Hello everyone,
I am generally knowledgeable and open-minded when it comes to IT, but I’m not really comfortable with "Smart Home" technology. That’s why I’m asking the community why you decided to go for it, especially in light of my concerns.
Overall, I don’t see much value in the typical smart home features. This is partly due to my way of living, but also largely because of the functions offered. For example, I don’t feel the need to control lighting via smartphone. Each room has appropriate light switches or motion sensors. Controlling blinds/shutters is unnecessary for me since I deliberately opted not to install shutters, except for two large south-facing windows. The same applies to a ventilation system, which I don’t have nor need. Turning devices on and off via an app strikes me as unnecessary.
What bothers me in particular is the multitude of protocols, the proprietary technology, and manufacturer-dependent software. I simply do not want to buy and install an expensive system from a manufacturer when I don’t know if they will still exist in five years or whether and how the software will be further developed.
Devices that can actually be usefully controlled via app now come with Wi-Fi capability and a matching app, so I don’t need a complex smart home system for that. For example, heating systems/heat pumps, photovoltaic systems, charging stations, video intercoms, robot vacuum cleaners, etc. Whether you really need an app for a washing machine, refrigerator, or dishwasher is debatable, but even these appliances have become "smart" nowadays.
Maybe I’m missing a significant advantage of smart home technology—if so, please feel free to fill in my knowledge gap!
I am generally knowledgeable and open-minded when it comes to IT, but I’m not really comfortable with "Smart Home" technology. That’s why I’m asking the community why you decided to go for it, especially in light of my concerns.
Overall, I don’t see much value in the typical smart home features. This is partly due to my way of living, but also largely because of the functions offered. For example, I don’t feel the need to control lighting via smartphone. Each room has appropriate light switches or motion sensors. Controlling blinds/shutters is unnecessary for me since I deliberately opted not to install shutters, except for two large south-facing windows. The same applies to a ventilation system, which I don’t have nor need. Turning devices on and off via an app strikes me as unnecessary.
What bothers me in particular is the multitude of protocols, the proprietary technology, and manufacturer-dependent software. I simply do not want to buy and install an expensive system from a manufacturer when I don’t know if they will still exist in five years or whether and how the software will be further developed.
Devices that can actually be usefully controlled via app now come with Wi-Fi capability and a matching app, so I don’t need a complex smart home system for that. For example, heating systems/heat pumps, photovoltaic systems, charging stations, video intercoms, robot vacuum cleaners, etc. Whether you really need an app for a washing machine, refrigerator, or dishwasher is debatable, but even these appliances have become "smart" nowadays.
Maybe I’m missing a significant advantage of smart home technology—if so, please feel free to fill in my knowledge gap!
P
pagoni202015 Aug 2021 12:42Mycraft schrieb:
@pagoni2020
And of course, it’s entirely up to you how quickly you want to operate your house. As you described yourself, its behavior may change over the years. A smart home can adapt to that or can often be adjusted with little effort to new needs.
So you can run a smart home as fast as you need it. A conventional house, on the other hand, only has one speed. That’s exactly the point—to get more out of the house because the potential is already there. Yes, sure, generally that makes sense to me. Thankfully, you wrote me something about this some time ago when I asked. I’m not criticizing or making any general judgment at all. It’s just that for me and my very ordinary life, I cannot see a necessity that (and this is my only concern) would improve my life. It’s solely about my/our lives, how we like them, and definitely not about how others should live.
The searching, dealing with it, setting it up, thinking about it, etc., would actually be “stress” for me—I have no interest in that. The same goes for cameras and all those things. Maybe I had too much of it in life or people simply change their habits as they get older. The money for it would honestly be a waste for me because I’d rather spend it somewhere else, like on the lime plaster, the beautiful staircase, and so on. It’s a matter of personal interests and priorities, and there is no right or wrong there. I’d be very interested to experience such a house once, out of curiosity, but I wouldn’t want to own or pay for it. It’s like with the always new, modern car for me… 😀.
I really like innovation and think it’s great that people look for possibilities. But I want my private life to be very individual and in many respects simply (which is already a very high luxury compared to the rest of the world).
H
hampshire15 Aug 2021 14:17motorradsilke schrieb:
What can you imagine that can’t be controlled manually? Almost everything that sensor technology can regulate more precisely and at shorter intervals than by hand and with divided human attention. This starts with air exchange, humidity and temperature control in combination with the weather forecast and a parameterized shading system that considers more than just “oh, there’s sunshine,” sensors that turn off lights in rooms where no one is present, put unnecessary electrical devices into low-consumption mode, run needed electrical devices in coordination with self-generated energy, manage a hot water storage tank according to an intelligent consumption curve—depending on usage patterns, weather forecast, and self-generated energy… and much more. These are all things that save energy and that smart automation can handle better than a resident who also has other things on their mind—like simply living.
Mycraft schrieb:
It’s not just about the time saved. There are many small things. The overall increase in comfort is greater than just the sum of the individual parts. There is absolutely no question that smartly controlled houses are more efficient and potentially more comfortable than conventional houses. I especially appreciate smart controls in office buildings and cars.
Choosing to forgo that consciously is neither right nor wrong—it just suits us, because we live in our house in a way that indoor and outdoor spaces flow into each other. In an open house, automation doesn’t add as much value.
M
Myrna_Loy16 Aug 2021 07:38My experience is that it is almost impossible to operate the various smart systems without issues in larger buildings, so the ideal comfort scenario rarely occurs. It is almost like with patients who have multiple chronic conditions, where the interactions between different medications are difficult to manage. Something always fails and requires a technician's visit. 😀
H
hampshire16 Aug 2021 17:04Myrna_Loy schrieb:
My experience is that it is almost impossible to operate various smart systems in larger buildings without malfunctions, so that the ideal comfort scenario rarely occurs. My experience is quite different. I have worked for several weeks in several state-of-the-art smart office buildings in Frankfurt, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, and Munich, and I am familiar with numerous hotels and conference centers that have invested in smart control systems. This investment pays off for both people and budgets. It’s not rocket science, and of course there are people responsible for operating these systems — exactly the kind of role I would not want to have at home.
untergasse4316 Aug 2021 17:44Myrna_Loy schrieb:
In my experience, it is almost impossible to run different smart systems without issues in larger buildings, so the ideal comfort scenario rarely occurs. You see, you have already provided the strongest argument for one system or a real standard like KNX: not running different systems. Having different systems or apps, for example for each individual light bulb, gets really annoying over time. Although, based on what I have read from you so far, I would also factor in a certain reluctance toward this kind of technology in evaluating your statement. 🙂
Regarding the rest, I agree with @hampshire. And guess on which technical basis that mostly runs... I hardly know any moderately modern office (including smaller ones) that operates without automated lighting and shading. And there, alarms would go off very quickly if those systems weren’t working.