Do you use any smart home automation devices?

We use Amazon Echos https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Echo-...1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478197951&sr=8-1&keywords=Echo not only to play music and answer questions, but to control our lights and sometimes our sprinkler timer. We've paired it with smart bulbs around the house, most of which have built in dimming ability. "Alexa" is the wake word for commands to the Echo. So I can walk into the house and say, "Alexa, turn on the downstairs lights." and all the bulbs in the "downstairs" group will turn on. I coyuld say, "Alexa, dim the familyroom light to 25% and it dims. We don't have to have a dimmer switch to do it. She will dim it to any percentage, or turn it on and off. They are all LED bulbs. The bulbs can be added to several groups. We have one group called "All the lights". If we hear a noise during the night we could say, "Alexa, turn on all the lights" and every light in the house would turn on.

We have our sprinkler and drip system timer connected to our wifi where I can schedule the times for it to turn on. But if I think the back lawn looks a little dry, I can ask Alexa to start the sprinklers on zone 5 or zone 6 for whatever number of minutes I choose.

I love the convenience of turning on lights by voice, but mostly I just like it because it makes me feel like I've joined the Jetsons or Captain Kirk. :D I like that it was easy enough to set it all up by myself, adding a few bulbs at a time.
 
When I was a child playing with my friends one of our favorite projects was to walk to town, pickup up a few large empty boxes behind the appliance store. Cart them home & create forts, tunnels & a war zone. I asked my father years later how come he never complained about the yellow patches in his grass. He said I always knew where we were & that we were doing something creative, rather than sitting in the house watching TV. Automation has us painted into a corner with no apparent escape. Drones, robots & auto-drive vehicles are going to be our legacy. This is not a critique of your question, but I was sitting outside with my g-grandchildren & their parents yesterday watching their 4 YO & 6 YO focused on their tablets, ear phones on telling their tablets to play this video or load that game.
 

My son is a salesperson for smart business services. You should hear the techy stuff he can explain...in great detail...for hours...and hours...and hours...and...But for me I am blessed if I can just turn on lap top and Ipod:p
 
No. I can get up off my backside and switch on /off lights, mow the lawn, throw another log on the fire or make a cup of coffee if I want one.
IMO, most of these "smart" devices are simply solutions to non-existent problems. I grew up without them, and as long as I'm sane and fit, I expect I'll be able to live the rest of my life without them.
 
The way I see it, all these "smart" devices are just another opportunity for hackers to ply their trade. The more we become "enslaved" by automation and technology, the more likely that someone will find a way to use that maliciously. Being able to turn appliances...heating, stove, etc., on remotely via a smart phone or the Internet...just increases the odds of something like a house fire. The thing I DO NOT want to see is self driving cars. It's bad enough having to dodge the drunks and cell phone clowns....what if someone hacked these cars in heavy traffic doing 70MPH...the death toll would be horrendous.
 
Don M. said:
The way I see it, all these "smart" devices are just another opportunity for hackers to ply their trade. The more we become "enslaved" by automation and technology, the more likely that someone will find a way to use that maliciously. Being able to turn appliances...heating, stove, etc., on remotely via a smart phone or the Internet...just increases the odds of something like a house fire. The thing I DO NOT want to see is self driving cars. It's bad enough having to dodge the drunks and cell phone clowns....what if someone hacked these cars in heavy traffic doing 70MPH...the death toll would be horrendous.
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Sorta on this same wave length. We get a report each month from Chevrolet telling us the air pressure in my wife's car tires... setting in the garage. That's scary!!!! I know of no one who would even want to hack into our home system, if we had one. Yet, would either my wife or I be able to reprogram/repair the system after a glitch? What would it cost to have a representative come to the home... or log on to the home and fix things? I can change light switches, bulbs, lamp sockets, faucets, toilets and accessories, etc. I have the tools and know-how to do that. If I can't, I'm calling an electrician or plumber. A Smarthome would be "above my pay grade" and would scare the cr*p out of this old man!!!
 
The smartest thing I have is a programmable thermostat. It is too much trouble to set. I don't have a schedule now anyway, so always overriding it. OK when I was working, except weekends. Hate it now that I'm retired.
 
