Yeah, and that's the Best Practice. But in some Monitoring & Control cases where there may be a switch, or series of manual switches, that don't really get used ...and it would actually mess things up a bit if they did // well, that's where I keep trying to ground myself in KISS so that my HA world doesn't have to end even if I do. But realistically, I'm thinking it would.
A lot of folks will read this post and not say anything, some thinking it is stupid, or just not caring.... perhaps more than a few won't like to think about it and realize the reality in it for their HA implementations
At the moment everything just runs, but the eventual need to reboot the hub or change a few batteries would probably be it's demise. Guess I could add an auto-reboot when free memory falls below a certain level to prolong things, but....
These aren't killer cases like for example, locking/unlocking your front door but-
I just got done setting up a simple app to run some remote outdoor solar DC lighting off a DC relay that I will manually set to active from T-Giving through New Years.
I am weeks away from manually shutting down a simple app that manages irrigation valves.
Both are cases where if I spent a little effort to figure it out I could leave the app running but have it "seasonal". In some ways I'm tempted just for my own convenience.
How far does one go to make themselves dispensable LOL
Same here. I have thoroughly documented everything I have done, together with a discussion of the trade offs and reasons for the setup. I have given a copy of that documentation to my wife, and I sought her input as I set the system up, offering her choices as to how it would be set up. She enjoys the system and is adept in using the automations (most things operate on their own - we really don’t use dashboards except when out of town, to check status).
That said, she has told everyone that, when I die (now 71 and in good health), she will put the house on the market the next week. Everything is registered to the house, which has its own email, making it easy to turn things over to the next owner.
Where were you a year ago to suggest that? I am meeting with a realtor in 15 minutes about putting our house on the market. That is as close to the if-I-died scenario as I hope to go in the near term. It sure would have been a clean break to hand them account information along with the keys.
That's really smart and puts everything you do into a "will it hand-over nicely" perspective. The value that adds to your sale is likely not lost on you. This is much more than: oh, yeah the house has an alarm system.
My wife talks to Alexa to make things happen. That is the extent of her interaction with Hubitat. She has told me a number of times that if I die she is getting somebody in to rip it all out
Considering my wife is significantly more proficient in logic than I am, I imagine my HE would be managed better than ever. At the moment she realizes I enjoy the hobby so she leaves it alone and let's me struggle through particularly difficult rule creation instead of just telling me the most efficient and simplest way to create the logic for the desired automation
On rare occasion when I have a complex rm rule that is not working out exactly like I desire, I have my wife take a look at it. After a quick glance she tells me what to change to make it work like I desire. Actually, now that I think about it, if I was to die, I think she would move all the automations to node-red.
Being I'm 78 years old now, and my wife is 72, I know she will not be interested in keeping the automatons going. I expect my C4 would be down within 3 weeks at the longest. (Another reason for me to move to the C5/C7 devices which don't seem to require periodic reboots). The biggest inconvenience will be the outside lighting which is totally controlled by Hubitat. Everything not physically attached to the house or shop or shed is automation control only. I doubt my wife will remember that I have some plug in dusk/dawn timers she can use to control the front post lights and rear lighting. She will probably be pleased to no longer need to listen to the audio announcements I have. I have a separate Elk M1G alarm system which she is familiar with using. It has been chugging along for years with no failures (knock on wood). Long story short - my automations will be out the window in no more than 2 weeks
Fortunately my husband is technologically able, and he's already started interfering with the dashboards (as for some reason he can't remember how to operate the smart buttons or the voice commands so he has to use his phone to turn things on and off) so I guess he'd simply take over and run it. It won't be long before he's mansplaining how it all works to me...
I imagine things would slowly degrade and stop working over time. The good news is most things will work manually. I have not consolidated my documentation such that it is yet.. Documenting things can help streamline your system as well. I wish I were better at it...
Another good question brought on by @672southmain is what do you have to do in order to move and provide the "digital keys" to the new homeowner? Hopefully that is a little more immediate/relevant for most of us!!!!!
Everything in my home can still be switch operated. Only the "convivence" items such as the evening light modes along with the house is dark light modes wouldn't work. If the basement lights don't come on when the stairwell switch turns on they can still use the pull chains to turn individuals lights on and off.
My backup is my son. He has been working with me in the tail end of this journey. Even though I don't make any more daily updates I still like to keep on top of Hubitat updates.
The bigger questions is the folks that I support at other locations. These are mostly hands off and very few that even know how the system works. I work with some "partners" that have done electrical or networking that can handle the simple task to tell them to reboot the hub but if say a Z-Wave device fails and needs replacement they wouldn't know what to do. But again even at those locations everything can still be operated manually.
If someone wants to take over they can look at the development notebook I made that outlines the automations and some of the configuration. It's all stored in a excel workbook and easy to understand the logic. Where they would have issues is looking at the Hubitat documentation and determining how Rule Machine works and some of the apps. I provide this notebook to all my clients.
I actually was able to test this for real a few years ago. I was hit by a car and was hospitalized for 3 weeks, and then spent another 2 months confined to a wheelchair. All the automations I had at that time kept running smoothly, except I believe, a couple that were tied to a motion sensor in the garage. And that was because the battery in the sensor died. So after I die, I expect the automations to keep running for however long it takes for the sensor batteries to all get drained.
One exception -- my robot vacuum. Obviously, that has to be emptied regularly and I'm pretty sure my wife wouldn't remember to do that until the thing was overflowing and clogged itself up. So maybe 3-4 days tops for that.
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