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Comment by oftenwrong | Hacker News Reader

Home automation seems to mainly achieve "low low benefits". Like turning on a light from your phone instead of using a light switch. These things make some minor conveniences possible, but don't come close to being essential. It doesn't seem worth it for the privacy, security, management overhead, cost, etc.

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When done well it provides more than just toggling a switch on your phone. Examples are timers for lights to say turn on outdoor lights at dusk. Turning on thr garage light when the garage door opens. Double tapping the switch by thr front door to turn off all lights in your home.

I'd like to think that shunning home automation isn't the answer, rather demanding open protocols and no internet connection required, such as with ZWave and more so Zigbee.

Some of these things can be achieved with lower-tech sensors.

Outdoor lights with light or motion sensors are common.

Garage lights typically turn on automatically when the garage door opens. If you mean the human-sized door to the garage, light bulbs with built-in motion sensors are available; I have used those in entryways and in closets. I don't have a garage, but if I did it would be nice to be able to close it remotely if I forgot to.

I have also installed timer switches to make sure things like vent fans for the shower do not stay on longer than necessary.

Switching all lights at once is nifty if you live in a large home. I have a small home, so it's quite trivial to turn off all of the lights.

For myself, I just don't think it's worth it to setup more sophisticated automation at this time. For one, I rent. Second, of all of the inconveniences in my life, these are at the bottom of the list.

One of the best minor conveniences I addressed recently was getting a larger-volume soap dispenser so that I have to refill it less often.

Yep, if you rent it doesn't make as much sense. All I was pointing out is that automation is way more than just being able to flip your light on using your phone. I have ZWave switches in my home and I don't use my phone to flip any switches. For me, I like being able to program the house and customize it in any way.

A motion sensor hard wired vs one that goes back to a Zigbee/Zwave hub running OpenHab are not too different. One is some added complexity for added flexibility.

I'm no expert but these appliances don't seem to be very programmable. For example, can I set the living room bulbs to be white in the day, gradually turn yellower throughout the evening and red at night?

To me it just seems like going from a dimmer switch on the wall to an app on a phone is being heralded as a revolution, when it isn't.

It sounds like you haven’t used any automation systems. You can do exactly that (and more) with the most popular smart light - Philips Hue. Other brands can as well.

We were doing all that without IoT 20 years ago. BSR X10

Oh, I am a big advocate of open protocols so you can host the hub locally rather than it connecting back to some AWS server. Hence the ZWave and Zigbee reference.

Its time for an open source washer!

There are some valid use cases though. For example loading a washing machine in the morning, then starting it a hour before I plan to drive home. This one can be a real quality of life changer.

Nothing is really essential in our life. Do you really need washing machine? You can do laundry by hand. It saves time and more convenient to use a machine. The problem with a lot of automation schemes is that it takes more time and less convenient because of poor design.

Surely you can just set the timer most washing machines to start it a few hours after you leave? Personally though having washing machines running in an empty house makes me nervous.

I was able to add dimming capability to the lights in my rented apartment where it wasn't available before using smart lights. That was a pretty big benefit to me.

This doesn't require a network connection, just a dimmer switch. Note that these generally won't work with smart lights, so you need a dimmer switch and dumb bulbs.

Unless you're saying because it is rented, the landlord won't allow you to install your own switches, though I'm not sure why they'd care as long as you restore it before moving out. I own rental properties and would definitely allow tenants to do that. Hell, I'd even do it for them if they asked.

I have installed my own switches in rentals. For example, I installed a timer switch for a vent fan in my last apartment. Very easy to undo when it comes time to move, if necessary.

The dimming is nice, but the feature I like that makes it completely worth it for me is that the lights slowly turn on automatically at sunset.

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