A programmable thermostat is the only thing approaching a smart home automation device that we have and I really like it because we can set temperatures precisely unlike the old mercury switch thermostats. We don't even have a cellphone much less a smartphone because we don't want that extra bill every month.
 
Nothing programmable except for all the computers.


However, I am in the market for a high-end motion sensing camera, with WIFI, to pick up the bird feeder traffic.
 
Don M. said:
The way I see it, all these "smart" devices are just another opportunity for hackers to ply their trade. The more we become "enslaved" by automation and technology, the more likely that someone will find a way to use that maliciously. Being able to turn appliances...heating, stove, etc., on remotely via a smart phone or the Internet...just increases the odds of something like a house fire. The thing I DO NOT want to see is self driving cars. It's bad enough having to dodge the drunks and cell phone clowns....what if someone hacked these cars in heavy traffic doing 70MPH...the death toll would be horrendous.
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What if someone hacked into a jet passenger plane and flew it into a building? (Or just hijacked the plane with a boxcutter?) Should we get rid of planes? I have an aunt who is going blind. What a wonderful thing a driverless car would be for her in terms of independence.
 
I have "OnStar" on my GMC Envoy. It always knows where it is, whether I'm driving it or its parked in my garage.

If I accidentally lock myself out of the car with the keys in it, I call a number on my phone and OnStar UNlocks my door.

If my car is ever hijacked, OnStar knows where it is and notifies the cops.

Every month OnStar e-mails me to tell me the condition of my car; mileage, oil supply, condition of the brakes, air bags etc.

It came with the car and I pay $19/mo. to keep the service.

I really don't need much else.
 
I always have a giggle in a local library. In the restroom everything except opening doors is touch-less. Can you imagine a computer glitch and the sink water, toilets, towel dispensers, soap dispensers, all go ape crap together?
 
Son_of_Perdition said:
When I was a child playing with my friends one of our favorite projects was to walk to town, pickup up a few large empty boxes behind the appliance store. Cart them home & create forts, tunnels & a war zone. I asked my father years later how come he never complained about the yellow patches in his grass. He said I always knew where we were & that we were doing something creative, rather than sitting in the house watching TV. Automation has us painted into a corner with no apparent escape. Drones, robots & auto-drive vehicles are going to be our legacy. This is not a critique of your question, but I was sitting outside with my g-grandchildren & their parents yesterday watching their 4 YO & 6 YO focused on their tablets, ear phones on telling their tablets to play this video or load that game.
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I see that all the time,and I think it's sad. Kids are missing the joy and creativity of childhood, as well as real social interaction. Nowdays, instead of riding bikes and building forts and playhouses and climbing trees, they are all glued to their electronic stuff. Probably one of the reasons we see so many overweight kids, too. How do they learn how to interact with others and cope with real problems in the real world if they've never done it?
 
I have mixed feelings about home automation products. My field was IT so the technology is interesting to read about and to watch the field evolve, but I don't really want to own any of the products. One reason is that they are hackable, and there have a couple of very large home appliance hacks in the news.

The other reason is that it's another device to buy, update, keep charged, maintain, possible need for extended warranties, and that will eventually needs replacing. My goal in retirement is to live with less, live more simply, and that means less devices, with a net effect of better privacy, less electricity used, and less to buy and maintain. My retirement mantra is less tech, more sky.

That being said, I see there are advantages for some people, but I'm not convinced that low tech or no tech alternatives aren't as effective.
 
My husband is in charge of all our 'intelligent stuff' in the house. I often wonder what's going to happen when he's gone to manage it all. I don't have a clue.
 
debbie in seattle said:
My husband is in charge of all our 'intelligent stuff' in the house. I often wonder what's going to happen when he's gone to manage it all. I don't have a clue.
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Actually a lot of the home automation stuff is surprisingly easy to set up. The developers want to make it easy so more people will purchase their devices. I'm 67 and have never worked in the tech industry. My interest in such things is just because I'm constantly amazed at what computers are capable of. The older I get, the more I realize that many things that I paid other people to do, I can do myself. YouTube is a great resource and has saved me a great deal of money on home repairs, things that didn't require strength or special skills, just someone to show me how to do them. YouTube video's have countless videos on everything you can think of. This year I used it to fix a clogged Keurig coffee maker I thought I would have to replace, (tool required: a paperclip) replace the ice maker in our freezer ($42 on Amazon for the part compared to a $200 estimate to have a repairman come out and do it) and remove the ballasts and rewire some fluorescent tube light fixtures and replace them with LED tube lights).

