There's a lot of IoT stuff which doesn't reach out to the internet. You can also reflash some commercial solutions with open firmware. Also, there's quite a few local only solutions using ZigBee / zwave that you can manage from Home Assistant.
Home automation is a mess, IoT or not. There are standards like KNX, but the problem is the same as it was 30 years ago when the idea of home automation arose: manufacturers want captive markets and can't agree on a single standard. As a result, I can't buy any A/C unit, rolling shutter, light fixture and thermostat and just connect them to my home network, the selection of "smart" appliances is actually very limited.
I mean, home installation is thought out on the scale of decades, because renovation is a pain. People want something simple and reliable, that is the reason why some taps, switches, sockets, etc... are 10 times more expensive than others while looking the same and people still buy them. It is the complete opposite from what Silicon Valley is pushing.
I think the "solution" to this is some sort of open hardware system, where instead of someone manufacturing and selling for a profit, the design includes a standard set of parts you order, and then there's a very simple assembly, Ikea-style.
Home automation was just an example. I take IoT to mean networked not-general-purpose devices. The internet part is meaningless. If you use that IoT device in the same server room as the controller does it become strictly LANoT? What about private overlay networks? It was never about the internet as in public accessibility.
Those who are old enough remember that the Internet is just one example of an internet. Quoting Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization_of_Internet#The...): "The Internet standards community historically differentiated between an internet, as a short-form of an internetwork, and the Internet: treating the latter as a proper noun with a capital letter, and the former as a common noun with lower-case first letter. An internet is any set of interconnected Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The distinction is evident in Request for Comments documents from the early 1980s, when the transition from the ARPANET, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, to the Internet, with broad commercial support, was in progress, although it was not applied with complete uniformity."
So an IoT is an internet of things, not necessarily the Internet of all Things.
I would love to have a connected home that did not require _any_ external connectivity or web accounts. Why did I need to login with my Google account and enable location services to set up a Chromecast Audio?
Listening to a song in the forest is free, listening to it in a bustling street costs 10¢ per play because you're performing it to people walking by
There's a discussion to be had to on placing every basic action on our daily lives on a finicky smartphone.
I love that my light turns on in the hallway when sun sets. Or the lock locks/unlocks as I leave or approach the house. Or that I can see my camera over vpn.
To make a silly comparison, it's like buying digital videogames on a console instead of their physical versions, knowing you're trading immediate convenicence while giving away control, ownership and future availability.
I would have much less problems processing IoT if the "I" was scrapped and optional by default.
I guess I have an hard time understanding people relying on the internet at all.
A camera that works only locally (dafang hacks + wyze), home assistant, zigbee/zwave for example.
Want to control your lights remotely or automate them? Use an in-wall smart switch. They still work as physical switches even if all your automation/smart home stuff is down. Guests don't need to know anything about the smart home, they can just operate them like regular switches. You get smarts "in addition to" the normal light operation that everyone in the world understands.
Smart garage? Hook into a regular, tried and true garage opener using some kind of remotely controllable relay. The button on the wall still works, the opener in your car still works, but you can have smarts in addition to all that.
Replacing regular bulbs with smart bulbs and then requiring a phone or internet connected voice device "instead of" a normal wall switch is insanity.
I personally hate living in a haunted world which is filled with devices watching me, ready to pounce and fill me with delight at their fulfilling my every desire. It's absolute exhausting and downright terrifying when you think through the hell some motivated hacker (or hater) could subject you to.
Is it unthinkable that all this stuff will turn on you one day? What if you become infamous for crossing the wrong person and a viral video sends the firehouse of political hatred from one group or another your way? "Swatting" is a thing. Just wait until people start hacking your house. They could burn it down while you are away by just turning on your oven maybe!
Me? I'd like my bricks, locks, doors, lights, and life to stay dumb.
People just can't get enough of Alexa and her Genuine People Personality!
He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.”
“I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.”
In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.
“You discover I’m right,” the door said. It sounded smug.
— Ubik, Philip K Dick, 1969
I like being able to schedule my plant's grow lights to get the appropriate amount of light regardless of season and being able to keep that schedule even when i'm not home
I like knowing that I left my garage door wide open as I drove away because I forgot to look back over my shoulder to see that the button in my car didn't get picked up.
I like being able to unlock the door for my neighbor to let my dogs out if I end up stranded at work longer than I had intended to when I left that morning.
I like that my garage camera turns on and takes shots of whoever is entering though the door when its opened.
I like that my system texts me if a door/window is opened after 10pm (if its me? no biggy. If its an intruder? BIG HELP)
I like that these devices are on a segregated VLAN with firewalling protecting my personal computers/NAS
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There's a lot of negativity to be said about smart devices, but you can't focus solely on the negativity while ignoring the advantages.
There's also a level of risk and comfort each individual should be willing to set for themselves. I don't 100% trust my garage automation, that's why I have monitored security on my house. I'm not willing to automate devices that can harm my house (oven as your example) but I am willing to monitor their power state (is the oven on?)
This isn't all or nothing in the end.
I use smart home stuff, because: 1. I use it as security device (i have tons of zigbee sensors for motion, and contact). 2. I forget about simple things, all the time. I forget to lock my door, i forget to get my keys etc. All of this is taken care for me in case i forget. I haven't hooked up my garage door yet, but my kid (1 yo) likes to find the remote and press it mindlessly, and i really don't want to leave it open. 3. I like the convenience in general.
If you come to my house, it's definitely not something you'd say a "status symbol". It's only expensive because it's in bay area, otherwise it's a mediocre house.
I have been a programmer for as long as i remember, and these things excite me, that's another aspect.
For the tinkerers, https://dontvacuum.me/ and dustcloud/dustbuilder as search terms.
I have a roborock(Xiaomi sub-corporate brand) firmware flashed to no longer need internet, hosts "the database" on itself which is great for latency/responsiveness, provides web page functionality so you can use it from your phone, computer etc.
I quite like it.
Seems like a reasonable price for a true CO2 sensor.
And once that was the case, it just made sense to have others for convenience, too. For instance, we can turn off almost every regularly-used light at the same time now when we go to bed. The remaining ones are lights we only turn on for a short time anyhow, so they don't get left on.