How "Smart" is your home?

We have very little to monitor or watch. No heat or AC, gated front door with buzzer outside of that, stove and fridge are dumb.

But I did change out all the incandescent bulbs to CFLs and then LED, so there's that.
 
I saw a post on social media somewhere:

Tech Aficionado: I have smart everything! My phone presence turns lights on in all the rooms, my fridge auto-orders groceries when low, Alexa can tell my moods!

Actual Tech person: The only tech in my house is a printer, and I keep my gun next to it ready to shoot it the moment it beeps in a funny way.
 
Don’t dis da’ Ting! It is not home automation, it is home protection against electrical malfunctions, such as transformer problems, loose wires, etc. It is cheap insurance against electrical fires, which is why State Farm offers the device for free.

My brother died in a house fire caused by electrical faults. I encourage everyone I know to get a Ting, if possible.

Thanks for this! I'll make sure to take it with me when I move.
 
After reading everyone's, I feel smarter. I wouldn't have thought of everything we actually do have.

Mesh router, Ring camera, motion sensor lights (outside), smart-ish TV, smart dehumidifier. My air fryer reminds me of the Star Trek push button food dispenser, so there's that. And if the grands could just mix me a margarita... Smart bar tender.
 
Don’t dis da’ Ting! It is not home automation, it is home protection against electrical malfunctions, such as transformer problems, loose wires, etc. It is cheap insurance against electrical fires, which is why State Farm offers the device for free.

My brother died in a house fire caused by electrical faults. I encourage everyone I know to get a Ting, if possible.

Interesting. I'd never heard of Ting. Makes sense though.

Where I start to lose interest is the need for an annual subscription. More red flags when the "buy now" page doesn't even tell me how much that annual subscription will be.

Maybe someone will come up with an open-source version I can use with Home Assistant or whatever.
I am investigating DC lighting for the new house, and that could get really smart.

Another option I'd be interested in learning more about. My concern here is the lack of standards. Outlets and Edison base bulbs have been around a long time, and I can buy plug-in or screw-in replacements anywhere. I'd hate to end up locked into the Betamax of low-voltage DC standards.

I suppose there's already a sort-of standard for 12VDC Auto, RV and marine systems, but I don't know if that scales well to a whole house.
 
Edison bases are a trap in new construction, do not go that route. There are plug and play LED fixtures that go into cans.
Here is why an Edison base is bad.
"Fixtures to be served"
It is an old standard for bulbs you cannot buy, but each base "needs" 60 watts of power based on the old days.
So a lighting circuit that might use 60 watts for the whole thing, must be sized for 60 at each location.
 
Hey, with all the discussion of Home Assistant, I've been looking into it, and before I took the plunge I figured I'd ask for advice from those who are using it here...without derailing this thread. 😂 Please see the new Home Assistant advice thread if you're so inclined to help, or you're also interested in advice on HA.
 
Interesting. I'd never heard of Ting. Makes sense though.

Where I start to lose interest is the need for an annual subscription. More red flags when the "buy now" page doesn't even tell me how much that annual subscription will be.
.....
I was also interested and poked around the site a bit. It is $49 per year after the first year.
 
I've been thinking about this stuff a lot lately. Just moved into a new house. I had gone all-in on Amazon in my old house: Ring security, Alexa, etc. Overall I regretted it; Amazon didn't seem to do much of a job of integrating things, of any sort of 'gestalt' of the house --- for example, they bought two different security companies that continue to be completely separate (Ring, Blink --- I had used blink, ultimately went over to ring). They shipped out stuff that wasn't really ready and then didn't support it (Fire TV Recast DVR). They increasingly pushed adverts everywhere, I constantly fought my Echo show devices to not have to see stuff that I didn't want so finally gave up on anything with a video screen component.

I have Google One or premium or whatever via my son-in-law and he had Google throughout his house and was happy with it, so I started fresh in this new house with Google. Even to the point of somewhat dumbing down from my ASUS router to use Google's latest version.

I'm doing my best this time not to get locked into standards that might die soon: I wired in z-wave light switches in a lot of places in the old house, and matter/thread seems to be the (current) future.

