Based on the above comments, it appears that I am on the fringe here. I am constantly pushing the envelope with lots of automation (routines, sensors, monitoring, security, maintenance), personal control with voice, automation, sensors, pads/phones/hardware/apps....basically a Jarvis system on a much smaller scale.
1 Like
Exactly. I learned a long time ago that the problem with most programs is that they are written by programmers. Not the people who actually have to use them and the expectations they bring to the experience.
1 Like
I have the same issue. I am also forbidden from using any geofencing app, which makes certain automations... challenging. I use wifi monitoring instead, with large timeouts to account for odd iphone behavior.
2 Likes
I have a handful of automations. For example, space heaters on smart plugs are automated to turn off after a certain amount of time - from 15mins for fan heaters to 2 hours for safe convectors. A siren sounds if certain sensors are triggered at night. Mainly though I turn stuff on and off manually either through my phone dashboard or by yelling at one of my fairly deaf voice assistant devices. The main benefit to me of a smart home is to save me having to drag myself all the way up two floors to make sure I didn't leave my heater on. Or stand up again when I have just curled up on the sofa to read and realise it's too dark.
There is no way I'd like it if doors flew open and lights came on just because I had moved into a certain spot!
1 Like
I guess I am what you would call a control freak. If I could I would have everything automated that I could and let the house run itself. The only reason I can't is, you guessed it the wife. For some reason she likes this one phrase "I live here too". So before I get new HA stuff or automate anything I have to run it by her first. I am not saying this is unreasonable, but it is very limiting. Plus the fact that she can't seem to say the right phrase to get Alexa to turn on a light does not help. She enjoys HA when it works correctly which keeps me on my toes to try and make it a good experience for her.
I guess I have my feet in both camps control and monitor and automation. I just long for the old days when I could get a Smarthings Multisensor for a reasonable price. These would do temp, contact, battery, 3 axis and accelleration for 20 bucks.
3 Likes
I'm definitely more in the automation camp. Stuff should just work when/where I need it without additional intervention. That said, there are always enough outlying instances where some kind of manual activation is necessary, so I still regularly make use of dashboards and Flic buttons and Alexa and whatever to control things.
But the ideal for me would like something from Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" where the house continues running by itself well after the inhabitants are gone. The comic book adaptation of the story can be read here... "There Will Come Soft Rains" : dochermes — LiveJournal
4 Likes
Same. I came to HE with literally a lifetime's experience of relays, timeclocks, twist timers, & low voltage controls, intercom, room-to-room phones ---my dad was widely known as an electro-mechanical whiz kid and my 1940s childhood home was waaay beyond futuristic.
BUT, as his helper, by the time I was 12 I came to realize that all that gee-whizzery came with the heavy burdens of support and dependence. AND, most galling even to a 12 yr old, after a few years repair parts would be hard to find. (Let's not discuss replacements hoarding, ok?)
After 30 years as a programmer and then supporting my code, I also found that (then) sophisticated code -counters, loops, subroutine jumps- was hell to support after a year or two.
So, I do easy-to-decipher HE automations but the bulk of it is voice control and RM timeclocks.
3 Likes
As I get older the desire to maintain or manage a complicated system is greatly reduced.. prefer to use the most simple, robust and maintainable setup as possible.
5 Likes
We automate everything, but being able to ask Google to open the garage door or set the thermostat means we can do both and control everything with voice or a dashboard as well. I only have one dashboard that we use in the kitchen and master bath mostly for monitoring lights, doors, locks, thermostat, and weather.
Some of the best automations are still the simplest ones from the very beginning of my smart home journey. If motion in the kitchen, turn on the light. We only notice how spoiled we are when stuff doesn't work and we have to use the light switch like the cavemen used to do.
My wife enjoys the convenience of the automations. After I asked a hundred times over the last few years what we can make better or easier, she finally mentioned just recently that she wished the under-cabinet lights went on during the day for task lighting. Yes! We have the technology! A quick run to webCoRE and we now have daytime task lighting (but only if it's light out and there's motion in the kitchen for longer than a minute so they don't turn on just walking through).
2 Likes
Very large amount of automation using sensors. My use of voice assistants is minimal. The only large amount of data that I save is HVAC data.
1 Like
Holy smokes. I looked up the original text. What a great short story! That's going to be me mowing the lawn while my house automatically opens and closes the garage door... 
3 Likes
I think background automation is the real objective here, especially for mass market endorsement. My system works pretty well in this regard but can mess up when trying to be too clever.
My control fetish surfaces though and it gives me great satisfaction to have the power at my fingertips. You might like a romantic date but a Dashboard I liken to watching porn. Unfortunate parallels there. Control is really not the same purpose or contentment though. Monitoring is useful like alerts and phone number lookups. GSOH and spontaneous/adventuresome don’t sit well in either of these.
Remote interfaces like button controllers that keep me fed as a couch potatoe I like.
UI’s are incredibly time consuming to fashion and very subjective. Once created I was surprised how little use they had beyond voyerism. So they’re one for a rainy day and I can get by with a basic UI.
2 Likes
For me, the primary objective is automation. I want lights to be on when they should, on their own, off when they should. I want the garage door to open when I come back with the car, but not when I’m back from my walk, etc. I also want my hub to let me know if there are issues that it cannot fix.
Through this, I want to be able to control everything manually, so that family and guests can control what they want if they need it.
It is also very important that I can integrate with my security system, as otherwise I will forget to arm it, or lock my doors, etc.
I like the ability to monitor things, but I mostly use this to debug issues and help me improve my automations.
7 Likes
That’s an interesting comment in the opposite sense too…. Should something that just works fail to do so then likely it will go unnoticed for a while with attendant risks. So do we need an automation to confirm the automation worked, or more usefully to advise it didn’t.
If it doesn’t advise could it too be broken ?
1 Like
With my SmartThings, I was a manual control and monitoring person.
With my Hubitat, I have become an automation and monitoring person.
5 Likes
Automate what doesn't piss off the wife, voice control everything, and manual control for guests.
8 Likes
This is exactly my current level of automation.
It does let me slip in things that would annoy the wife, but she doesn't have to know. 
2 Likes
Particularly the HVAC controller reset back to standard 15 minutes after she changes them... 
8 Likes
This is my life in a nutshell. I love this stuff, would automate almost everything if I could. Wife is not a fan, wants to control everything manually.
Compromise...some automation, many, many Picos.
Monitoring/catching my mistakes is a favorite of mine. Don't go to bed w/doors or windows unitentionally left open, don't forget the laundry is in the washer needs to be dried/dryer needs to be hung up, don't leave the water running in the back yard, don't forget to turn off the whole house fan, don't run the whole house fan when all the windows are closed (not good)...
^^^^^ This!
One of my favorite authors, and one of his best works. Totally spooked me out when I read it as a kid. People tend to only think of him as a "SciFi" author, but the scope of his work is so much more than that.
OK, sorry, back to topic.
5 Likes
Exactly my wife... It's excruciating (and only between us here, funny) watching her and hearing the tortured phrases she comes up with.
"Hey Google, that light over there should turn on."
Yeah, that's just not going to work.
6 Likes
