• Waking up via lights slowly dimming on is much nicer than an acoustic alarm.
• Light temperature adjusting to current time of day is very nice and does loads for my mood
• Lights automatically turning on and off based on presence and measured light levels is totally unnecessary but just so convenient
• Getting a reminder to take the wash out when the machine is done
• Smart plug automatically turns off power to other devices when the TV is turned off

30% reduction in heating cost without reduction in comfort.

Convincing we’re-home-simulation while gone.

Each single light is independently dimmable, making for variety in light scenes for different purposes.

My home automation setup includes:

• Texting me and/or my wife whenever the washer or dryer in the basement finishes a load of laundry, but only if we’re home. If neither is home then it waits until one of us is and only texts that person.

• Turns on exterior / driveway lights when one of us arrives home after dark.

• Turns off exterior / driveway lights when we have both left home.

• Sets our Ecobee thermostats to “away” when we have both left home, and to “home” when somebody arrives home.

I also have a “bedtime” button that ensures all lights are off, thermostats are set to their “sleep” profile, and doors are locked.

Those are the nicer things we use pretty much daily. We have others as well.

It’s a hobby. Some people like automating things. Some people are overdoing it. And some like to have a central control on their phone for everything. It’s nerd heaven. I am some people, but not overly excessive. And I want everything to still be usable by guests.

I personally have a few smart devices mostly because I keep forgetting to do things. Window sensors and thermostats that work together. When I open the windows, they turn down. The windows remind me to close them after 10 minutes. When I leave home, the heating turns down.

Light automations are for when you want to be lazy, like me. When I’m away or when the sun comes up, light turn off. When I arrive, hallway light turns on. When the sun goes down, some lights in the living room turn on. I don’t have any motion sensor stuff because it doesn’t work the way I want (we all know the horrors of motion controlled bathroom lights at the office). The only reasonable sensor I could imagine is actual presence detection, which just recently became a thing but I will wait at least until there exists one by a privacy focused company like Eve.

I would like to get something for my curtains but it’s all getting a bit too expensive.

The trick is to not use any smart devices that run in the cloud. Not only because of privacy but also because you don’t want to be freezing or sit in the dark just because the internet is out or the whole company shuts down. This is what people are always joking about over smart homes, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Keep everything in your own network. You can still access it from outside through the hub but that’s optional.

I have ADHD. It’s easy for me to forget something in my routine. So I’ve set up many of my routines to be automatic or controlled with a single voice command.

When I wake up to my alarms, my lights start turning on gradually at a dimmer setting and blue. Then they turn white at full brightness to really wake me when it’s time. When I leave for work, I simply say “I’m leaving” and my lights all set themselves appropriately. I even have certain things like space heaters on a smart switch and they automatically turn off when I’m not home in case I forgot to manually shut them off.

Then when I get home, instead of needing to hit a bunch of switches for all of my various lights, I simply say “I’m home” and in 15 seconds everything does for me what would have taken me 5 minutes manually. By the time I have my shoes off, my house is already ready for me.

When I go to bed, it’s the same. A simple “goodnight” turns my TV off, turns my fan up, and turns the lights off, all with me not having to get out of bed.

When I do laundry, my phone gets a notification when things are done. I’m able to plan my cycles more efficiently and do things like run an errand and be able to be back just in time to swap loads. When there’s an error, instead of “E43” or some nonsense on the screen that I need to lookup and is still vague, I get a notification in the app that says “Error: Washer unbalanced. Please check load and restart” and actually helps me.

If a fire alarm goes off in my house and I’m not home, my security cameras will pick up the noise of the alarm and send an urgent push notification to my phone. I can check in and see if someone just burnt food or if there is an actual emergency.

I could go on. I’ll admit that being tied to google/Amazon isn’t ideal and you should use something like HomeAssistant instead so you have complete control. It’s just a steeper learning curve, is all. But regardless, you want a home from The Jetsons? It’s already here. Not perfect mind you, but in large parts it’s already obtainable and really not that expensive. Just swap a bulb/switch here and there.