How "Smart" is your home?

I have a couple of motorized lamp timers, one dusk aneabled timer outside. Pretty smart, I think.
 
My home needs special ed classes cause it isn't even average.

I don't even have motion sensors or a door bell camera. I told the neighbor at least I do not have to worry about that since they have cameras trained on my house 24/7.
 
Just some Wyze cameras and some Eufy Cameras. When away I'll plug all in and can see every room in the house, basement plus front and backyards.

Have a security system as well.

Also have a temp sensor and a water sensor in basement in case of furnace failure or flooding. These are just sensors, and can't control anything.

I have smart plugs that have worked well (from Wyze) I use them like timer lights when we vacation. Nice thing is I can control them remotely to change the schedule, or turn on/off light or radio. Also easier to program than the old dumb timers.
 
Very similar to OP and others, we have a lot of automation (including Christmas tree and outdoor Christmas lights, lol). One thing that we have installed for water leaks is a set of Yolink water sensors. We have one on each bathroom floor between the toilet & sink, one under the kitchen sink, near water heater, etc. When our dishwasher leaked while running one night a few years ago, DH got a notification pretty much immediately so no damage to the cabinetry. DH also has a Flume sensor which monitors water flow. When we're out of town he can tell that the outdoor plants are getting watered on schedule, etc.

Our neighbors had a catastrophic flood while they were out of town this fall. They did not catch it for a day and they have been going through heck getting the restoration and remodel done. So a smart water shutoff valve will be in our future as well just in case our Yolink sensors go off while we're out of town and we need to shut off water ASAP.
 
All I have is a couple of 100lb berne-doodles. They can do anything a security camera can do. And who is Alexa?
 
The only reason I don't have more smart devices is that I hate that there's no interoperability standard (well, there's Z-Wave and Zigbee, but I think proprietary devices are more common than those that use one of those standards).
There is a solution, but it requires a bit of tinkering: Home Assistant. It'll natively support both Z-Wave and Zigbee devices. As you point out, these are "local" protocols which don't require that the device "phone home" to some vendor's server, or require a paid subscription.

I'm not sure my house is very "smart" in the sense that I don't have many automations and I don't do voice commands. Mostly I do monitoring of my HVAC system and sump pumps, along with lighting controls and various temperature, humidity and power monitoring sensors.

You can certainly get carried away with this stuff. It is fun to set up, but it can become a maintenance chore at some point, so I try to stick to the basics.
 
Oh, and this guy is standing watch around here if the doorbell camera goes south:

Xmas dog_Birdie.jpg
 
You can certainly get carried away with this stuff. It is fun to set up, but it can become a maintenance chore at some point, so I try to stick to the basics.

I agree. The smart garage door opener was just...because it's there. I do use it if I go out on a walk- don't have to bring a house key or the manual control.

Two other items (I knew I'd forget one or more): my insurance company (State Farm) offered me a Ting device that you plug into an outlet and it monitors the flow of electrical current to detect abnormalities. Pretty boring. Once in awhile it tells me there was a power failure when I already figured it out. And, most puzzling, I used to fill out marketing surveys for e-Rewards till I got tired of being kicked out 90% of the way through the survey. Occasionally I got a product to test, usually something inexpensive like toothpaste or paper towels, but a few years ago I got a Keurig Duo coffeemaker. During the test period I had to connect it to my Internet via an app. After a few months they told me I could disconnect. I got to keep the unit. I guess they'd learned enough about my coffee-making habits.
 
We think outside the box O rocks. Rocks as far as the eye can see. I guess the washer and dryer that came with the house have some kind of smart features. Don't really know, don't really care. Changed a programmable thermostat for a non programmable one. I don't want to fiddle with this stuff. If the device has it, I will not enable it.

Now, I'll just go sit on my rocking chair and watch the sun fade away. Note to self, Get a rocking chair!
 
My house is as dumb as a rock, as is its owner. My wife fully approves this message (for the 50% that is my share)....
 
We bought this house new in 2002 and other than painting and replacing broken/worn out appliances as needed we haven't done a thing to it.
 
Several smart LED light bulbs out front, on our bedside tables and one in the living room. They are preset to go on and off at certain times, but need to be adjusted for the summer and winter. We have a wrap around porch in front, so we keep low lights on basically all night to discourage thieves. Ring doorbell, two ring cameras with motion detection/lights, one by the side gate and one pointing toward the pool. My sous vide machine, oven, and washing machine are WiFi capable, but we have not enabled them, as it seems pointless to me. The hot tub is also controllable through WiFi, which is nice-not having to uncover it to change the heat settings.. We have two smart plugs, one we use for the Christmas tree, and the Dickens ceramic house display, and one extra. See how I used the smart plug to destroy a yellow jacket nest in our siding in 2023.

