Asklemmy

43907 readers

1160 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

144

Home automation - why? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

110 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I am failing to see the interest in having tons of IOT devices to manage, connect, segment, etc… Why would someone want to do it? To be clear, I have friends deep in it but… I still don’t understand. Can anyone try to explain the magic I am failing to see?

Edit: Thank you all for sharing your experiences! The ones I found more interesting are those that can easily translate in reducing or tracking consumption. The rest I hear but makes more sense when I look at it from an hobbyist perspective.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I'd only like smart windows and lights, since I like low yellow light at night and to open the windows in the morning and to close them later. But I don't like the idea of Amazon or Google having my house (and conversations, internet traffic, etc.) even more at their disposal, that's why I avoid to invest on IoT devices right now.

Also, there's the getting locked out of your own house: https://medium.com/@bjax_/a-tale-of-unwanted-disruption-my-week-without-amazon-df1074e3818b

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

But you can totally build a smart home without Google or Amazon having to do anything with it. Just use HomeAssistant.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Oh, of course! I was referring only to Google and Amazon because I'd need to invest a lot more if I want an independent and open smart home, which is unnecessary and expensive for me right now.

Alexa and Google Assistant are the default option in México, shipping alternatives is both expensive and hard :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

FYI, you can run homeassistant on a raspberry pi or even cheaper hardware, or on an existing or old machine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hmmm... the price difference is almost non-existent. Do some research, I am sure you can find a cheap server (Raspberry Pi maybe) and a cheap Sonoff Zigbee hub for not much more than an Amazon Echo 4.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I guess prices may have changed since the last time I checked, but I think some Raspberries still cost more than $60USD, plus the rest of the hardware.

I'll check again when there's money to afford it lol, thx for the suggestion btw

load more comments (1 replies)