell you what, this thing is so inexpensive.
Speaker A:This just came out today.
Speaker A:34.99 yeah.
Speaker A:The Akora G102K indoor outdoor security camera.
Speaker A:$3,499 on Amazon.
Speaker A:What a deal.
Speaker A:That is so amazing for what that is.
Speaker A:Now another product that's coming out with them that's super cool as well.
Speaker A:And this is a new dimmer switch that I'm excited to try out.
Speaker A:I've got one coming my way here as well.
Speaker A:And this is the Cora Dimmer Switch H2, the US version.
Speaker A:The Dimmer Switch H2 brings smart light control to traditional dimmable lights, enabling easy management and automation of room brightness.
Speaker A:It's engineered to accommodate all the households regardless of neutral wire availability.
Speaker A:So sometimes in older homes you don't have that white neutral wire, which means you're limited on what switches you can do, which also limits you on the lights you can use.
Speaker A:So this really simplifies both buying an installation process for DIY users.
Speaker A:And it uses both Thread and zigbee connectivity.
Speaker A:So this is designed to offer enhanced flexibility.
Speaker A:And here's the big one here, really going to future proof your interoperability across the new matter enabled platforms including Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Home Assistant, Homey and Samsung SmartThings.
Speaker A:So this is a really big deal actually for a switch.
Speaker A:Many of the other switches you're running into issues where you have to go out and figure out what lights you have to work with.
Speaker A:This one basically eliminates most of those situations.
Speaker A:Now if you're gonna dim a undimmable light, of course that's not gonna work.
Speaker A:But when you're dealing with this, it's really got it set up for working with those different lights.
Speaker A:And I think that's super smart.
Speaker A:The other thing I like is it's got dedicated buttons for intuitive and silent control and you can customize light brightness for every occasion.
Speaker A:This H2 dimmer switch offers not only full range dimming, but a smooth flicker free transition.
Speaker A:So more customization is possible when the dimmer is used with in the zigbee mode.
Speaker A:Including transition settings so users can configure how quickly the lights switch between full on and off and custom brightness limits.
Speaker A:So this is really great for people like me that design lights lighting scenes in homes where maybe you only need it only to go to 75% brightness because you did it maybe for cleaning or finding stuff.
Speaker A:You can get it lighter in there and add more lumens to the space.
Speaker A:What's cool about this is it really lets you set the brightness level so when you hit on it only goes that far instead of blowing out the entire room with all this light.
Speaker A:So there's some really cool stuff with that that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker A:And so this is a really cool switch.
Speaker A:Now what I'm excited to see on these is when we come into pricing on these things because so many other products out there get pretty expensive and I like that when we're getting into these switches.
Speaker A:Now this one here, brand new today, which I think is really cool.
Speaker A:Super inexpensive, 49.99.
Speaker A:And so that is something on Amazon that is so much less than eighty to a hundred dollars for the other entry level switches out there.
Speaker A:So this is super cool on how this works.
Speaker A:It's going to save you a ton of money, which I think is really good.
Speaker A:And for 50 bucks, that's a great deal.
Speaker A:So this will work with incandescent halogen lights, CFLs, LEDs, ELV loads and Triac, which is very cool how this works with so many different things.
Speaker A:So there's a lot of cool tricks with this.
Speaker A:Now the other thing here is that's cool too is I'm really looking forward to working with their new smart doorbell, which is the G410.
Speaker A:And that one came out today, which is awesome.
Speaker A:Now this G10 is one of the coolest things I've seen come out for a while.
Speaker A:And again, it's a really cool one.
Speaker A:So I'm excited to use this.
Speaker A:We're gonna be installing that this weekend, so I've got a got one there as well.
Speaker A:Now coming out today is that G410 doorbell camera hub, which I think is super awesome.
Speaker A:And here's the thing, I have had some issues over the years with the ring products because it seems that once, like that printer, once you're a couple years in, it doesn't ring the inside doorbell.
