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Home automation - why? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

My home automation setup includes:

Texting me and/or my wife whenever the washer or dryer in the basement finishes a load of laundry, but only if we’re home. If neither is home then it waits until one of us is and only texts that person.
Turns on exterior / driveway lights when one of us arrives home after dark.
Turns off exterior / driveway lights when we have both left home.
Sets our Ecobee thermostats to “away” when we have both left home, and to “home” when somebody arrives home.

I also have a “bedtime” button that ensures all lights are off, thermostats are set to their “sleep” profile, and doors are locked.

Those are the nicer things we use pretty much daily. We have others as well.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

I am starting with home automation and I am always fascinated by some of the idea I read on the Internet. Did you come up with this yourself or is there a list of conditions and triggers with devices somewhere I can use with Home Assistant?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How do you do the "both away or home"?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

If they're using Home Assistant then it's pretty straightforward. You can either have the devices report back their location and update based on a Geofence or you can check and see if everyone's on the wifi or not