how smart has your home gone?

At start of the year I had nothing.

Now a couple of speakers, a doorbell and biggest buy tado including room zoning.

Is it worth it? I'm not sure. Heating has started being active and I've had a few issues once I even thought of stripping it all out and going back. Yet to decide if it's more hassle than it's worth
 
413x said:
At start of the year I had nothing.

Now a couple of speakers, a doorbell and biggest buy tado including room zoning.

Is it worth it? I'm not sure. Heating has started being active and I've had a few issues once I even thought of stripping it all out and going back. Yet to decide if it's more hassle than it's worth
Click to expand...
I did tell you to go Hive :D

/smug but probably wouldn't have been any different.
 
413x said:
I'm not sure if either are much different.
The batteries don't seem to last all that long either.
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Okay well I can definitely be smug about batteries. The hive kit has been down over a year now and not a single battery warning, let alone replacement. And that's with my little one fiddling with the thing constantly and making the LCD fire up :cry:
 
My home as stupid as it can get, not even got smart meter yet. Got some smart plugs somewhere but don’t really have a need for them.
 
I went all-in on the smart home about 2 years ago.
  1. 96 cat6 network ports in the house
  2. 4 UniFi access points (1 external)
  3. Smart meter
  4. Solar panels
  5. EV charger
  6. Ring video doorbell
  7. Nest thermostats control each zone of underfloor heating (4 in total)
  8. Every light is a philips hue bulb (including the 6 external)
  9. ...and we have a series of smart plugs to control the kettle, living room lamp and PC
I've also physically removed all light switches and use philips motion sensors with automations to control how lights operate. By default lights in common areas like the hallway or landing only come on for 1 minute. I've recently configured things so that if I walk around the house at night (00:00 to 06:00) lights only come on 25% brightness. If I am out, the motion detectors in the kitchen are disabled so the dogs aren't triggering the lights and no light comes on if the light level is above 10 lux which reduces the need to needlessly put on a light. At night I have it set up that when someone arrives home (geofencing) the outdoor lights turn on and any time the last person leaves the heating goes in to Eco mode.

If I'm on the PC in the home office the motion automation to trigger the lights is disabled, so I can play games etc without the light going on/off every time I move/stay still :p

Thankfully, most devices are HomeKit compatible, so they work off my network of iOS devices but there are things (such as the Ring and Nest stuff) that don't play nice out of the box. For this, I've set up a Raspberry Pi running HomeBridge which allows me to add them to the Home app on iOS. I can then view the cameras and alter the thermostats using my phone/iPad or use voice activation.

Little things that I set up still impress me e.g. If you push our doorbell, the feed appears on my TV / watch / phone or having the ability to quickly turn off every light with the tap of a button. I also have NFC tags dotted around (such as near the cooker) to automatically hand-off audio on my phone to ceiling speakers or HomePods at a pre-determined volume.
 
Hi guys,

Does anyone have any recommendations for an outdoor PTZ camera? It'll be screwed to the eaves so it is fairly well shielded.

Reason being is my car keeps getting dinged by idiots parking on my street. However my parking spot isn't consistent so I would 're-point' the camera each time I park elsewhere.

I typically 'inspect' the car every few days so I guess I'd need at least 7 days of footage for it to make sense. I don't have a DVR but I am planning on buying a Raspberry Pi for AdGuard Home so may be that can double up as a recorder?

Thanks
 
Google home question.

Am I missing something?
I have two nest minis, one upstairs one down. I set a timer on the downstairs one.
I asked for the time left on upstairs one. But it said no timers.


Surely timers aren't device specific?
 
Very is the best answer :)
Home Assistant now runs everything in the house and I've got a whole bunch of stuff plugged into it.
Sonos speakers, Tado, AV Amp, a mixture of z-wave, zigbee and wifi lights, zwave on/off switches, Harmony remote, house alarm, Unifi router, switches and APs all link in.
The only cloud based service I'm reliant on is Tado, the rest (including Hue, will work with the internet being down, which is important for usability.
I haven't done much in the way of dashboards but all of the lights are controlled by Node-Red logic flows so triggers will turn on certain lights based on conditions.
 
Chockymonster said:
Very is the best answer :)
Home Assistant now runs everything in the house and I've got a whole bunch of stuff plugged into it.
Sonos speakers, Tado, AV Amp, a mixture of z-wave, zigbee and wifi lights, zwave on/off switches, Harmony remote, house alarm, Unifi router, switches and APs all link in.
The only cloud based service I'm reliant on is Tado, the rest (including Hue, will work with the internet being down, which is important for usability.
I haven't done much in the way of dashboards but all of the lights are controlled by Node-Red logic flows so triggers will turn on certain lights based on conditions.
Click to expand...

talking to myself again!
This is all before mentioning Christmas lights. Which takes it to another level. 3 raspberry Pi 4Bs, two smart pixel controllers, a whole bunch of controller boards, 42 P5 Led panels and 13,000 led lights!
All synchronised to music and done for charity/fun
 
dLockers said:
Hi guys,

Does anyone have any recommendations for an outdoor PTZ camera? It'll be screwed to the eaves so it is fairly well shielded.

Reason being is my car keeps getting dinged by idiots parking on my street. However my parking spot isn't consistent so I would 're-point' the camera each time I park elsewhere.

I typically 'inspect' the car every few days so I guess I'd need at least 7 days of footage for it to make sense. I don't have a DVR but I am planning on buying a Raspberry Pi for AdGuard Home so may be that can double up as a recorder?

Thanks
Click to expand...

buy a real house with a driveway
 
dLockers said:
Hi guys,

Does anyone have any recommendations for an outdoor PTZ camera? It'll be screwed to the eaves so it is fairly well shielded.

Reason being is my car keeps getting dinged by idiots parking on my street. However my parking spot isn't consistent so I would 're-point' the camera each time I park elsewhere.

I typically 'inspect' the car every few days so I guess I'd need at least 7 days of footage for it to make sense. I don't have a DVR but I am planning on buying a Raspberry Pi for AdGuard Home so may be that can double up as a recorder?

Thanks
Click to expand...
I’ve only got experience of the UniFi range. There’s a PTZ dome in that, with some of the smart detection stuff in the G4 range that could do what you’re asking for.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-p...?prop=94986602&sale=20894968&country=scotland

We have real homes up here. Not flats. My garden has more trees in it than your local parks
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That's nice. I might buy something like that with the equity I gain because where I live is actually desirable versus just being inexpensive.

Chockymonster said:
I’ve only got experience of the UniFi range. There’s a PTZ dome in that, with some of the smart detection stuff in the G4 range that could do what you’re asking for.
Click to expand...
Thanks - I'll take a look. In the meantime I've bought an Amazon special for £50 which seems to do a decent job but it is ... quite big.
 
Lol if you think your equity gain is going to be a lot more than your interest payments.

Hope your rate doesn't end next year when interest hits 5% or any time soon after that.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
Lol if you think your equity gain is going to be a lot more than your interest payments.

Hope your rate doesn't end next year when interest hits 5% or any time soon after that.
Click to expand...
I can't imagine interest rates hitting 5% for a long time yet. You can still fix mortgage rates for 5 years at <1%
 
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