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My home was built in 1896 and still has skeleton keys for all 4 exterior doors and dam if I can find a system to remotely control them.Same with my muzzle loaders you can't find a 30 round magazine anywhere .I need to upgrade my stuff.
Im really old school, I dont need anything turned on or off when im not home. If a sprinkler was on in the rain, so what, who cares, life isnt going to end, it will go off.
so the a/c isnt on, its not that much of a disaster to turn it on when i get home, a few minutes of discomfort is not the end of the world.
why oh why, would I ever want my over on when Im not home.....
so the lights are on, big deal, they will get turned off.
so they arent on before i get home, i can always have a lamp on a timer if need be.
im really old school.....i dont feel, see, or necessitate the need for any of it. I have been doing fine manual all these years...
I do a lot of energy management systems for Schools and businesses and sometimes really large homes. In general I can save them a minimum of 50% in their electric bills if their a/c equipment is actually used beforehand.
I know it is not a house and your electric bill may not be so much, but for example, 2 years ago year I did a school with a auditorium, 2 gyms, 157 classrooms a extension school with 10 more classrooms. Large admin area Library, and a good sized cafeteria.
Their energy bill was 40% of what it was over the previous 5 years averaged. They saved $112,000 per month.
But for the typical house it depends upon whether it is useful or not. You probably live in a temperate climate. In cold climates, access to your HVAC system could save you $10's of thousands of dollars due to unexpected weather causing pipe freeze.
Where I live it can be 75F one day in the spring with a week forecast of the same. So you go for a nice little drive to visit the relatives for a day or 2. Then suddenly a blizzard moves in without warning. You cant drive back and if you didnt leave the heat on, by the time you get back your basement is now a cistern. It sure is nice to be able to turn on the heat and not worry about it.
There are many cases like this where it can be quite useful and save costly expenses. Then others where is it nothing more than a gimmick to show the neighbors.
Im an old fart but I value things that have usefulness.
After a career in Technology that I've retired from, I'm hardly unwilling to evolve with the times/try something new. The litmus is that it has to be BETTER than the existing options that are simpler/more robust/cheaper. The is the key point that people seem to miss. Is an internet connected XYZ device substantially better in whatever regard...
I completely agree. It seems millennials are much more into "technology will make me look cool", whether it actually improves their lives or not.
One of my friend's kids has a bunch of home automation, and some of it is actually somewhat useful - such as using Amazon Echo to turn on the lights rather than fumbling for a switch in the dark.
But some of it is certainly not necessary, and may even be detrimental - such as using Echo as an alarm clock, since it won't work correctly when the internet or the electricity goes out - especially since battery back-up alarm clocks have been around for 30 years and cost around $8.
I'm with you there. Kind of worried that either my house will be hacked into (hah), or that my house will develop an AI and lock me in. I think I saw a movie about that when I was a kid. -_-
I work in tech, too, so I see how easily people can get access to a customer's server or site. Makes me a little nervous, but am I just being paranoid?
As noted in the article, to hack the Nest there needs to be physical access to the device. That is a highly unlikely scenario for the average homeowner. More likely in a movie script.
Those things give me the willies more than any single other piece of tech (along with the entry from Google and does Apple have one too?). I do *not* want an always on, always listening, everything recorded and stored in a database, device. Especially since you know, for a fact, that stuff is for sale to the highest bidder, if not just to Every bidder. And watching those same companies pushing their own political agenda with increasing frequency, the extreme to which they react to those who don't fall in line with their world view.... it's just an invasion of privacy that *I* can't tolerate. But my tolerance level is low, I can't tolerate the loss of privacy that comes from using a smartphone, having a Facebook account, or any of a lot of other things that track an individual to collect data and then use that for targeted marketing (i.e. selling that info).
Sorry, just me being old. Never did understand why people were so willing to give away that information, probably never will understand.
Personally, the issue of privacy and hacking is a second order item of concern to me, as I am not interested in investing all the time to set up and troubleshoot all these doohickeys. My time is worth something to me, and I would rather spend it doing a lot of other things than managing a "smart house".
I was setting up computerized control systems for million-dollar-plus assembly lines when most of the Millennials that accuse me and my type of age-related mental sclerosis weren't even a gleam in the computer salesman's eye.
With age comes (I hope) the ability to decide for oneself whether or not to follow a trend, no matter how "cool" it may seem in the short term.
Personally, the issue of privacy and hacking is a second order item of concern to me, as I am not interested in investing all the time to set up and troubleshoot all these doohickeys. My time is worth something to me, and I would rather spend it doing a lot of other things than managing a "smart house".
I was setting up computerized control systems for million-dollar-plus assembly lines when most of the Millennials that accuse me and my type of age-related mental sclerosis weren't even a gleam in the computer salesman's eye.
With age comes (I hope) the ability to decide for oneself whether or not to follow a trend, no matter how "cool" it may seem in the short term.
Given your stated complete lack of experience with them, then it's not surprising then that you don't know that these smart home technology items often take minutes, sometimes just seconds, to set up.
Those things give me the willies more than any single other piece of tech (along with the entry from Google and does Apple have one too?). I do *not* want an always on, always listening, everything recorded and stored in a database, device. Especially since you know, for a fact, that stuff is for sale to the highest bidder, if not just to Every bidder. And watching those same companies pushing their own political agenda with increasing frequency, the extreme to which they react to those who don't fall in line with their world view.... it's just an invasion of privacy that *I* can't tolerate. But my tolerance level is low, I can't tolerate the loss of privacy that comes from using a smartphone, having a Facebook account, or any of a lot of other things that track an individual to collect data and then use that for targeted marketing (i.e. selling that info).
Sorry, just me being old. Never did understand why people were so willing to give away that information, probably never will understand.
If you've got a cell phone, you have a device that can always be listening. It even goes with you, wherever you go.
Given your stated complete lack of experience with them, then it's not surprising then that you don't know that these smart home technology items often take minutes, sometimes just seconds, to set up.
Oh really?
Let's see. The two most common functions I see described are automatic control of thermostats and light switches.
Overall system:
- Obtain smart phone (this in itself is going to involve at least one lengthy customer support call to India or visit to the relevant storefront)
- Load house control software
Thermostat:
- Remove old tstat
- Read manual on hookup of new one
- Install new tstat (let's assume for the sake of argument that the hookups are compatible, which may well not be the case if the house is older)
- Log in to tstat from smart phone
- Set up limits, timing, etc.
Light switch:
- Shut off breaker
- Remove old switch
- Install new switch
- Re-energize breaker
- Log in to switch from smart phone
- Set up limits, timing, sensitivity to motion (if motion sensing)
- repeat for each room in which you want the light switch to be under control
Back to overall system:
- Exercise each function to confirm proper operation by manually turning on/off and cycling
- Exercise each function to confirm proper operating when under automatic control (by advancing the time settings, or other means)
- Adjust any settings as desired.
Does not sound like "minutes or seconds" to me.
This also does not include the time spent if you end up inadvertently creating multiple control loops that fight each other, in which case you may find yourself with a really knotty problem in control systems engineering.
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