Home automation

[nsno-chris]

You must be a crap bang, she does everyone else for free

Thanks for the offer though

That makes no sense Kev

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

That makes no sense Kev

I know, imagine paying her, you must be bad

 

[Rob17896]

I have switches and fingers pre installed

Likewise. Tech for the sake of tech is not worth buying

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

Likewise. Tech for the sake of tech is not worth buying

Oh right, another who turns all the radiators up individually, I am going to use an app while I am sitting down.

I jest slightly, as I agree to a point but, there will be many benefits to having everything controlled from one location

 

[chrismpw]

I do often think it is just an added complication I mean, who needs to turn their lights off/on when they are not there????

And the other thought, as well as needless consolidation, is the insidious background power use of all the plugged in devices.

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

And the other thought, as well as needless consolidation, is the insidious background power use of all the plugged in devices.

People literally have dozens of things on all day and night

 

[DualityNSNO]

And the other thought, as well as needless consolidation, is the insidious background power use of all the plugged in devices.

Ah yes those 3p a month for the different devices plugged in.

Not a huge fan regardless (or at least not until I get a proper house that allows it - my flat doesn't really, I have hands)

 

[Tree13]

Its basically a house that runs on auto.

It learns your patterns and puts lights on, turns light off, puts heating on and basically controls the house for you.

Proper Skynet.

I looked into, but it seems like a lot of hard work just to not use light switches.

This.

Textbook example of manufacturers selling something that serves no real purpose other than to cure a "problem" that was not really a problem in the first place. I can see the point of upgrading wall sockets to include USB ports, and I can see the reason for installing hardwired ethernet ports in certain rooms to allow direct connection to a router. But the rest of it? No personal need for it.

I have a dozy female friend who is a sucker for every shiny new gadget that gets released. Her pride and joy is a "smart" kettle that she can control from her phone... but she still has to fill it with water before using it, and still has to pour the boiled water into her teacup.

 

[chrismpw]

Ah yes those 3p a month for the different devices plugged in.

Not a huge fan regardless (or at least not until I get a proper house that allows it - my flat doesn't really, I have hands)

I calculate that if you had say 5 such devices drawing a Conservative 100mA for a month it would be a tad over 10p a month.

But really it's the cumulative emissions caused by millions of lazy householders runn8ng them that bothers me.

 

[Bedfordblue]

Any one got any experience.
I have done my classic "wait until the day the electricians turn up at your house before deciding which HA system you want"

I need to know which system is best for lighting, audio, tv, heating etc. My budget has been absolutely smashed by the house build costs though. Then I need decent HDMI - lots of and speaker wire

Any resident installers on GOT?

My wife is going to kill me

You’ll need to decide what you want to automate (lights, heating, blinds, CCTV etc), then how you want to control it, Alexa, Google Home, Apple home.
Once you’ve decided you need to select accessories from as few manufacturers as as possible and seek kit that works natively with the control interface. A lot of these things need a bridge (hub) to integrate with each other and if you aren’t careful you’ll end up with more bridges than you have LAN ports on you router or sockets to power them.
Really think about it before you start buying and don’t rush as there’s a new protocol called Matter that’s starting to become more prevalent that makes integration much simpler.

 

[Bedfordblue]

I calculate that if you had say 5 such devices drawing a Conservative 100mA for a month it would be a tad over 10p a month.

But really it's the cumulative emissions caused by millions of lazy householders runn8ng them that bothers me.

But off set that against smart heating that turns off (or back on) due to geofencing, that’s without getting into smart TRVs heating rooms independently.

 

[PhilM]

Its basically a house that runs on auto.

It learns your patterns and puts lights on, turns light off, puts heating on and basically controls the house for you.

Proper Skynet.

I looked into, but it seems like a lot of hard work just to not use light switches.

We don't have a full HA system, but we do have a combination of Hive, smart speakers and IFTTT for things such as lights, radiators and whatnot.

For example, I've integrated my CCTV system and the lights in the house, so if certain cameras detect motion during the key times (night) then lights come on.

If we're away, the lights are set to mimic mode, so the lights come on and off at intervals similar to how we use them but with random actions.

Turning the heating on when sat on my arse by shouting at the smart speaker is a luxury, too.

 

[DualityNSNO]

I calculate that if you had say 5 such devices drawing a Conservative 100mA for a month it would be a tad over 10p a month.

But really it's the cumulative emissions caused by millions of lazy householders runn8ng them that bothers me.

10p a month if you have 5, many systems use 1.

Anyway the people that are against it because it's lazy have clearly never had the comfort of using anything automated like that lol

 

[Goat]

We don't have a full HA system, but we do have a combination of Hive, smart speakers and IFTTT for things such as lights, radiators and whatnot.

For example, I've integrated my CCTV system and the lights in the house, so if certain cameras detect motion during the key times (night) then lights come on.

If we're away, the lights are set to mimic mode, so the lights come on and off at intervals similar to how we use them but with random actions.

Turning the heating on when sat on my arse by shouting at the smart speaker is a luxury, too.

Dont get me wrong mate, the features are great, but when I said lot of work, I really meant a lot of money, cos its not like I would be doing it.

My Step Dad is an electrician like, so it wouldnt be that bad, but would still cost more than I would wanna pay.

 

[PhilM]

Dont get me wrong mate, the features are great, but when I said lot of work, I really meant a lot of money, cos its not like I would be doing it.

My Step Dad is an electrician like, so it wouldnt be that bad, but would still cost more than I would wanna pay.

To be fair, I don't think we've spent that much on everything, as most of it is plug and play off the shelf stuff and bought separately over time and then integrated.

We'd paid for Hive initially, we had a smart speaker or two and over time invested in some light bulbs and whatnot and used IFTTT (If This, Then That) to link it.

Obviously, a bog-standard lightbulb costs cheaper, but we've bought most of them when they're on sale so they've been about £14-25 each, and they're tunable.