Wasn't really till seeing this home assistant demo they have (https://www.loom.com/share/18c4dbcf8db546dfb2d7f2ef018e78e4) that the value really clicked for me.
Seems really cool.
Seems really cool.
I feel like this whole scenario could be solved by a very ugly switch case generated by deepseek for 0.02ct.
Side note - just like most people don't need an intelligent personal assistant to manage and respond their emails and book their flights, most people also don't need smart homes. Century old toggle switches are more than enough in a 3 room apartment or 5 room house unless you have a mention.
There's no reason to not do both.
Also a quick NFC sticker in each room taking you to a small HTML site containing settings (temp, ventilation, lights, shutters, setting a alarm by the lights) has been golden.
No one wants to: download Shelly app + AC app + look for ventilation IR controller + figure out how casting works for the TV + figure out how to use the Shelly app to turn lights into an alarm. It's too much friction for little gain. But a quick tap? Great.
But tapping your phone on a NFC sticker bringing all those controls together per room in stead of per category (all lights in Shelly app. Person in room #1 has no interests in the lights in room #4 at the same time.).
IF you tap it while not on Wifi yet it just tells you to connect to Wifi. :-)
One "all house" sticker next to the front door allows any last person leaving or first person entering to put the entire house in active / idle mode.
Works wonders. And as soon as local AI is quick enough the stickers will be a microphone!
The regular-ceiling-lights-as-alarm service gets positive feedback. Weird how smarthome companies never market that, seems easy win.
Then after 20 min an actual alarm goes off, just in case.
Bluetooth--local only but setup can be a bit trickier since they don't automatically form a mesh. You may need to configure relays if your existing devices have that capability or buy dedicated relays
There is a single magic switch that does "extra" stuff and that one's in the master bedroom. All of them except that one fail open and continue working like regular switches if Home Assistant is unavailable.
The livingroom has a Shelly dimmer that replaced an analogue dimmer and it also turns 2 lamps on and off.
The basement switch was wired to a single bulb and it triggers an event that powers all the smart bulbs in lamp holders spliced into arbitrary circuits on and off so all the basement lights work with the existing switch instead of just the 1 physically wired to it.
I think there's plenty of dumb things you can do with smart home tech but there's also tons of subtle and convenient enhancements as well. Phone alarm emits an event that opens the curtains and turns on a lamp is also a nice one.
Having a dashboard that shows whether (many) things are on or off and their power consumption is super handy. Dropping an Emporia circuit power monitor widget in the dashboard shows if the washer and dryer are running (a little bit of power, a lot of power, a lot of power + a little bit more power)
We have 8 light buttons in our living room/dining room/kitchen space. It is very convenient to us that we have 1 button for turning all of them on/off at the door to upstairs (at night turn off all lights and go to bed upstairs, in the morning come downstairs and turn on all lights) - but also have 1 on/off button near our back door for when we leave/come home.
Next to that: on/off toggles a schedule where the lights are bright and cold-ish by day, and low and warm by night without us having to manually adjust each light every hour or something.
Again, need is a big word. But it's very convenient and pleasant.
That was my light bulb moment.
I agree that it was notable that they delegated to an existing LLM, but I don't think it detracts much from the value proposition (not yet proven) of their demo.