Speaker A:You have all these other issues with it, and it really doesn't work as good as the day that it came out of the box.
Speaker A:Now the new Aquara smart doorbell camera, the G410 with chime it's got a 2K camera, homekit, secure video, two way audio built in, Matter Hub, wireless and Wired, supports Apple Home Alexa, Google Home Assistant.
Speaker A:And here's the cool thing, it also works on the 2.4 and the 5 GHz Wi Fi 129 bucks.
Speaker A:And this is a really good looking one.
Speaker A:And what I like about this thing as well is you can actually plug in this chime on the inside.
Speaker A:So even if you don't have a doorbell system that's working correctly, that's wired with all that stuff, this will get you there and it's a really good way to go.
Speaker A:So I'm excited about this.
Speaker A:Now Akora is a leading provider of smart home solutions.
Speaker A:These guys are great.
Speaker A:I've been using their stuff for a while.
Speaker A:I think they're serving over 12 million customers right now with it.
Speaker A:So really cool stuff.
Speaker A:I enjoy their products and out of a fairly new company out there they have worked really well and have been easy to work with which I think is a lot of fun.
Speaker A:So there's a lot of cool stuff there.
Speaker A:Now these guys have also a lot of prime day deals out there as well.
Speaker A:And let's talk about that for a second.
Speaker A:Their prime day deals like their smart lock, their U233% off, original price was 269.99.
Speaker A:On sale for 179.99.
Speaker A:Their camera hub G5 which is great, I have one of those at home, 199 regular price down to 149 so 25% off.
Speaker A:Their camera protect kit, the Y100 was 139 down to 99.
Speaker A:The E1 camera was 54.99 now down to 40 bucks basically.
Speaker A:So take a look and see what you like out there.
Speaker A:Most of their stuff is out there there between 20 and 33.
Speaker A:And actually the Hub E1 is at 39% off.
Speaker A:So there are some great sales out there for many of these things and that were already affordable and they've brought them down price wise so they're much more affordable and I think that is super cool.
Speaker A:So take a look at that on the prime day deals out there.
Speaker A:These guys if you're looking for smart home tech, this is a great one.
Speaker A:Now I wanted to talk about something here too guys that would be.
Speaker A:I've been watching these builders in my neighborhood build these homes and the thing that's been frustrating is watching these million dollar homes not get really weatherproofed.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:They've really messed up.
Speaker A:You've Heard me talk about not doing house wrap correctly, just doing the bare minimum to beat bare minimum code.
Speaker A:And what happens, I drive by the Habitat for Humanity homes that are in my area that are low income homes that they're building a whole area, they got a whole bunch of land there and they're putting probably seven or eight homes and there could be a little less.
Speaker A:These guys are doing it right.
Speaker A:They did a full liquid membrane on the outside of the house.
Speaker A:So hats off to Habitat for Humanity for building a much better, more resilient home than many of the million dollar plus home builders in my area.
Speaker A:So it is really cool to see Habitat for Humanity going in there and showing up the local builders saying, we are going to build something that these people are going to have last and it's going to be something that's really going to last in a storm.
Speaker A:We get driving, rains, everything else.
Speaker A:They are not building to the minimum.
Speaker A:They are building to the maximum.
Speaker A:So really, Habitat for Humanity, hats off, Job well done.
Speaker A:Good to see you guys taking waterproofing, building science, taking that so seriously for people that might not be able to afford to go in and replace that siding in five years, which I would guess would be the average looking at how these other people are building these homes.
Speaker A:So hats off to Habitat for Humanity for doing a great one.
Speaker A:Guys.
Speaker A:We got a great show coming up this weekend and we'll talk about it tomorrow in our little tease that we do here on the podcast.
Speaker A:Great show coming up this weekend with some stories that we really haven't talked about and some topics we haven't talked about.
Speaker A:So it's going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker A:To find out more, head over to aroundthehouse online.com I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning in to around the House.
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