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Home automation - why?

I am failing to see the interest in having tons of IOT devices to manage, connect, segment, etc… Why would someone want to do it? To be clear, I have friends deep in it but… I still don’t understand. Can anyone try to explain the magic I am failing to see?

Edit: Thank you all for sharing your experiences! The ones I found more interesting are those that can easily translate in reducing or tracking consumption. The rest I hear but makes more sense when I look at it from an hobbyist perspective.

108 comments
  • Well, it's a hobby/passion. Simple as that. I'm a nerd, i love such things. And home automation is a thing I've dreamt of since the first automatic door in star trek. Automatic lights, alarm-system, cameras, a smart AI (locally, no stupid alexa et al),a tablet at the door which tells us everything we want to know on a quick glance (weather, shopping-list, fuel-prices, status of all machines etc). And all that with some many thousand lines of code and triple redundancy 😍

    When i visit other people I actually find it "retro" to use light-switches 😁

    • Waking up via lights slowly dimming on is much nicer than an acoustic alarm.
    • Light temperature adjusting to current time of day is very nice and does loads for my mood
    • Lights automatically turning on and off based on presence and measured light levels is totally unnecessary but just so convenient
    • Getting a reminder to take the wash out when the machine is done
    • Smart plug automatically turns off power to other devices when the TV is turned off
  • Honestly for me the draw is in minimizing the mental/emotional overhead of forgetfulness. My wife and I both have ADHD, and I have autism. That leads to a potent combination of spacing out and forgetting even very important things.

    So both in service of that and as a fun hobby (My special interest is computing), I have automation using presence detection, various timers, Z-wave outlets/light switches (I refuse to use IoT, I prefer local access/control every time), GPS position and various stuff like that, in order to avoid things like leaving our home theater projector powered on unwatched (reducing bulb lifetime), leaving the oven on, leaving the espresso machine on (boiler heating water over and over again unnecessarily, wasting thousands of watt-hours of electricity), turning reptile enclosure lights on/off on a schedule with sunrise/sunset, that sort of thing.

    I have this ultimate vision in my head of my bedtime routine going from "Walk through the whole house for a few minutes and lock doors/turn things off" to "Triple-click my bedroom light switch 'off' and it turns off the rest of the house lights/TVs/projectors, reduces AC temperature a couple degrees, locks the doors, arms the security system for 'home', locks the car...". You get the idea.

  • I guess I got a kick out of it. Every time Home Assistant automatically turning on all lights 30 minutes before sun down, me and my kid would cheers. It's also nice to not worry about "have we locked the door?" or "have we turned off the AC/water heater/stove" etc because the automation take care of turning off everything when no one home, and automatically turning on lights when we got home at night. Also, there's an automation that send intruder alert if no one at home and the motion sensor/door sensor are tripped.

    Note that they're not hassle free though. There is always a malfunction or two every one or two months, so I don't recommend it to anyone unless they like tinkering with stuff.

  • So many reasons.

    Smart locks on doors that disarm house alarms when they're unlocked with a code. Lights that turn on when someone is in a room, and off when the room is empty. The garage door alerting you that it's still open around the time you go to bed. The house stereo turning itself off at a certain time on weeknights, and the house alarm system turning itself on at the same time. Being able to check that the gas fireplace is off after you've driven out of your neighborhood on your way somewhere. The house disabling the security system for 20 minutes when it detects you on the second floor landing, so that you don't trip the motion sensors when you go down for a snack.

    A non-trivial example of some more complex things our house does: when one of our phones enters the neighborhood, and it is after dark, our carriage and porch lights come on. If no other phones are already home, some of the inside lights also turn on. When we turn onto our street, the garage door opens. After the garage door is closed, the outside lights turn off.

    Any number of things ranging from small to large conveniences. Some small conveniences become large ones when you have guests staying over.

