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Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

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Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#51

Post by 300bps »

jmuguy wrote: post #28

Sounds like my experience with Nest last summer. Got the thermostat, can't get it connected to my wireless. Support basically tells me to get bent until I go into full IT guy mode and prove its an issue with the unit. Replacement unit comes, doesn't work at all (first one was at least a nice looking thermostat with no connected features). Third unit comes and it's been fine ever since. For some reason I thought it wo…

Perhaps as a PSA, I wanted to point out that there are two types of smoke detector technologies: ionization and photoelectric. Ionization detectors are more sensitive to flaming fires. Photoelectric are more sensitive to smoldering fires. As my friend whose house had an in-wall smoldering fire for four hours before the ionization alarms went off now knows, it's important to have both types of smoke detectors throughout your house.

The Nest appears to only be a photoelectric smoke detector based on a quick googling right now.

In my house, I have 5 photoelectric alarms that are hooked up to my central alarm system that is centrally monitored. I also have 4 ionization alarms that are hard wired together such that if one goes off they all go off. The ionization are not hooked up to the central alarm system because they have a reputation of having more false alarms. I have never experienced a false alarm in 5 years, but that is their reputation so many experts recommend not making them hooked up to a system that alerts a central monitoring service.

More Info: http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/fire-an...

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#52

Post by linker3000 »

arethuza wrote: post #42
GotAnyMegadeth wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We will have self aware AI before we have reliable printers.

As long as self aware AIs don't evolve from printer software - can you imagine how evil they would be?

All your base are PC LOAD LETTER

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#53

Post by Dirlewanger »

viccuad wrote: post #12

I really don't grok why I should want to use my smartphone to move up and down my wifi connected blinders. Yet that's all I see when all of this is pictured: gimmicks. I want to see a demo of a room alarm clock: with rising light (in brightness and temperature), birds chirping, room getting warmer, music/radio a while later.. and the same for going to bed.

If a first world problem exists, you can bet your ass there are millienials out there working on a solution that involves a mobile application.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#54

Post by JshWright »

300bps wrote: post #51
jmuguy wrote: post #28

Sounds like my experience with Nest last summer. Got the thermostat, can't get it connected to my wireless. Support basically tells me to get bent until I go into full IT guy mode and prove its an issue with the unit. Replacement unit comes, doesn't work at all (first one was at least a nice looking thermostat with no connected features). Third unit comes and it's been fine ever since. For some reason I thought it wo…

Perhaps as a PSA, I wanted to point out that there are two types of smoke detector technologies: ionization and photoelectric. Ionization detectors are more sensitive to flaming fires. Photoelectric are more sensitive to smoldering fires. As my friend whose house had an in-wall smoldering fire for four hours before the ionization alarms went off now knows, it's important to have both types of smoke detectors througho…

> many experts recommend not making them hooked up to a system that alerts a central monitoring service.

As a guy who regularly rides a big red truck to people's houses after their cooking pan gets a little too hot and smokey... thank you.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#55

Post by JshWright »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #40
jmuguy wrote: post #28

Sounds like my experience with Nest last summer. Got the thermostat, can't get it connected to my wireless. Support basically tells me to get bent until I go into full IT guy mode and prove its an issue with the unit. Replacement unit comes, doesn't work at all (first one was at least a nice looking thermostat with no connected features). Third unit comes and it's been fine ever since. For some reason I thought it wo…

Knowing that pretty much all software is buggy and Nest and Wink are pretty new to market, do you want to depend on them with your life? In the northeast US this weekend we will be having a high temperature of zero degrees Fahrenheit in some areas. I don't want to rely on a flaky device determining if the heat should be on. What happens if the temp drops really low, like with a power failure? Did they test that? Same…

As a counter-anecdote, I have been very grateful for my Nest during these especially cold days. It takes the weather outside into account, and does a much better job keeping my house in a comfortable temperature range.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#56

Post by linker3000 »

There's a few 'handy' things I'd like to do - for example, I am considering replacing my basic central heating/hot water controller with a Raspberry Pi and having features such as a low-heat, vacation mode where the system knows I am 'x' miles away from coming home (tied to my phone's location) and it will fire up everything again.

Although I'd consider doing more (ESP8266 modules with MQTT looks interesting, albeit in its infancy), the proliferation of 'standards' (properitary and otherwise) is offputting. Then there's the standards designed to interface between all the different standards...rinse...repeat.

