Please describe your home automation setup...wife needs to be convinced about the benefits!

[WabbitPoo]

I'd really like to get into home auto, though I am struggling to build a good use case to convince my other half. Can you describe the general use you have for the tech, and the difference it has made to home life?

 

[Twenty Four]

For me I used the outputs on my alarm system. I steer clear of fashionable 3rd party apps because my security is mine. I won't let someone else effectively handle access to my system. It's clear from forums that apps are hit and miss and often insecure.

The automation I have was installed a few years ago and is used daily via SMS from opening gates to controlling blinds. Altogether I have 12 outputs automated, including internal and external lights, heating, gates, garage doors, siren, alarm, pond pumps and blinds.

I've never had a delayed response and everything asked of it has worked flawlessly but it would be largely down to choosing the best sim reception for your area (or multi-sim).

Sometimes the simpler, less fashionable/popular ways are the best and certainly go under the radar for undesirables but then it really depends on how far you want to take it. A simple on and off for the often used things around the home does me. I admire the sophisticated set-ups of some but couldn't get excited about having so much control and ultimately the thought of maintaining such a system is prohibitive.

That said, I fear you require a new partner.

 

[bernardgreen]

Home automation can present problems when you have guests staying overnight. You may have to "train" them how to turn on lights if there are no normal light switches for the loghts they will need to use.

 

[Twenty Four]

Home automation can present problems when you have guests staying overnight. You may have to "train" them how to turn on lights if there are no normal light switches for the loghts they will need to use.

It's all that gubbins that doesn't interest me for a few reasons, one you have pointed out. All my dedicated switches and remotes are present so I have the choice.

If guests can't shut doors properly or walk around upstairs without stomping I doubt they could manage automation.

 

[CaptainJack88]

I use SmartThings, Hue and Nest which work great, apart from when SmartThings throws a wobbler.

Being able to control your heating remotely and/or automatically is fantastic.
Our lamps around the house are all automatic, but I can turn them on/off either using a separate switch or by voice
I've got bedside lamps which slowly brighten to the alarm clock which is great in Winter to simulate the Sunrise alarms
My outside lights come on when the doors are opened if its dark
Porch lights comes on when we arrive and its dark or if someone is detected at the door from the Nest Cam.
Lights automatically come on/off in a holiday mode style when we're away
Doorbell sends me alerts on my phone and takes a photo from my Nest cam

There are plenty more, but the list goes on.

 

[WabbitPoo]

All good to me, except that life's not exactly compromised by doing these things the normal way (eg PIR outside lights, timer plugs for lamps etc). I think she thinks its a solution looking for a problem, and I am beginning to think so too

I might just do it for the fun of it though

 

[Twenty Four]

All good to me, except that life's not exactly compromised by doing these things the normal way (eg PIR outside lights, timer plugs for lamps etc). I think she thinks its a solution looking for a problem, and I am beginning to think so too

I might just do it for the fun of it though

Except you can't do a number of things if you're not home so there is no normal way. Automation is the normal way when away.

 

[bernardgreen]

I think she thinks its a solution looking for a problem, and I am beginning to think so too

She thinks sensibly. It is a solution looking for a ( non existant ) problem to solve with overcomplicated equipment.

 

[Twenty Four]

I think she thinks its a solution looking for a problem, and I am beginning to think so too

She thinks sensibly. It is a solution looking for a ( non existant ) problem to solve with overcomplicated equipment.

Did you not read the message above? Automation isn't meant to be a solution to problems but an enhancement to normal living nor does it have to involve over complicated equipment.

For me, I use my alarm system to its maximum and operate several outputs a day from my watch (pre programmed with the outputs). There is absolutely nothing over complicated or tied-in to one manufacturer about my automation.

An example- One of my outputs texts me if my pond pump stops working. Over the 24 years I've had a pond it has stopped working a handful of times. Without being at the pond there is no way of knowing. In the last few years I've had automation the pond pump has stopped working once. I was away and could contact an electrician pal who turned up to my home. I turned off the alarm remotely and opened the gates remotely. The issue was solved in just over an hour saving a lot of fish.

Okay, if you don't have alarmed gates or even gates to your property the above scenario is moot, as anybody could wander into your property and take a look, but in this case automation does offer a solution to a problem when away from home and of course offers a fast alert to all manner of other potential problems.

Now the nights are drawing in but not yet dark before 8pm I can leave the house to go out without closing the curtains/blinds or putting a light on. When it is dark I simply control the aforementioned from wherever I am whenever I want. If it's dark when I leave I use the switches from home in the normal way.

Like most things, it is so easy to knock when you haven't got it or feel you don't need it. For me, automated outputs have been a great help on several occasions but each to their own.

 

[bernardgreen]

I |"automated" the lighting in my cottage as part of the re-wiring. This was to provide a solution to the problems of wiring a 500 year old Grade II listed thatched cottage.

One problem was that getting 230 volt cables to light switches fixed to wattle and daub walls is not possible other than as surface mounted cables. Therefor the switches only switch ELV circuits (12 volt DC) to control relays that switch the mains to lamps. The cable used for switch drops is 8 or 12 core alarm cable which can be concealled without ( too much ) damage to the historic fabric of the wall.

Between the switches and the relays is a custom made micro-processor unit which allow several switches to control one lamp ( such as up to four way switching using single pole single throw switches ).

It has additionals function in that after dusk some exterior lights are switched on in response to a break beam detector. Pressing a door bell after dark also turns on the porch light for that door enabling one to find the key hole.

Like most things, it is so easy to knock when you haven't got it or feel you don't need it.

My concern is that home automation often goes a bit too far... and is not user friend other than to the person who installed it. A friend re-thought his home automation after a visit from his parents who could not cope with the system.

 

[CaptainJack88]

My concern is that home automation often goes a bit too far... and is not user friend other than to the person who installed it. A friend re-thought his home automation after a visit from his parents who could not cope with the system.

Full agree with this part as it requires a little bit of training. I've kept the main lights in the house off the automated side, or I am using Hue Bulbs so I can have automation and they work from the switch.

The only downside though is that I can't use dimmers with the Hue bulbs, so dimming has to come from the app

 

[Twenty Four]

I |"automated" the lighting in my cottage as part of the re-wiring. This was to provide a solution to the problems of wiring a 500 year old Grade II listed thatched cottage.

It has additionals function in that after dusk some exterior lights are switched on in response to a break beam detector. Pressing a door bell after dark also turns on the porch light for that door enabling one to find the key hole.

My concern is that home automation often goes a bit too far... and is not user friend other than to the person who installed it. A friend re-thought his home automation after a visit from his parents who could not cope with the system.

So you've basically contradicted yourself in the fact you do have a degree of automation, like myself, yet appeared to dismiss automation in your previous post which was why I posted again. We had already established that the full on automation, however ingenious, is a step too far to sit comfortable with all but the out and out nerds. This isn't just for operational reasons but for maintenance reasons really. Having something fail in some of the set-ups I've read about would be enough to make you want to rethink life.

 

[bernardgreen]

If home automation includes any internet connection or a mobile phone app to control something in the house then it has gone to far ( in my opinion ).

 

[Twenty Four]

If home automation includes any internet connection or a mobile phone app to control something in the house then it has gone to far ( in my opinion ).

I agree, as said before, having a 3rd party app involved in either your automation or security is fashionable stupidity.

 

[WabbitPoo]

I wasn't knocking it, far from it. I'm just trying to think of someting - anything - that would be of benefit to us, truly beneficial. I do like the pond pump example, however - that's clever, and as I run hydropnics in the greenhouse I am wondering how automation might help me there....