    Edit: ooo, ooo, one other thing: I have a bunch of these switches around the house that have multiple buttons and are programmable (they recognize single click, double click, hold, etc). It allows me to hook almost any part of my house to any switch, without rewiring everything. I have several configured to turn off the alarm system, I can manually turn off all of the first-floor lights from the upstairs master, I have one in the entryway set to toggle a lamp in the office to avoid having to walk in there, navigate around the desk to the far side of the room, and switch it from there. I configured one to turn the gas fireplace on and off, because the builders had not seen fit to wire the controls to a wall-switch.

  • I prefer to do things properly once rather than do it again every day.

    For example, I have an automation that I can trigger from my phone with a single button that does all these things:

    • Lowers all my blinds in the living room
    • Turns on all lights in the living room and dims them a little bit
    • Powers up the smart plugs for my projector, receiver and player(s)
    • Sets the correct volume and source on the receiver
    • Starts playing random music in my living room

    The alternative would be to do each of these steps manually, every day I get home. I'm lazy, probably wouldn't do it all or just leave stuff running.

    IoT devices (the non-shitty ones that don't connect to the internet) become useful together when they are automated.

  • 30% reduction in heating cost without reduction in comfort.

    Convincing we’re-home-simulation while gone.

    Each single light is independently dimmable, making for variety in light scenes for different purposes.

  • Why use a garage door opener when you can just get out of your car, open the door, get back in your car and drive it in?

    Now keep asking that question about little things around the house and it starts to make sense.

  • Seems like a fun hobby. They might say it's about productivity or something, but that kind of talk is just part of the hobby.

  • My journey started innocently. I wanted some dimmers in my basement which has my office and a theater setup with 3 separate light sets. Then my wife wanted a craft area so I added another dimmer. I then bought some smart plugs to control my desk lamp and my monitors. Initially all of these devices were individually controlled either via web page or by the company app (Shelly) all within the confines of my LAN. I then spun up home assistant to see what it could do on a whim - and found it had built in hooks for my projector, receiver and Nvidia shield. When I sit down to watch a movie, I can now dim all lights, turn off distracting things (my office monitors and desk lamp), kick on the projector and control the shield to pick a movie. And if I have to use the bathroom? Pause the movie, turn up the accent lights and walk without fumbling for a single switch. Also - the dimmers are all connected to physical switches on the wall so it's not a "phone only" setup. Press the wall switch, lights come on. Hold the switch, and the lights start at their lowest point. Double click the switch and full brightness. Pretty versatile!

  • It's fun, like most other people said. And for some things, it's nice.

    I have two of my doors with network compatible smart locks with fingerprint readers so I don't need a key to get into my own house, and I have a remote garage door opener that I can fire off with my phone to let somebody in if need be.

    All of the entrances to my house have video cameras over them that alert my phone if they detect any movement, and some of my lights are on schedules to let me know when to go to bed because I have problems with that anyway.

    Other than that it's kind of nice to be able to turn on all of the lights in my house with a few clicks, although many of my lights are on motion detectors so I don't have to try to find the light switches, mostly in hallways and closets.

    The one thing I have left to set up of the stuff that I have bought is a sensor for my front door.

    Once it is set up, I will set it so that when I open my front door it will turn on the main light in the living room so I don't have to try to reach around and find a switch.

    Finally, it's nice having the peace of mind to know that if I'm away from my house I can double check and make sure all of the lights are out, adjust my air conditioning so that I'm not heating an empty building, and once I'm done with that I intend on setting up a smart watering system so if I'm away from the house during the summer I can make sure that my plants receive enough water.

    It's just handy stuff. Makes my life easier, gives me something fun to do, and it can be really cool to watch my house take care of itself without me having to lift a finger.

  • I suppose it can make your life easier after the initial setup.
    If you got the resources to set it up.

    Imagine a small cute robo friend vacuuming instead of yourself doing it!

  • I'm not deep into it, but I've been trying to get deeper in with Home Assistant. I have several smart plugs, a smart thermostat, some Google Nest products, and even an indoor security camera.

