Learning how to install smart dimmer switches is one of those DIY skills that will improve your home and make life easier for you.

How to Install Leviton’s Decora Smart Dimmer Switches

I’ve resisted installing a lot of smart technology in my home. Basically I’m normally a no frills girl and am happy to function with low-tech appliances and light switches. But, one evening as my husband and I went through our usual routine of settling into the sofa to watch Netflix, I changed my mind.

Here’s how our Netflix evenings usually start:

Handsome Guy: “Ready to watch?”
Me: “Yes, just a minute, I want to grab a drink.”
Handsome Guy: “Ready now?”
Me: “Yes, go ahead and get the show started.”
I finally sink down into the couch.
Me: “Ugh, I forgot to turn off the light. Would you mind getting it?”
Handsome Guy: “I guess not.”
Handsome guy walks across the room and turns off the lights then returns to start the movie.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times this happens. (Probably 99% of the time we sit down to enjoy a show.) But, when Leviton approached me about sharing the convenience of their Decora Smart products, my wheels began to turn. With the My Leviton app, I would be able to control the lights from my phone! Better yet, I can enable the smart home skills on our Amazon Echo and be able to control the lights with my voice. (The Leviton Decora Smart products also work with Google Assistant, Works with Nest, IFTTT (if this, then that) and of course Alexa.) Also, I liked the ability to set up schedules for the Decora Smart products (imagine a smart plug for your coffee maker so you can start brewing coffee the minute you wake up while your head is still on the pillow! Or set a schedule to turn your lights on and off when you are on vacation.) For those of us who are old school, the light switches always work like regular light switches: push them to turn on/off or to dim/brighten.

After learning all this, I decided it would be a great addition to our living room to end the need to jump up and turn off the lights before movie night.

How Easy Are The Decora Smart Switches to Install?

If you’ve ever wired an outlet or a light switch, you are capable of installing a smart dimmer switch. They are very straight forward and easy to install (if you have the proper wiring.) If you don’t, you might need to contact a licensed electrician to prepare your junction box to accept the dimmer switch. The Decora Smart Dimmer switches must be installed onto ground, neutral, load, and line wires.

Unfortunately for me, my box was not wired correctly. Luckily my favorite electrician is only a phone call away. He was able to talk me through a few changes I needed to make to the wiring.

How to Install the Decora Smart Switches:

Ready to learn how to install your own smart dimmer switches? You too can control your lights from your phone, your voice, and set up an away schedule for your lights. Watch this short video to learn how to install the Decora Smart Switches and enjoy the brief re-enactment of family movie night ;-).

Smart Dimmer Switches Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

• Leviton Decora Smart Dimmer Switch
• Wire strippers
• Voltage tester
• Flat head screwdriver
• Philips head screwdriver

Required Safety Instruction:
Always turn off the power to the fixture you are working on. It’s helpful to turn your lights on and then locate the circuit breaker to shut off the power to your lights. When your lights go out, you know you found the correct switch. For safety, double check the wires with a voltage tester to make sure the power has been turned off.

Smart Dimmer Switches Instructions:

Remove your Leviton Decora Smart dimmer switch from the packaging.

Familiarize yourself with the terminal screws on the sides of the switch.

Your junction box should have wires to connect to all four terminals. If you have a three way switch, please follow the installation instructions provided by Leviton.

Wiring Your Dimmer Switch:

Use either a shepherd’s hook or straight wire ends to make your connections. The hook will slide under the terminal screws. A straight end will insert under the metal plate beneath the terminal screw.

If you are having trouble finding the “Line” wire, turn the power back on and use your voltage tester to determine which wire is carrying power. Turn the power off before proceeding.

Follow the wiring order below:

Turn the power on to your switch. Test the switch to see if it turns on your light.

If it doesn’t work, turn off the power and check for loose connections. If it works, turn the power off and secure the switch to the junction box and attach the switch plate cover.