So I'm sticking for now with JUST google devices and leviton switches/plugs. Well, my new washer and dryer are GE so I added their app in too. Given the TP-Link stories recently I've been paying more attention now to all of the various mainland Chinese firms selling stuff. The hardware often works great, but I'm leery of any of their apps on my phone now.

So far besides the router I have a few google speakers, have set up one wired camera and have one each Leviton plug and switch. Unfortunately Google had a system-wide hiccup w.r.t. Google Assistant recently which made this all a bit more confusing for me, but hopefully that sort of thing is rare (?). There's also some confusion in terms of Nest vs. Google and more recently the messy and doubtless to-be long drawn out transition from Google Assistant to Gemini, but hopefully the end result will be nice.

I basically gave up on the idea of privacy, preferring now to try to limit somewhat how much privacy I lose to too many different firms. I was already using gmail, youtube & youtube music, google maps --- so I figured there's little additional loss of privacy going all-in on Google this time. Amazon for me is now mostly just a shopping site.

Some things I've learned recently:
  1. Ring security doesn't seem to have thought of a homeowner passing their gear on to a new owner. When I disconnected myself from that system my external wired-in cameras and doorbell all entered setup mode and constantly blink. Marvelous to have a security camera over my garage door flashing constantly with an empty house, sort of an advertisement that says "something interesting here, take a look". I turned off the circuit to that camera for now, not sure what I'll do before the house sells, or how well that will work for a prospective buyer. Maybe I'll end up having to rip it all out and do some re-wiring. Something to think about when wiring in smart devices.

  2. I had assumed that hard-wired ethernet is always the way to go, so in my new house I recently spent a lot of time mapping coax and cat5e, and converting cat5e cables that had been used as phone lines to put in ethernet wall plates to connect to those instead. Turned out that with Google's WiFi 6E mesh system I was getting exactly the same download/upload speed at a mesh node with or without wired backhaul. I'll still keep wired backhaul for one of the nodes but won't bother with the other as it's sort of unsightly in that location. I guess it's nice to have ethernet plates in various places in the house; there are some devices that require a wired connection and the Google mesh nodes each provide just one ethernet output (though of course one could attach that to a switch).

  3. Per above, stick to a very limited number of providers, and now if it requires an app (and so very often it does require an app) I'll avoid quite a number of brands that are ultimately Chinese companies. Don't get me wrong, I like Chinese people and culture, I'm just not keen on the current government in Beijing:
    The Government May Ban TP-Link Routers This Year. How Worried Should You Be?
 
I'm doing my best this time not to get locked into standards that might die soon:
This.
The whole theme of technology is getting customers to spend more and more $$$ to get the latest and greatest. It can be a never-ending wheel, having to upgrade, and then upgrade again, and again.
When our town stops supporting its copper phone lines, then I guess we'll have to get rid our Model 554 and Model 500 rotary telephones. These were the "new" lower-voltage models introduced in 1949 and produced through the 1980s. They still work perfectly today on the late '40s infrastructure that runs underground into our home.
 
This.
The whole theme of technology is getting customers to spend more and more $$$ to get the latest and greatest. It can be a never-ending wheel, having to upgrade, and then upgrade again, and again.
When our town stops supporting its copper phone lines, then I guess we'll have to get rid our Model 554 and Model 500 rotary telephones. These were the "new" lower-voltage models introduced in 1949 and produced through the 1980s. They still work perfectly today on the late '40s infrastructure that runs underground into our home.
We had twisted copper wire phone service until just a few months ago. I was hesitant to switch due to my rotary phones, but then the phone company got permission from the public utilities commission to abandon the copper wires in favor of their new fiber optic line, so I was forced to switch. The good news is that my old phones still work after the changeover.*

*Although they won't work after a long enough power outage. But, then, neither would the copper wire system if the outage affected the exchange building power.
 
We were pushed into VOIP a long time ago and thar led to abandoning the land line entirely. No regrets.
This is the rabbit hole I am going down on DC lighting and fans for the new home.
It is the hardware layer that can integrate with any number of control systems. I am leaning towards Hue, but it all talks to the Raspberry Pi at the heart of things.
Once the switches and fixtures are programmed, the whole thing does not need to be connected to work. It is up to me.
Low Voltage DC Lighting with AWG18 wire

I like Hue precisely because it is not trying to be all things.
 