Yellow jackets under the siding-what would you do?

Post #13 for the picturePlugged in the shop vac and could control it from inside the house.
 
Ring camera at front door; waiting to install interior one I recently purchased.

Alexa - love it for making grocery lists and setting timers when I'm cooking.

Ecobee thermostat

Switchbot humidity sensors
 
The current house, not much. I have made cameras a hobby, and currently I have no operating cameras but have had several bird feeder and nesting bird cams over the years.
The new house will have some features.
Motion lights and fans in bathrooms.
Motion lights in carport.
Motion lights for the outside stairs and under stair and under rail illumination.
Fiber to the gate ~500' away for remote opening and a camera or two there.

I don't think we'll put cams outside the home, except for bird feeders and the like. Just fun stuff.
I'll put Smurf tube in the walls and a single drop of Cat6 in several places after we get "OK to cover".
Smurf tube:
12005-200-1.jpg

I'll have a pull string in there and if/when technology changes, I can drag in whatever.
The Cat 6 will be for some AP's on each level.
 
Ring doorbell. Ring cameras, mostly to capture the abundant wildlife (bobcats are the best attraction), but the secondary security is nice.
Lots of smart bulbs inside. I love the different colors I can set, plus lights coming on at sunset automatically.
A few smart plugs too, mostly outdoor for Christmas lights.
Still looking for the smart thermostat that does what I want. My programmable is good enough.
 
The current house, not much. I have made cameras a hobby, and currently I have no operating cameras but have had several bird feeder and nesting bird cams over the years.
The new house will have some features.
Motion lights and fans in bathrooms.
Motion lights in carport.
Motion lights for the outside stairs and under stair and under rail illumination.
Fiber to the gate ~500' away for remote opening and a camera or two there.

I don't think we'll put cams outside the home, except for bird feeders and the like. Just fun stuff.
I'll put Smurf tube in the walls and a single drop of Cat6 in several places after we get "OK to cover".
Smurf tube:
12005-200-1.jpg

I'll have a pull string in there and if/when technology changes, I can drag in whatever.
The Cat 6 will be for some AP's on each level.
You probably don't want the bathroom motion lights too bright. My son had one in the guest bath and it would blind me so much on my post-midnight trips that we disabled it.

I've used my tubes for a couple things. Nothing right now but you never know. Wifi and fire sticks eliminated the need for that wiring.
 
You probably don't want the bathroom motion lights too bright. My son had one in the guest bath and it would blind me so much on my post-midnight trips that we disabled it.

I've used my tubes for a couple things. Nothing right now but you never know. Wifi and fire sticks eliminated the need for that wiring.
agreed. The motion lights are just enough for navigation, where ever I install them. There will always be switches in the wall for task lighting.
 
Very similar to OP and others, we have a lot of automation (including Christmas tree and outdoor Christmas lights, lol). One thing that we have installed for water leaks is a set of Yolink water sensors. We have one on each bathroom floor between the toilet & sink, one under the kitchen sink, near water heater, etc. When our dishwasher leaked while running one night a few years ago, DH got a notification pretty much immediately so no damage to the cabinetry. DH also has a Flume sensor which monitors water flow. When we're out of town he can tell that the outdoor plants are getting watered on schedule, etc.

Our neighbors had a catastrophic flood while they were out of town this fall. They did not catch it for a day and they have been going through heck getting the restoration and remodel done. So a smart water shutoff valve will be in our future as well just in case our Yolink sensors go off while we're out of town and we need to shut off water ASAP.

We had a broken toilet valve spray water for a day while we were away. Since we don't do irrigation, we now turn off the house water before going on a trip.
 
My house is as stupid as they come. The only thing even remotely automatic/autonomous is the motion sensor on the outside garage light.
I was implying that our house was dumber than yours. We have a couple motion activated solar lights. No Phone, Cable or Satellite. Only WIFI is the cell hot spot for the laptop.
 
We have a Nest thermostat, Google Home speaker that controls the thermostat as well as my Christmas lights.

Have a shark robot vacuum, a Litter Robot litter box for the two cats, garage door is smart but I never use it, easier to just push the button on my remote.
 
I just added a wet cat food feeder so hopefully my cat with disassociate me with getting fed in the morning. Goal is for him to stop waking me up an hour or more before feeding time.
 
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