ᐅ Alexa and Other Home Automation Systems – Pros and Cons

Steffen80 schrieb:
Whoever claims otherwise and has no arguments to support it

Facts do not require arguments, only opinions do.

On topic: I consider it practical to place switches on exterior walls.

ypg schrieb:
Facts don’t need arguments, only opinions do.

On topic: I think it makes sense to place switches on exterior walls.

But please make sure the switches are ones that everyone "understands." My brother-in-law has some kind of smart home system for his lights, but he also uses physical switches.

Example guest bathroom: there’s a square switch, and every time I play Bingo with it because I’m rarely there and can’t remember which button to press and how often.

1. The transom window only turns on as it should (jackpot)
2. Only the bathroom mirror (enough to find the way to the toilet)
3. Floodlights (wait a moment until your eyes adjust)
4. The infrared heater turns on with no light at all (worst-case scenario, because then I first have to figure out how to turn it off)

Tina, smart means clever or savvy in German. So, operating these switches requires certain skills, which unfortunately I don’t really have.

I also use home automation myself, not because it’s so great to tap on a smartphone instead of using a light switch, but because many things can be automated, such as lights and blinds based on the sun’s position. This is also reassuring when on vacation, as you can simulate presence.

However, I would never even consider using Alexa or similar for this. For the same reasons as almost everyone who commented before me. The FBI always wonders why Steffen keeps wanting to turn off the refrigerator.

Speaking of the refrigerator: if I find a refrigerator too loud while watching TV, I usually see three options:
1) turn up the TV volume even more and regret having bought that refrigerator,
2) admit that I bought the wrong refrigerator and pay attention to the usual decibel (dB) ratings next time I buy,
3) finally having my own home, I could live out the freedom to simply move the refrigerator to another room.

Why is the discussion always focused only on Alexa? What about Payback and all the other discount systems? What about Facebook/Messenger and similar services? What about the location services from Google and Apple that record our movement patterns every day? And so on.
Every day, we share huge amounts of data about ourselves. Only a very small fraction of the population actually protects all their data carefully.

Everyone loudly demands data privacy (also here in the forum), but hardly anyone can truly protect their data—unless they give up all technological conveniences.

And honestly: I just don’t care whether Alexa is listening or not.

nordanney schrieb:
Why does the discussion only focus on Alexa?

Because it was moved from another topic.

Tina mit K schrieb:
Example guest bathroom: a square switch, and every time I play bingo because I’m there so rarely that I can’t remember what to press, how often, and where exactly.

I’m probably going to get criticized for this, but in a smart home, a guest bathroom should do without any switches entirely. Guests shouldn’t have to press anything. The light should turn on when you enter and off when you leave, plain and simple.

Nordlys schrieb:
So operating these switches requires certain preconditions, which, unfortunately, I don’t really have.

It has to be intuitive, and ideally, you shouldn’t really have to press anything. This actually works most of the time in everyday life. It’s only in exceptional cases that you need switches or buttons.