Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

jorisroovers.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 205 posts

Re: My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

#81

Post by alistairSH »

turtlebits wrote: post #14

Not sure if I'm just getting older, but the less things/complications in my home, the more peace of mind I have. Been watching the youtube LTT channel on his smart home and I feel all the things going on would drive me crazy. This doesn't apply only to tech, but even for my next house (Looking into passive homes, least possible HVAC footprint, floorplan for minimal plumbing/electrical).

I mostly agree. I have a few smart switches for main lighting (5 switches of 20+) with basic automations (turn off at bed time, turn on front step and foyer when I get close to home after dark, turn all on if motion sensor trips while I'm not home).

Every time I think about expanding this, I remember what a PITA it was to setup the basic stuff. And I don't bother. I'll walk my lazy ass to the switch instead.

Doesn't help that Smartthings is a dumpster fire of shitty UX that glitches regularly. Anything "better" like HomeAssistant is the rough equivalent of using Linux desktop in the late 90s/early 00s.

Re: My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

#83

Post by bmurphy1976 »

buro9 wrote: post #23

When you sell a house like this... what do you leave behind and what do you take? This has increasingly been on my mind. I've no desire to sell soon, but there's a Nest doorbell that is wired in, so it stays. A Nest thermostat, which I could remove but when I got the boiler I chose to not have the control panel extra with timer as I knew I had Nest. Then the lighting, the motion sensors... should I take the few thous…

I've been wiring up my house for the past couple years. All of our light/dimmer/fan switches are Lutron Caseta and work without a hub. You can add the hub for additional automation and functionality, but you don't need it. Without the hub, the switch controls the device and it just works.

When we leave my plan is to leave the Caseta system in place. Some of the devices are wireless and some switches have batteries (CR2032). We did this so we could put switches in locations you would normally have switches in a modern home without having to tear out the walls and rewire an 80 year old home. Ripping the system out is not an option, and I'm ok with that.

Everything else is going with me. All the z-wave outlets, bulbs, timers, sensors, etc. will still be useful in a new home. I've saved all my old outlets so it will be an easy swap switching the new back to the old.

The only thing I'm unsure about is the Wyze camera/security system I am currently building out. My expectation is that by the time I even think of selling my home it will be obsolete so I'll probably just leave it for the new owners to worry about.

Re: My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

#84

Post by jaywalk »

ryanianian wrote: post #42
turtlebits wrote: post #14

Not sure if I'm just getting older, but the less things/complications in my home, the more peace of mind I have. Been watching the youtube LTT channel on his smart home and I feel all the things going on would drive me crazy. This doesn't apply only to tech, but even for my next house (Looking into passive homes, least possible HVAC footprint, floorplan for minimal plumbing/electrical).

Sufficiently advanced home automation is indistinguishable from a haunting. Lighting controlled by home-assistant is endlessly frustrating. Especially if zwave. The networks are slow, the devices are awkward to configure, and when things go wrong debugging is difficult. Sometimes it takes my lights a good 60 seconds to respond during which time I'll try a few different button dances which all then get lifo queued...…

I don't know what your Z-wave setup looks like, but all I've got are GE smart switches and GE smart outlets, controlled with Home Assistant using an Aeotec Z-stick. It works flawlessly with zero noticeable delay, 100% of the time.

It sounds like you've either got some bad interference or bad devices.

Re: My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

#85

Post by joe_the_user »

nouveaux wrote: post #78
lm28469 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine the state of these houses one or two generations down the line. I witnessed "smart" houses when my parents' blinders died in "down" position and had no manual override... or when the electricity was down and they couldn't start their wood stove because it needs electricity to work... I think some people are just so drawn to tech that they end up in these kind of rabbit holes. It reminds me of my nerd…

>I witnessed "smart" houses when my parents' blinders died in "down" position and had no manual override... or when the electricity was down and they couldn't start their wood stove because it needs electricity to work... Are you saying you have a stove that doesn't have an electronic starter? Are you on a digital or analog thermostat? Does your home heater work without electricity? New technology will always have an…

Are you saying you have a stove that doesn't have an electronic starter? Are you on a digital or analog thermostat? Does your home heater work without electricity?

