A few decades ago I setup my entire house using smart devices. X10 was the hot brand back then. Remote control was quite different back when we didn't have smart phones. You needed proprietary controllers to manipulate all the (also proprietary) devices through existing house wiring. WiFi didn't exist back then.
Today's smart home is run via smart hubs, WiFi & Bluetooth using your smart phone, computer, tablet as well as all kinds of nifty sensors, detectors, shortcuts and automations. They can detect when you arrive home and run countless scenes with door locks, lights, air-conditioning and heat, fans etc. Surely @Zorba would be sent into an uncontrolled tailspin.
I have thirteen circuits controlling outside lighting; each circuit required its own analog timer and those timers would all require manual reset if the electric blipped or if a different timing pattern was needed, as with daylight savings. Any idea how long it takes to manually reset thirteen timers? I just finished replacing all of them with smart switches that are now set to dawn & dusk +/- random time frames. I am hoping they never need to be reset because they will automatically adjust to daylight hours through the seasons.
Slowly I am adding more devices and automations. Room lights come on at various times. The high hats in my daughter's room turn off when she leaves the room (twenty years I am asking her to please turn off the lights when you leave a room). Turn on the TV after dark and the lights dim, or go off. Motion detector in the garage turns on the light and then turns it off ten minutes after motion is no longer detected. Done watching TV? Turn the TV off and it triggers a series that turns on lights in the home theatre at 20% so I don't kill myself walking around in the dark, bedside light comes on at 5%, in night-vision friendly red, so I can navigate yet not wake my wife and bathroom shower niche light comes on similarly. And when I get in bed I can pass my Apple Watch, phone or iPad past an NFC tag mounted under my bedside table and everything goes off, the garage door status is checked and the outside doors are confirmed locked.
The devices are all very reliable with only a few exceptions. One smart bulb that has a mind of its own and one smart outlet that should control the backlight on the bathroom mirror (KasaSmart KP200) simply won't connect to my network.
Curious if anyone else is playing with smart home?
Today's smart home is run via smart hubs, WiFi & Bluetooth using your smart phone, computer, tablet as well as all kinds of nifty sensors, detectors, shortcuts and automations. They can detect when you arrive home and run countless scenes with door locks, lights, air-conditioning and heat, fans etc. Surely @Zorba would be sent into an uncontrolled tailspin.
I have thirteen circuits controlling outside lighting; each circuit required its own analog timer and those timers would all require manual reset if the electric blipped or if a different timing pattern was needed, as with daylight savings. Any idea how long it takes to manually reset thirteen timers? I just finished replacing all of them with smart switches that are now set to dawn & dusk +/- random time frames. I am hoping they never need to be reset because they will automatically adjust to daylight hours through the seasons.
Slowly I am adding more devices and automations. Room lights come on at various times. The high hats in my daughter's room turn off when she leaves the room (twenty years I am asking her to please turn off the lights when you leave a room). Turn on the TV after dark and the lights dim, or go off. Motion detector in the garage turns on the light and then turns it off ten minutes after motion is no longer detected. Done watching TV? Turn the TV off and it triggers a series that turns on lights in the home theatre at 20% so I don't kill myself walking around in the dark, bedside light comes on at 5%, in night-vision friendly red, so I can navigate yet not wake my wife and bathroom shower niche light comes on similarly. And when I get in bed I can pass my Apple Watch, phone or iPad past an NFC tag mounted under my bedside table and everything goes off, the garage door status is checked and the outside doors are confirmed locked.
The devices are all very reliable with only a few exceptions. One smart bulb that has a mind of its own and one smart outlet that should control the backlight on the bathroom mirror (KasaSmart KP200) simply won't connect to my network.
Curious if anyone else is playing with smart home?