Edit: Spelling - I have a dodgy laptop keyboard with melted keys due to a motherboard failure!! Waiting for Dell to come back again and change it!

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#57

Post by fuligo »

jmuguy wrote: post #28

Sounds like my experience with Nest last summer. Got the thermostat, can't get it connected to my wireless. Support basically tells me to get bent until I go into full IT guy mode and prove its an issue with the unit. Replacement unit comes, doesn't work at all (first one was at least a nice looking thermostat with no connected features). Third unit comes and it's been fine ever since. For some reason I thought it wo…

Dumb detectors can have the same problems. I'm not sure if they get contaminated or suffer some kind of other breakdown, but I had to switch out two smoke detectors in recent time due to their propensity for going off on a whim. Of course, normal smoke detectors don't come with the Nest's hefty price tag...

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#58

Post by vibrolax »

hueving wrote: post #23
Shivetya wrote: post #4

Having each light bulb intelligent seems like overkill, I can see a per circuit setup where you replace the light switch. First off its not going to go bad like a bulb which will be replaced eventually; even LEDs which still die too soon. Really, who came up with this light bulb idea...its just daft. Security motion detectors can be used to double effect here as well, you would naturally have them facing doors so the…

Well Phillips pushing the Hue is pretty far from daft in their perspective. Get people to shell out hundreds to replace bulbs instead of a 1/10th of that. Remember, Phillips is the reason incandescent bulbs had their lifespans intentionally cut in half for planned obsolescence.[1] 1. http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/history/the-great-lightbu...

The Spectrum article was very informative. Thomas Pynchon riffed on this story extensively with his iconic (for geeks) 1974 novel "Gravity's Rainbow" in the tale of "Byron the Bulb". Another of Pynchon's prescient fantasy creations that is breaking into reality, the sentient light bulbs are self aware and communicate with each other.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#59

Post by alistairSH »

tehwebguy wrote: post #48
viccuad wrote: post #12

I really don't grok why I should want to use my smartphone to move up and down my wifi connected blinders. Yet that's all I see when all of this is pictured: gimmicks. I want to see a demo of a room alarm clock: with rising light (in brightness and temperature), birds chirping, room getting warmer, music/radio a while later.. and the same for going to bed.

Turning off the lights on the other side of the house after you are already in bed is such a nice feature :)

If you're in bed, how do you know those lights are on?

Also, why wouldn't you turn the light off as you left the room?

Most of these "smart home" devices really do seem like a gimmick at this point. Maybe in the future, they'll be well enough debugged and refined to be useful, but for now, I just don't see a benefit in a normal* home. My dad uses Nests, "smart" locks, and remote cameras alarms (off-season) on his beach house - that makes sense, as he's a 5 hour drive from the house.

* normal for the US: 1970s 4-bedroom, 1800sqft, 2 level, no basement. I can walk across the house in the time it takes me to get my cell phone off the hall table (where I leave it to charge). The house a single thermostat, so I can't heat/cool zones, and the existing thermostat is programmable by day and time.

Re: Why Is My Smart Home So Dumb?

#60

Post by Silhouette »

glesica wrote: post #6
maxerickson wrote: post #2

I think a big part of the problem is that integration is hard, and that the companies more or less resist it (I guess because they think keeping people in their garden is a good strategy). It's also easy to oversell (to yourself) the value of a room having a movie mode. Most smart home features are 'nice to have', not worth a lot of messing around and cash.

> It's also easy to oversell (to yourself) the value of a room having a movie mode. Most smart home features are 'nice to have', not worth a lot of messing around and cash. My girlfriend used to occasionally watch a show about house-buying (House Hunters). In general the show wasn't terribly interesting, but the real estate agents featured sometimes had some interesting tips. One of those tips was to carefully consid…

I tend to think of "smart house" features in this way. Every once in awhile I would appreciate having my living space adapt to my needs or respond to remote commands, but 99.99% of the time, it just doesn't matter.

I find there is only a tiny overlap between the many modern technologies I would like to have in a new home and the many so-called smart home features that are aggressively advertised. There are plenty of new systems I think I would find valuable, and quite a few of them distribute some function throughout the house but could usefully be controlled from a single location, but I've never seen much advantage in controlling everything together. That just seems to create one more point of failure, not to mention glaring security/privacy issues if any of the control systems are remotely accessible, which almost all of the major suppliers of home automation control systems proudly claim to be.

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