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What do you guys think of the idea of smart homes? I could make a basic setup using https://home-assistant.io to control my home temperature and lighting; the tools for doing this are everywhere nowadays and implementation doesn't seem too horrific anymore.
But setting aside what I "can" do, is this something that I "should" do? How can a person implement this without connecting any devices to the internet?
I have always been pretty anti-smart homes. But it’s scope crept up on me. Often I wanted more manual automation. Christmas lights were on a light sensor timer power strip, lights going to the garage etc are on old school motion sensors so we didn’t trip.
The one thing I did do was a thermostat, specifically a Honeywell. It was nice for scheduling and remotely cooling the house when on returning from vacation (or shutting it off if I forgot.)
Then I got a wifi window ac for my office.
Then I added some wifi mouse traps to prevent me from having to crawl under the house to check them.
Then someone gave us a Weber iGrill sensor that was a pain to swap between phones.
Next thing I knew I had 5-6 apps. So I setup homeassistant to consolidate it. The Weber iGrill was the hardest but I had a pi in the kitchen running a calendar so I took a wekend and got it working in homeassitsnt.
Since then I have added some tplink kasa plugs and switches. The plugs are for Christmas lights this year. And one in the kitchen that we can plug a crock pot etc into and remotely start it while at work. The switches work just like a dumb one too. And are all locally controlled.
Finally I got a robot vac which is nice.
I still don’t have Alexa etc or cameras or mics in the house. And anything I do add needs to be only smart as a value add. IE: it should function as normal even without internet.
But yeah. I guess I have a smart home now.
My advice on HomeAssistsnt is make sure you products are supported if you go that route. Stay local only whenver possible. But it is nice. One app controls all. Again for me they all must function as a dumb device as well.
I've gone the same route. HA is amazing, but also a rabbit hole.
The family likes eg the motion enabled lights and the thermostats to control the heating in their rooms. I share your opinion that it must bring benefit.
Is a robot vac worth it? I'm worried that our young cat will destroy it, or that I have to empty it daily.
So I got the expensive model.
Well realistically I got a cheap ass one on an amazon fire sale to see if my wife would like it. She did and was spending time building barriers with shoes and shit to get it to vacuum one area. So THEN I got the super expensive one, specifically a Roborock s7 max v.
We don’t really vacuum anymore. Just use that. It’s pretty good about avoiding most obstacles but isn’t perfect. Nerf darts and kids markers are it’s Achilles heal. It also sucks on shag/thick rugs.
I empty the dust bin here and there. Same with water. But it is quite easy to take apart and clean up, both the vacuum and the station itself. Probably one of the better value adds we have had to be honest.
Awesome thanks for the tips!