In my case, one of the exceptions to that rule are things like Motion switches in the bathrooms which have smarts built into the hub that when someone is in the bathtub for a long soak, the lights won't turn off leaving them in the dark. However, if they are just in the bathroom without being in the tub or in a high humidity situation they work just like normal Occupancy sensors. That is accomplished by the motion switch for the light, and a motion sensor and humidity sensor above the tub. Based on these sensors, the hub then controls the fan and lights motion switch so that it will not turn off until there is no motion in the tub and humidity is back to the household baseline. If things are just shut off, her only option will be to call an electrician or friend to replace the motion switch, I guess.
I also am not fortunate enough to have a wall switch for every lighting effect or device I have installed. Some are only able to be controlled by Alexa linked to wifi or Zigbee plugs, or by programming button controllers on HE for double clicks on a nearby wall switch anfd having HE control the Zigbee Plugs or HUE lights. Then either the HE Hub or the Hue hubs will control the on/off or other functions.
There are quite of few such exceptions which will make life interesting if she just unplugs everything. So things will just stop working or never be able to be turned on. I have built this over the years. Had I known when I started what know now about standards I would have been more careful about staying with one or two technologies and kept it more simple. I now have a big investment (thousands) in some technologies which will be expensive to replace.
As I said in my last post, had I known when I started what I know now, combined with a bit more self-control, I would not have gotten this complex and this mixed bag to technologies. they each answered a certain want or need better than not at all, and I am a bit of "fixer". she wanted a way to do something, or I did, and come hell or high water, I found a way. I guess that may be the price I have to pay to bring this back in line and offer some comfort to her.
I implement a lot of self-constraint to NOT build a "house of cards". If the automated solution is going to become overly complex, I keep it manual. I practice the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle. I standardize on limited protocols and families of devices.
I have thoroughly documented my IP network setup and my home automation setup. Including all integrations and separations of concerns.
I have a buddy locally who is also into home automation. Our wives have designated each other as the wifes support person. We are aware of each others documentation and have reviewed it for any questions.
I kept all the dumb switches, outlets, etc., to be able to replace, if needed (or if moving).
The bigger question I have had was whether my wife would just remove it all. She has said that she likes a lot of the automations, conveniences, lighting effects, etc. and that she would find a way to keep it all.
I think the highest level of WAF that I've achieved was removing voice assistants from the picture. When I started, I was all in on Google Home and had the exact frustrations she's experiencing. I don't have a thick accent by any stretch of the imagination but I do still have the tendency to speak quickly and they just can't account for it.
I'd squarely put this into the bucket of on-site support. Maybe have some discussions ahead of time about expected outcomes, but I'd hardly want to have to walk a grieving individual through "go press this button on this switch for me".
I solved this very problem with radar-based sensors. I try the a few of the Zigbee based ones (looking at you Aqara and Tuya) where they mostly worked but were always a little flaky. I now have radar sensors running using ESPhome through HA and they work perfectly. If someone is in the room, the lights are on. That's it. No catching conditions or accounting for my daughter sitting on her bathroom vanity doing her makeup and sitting really still for a long time. The exhaust fans are controlled by humidity sensors.
My wife has mentioned on more than one occasion that I've spoiled her with the automations around the house. Our compromise has been her learning to maintain it on her own. Or at least being able to get to the right spot to make a forum post for help. If that fails, we're squarely in this realm
but the electrician is my dad (who actually is a licensed electrician). If he's gone, then she can call up a service. It's budgeted for in my life insurance.
EDIT: I had another thought that might itch this scratch. What about spending a weekend simplifying things now. Take a hub backup. Reduce the hub down to keeping things running (e.g. using a switch just turns a light on....nothing fancy). Take another backup and store it offline somewhere. Restore the first backup to get back to where you are. Then, periodically, backup the current config, restore the simplified config, make sure everything is still working, create a new simplified backup, and restore the current config.
If you kick the bucket, just leave instructions on how to restore that offline backup. Would help minimize the immediate need to remove devices to get back to a traditional home setup and help make sure those bugs don't rear their heads anymore (e.g. just get rid of the motion automations for bathrooms all together).
Best solution yet, but just dont know anyone around here or in our circle of friends who have this hobby! I wonder if Habitat will tell
Me if I have any neighbors who own habitats. I make friends easy! LOL
This is the advantage of using one hub for all your automation needs. You'd take a picture of where the hub is plugged in, so she can unplug it to return to the pre-automated era.
Your all missing the other issue.. batteries... most motion door and temp are battery operated and if u have a lot you are swapping some batteries every month or two. I dont see my wife ever doing that.
I specifically designed all my automations such that if Hubitat suddenly disappeared, everything would just simply default back to working like any dumb house. I feel like smart technology should only build on top of dumb technology, but not ever replace it. A switch will always turn on a light, because I don't use smart bulbs. Absolutely no lighting or fans rely on zigbee or zwave to perform their basic functions. And absolutely no lighting uses any wifi at all, so that SSID changes or wifi outages or hardware changes can't disable anything important. In an emergency situation, everything must function properly, even if the internet, Hubitat, zwave, zigbee, wifi, etc are all broken.
Previous house, my wife always told everyone that, if I died, she was just going to lock the door and leave.
...so, I laughed, but I took that into account designing the next house. Almost all of the Big Functional Stuff is Lutron, so it just keeps going without any maintenance whatsoever. All the Z-Wave automation is duplicated by physical switches; almost all of the Zigbee automation is just pretty pretty that we could live without.
I use EverPlans for this sort of thing, as a self-reliant and automatic solution for conveying smart home instructions after death. Allows me to set up another person to send info to only upon my demise as well. As a bonus, you can also use it to posthumously send important papers like wills, financials, account info, etc if you trust EverPlans enough.
Iām intrigued by the idea of banding together to support each otherās non-techie spouses. But it would be pretty tough logistically I think, both to keep updated and to make it work in practice. Might need something like EverPlans for the spouse to even know who has their back (my wife wonāt know how to even get to this forum).
I have often considered and played with HA, but given the simplicity of HE, I never dove in. At this point in the process, adding another new and seemingly more techy complication is just taking this thing in the wrong direction for her to be able to support. The radar may be a good solution, but at first glance, ESPhome seems quite complicated to implement and more so to maintaināanother step in the wrong direction for my WAF.
When referring to your automation system you said, "Mine is quite complex". With respect (and a bit of admiration) I suggest this is the root of the problem
I now automate many non-essential things (e.g., remind me to start the sauna, tell me when the sauna fire went out prematurely) but have stopped automating much of anything essential (e.g., we left the garage doors open, so automatically close them). Instead, I retrained myself to check those doors when I let the dogs out for the last time. I also pointed a camera at those doors that allows me to double check in a convenient way, from anywhere, as a "safety". It has been helpful to do this, as much as almost everyone here may disagree. The more I create simple solutions for things rather than RELY on automation, the happier we both seem to be. Just my two cents.
There are already those on here (not me) that do exactly that. You would be surprised how few peple actually want to pay a competitive hourly rate for that service though.
(who actually is a licensed electrician). If he's gone, then she can call up a service. It's budgeted for in my life insurance.