Turn the power back on to your light. Download the My Leviton app and follow the instructions to connect to your light switch. (Feel free to remove the stickers from the switches so you can amaze your friends when you can control them “magically.” Or leave the stickers on so your friends can admire how SMART your home is!)

Now that I’ve installed these smart dimmers, I’m plotting other spots in my home to use them. They are seriously that cool! I’ll also be adding some more of the Leviton products into the Saving Etta house and I can’t wait to show those to you.

Where could you use a Decora Smart dimmer in your home? Visit the Leviton website for more information, installation instructions, and where to buy devices from Leviton’s Decora Smart product family.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for Leviton. I was compensated for my time and efforts to promote the Leviton Decora Smart products. However, all ideas and opinions are my own. I will always let you know when you are reading a sponsored post. You should also note that I’m very particular about the brands I work with.

Did you like this smart home switch? Yes?! I know you’ll love learning how to install this motion sensor switch next:

Or try installing one of these USB charging outlets and never look for your charging plug again!

 

How to Install a Video Doorbell

Do you want to install a video doorbell at your house so you can keep tabs on who’s at the door? You may be one of many who want to see who comes to the door when you aren’t home (or even when you are but don’t feel like venturing down to the door in a bath towel! Has that happened to you, too?) With the rise of package thefts, installing a video doorbell camera seems like a good idea to prevent thefts or at least capture a thief on camera. Before Christmas, I decided to install the NuTone Knock Smart Video Doorbell Camera by our front doors.

NuTone recently released the NuTone Knock Smart Video Doorbell Camera and asked if I’d like to try it out. At first I was hesitant because I thought it would be difficult to install. But, I discovered the installation of the NuTone Knock was fairly straightforward. (Although I did run into one issue with my existing doorbell’s transformer being too weak. But, I’ll explain more on this later.)

You should know this tutorial is sponsored by NuTone, but I wanted to give the NuTone Knock a good test run for several months before giving my honest opinion. This time also allowed me to tweak the settings to achieve a balance of alerts and monitoring that was comfortable for me. (Getting alerts at 3 am because a moth landed near the camera is not my personal preference.)

Lucky for you, I’ll share a tutorial for installing the NuTone Knock and let you peek at the settings I found best for us.

Are you ready to see how easy it is to install your own video doorbell camera? Let’s get your new doorbell installed!

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

• NuTone Knock Smart Video Doorbell Camera
• Screwdrivers (philips and flat heads)
• Needle-nosed pliers
• Wire strippers
• Level

Optional: 

• Electrical tape

Instructions:

Begin by identifying the circuit providing power to your doorbell. Test the doorbell to make sure the chime rings, then turn off the circuit. Test your doorbell to verify there is no chime (meaning the power is turned off.)

Unscrew the old doorbell button from the wall.

To be safe, you may want to verify that the power is off to the doorbell by using a voltage meter.

Loosen the terminal screws from the back of the doorbell button and remove the button.

Following the installation instructions that are provided with your video doorbell camera, bend the two ends of one of the diodes (shipped with the NuTone Knock) using needle-nose pliers.

Remove the cover from the doorbell chime box.

Unscrew the wire terminal screws and install the diode between the transformer and the front terminals (this is the set up for the front door location.) Tighten the terminal screws onto the diode and the doorbell wiring.

Thread the doorbell wires through the NuTone Knock mounting plate and secure with one screw.

Level the mounting plate. . .

. . . and then secure with the second screw.

Remove the NuTone video doorbell from the box. Strip 1/2 inch of the insulation from the wires.

Connect the wiring from the Nutone Knock to the house wiring using the provided weather resistant wire connectors. Squeeze the connectors tight using pliers.

For additional protection (and to prevent the wiring from coming loose) secure some electrical tape over the connections.

Gently press the wiring into the house.

Slide the NuTone Knock Smart Video Doorbell Camera down to seat it into the mounting bracket.

