This post is only half serious, but it's that half that's probably one of the most important factors in my house for home automation: WAF.
Over the past couple of years I've noticed that WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor for the single folks) seems to be mentioned more frequently. When I checked just now there were 500+ posts with WAF. (Oddly, not one post had the WAF tag, so I created it starting now).
Thinking back, the perfect WAF has been the holy grail of my home automation journey. And, the rock bottom WAF has been the number one driving factor in making changes to my setup. Here is an example:
Sometime ago I introduced my wife to the Govee Envisual/Dreamview TV backlight. I didn't have time to tune it properly and the wife invited a bunch of family over. For some reason, they all decided to watch a movie and the wife suggested I "turn on the Govee." Everyone agreed it was... lights. WAF at that point was at an all time low.
Over the next few weeks I quietly put together a few more lights and got the system tuned. Then I found the perfect video to showcase what the lights could do. (link) Finally, I set up some flows in node-red, and with the help Hubitat, made it all work with a voice command. When it was finally ready I asked my wife to check out what it could do. She had been so unimpressed with the whole thing it was hard to get her to even agree to play along. But once the video started and the lights danced around the room I could see she was completely taken in. The next day she texted me and asked me to text her a video so she could show her friends at work. I'm not sure where the WAF was at that point, but it certainly had increased to an all time high.
Today, I have 50+ Govee products, some of which the wife asked me to buy. So, I'd say the overall WAF for Govee products is nearly 100%.
Then, there is she who shall not be named: the infamous voice assistant from Amazon. That thing is the bane of my existence. Much like a seismometer during an earthquake, the WAF varies significantly from one voice command to the next; largely depending on whether or not it did what the wife wanted.
There are lots of other examples I could go into (like this one ) but I think if you've made it this far you more than get my point.
One thing I've noticed is that the WAF isn't necessarily just one overall measurement. It can be applied to a specific product, how that product integrates into the system, how well the various parts of the system work, and even the system itself.
The WAF scale itself is also somewhat nebulous. Does it go from -100 to zero or zero to 100? Or, is it expressed in terms like "critical," "severe," and the like? Or should it be more like how you would describe your savings account? I don't know.
What I do know is my home automation system wouldn't be nearly as well setup, nearly as functional, or nearly as useful if not for WAF. Striving for happy wife, happy life, has dramatically influenced nearly every aspect of my home automation setup.
So, are we overdue for official WAF ratings? I say yes! Much like how GPS replacing maps has saved countless marriages, the time has come for the smart home industry to embrace the WAF. The smart home community needs to create an official scale, and manufacturers need to stamp it on the box of every smart home product. Matter might be the next best thing, but official WAF ratings would be revolutionary.
