Smart home essentials

[Chz]

An ex-firefighter colleague of mine tells me that unattended washing machines and tumble dryers make up a significant portion of house fires, so I'm not sure setting them to run while you're at work is such a bonus.

The last time I looked at the statistics, what was happening was that the absolute number of house fires from dishwashers, washing machines, etc. wasn't actually going up. But the number of house fires due to smoking has nosedived so much that everything else looks like it's on a huge increase. And large appliances are one of the larger contributors once you remove kitchen fires and smoking, but in absolute numbers it's actually very small. The fire service would have us turn our refrigerators off when not home if they could. (Resistive dryers are a problem, but hopefully heat pumps make that go away)

Oh, and CRT TVs, that was the other one gone down. Flatscreens don't like to catch fire even a fraction as much, not running 30,000V inside with a big capacitor.

 

[teuchter]

How do cheapo (and abundant) wallwart PSUs figure in those stats? It's one of those blowing up and catching fire that is at the forefront of my paranioa about what I have/haven't switched off when leaving the house for an extended time.

 

[Chz]

How do cheapo (and abundant) wallwart PSUs figure in those stats? It's one of those blowing up and catching fire that is at the forefront of my paranioa about what I have/haven't switched off when leaving the house for an extended time.

Almost 100% of things made post-2000 have a switching PSU and don't generate the sort of heat that the old transformer-based ones did. I wouldn't go about leaving one nestled in a pile of kindling if I could help it (for instance, the e-bike charger pulls a fuck-ton of current and gets pretty warm when in use), but when they're idle or doing a trickle charge to keep things topped up they're a negligible threat unless there's faulty wiring. And faulty wiring is like the #3 source of all fires in general, after making mistakes in your kitchen and heating devices.

If you want to be paranoid, make sure that nothing is still charging when you leave the house or unplug it to finish charging when you get back. Nothing else is drawing power such that it should be worried about. Even then, it's not so much the wall wart you should worry about it's the battery that's pulling the charge. I can't off the top of my head think of any wall wart uses that draw more power than battery charging. For instance, the mrs' phone can pull 65W on charge and I don't know what the e-bike pulls other than it's a lot. Nothing else at idle comes close to those.

 

[girasol]

Tim Dowling: our robot thermostat is playing God – and has decided we can all freeze

The problem is no longer something I can simply blame on my wife’s random button-pressing

www.theguardian.com

Tim Dowling: our robot thermostat is playing God – and has decided we can all freeze​

As mentioned before, my main issue with too much tech is that it goes wrong and when it does the time + frustration spent trying to fix it is just not something I am prepared to go through. It's like adding an extra layer of life complication that I don't need!

 

[Leafster]

Tim Dowling: our robot thermostat is playing God – and has decided we can all freeze

The problem is no longer something I can simply blame on my wife’s random button-pressing

www.theguardian.com

Tim Dowling: our robot thermostat is playing God – and has decided we can all freeze​

As mentioned before, my main issue with too much tech is that it goes wrong and when it does the time + frustration spent trying to fix it is just not something I am prepared to go through. It's like adding an extra layer of life complication that I don't need!

On the other hand, when it works (and mine certainly works fine 99% of the time) it takes away some of those life complications.

This morning I woke up and thought 'I'm going to need to work in my home office this morning so lets press the button on my phone to tell it that'. I didn't have to go anywhere near the office room until I'd had a shower and (several coffees). The office was toasty warm when I first went into it. No faffing around. Just done!

 

[existentialist]

My HA server fell off the WiFi yesterday, and it was...instructive. Now back on wired Ethernet, but SSL still needs fixing.

 

[The39thStep]

Anyone tried one of those robot window cleaners ?

 

[scifisam]

I'm not sure how you'd turn on a powered off light by voice. It would have no electricity. I might actually buy that for the rest of the house!

Erm, no, you can. No wonder you don't see the point of them if you don't realise you can turn them on by voice. That's one of their major functions and it doesn't matter if a wall light switch was also used in the meantime.

 

[Mation]

I have discovered more smart lights at home, that I had previously thought dumb.

They have three settings, via number of wall switch presses: bright, warm and interrogation.