Turn the circuit breaker on for your doorbell. The red light will display because your video doorbell still needs to be set up.

Setting Up the NuTone Knock Smart Video Doorbell Camera:

Download the NuTone Knock app on your smart phone.

Follow the instructions in the app to connect your video doorbell to wifi.

When your Knock video doorbell is connected correctly, the light will turn green. Familiarize yourself with the app and the Knock’s settings. Test the doorbell to make sure it sets off both an alert on your phone and the doorbell chimes in your home.

Troubleshooting:

Does your new Knock Smart Video Doorbell Camera work properly? After testing the doorbell, I discovered that my phone was alerted with a doorbell sound, but my home doorbell chimes didn’t ring. This was an issue because if we had a sitter or my sons were home alone, they wouldn’t know the doorbell was rung.

After contacting NuTone customer service, they offered a few things to try, but ultimately we determined I needed a stronger transformer. Simple solution, but how do you find the doorbell transformer (let alone replace it?)

Luckily my electrician has a lot of experience with finding doorbell transformers in our neighborhood. He told me most of the time you can find it mounted to the top of a crawlspace light.

And, he was correct! If your doorbell transformer isn’t located on top of a light, try tracing the wiring (usually small low voltage wire) from your doorbell button to the chimes and ultimately to the transformer.

Replacing the Doorbell Transformer:

To change your transformer, you must turn off the power to the doorbell. Remove the old transformer. Replace it with a stronger transformer (this is the one I installed), taking care to wire the new transformer in the same order the old one was wired.

As you can see from the picture below, the new transformer is larger and strong enough to power the doorbell camera, the chimes, and a second NuTone Knock video doorbell (should I choose to install one at our side door.)

The NuTone Knock Mobile Phone App:

You’ll need to allow time to become familiar with the NuTone app. I also found it takes some time to adjust the settings to eliminate false alerts.

When the doorbell button is depressed, you will receive an alert on your smart phone. At that time you can answer the ring to see and talk to the person at your doorstep. Regardless of whether you answer the ring or not, a video will be recorded.

When the app senses motion or heat, you will get an alert and again a video will be recorded.

What if someone comes to your door and knocks instead? The app will let you access the live view anytime you like (regardless if the button is pushed on the doorbell or not.) The live view feature allows you to see at any time.

For the first month, I reviewed each motion notification. It took a while for me to figure out that the majority of the motion alerts were being set off by my neighbor’s auto headlights (as they pulled into their driveway) and our house lights when they turned off in the morning. The Knock was translating the change in light to a motion detection.

I turned the motion detection sensitivity down to see if that would eliminate these false alerts.

I also suspected that the plants around the front door and our flag might be setting off the alert. Therefore, I turned off motion detection in all quadrants but the few that a person would have to enter when stepping up to our front door.

The false alerts continued to happen as my neighbor’s came home at night or when our house lights turned off in the morning. (Although, the camera did catch a cute bunny rabbit hanging out on our front sidewalk one early morning.) Ultimately, I turned off the motion detection and set the heat sensor to medium. So far this seems to be the best setting to eliminate false alerts.

The Knock has the option to subscribe to cloud recording of all motion and ring events. This service costs $3 per month or $30 annual fee.

I am thrilled to be able to see activity and visitors who come to our door. It gives me piece of mind and lets me ignore those pesky door-to-door salespeople (especially when I’ve just stepped out of the shower).

If you are looking for the ability to view and record who is at your door, you will like the NuTone Knock. Just be willing to play with the settings for a few weeks until you reach a happy medium.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for NuTone. I was not told what to write. All opinions are my own. I was compensated for my time and efforts to create this tutorial. As always, I am very particular about the brands I represent and you will always be notified when you are reading a sponsored post on PrettyHandyGirl.com.

If you like this tutorial, you’ll also like:

How to Install a Motion Sensor Light