Comment by jcgrillo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jcgrillo | Hacker News Reader

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Smart switches (at least for lights) seem to me like a solution in search of a problem. Why would I ever need to turn on lights when I'm not there? If I am there, what's wrong with just using the switch?

I am using HA for something else. I'm building some ESP32 based "smart" thermostats to collect temperature and humidity data as well as exert some control over my minisplits. The only viable interface is IR so that's taking a little work to place a transmitter and receiver appropriately s.t. my wall mounted device meshes well with the existing remote control. The end goal is to integrate with the hydronic backup to create a hybrid heat system.

It's frustrating I have to build all this myself. This shit should all just work that way out of the box, without the "GE Cloud" or whatever. But I'm glad it's made relatively easy by tools like HA and microcontroller dev boards.

> Why would I ever need to turn on lights when I'm not there?

The use case I have is to turn off lights when I'm not there. My wife frequently leaves lights on when exiting a room, so it is often useful to turn the lights off remotely. Voice control is nice too, for the situations when my hands are full and I can't hit a switch.

So smart switches are solving two problems instead of one problem: When you want to automate it, you can. When you just need it to work conventionally as a light switch without breaking your automation, it also does that. They are the no-compromise solution.

I guess that's the thing: I can't imagine wanting to automate a light switch. There are plenty of practical things to automate. For example, window shades for passive solar heating (or the prevention thereof), hvac, hell I think it would be awesome to have a temperature sensor in my utility room and machinery to "scram the reactor" (shut off the well pump and drain all the water pipes) if the temperature drops below 34°F. But light switches?

Sibling comments suggest automatically turning on/off lights if someone is expected to arrive or depart, but wouldn't that person just think "weird, they left the lights on"?

Actually, I’d have them come on to at the same time the cleaner is due. Or the dog walker. I DO intend on a smart lock for the front door.

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