I am having thoughts about my capability

 

[wtfftw]

Then it needs to be able to text you "help, I'm on fire."

Like when my robot vacuum sends me a notification that it's fallen off a cliff.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Erm, no, you can. No wonder you don't see the point of them if you don't realise you can turn them on by voice. That's one of their major functions and it doesn't matter if a wall light switch was also used in the meantime.

How does that work then? If I turn any of my lights off at the wall you then lose the voice control to that light because, well, there’s now no power to them

 

[pesh]

You have smart bulbs which require power to work as opposed to smart switches which are smarter.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

You have smart bulbs which require power to work as opposed to smart switches which are smarter.

I just looked on Screwfix and they aren't that expensive if I could be bothered, which I'm not. Makes sense having the switch smart so you can change the bulb.

When I worked in a kids home over covid, one job I hated was going round and getting them to hand in x-box controllers etc at 22.30. It was never quick and was just stress when everyone was already tired. I got smart sockets with a timer fitted and life became so much easier. Well mostly, as I was the only one who could programme then etc, so not sure how they got on with that when I left.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

You have smart bulbs which require power to work as opposed to smart switches which are smarter.

Ah, that makes sense.

I prefer the bulbs though as they’re full colour/variable temperature white LED, which just adding smart switches wouldn’t do.

 

[Chz]

Ideally, you need both. But that's going too far down the rabbit hole for me. It's one thing to have a few wifi-connected devices (the bulbs) you can control via app or voice, but once you start having to integrate different things together into a cohesive system... Nah. Do you bind "Lights on" to the switch? To the bulbs? Maybe bind something else you want to come on with the lights?

 

[scifisam]

How does that work then? If I turn any of my lights off at the wall you then lose the voice control to that light because, well, there’s now no power to them

It just does. I do it all the time. They're smart bulbs, not smart switches. Maybe it depends on the brand.

 

[Chz]

It just does. I do it all the time. They're smart bulbs, not smart switches. Maybe it depends on the brand.

Are they in lamps that are plugged in then? I'm quite confident there are no ceiling smart bulbs that work when the physical switch is off. Or not for long, anyhow!

 

[scifisam]

Are they in lamps that are plugged in then? I'm quite confident there are no ceiling smart bulbs that work when the physical switch is off. Or not for long, anyhow!

No, ceiling light bulbs. And I tested it out before posting. I'm not lying!

 

[danski]

What brand are they scifisam ?

I tried some Philips Hue years ago but gave up as they needed to be left switched on and controlled only by the app. Kept inadvertently switching the switch and fucking it all up.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

It just does. I do it all the time. They're smart bulbs, not smart switches. Maybe it depends on the brand.

Truing to think how on earth that works is making my head hurt.

 

[cesare]

I've just ordered a rechargeable led bulb that you can screw into a normal socket but use its remote to dim/switch off or on rather than electricity. Or you can hang it somewhere useful. I'm just trying it out for now

 

[sim667]

Do you use Google home as I can’t work out the interfacing with home assistant. It’s very complicated

I worked it out. Google home now tells my partner when I leave work and tells me when my phone is fully charged or just about to run out of battery

I’m debating whether to pay the subscription to keep it working whilst I tinker and decide if I can do more with it

 

[MickiQ]

We've got 2 Kasa Smart Bulbs To use them properly they need the switch to be left on and controlled either via the app or voice command to the Alexa's, One of them is in the outside light next to the front door and the switch for that is next to the plug socket under my desk so that never gets touched. The other one is in my office and the switch is on the wall so it gets turned on and off all the time. That said the default setting is the same as the switch so if it is turned on by the switch it is on.
It doesn't take it long to connect to the WiFi so it is still usable as a smart bulb.

 

[teuchter]

These smart bulbs, I imagine they've got even more electronic stuff in them than a regular LED bulb, that gets thrown away when you replace them.

We unfortunately are moving further away from the older model of permanent lamp-holder (and maybe diffuser) + replaceable bulb (where necessary electronics woudl be part of the holder, eg for fluorescent fittings). And often now basically the whole thing - "holder" plus lamp plus diffuser plus control electronics goes in the bin when it needs to be replaced. And replacing it isn't always something that can be done by an occupant. All based on a pretence that LED based fittings last as good as forever.