Historically and mostly today, a wood stove is a cast iron container you fill with wood mostly to heat a house. There have been innovations in shape, airflow etc to make them more efficient but they generally haven't used an electric lighter.

Electric-light gas stoves normally don't need electricity to function - in a outage you can light them with a match or sparker.

There have been gas heaters that don't require electricity but not central gas heaters, this true.

Eastern California, where I currently live, has experienced a half-dozen days-long electrical outages in the last year alone. A the time two months, when I spent four days snowed-in, with it 45-40 degrees inside my apartment, is notable. What does or doesn't work without electricity is an important question.

Re: My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

#86

Post by coreyp_1 »

I want SO BADLY to convert my switches to smart switches, but it feels impossible to find what i need. Good luck searching on Amazon, too. Search for Zigbee, and it will return page after page of zwave, proprietary, and other listings. It's impossible to wade through. I've tried and given up multiple times.

This is what i need that is evidently so difficult to find: 1. Zigbee 2. 3-way 3. Dimmable 4. Beige (almond?) Color

Any ideas?

Re: My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

#87

Post by disqard »

mdoms wrote: post #76

I simply flick a switch to turn on lights. Opening shades is no problem for me, a physically fit human.

A non-technology solution? In this forum? How dare you, good sir?

Seriously, I've been going as back-to-basics with my newer purchases as possible -- I recently purchased a used sewing machine that has gears made of metal, has no LCD/screen or computer firmware, and only relies on electricity to run its motor.

Re: My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

#88

Post by smashah »

sanguy wrote: post #33

Home Assistant is great, but it will face huge hurdles as the founder tries to cash in on the popularity. It's already underway. 1) Nabu Casa was founded with a claim that "it will all be transparent and reported" as to income, etc, etc. 2) Then the "private" components happened only for Nabu Casa - like the cloud connection stuff. 3) A few years later when pointed out nothing was transparent yet the response was "We…

I'm looking forward to the founders and the core maintainers being able to make a healthy living off of home assistant with the least amount of pointless overhead :)

Re: My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

#89

Post by oldsj »

jaywalk wrote: post #84
ryanianian wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sufficiently advanced home automation is indistinguishable from a haunting. Lighting controlled by home-assistant is endlessly frustrating. Especially if zwave. The networks are slow, the devices are awkward to configure, and when things go wrong debugging is difficult. Sometimes it takes my lights a good 60 seconds to respond during which time I'll try a few different button dances which all then get lifo queued...…

I don't know what your Z-wave setup looks like, but all I've got are GE smart switches and GE smart outlets, controlled with Home Assistant using an Aeotec Z-stick. It works flawlessly with zero noticeable delay, 100% of the time. It sounds like you've either got some bad interference or bad devices.

Same setup here. Love using z-wave as a standard and then bridging everything over to Homekit for siri / phone control center access

Re: My smart home 2021: A Home Assistant love story

#90

Post by pydry »

lm28469 wrote: post #74
turtlebits wrote: post #14

Not sure if I'm just getting older, but the less things/complications in my home, the more peace of mind I have. Been watching the youtube LTT channel on his smart home and I feel all the things going on would drive me crazy. This doesn't apply only to tech, but even for my next house (Looking into passive homes, least possible HVAC footprint, floorplan for minimal plumbing/electrical).

I can't imagine the state of these houses one or two generations down the line. I witnessed "smart" houses when my parents' blinders died in "down" position and had no manual override... or when the electricity was down and they couldn't start their wood stove because it needs electricity to work... I think some people are just so drawn to tech that they end up in these kind of rabbit holes. It reminds me of my nerd…

This is what all tech is like. I remember when having a smartphone with apps was a quirky novelty that maintenance that only nerds could be bothered with.

Also while I dont give a damn about lightbulbs I would really like more sophisticated control over heating.

Post reply on HN