Mastodawn

i got a lot of friends that love to do that whole home automation thing. like a real luddite, i still get up and flip a switch for my lights. can someone explain to me the appeal? is there some killer feature that you couldn't do without? i don't even have my thermostat programmed, and i think it can do that already. #homeautomation #homeassistant

Michael Weiss 1d ago

@ellyxir automating my thermostat cut my heating costs by 10%.

Yes, most of the time my lights are controlled by a wall switch. But having an automated one in my laundry room is really handy because wall switches are hard to use when your hands are being used to hold a full basket. Or have an alert let you know that someone forgot to turn a light out.

The biggest benefit I got, though, was from data collected by sensors. You learn a great deal that can enable you to make things more energy efficient and/or comfortable.

@mweiss 10% isn't nothing! good job! that reminds me, i should do the laundry!

Michael Weiss 1d ago

@ellyxir and I love getting alerts when the laundry is done because I'm often out of earshot so I don't know otherwise.

Of course, I got fancy with it and have it alert only in the occupied parts of the house, but that's more because I could than because I must.

Monitoring can do great things. Because I added my own temperature probes, I was able to tell proactively that something was wrong in my refrigerator and didn't have to wait for food to spoil.

@mweiss interesting! yes, for laundry i have a timer that i set by turning a crank and set it for 90 minutes, thats how i don't forget my laundry because it will beep incessantly. how does the house thingy know that the laundry is done, does the washing machine have some API?? or pubsub?

@ellyxir in my case, it's plugged into a Zigbee power monitoring plug. I have a #homeassistant helper sensor that considers the washing machine to be on if consumption is above a threshold, and off if below a threshold. When it registers as off, it sends alerts.

Other people use vibration sensors, or have a smart appliance with an API.

@mweiss hah pretty simple solution, and here i was thinking the washing machine exported some REST API.

Michael Weiss 1d ago

@ellyxir in most cases if there is such an API, there's already a #homeassistant integration to abstract it.

John Deters 7h ago

@ellyxir @mweiss The nice thing is that just about any dumb thing can be plugged into a smart power monitoring plug, and you can get power usage from it. Laundry appliances, dishwashers, refrigerators, etc., all can be monitored.

Turning the monitoring into an actionable alert is a matter of studying the power usage, then writing (or copying) a small script.

Home Is Where The Smart Is 23h ago

@mweiss @ellyxir I have a washing machine which has a local API, but I also pair it with an energy monitoring smart plug.

This means I can cut power to it until it’s actually about to run, so the door doesn’t lock when we close it.

Then it’s run automatically while energy is cheap, using its API. Then when it finishes, it turns off and alerts me, and by the time I get there the door has unlocked again. And I can monitor its energy consumption 👌

@HomeIsWhereTheSmartIs @mweiss ok you win

Michael Weiss 23h ago

@ellyxir @HomeIsWhereTheSmartIs yeah that's way beyond what I can do with mine

@HomeIsWhereTheSmartIs
What washing machine is this? Local api makes a pretty good point! @mweiss @ellyxir

Home Is Where The Smart Is 12h ago

@flogib @mweiss @ellyxir it’s a Hoover Candy, but I would NOT recommend it because it does also check the cloud.

And they tried to remotely turn off its “smart” functionality when the EU law came in about basic security on such devices, and they decided they couldn’t be bothered to just comply.

So mine has been fire-walled since.

@HomeIsWhereTheSmartIs
Ok thank you for the non-recommendation then 🙂 @mweiss @ellyxir

Home Is Where The Smart Is 10h ago

@flogib @mweiss @ellyxir lol if I ever end up with one I do recommend, I’ll definitely review it on my channel 😉