Setting up Alexa was super simple. Setting up the smart bulbs was something I had to read instructions on (I hate to read instruction manuals!) but it wasn't difficult. The setup was somewhat expensive although we bought the $15 bulbs one or two at a time over many months. It saves us a little on electricity because we are less likely to leave lights on when we can tell Alexa to turn them on as we enter or leave a room rather than leave them on so we don't have to walk into a dark room and fumble for the light switch. We also dim them often when they are just on for ambiance rather than reading or something and that saves electricity. We can tell Alexa to add things to my shopping list whenever we think of them or notice we're out. They show up on my shopping list in the Alexa app on my smartphone. It saves me trips to the grocery store and keeps my shopping list more focused.

I think if we worry about utilizing new technology because, like the earlier example about driverless cars that the could be hacked and driven into a group of people, we may be short sighted. Very few people lost their lives in horse and carriage accidents. Car accidents kill huge numbers of people every year. Should we go back to the house and carriage because cars are dangerous? Some of the people killed in cars are due to drunk or inattentive drivers. Driverless cars could solve that. I dread the day when due to eyesight or some other physical disability due to aging, that I won't be able to maintain my driver's license. I'll lose a huge amount of independence. Imagine being able to use a driverless car and maintaining that independence for many more years.

As I age I know I will become more dependent on others for some things, but I want to find better ways of doing things myself whenever I can. I think technology is the answer. It fascinates me.
 
Capt Lightning said:
No. I can get up off my backside and switch on /off lights, mow the lawn, throw another log on the fire or make a cup of coffee if I want one.
IMO, most of these "smart" devices are simply solutions to non-existent problems. I grew up without them, and as long as I'm sane and fit, I expect I'll be able to live the rest of my life without them.
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That's the same way I feel Capt., if I become disabled where I need some of these "smart' devices, then I'll be happy to welcome them into my home. I still hook up the hose and oscillating sprinkler to water the lawn and move it by hand if need be.

Don M. said:
The way I see it, all these "smart" devices are just another opportunity for hackers to ply their trade. The more we become "enslaved" by automation and technology, the more likely that someone will find a way to use that maliciously. Being able to turn appliances...heating, stove, etc., on remotely via a smart phone or the Internet...just increases the odds of something like a house fire. The thing I DO NOT want to see is self driving cars. It's bad enough having to dodge the drunks and cell phone clowns....what if someone hacked these cars in heavy traffic doing 70MPH...the death toll would be horrendous.
Click to expand...

I agree Don, having anything "smart" is just a way for a stranger to either spy on you, or control your car, appliances, etc. without your approval. If I ever have to buy a car with the OnStar box monitoring my locations, locking and locking my doors from a remote position, etc., I'll use it until the paid contract runs out in a year and then disable it.

Those "smart" meters are supposedly there to monitor your electrical use, and yes, its been said that soon they'll be able to shut off particular appliances against your will. Also, I understand that they can cause cancer and other disorders to those living in the house.

I don't like the idea of a driverless car either, there's already been a death when the car thought a reflection was something else and reacted in heavy traffic. They are saying that soon certain roads will be able to communicate with your car and adjust your speed and brakes to meet conditions coming up on the highway. No thanks.

They say they'll be wonderful for elderly people who can no longer or are afraid to drive in traffic, well they still need to take control in certain situations from what I've heard. I'd rather see elderly folks take the bus, taxi or get a ride from family or neighbors like they always have.
 
Nope - not a one except a cordless phone. Too easy to hack into. Don't have a credit card with a chip for the same reason. I do like my laptop but am very careful.
 
I have recently installed Philips Hue starter kit in my bedroom as an experiment. It comes with 3 smart bulbs with Hue Bridge. So far so good. The ability to change your room's environment according to my mood and activities like reading, watching TV etc. is really fascinating. I am planning to buy some more hue lights for my living room, kitchen, and guest room.
 
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