We had twisted copper wire phone service until just a few months ago. I was hesitant to switch due to my rotary phones, but then the phone company got permission from the public utilities commission to abandon the copper wires in favor of their new fiber optic line, so I was forced to switch. The good news is that my old phones still work after the changeover.*

*Although they won't work after a long enough power outage. But, then, neither would the copper wire system if the outage affected the exchange building power.
We upgraded to fiber Internet a few years back.

How do your rotary phones still work with fiber-optic? Where does the electrical power come from?
 
Interesting. And then there's this thread...
 
We upgraded to fiber Internet a few years back.

How do your rotary phones still work with fiber-optic? Where does the electrical power come from?
There is a special backup power supply hooked into the electric panel in the basement and it provides the power to the phone. The phone company installed it when I switched. They must also have something in the system that converts pulses so I can still dial.
 
There is a special backup power supply hooked into the electric panel in the basement and it provides the power to the phone. The phone company installed it when I switched. They must also have something in the system that converts pulses so I can still dial.
That's really cool that they did that for you. In a neighboring community across the river, the local phone company was absorbed by Charter and everybody was forced to switch to getting their land-lines through Cable TV lines. People with rotary phones were just told to get a new phone. The rotary phones cab still be used as an extension, but I don't think they can dial out as the system doesn't recognize the pulses.
 
According to my router, I have 79 clients currently connected. I really went in for the Amazon Alexa stuff when I had my cancer and weakened immune system where even touching a light switch after someone who has a cold could put me in the hospital or worse. Almost every light, or plug-in is voice controlled. Most are also tied to groups I've named such as Master Bedroom Lights, Great Room Lights, even Christmas Lights. Then there's the vacuum cleaner, outdoor garden fountain, whole house intercom, a dozen or so outdoor security cameras, the thermostats, hot tub, various ceiling fans, etc. And it all works marvelously. Until a power glitch longer than a few seconds. Then they all go dumb. The manual controls are still in place, but what a pain to have to get up to turn on and off stuff! Ha!
The technology comes with a price with electricity. My phantom power, the power the runs behind the scenes for things like TV, microwave, fridge, and all those wifi clients adds up to over 400watts per hour, 9.6kw per day. At 40 cents a kilowatt hour from our utility company, that's $3.84 a day, $117 a month, $1,400 a year.
 
The technology comes with a price with electricity. My phantom power, the power the runs behind the scenes for things like TV, microwave, fridge, and all those wifi clients adds up to over 400watts per hour, 9.6kw per day. At 40 cents a kilowatt hour from our utility company, that's $3.84 a day, $117 a month, $1,400 a year.

Holy moly, that's not much less than my total electric use for everything.
 
That's really cool that they did that for you. In a neighboring community across the river, the local phone company was absorbed by Charter and everybody was forced to switch to getting their land-lines through Cable TV lines. People with rotary phones were just told to get a new phone. The rotary phones cab still be used as an extension, but I don't think they can dial out as the system doesn't recognize the pulses.
"Back in the olden days" when I was a Field Service Tech in the 80's and we all were road warriors working off of pagers, all techs carried pocket dialers typically from Radio Shack. We could use them on pay phones to either manually dial or use preprogrammed numbers which played tones that would dial the phone for us. Very useful when we used AT&T or MCI for long distance service as it would dial the access number to the long distance provider, your access codes and any number you called frequently like our tech support lines. Hackers of that day were known to use these devices to somehow circumvent long distance charges.
 
Holy moly, that's not much less than my total electric use for everything.

2024 Total electrical utility spending: 5,923 KWH = $1,267.63

2024 Electric 6517 KWH = $2266
I have solar, so much of my electric use is banked and can offset winter use. Here's a screenshot of May 7th, 2024. It shows I generated 30kwh for the day, used 15kwh for the day and banked $5.40 for future electric usage for the year. At my annual true-up, I pay around $100 for the year. Mostly for the meter fee of $5 a month and taxes.


solar1.jpg
 
Electric 2024 $1022
I think I forgot a smart appliance. I have an electric heater in the well pump house, for those nights the temperature dips into below freezing. It's not really smart just a sensor that turns the heater and a light bulb on ar 32.

I got up this morning and the light has been on the whole time. I think I need to move somewhere warmer, 30 miles from Mexico just isn't doing it.
 
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