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Smart Devices and Home Automation

  • Thread starter Deleted 85834
  • Start date

Do Smart devices have a place in your home?

  • Yup, Alexa runs the gaff for me

    Votes: 6 15.4%
  • Nope, data is for hoarding. Google can eff right off

    Votes: 17 43.6%
  • Nope, smart is for Regimental blazers and well pressed slacks

    Votes: 12 30.8%
  • Beep Boop, I am a robot!

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110000 0

    Votes: 3 7.7%

  • Total voters
    39
D

Deleted 85834

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Looked elsewhere? - Check
Mods feel free to move etc - Affirmative

I moved house recently and am making a conscious effort to put as much smart tech and home automation into this place as possible. To date that's around the heating and lighting and it does give me a glow to know that I'm saving my pennies as well as satisfying my inner geek.

But, I've just had the uncomfortable experience of not noticing Jeremy Vine had started on the radio until all of a suuden all I could hear was his special blend of *****ing ****ishness.

So I've just created an automation on Smart Things that turns the Sonos off when Vine or Steve Wright are on. Worth. Every. Penny.

So, for those that are smart then what tips and tricks can you share?

For those that are on the Worthers, have at it and feel free to tell me how all this were better in black and white and electricity was for poofs.
 
I have a hive heating controller which is great because I can adjust the temperature no matter where I am. I don't have Alexa blah blah because I don't want a device in the house which constantly listens to what's being said.
 
I have a hive heating controller which is great because I can adjust the temperature no matter where I am. I don't have Alexa blah blah because I don't want a device in the house which constantly listens to what's being said.


I have a device with selective hearing and memory. she's out at the moment so I'm safe, for now
 
I have a hive heating controller which is great because I can adjust the temperature no matter where I am. I don't have Alexa blah blah because I don't want a device in the house which constantly listens to what's being said.

If the wifi goes Pete Tong can your you still adjust it manually?
 
If the wifi goes Pete Tong can your you still adjust it manually?
Yes the thermometer part has a rotary dial. That's the black thing, you put it wherever you want in the house. The white thing goes near the boiler (I don't have the hot water version as mine is a combi boiler). There is a router which allows the two to communicate. Programming timings and temperature is through the app on my phone, very simple to use.

1638883686291.png
 
If the wifi goes Pete Tong can your you still adjust it manually?
Yeah, most smart devices communicate via something called Zigbee or Z-Wave. It's basically another RF network for your devices and saves cluttering up your Wi-Fi bandwidth.

Theoretically, you'd lose the ability to communicate with your devices via, say, your phone but as mentioned above they still have manual controls.

Hive* can also act as a Hub to integrate other devices like lights, radiator valves, or alarm sensors from 3rd party manufacturers. So if you got up in the middle of the night, the alarm would detect that and turn on the light in the bathroom or turn the heating up if you've just got up early.

*Other hubs are available, it just depends on how much you want to add from which manufacturers
 
Our dishwashers, wall oven and fridge are “smart”, as are the garage door openers and thermostats. Entertainment wise, the TV, Apple TV and amplifier are all networked.

To be honest, I rarely use any of it. The Amp has a satellite speaker on the back deck, so I can listen to say a football game on the TV while I’m grilling. I occasionally look at the weather forecast on the fridge.

Wasn’t really a waste of money, those features are pretty much standard now, in all the categories of devices. The fridge was a Black Friday special, no way would I have paid $500 for the smart feature. In fact, it’s pretty shit with some of its features. It reads bar codes of what it can see inside, and then will alert and say “you really ought to use those eggs, they’ve been in there three weeks”. It doesn’t seem to be smart enough to figure out that I used those eggs two weeks ago, and put another box with the same barcode in the same place a week ago.

I’m yet to find a real doozy of a feature on any of it that would warrant spending money on, to have that feature.
 
I have a hive heating controller which is great because I can adjust the temperature no matter where I am. I don't have Alexa blah blah because I don't want a device in the house which constantly listens to what's being said.
I use Google rather than Alexa but it's all much of a muchness. I resisted voice control for years for much the same reason, but finally cracked and added it using a Sonos speaker as the device. The nice thing is that you can see when the mics have turned on and it genuinely is only on the magic word.

Some features are useful, some are definitely gimmicks. But I can always turn it off on games night.
 
I use Google rather than Alexa but it's all much of a muchness. I resisted voice control for years for much the same reason, but finally cracked and added it using a Sonos speaker as the device. The nice thing is that you can see when the mics have turned on and it genuinely is only on the magic word.

Some features are useful, some are definitely gimmicks. But I can always turn it off on games night.
Uuuummm, surely the mics must always be on, otherwise how does it 'hear' the magic word?
 
Yes the thermometer part has a rotary dial. That's the black thing, you put it wherever you want in the house. The white thing goes near the boiler (I don't have the hot water version as mine is a combi boiler). There is a router which allows the two to communicate. Programming timings and temperature is through the app on my phone, very simple to use.

View attachment 620864
Hive stuff works well, very useful in terms of keeping watch over temp. in another property which is currently unoccupied, also running alarm, camera, lights etc.

But all from App. Voice control can sod right off
 
I have a hive heating controller which is great because I can adjust the temperature no matter where I am. I don't have Alexa blah blah because I don't want a device in the house which constantly listens to what's being said.
Alexa's the only thing in this house that does listen, it then decides it's heard something else & acts accordingly...
 
Looked elsewhere? - Check
Mods feel free to move etc - Affirmative

I moved house recently and am making a conscious effort to put as much smart tech and home automation into this place as possible. To date that's around the heating and lighting and it does give me a glow to know that I'm saving my pennies as well as satisfying my inner geek.

But, I've just had the uncomfortable experience of not noticing Jeremy Vine had started on the radio until all of a suuden all I could hear was his special blend of *****ing ****ishness.

So I've just created an automation on Smart Things that turns the Sonos off when Vine or Steve Wright are on. Worth. Every. Penny.

So, for those that are smart then what tips and tricks can you share?

For those that are on the Worthers, have at it and feel free to tell me how all this were better in black and white and electricity was for poofs.
Coolest thing we've done with it? Voice operated curtains: complete & utter waste, but still makes me smile.
 
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