    What drove me to home automation, specifically the smart plugs where it all started, was that I live in an apartment. Most of the outlets aren't connected to wall switches. So I'd have my various lamps around where the plugs/attached switches are like behind furniture or other awkward spots to reach to. It got annoying. The smart plugs solved that so I could turn them on/off from my phone.

    Next, I started placing them on a schedule. So that when I got home (back when I was working from the office), I could come home to a lit house. Or if I fell asleep on the couch, all the lights will turn off at some point instead of being on all night. Or when I'm out of town, I can play with the lights to simulate someone being home.

    Then I got a free Google Nest Mini (similar to an Amazon Echo). Controlling the lights from phone was great, but controlling via voice was even better! Because what if my phone wasn't on me? Or battery dead? How about if I had guests who wanted to turn on/off lights? Now both bedrooms have one, plus the living/dining room. I can control everything from those, by voice.

    The thermostat here, though digital, wasn't even programmable. So I replaced it with a smart one, free from the power company. I can even control from my phone (or voice). Now I can schedule heating/cooling. During a trip, I'll leave it outside of my at-home temp range to save money. But on the way back home, like from the airport, I can have it start heating/cooling so that by the time I get home, my apartment is ready for me.

    Security camera is obvious. I travel a fair amount, so it's an extra piece of mind.

    Altogether, it's about convenience and ease. These all solve or at least mitigate admittedly minor issues, but still, I don't have to worry about them anymore. Some, especially the thermostat, even help me save money. And a couple even provide me with a bit more security (at least I feel that way).

  • For a lot of things, it's a solution in search of a problem. I set it up on its own vlan because since I do networking every day for work segmenting things off is really simple for me.

    I only have a handful of automations that I use.

    • Turn on the garage backyard lights and the back door lights when I get home after sunset.
    • Send my robo vacuum out whenever I leave the house for more than 5 minutes.
    • Turn on the porch light and the exterior housing lights at sunset and off at sunrise.
    • A button to turn off all the lights on my house on my phone that I use every night when I go to bed.
    • A button in my living room that turns on two table lamps, a floor lamp, and some accent lights instead of turning them all on individually. It also turns them all off.
    • Scene buttons at the bar that will turn on multiple lights and change colors. I'm planning to do animations with the lights here so that I can press a button and the lights do a little dance.

    I don't really like motion sensors for rooms or areas because there are a lot of times I come in I don't actually want the lights on. I also don't have a million sensors because I don't want to deal with batteries or really care about everything. Things should have a purpose and not just lights that feel like they are there just for the sake of "hey look, I have lights that do something."

  • I use it to control some of the lights in my house. WiFi enabled plugs and switches are more convenient than having to go to each one and manually reprogram them. In my bedroom, I have one set to turn on every day at 7am and again at 9am in case I turn it off and go back to bed. It's basically a silent alarm clock.

    I also have WiFi control for the mini-split (AC and heat) in my workshop. I can view the set temperature vs the actual temperature from my phone and I can adjust the temperature remotely if I want.

  • I'm disabled and while I don't have anything set up yet (mostly because I've been looking to move house for a while), and even when I do, I probably won't tinker with it much since that's not really my thing, some home automation would make a huge difference in my life..

    So no magic, just accessibility.. ¯(ツ)/¯

  • It’s new, shiny, and trendy. It for me, personally, I like being able to have certain lights turn on and off at certain times automatically. I love the idea of being able to control thermostats from my phone. And then there are the less that backlight my tv. Those are purely cosmetic, but such fun because they match the colors on the screen.

  • I'm using home assistant with thermostats and humidity/temperature sensors mostly to get information how the house heats and how the rooms are affected by humidity and temperature changes.

    I also automated two dehumidifiers with those sensors and zigbee plugs to not run 24/7 but in defined windows when the noise isn't bothering anyone and if the humidity triggers certain thresholds. The automation also has hysteresis sesstongs so the devices do not constantly turn on and off.

    In general I don't automate to a point where I can just flick a switch or turn on something manually. But it is nice to be able to control and see everything.

108 comments