how smart has your home gone?

Soldato
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So three more power cuts over last night. Each one lasting several minutes. At the end of each one, all my Hue bulbs/devices (strips & plugs) were turned on and with all colour reset. ie: Every single bulb and strip was (reset) to a warm white colour.

So over the course of about 7 power cuts in the last 24hrs, 6 left all my Hue devices on/reset. And just one time, the Hue bulbs/unit were left set to the previous setting (which is obviously what I have them set to do).


It's ridiculous that a power cut leaves every Hue unit turned on/reset :(
Haha I remember that happening in my old place. Woke up at like 3am with all the lights on full.
 
Soldato
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With the impending energy crisis, is anyone looking to scale back their smart home?

I've got about 20-30 esp32/8266 devices dotted around the home doing various different things, and whilst they're incredibly low powered - about half a watt each. Having lots of them, and running 24/7 they do add up over the course of a year.
 
Soldato
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the thing more concerning about micro-cuts is that the power supplies on expensive electronics will be taken out by the subsequent surge,
similar to using cheap smart switches (just mechanical relays) on expensive hifi amplifiers.
 
Soldato
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does anyone use smartthings ?
Looking for a smartthings compatible light switch.

specifically our hallway light switch is on a 2 gang light switch with the landing light, and the landing light is part of a 3 way circuit with 2 single gang switches on the landing.

I would like to turn all of these smart and add motion sensors to turn them on and off.
I have found (and am using) compatible dimmers
Trying to stick with as few smart eco systems as possible.

I do also have some of Broadlinks new BLE kit but they don't appear to have released anything other than the bulbs and scene switches in the UK yet.
I have a couple of LC1 switches but theyre not compatible with the new Broadlink app for some reason, so I'm probably not going to use them.
 
Associate
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With the impending energy crisis, is anyone looking to scale back their smart home?

I've got about 20-30 esp32/8266 devices dotted around the home doing various different things, and whilst they're incredibly low powered - about half a watt each. Having lots of them, and running 24/7 they do add up over the course of a year.
Never! As you say, it'd be far more valuable to not watch telly for a couple of nights which would amount for more energy.

I've gone more smarter if anything to avoid this - solar and batteries have meant the energy crisis has reduced our bills by about 85%.... !

In addition the smart scheduling, automatic light switches etc etc easily offsets the small cost of these devices many, many times over!
 
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Associate
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Haha I remember that happening in my old place. Woke up at like 3am with all

does anyone use smartthings ?
Looking for a smartthings compatible light switch.

specifically our hallway light switch is on a 2 gang light switch with the landing light, and the landing light is part of a 3 way circuit with 2 single gang switches on the landing.

I would like to turn all of these smart and add motion sensors to turn them on and off.
I have found (and am using) compatible dimmers
Trying to stick with as few smart eco systems as possible.

I do also have some of Broadlinks new BLE kit but they don't appear to have released anything other than the bulbs and scene switches in the UK yet.
I have a couple of LC1 switches but theyre not compatible with the new Broadlink app for some reason, so I'm probably not going to use them.
Highly, highly recommend home assistant - cost of a raspberry pi and you can completely detach from all these silly half-baked solutions like smart things - they'll obviously never properly work as all the other tech firms will block/compete with Samsung.

Home assistant completely removes all that nonsense - can even set up your own ZigBee network so you don't need to buy endless hubs for every device.

Have recently bought IKEA tradfri buttons and sensors to do exactly what you describe and works beautifully (again didn't need to buy the IKEA hub, just bought the devices and home assistant recognises them and lets me set them up exactly as I want in the UI)
 
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Soldato
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Never! As you say, it'd be far more valuable to not watch telly for a couple of nights which would amount for more energy.

I've gone more smarter if anything to avoid this - solar and batteries have meant the energy crisis has reduced our bills by about 85%.... !

In addition the smart scheduling, automatic light switches etc etc easily offsets the small cost of these devices many, many times over!

I've put together a nifty energy dashboard for home Assistant, the built in one is a bit... basic...

I'll post some screenshots tomorrow when I'm not taking them from my phone.
 
Soldato
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Highly, highly recommend home assistant - cost of a raspberry pi and you can completely detach from all these silly half-baked solutions like smart things - they'll obviously never properly work as all the other tech firms will block/compete with Samsung.

Home assistant completely removes all that nonsense - can even set up your own ZigBee network so you don't need to buy endless hubs for every device.

Have recently bought IKEA tradfri buttons and sensors to do exactly what you describe and works beautifully (again didn't need to buy the IKEA hub, just bought the devices and home assistant recognises them and lets me set them up exactly as I want in the UI)
This is fine until you get a Samsung smartfridge..
 
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This is fine until you get a Samsung smartfridge..
Why, what's the challenge? Looks like you could even put home assistant on that if you wanted.... ;)

We've got Samsung washing machine, tumble dryer etc and all integrates very nicely?
 
Soldato
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Why, what's the challenge? Looks like you could even put home assistant on that if you wanted.... ;)

We've got Samsung washing machine, tumble dryer etc and all integrates very nicely?
I have a pi along with the dongles and the fridge has stopped me using HA. I haven't looked at your link as I assume it's the web browser HA integration which is a bit flakey, at the moment my fridge displays my camera screens along with smart meter energy usage and shortcuts to lighting and temperature controls all baked in. I didn't bother with the washing machine smart features as the premium to functionality wasn't worth it. Just bought the Samsung eco bubble with the extra door to add that sock that falls out half way down the stairs.
 
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Why, what's the challenge? Looks like you could even put home assistant on that if you wanted.... ;)

We've got Samsung washing machine, tumble dryer etc and all integrates very nicely?
I have one, on smartthings too. Never had any problems in fact they just upgraded Tizen (the OS) to include Alexa. I've got about 10 echos though already! The only problem is fingermarks :D

ETA from that post it's a HA issue not a smartthings one. I've never had any issues with smartthings on HA only damn Nest is a pain. And that is HA on a browser btw apologies if you knew that.

KM19CnZ.jpeg
 
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Soldato
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I have a pi along with the dongles and the fridge has stopped me using HA. I haven't looked at your link as I assume it's the web browser HA integration which is a bit flakey, at the moment my fridge displays my camera screens along with smart meter energy usage and shortcuts to lighting and temperature controls all baked in. I didn't bother with the washing machine smart features as the premium to functionality wasn't worth it. Just bought the Samsung eco bubble with the extra door to add that sock that falls out half way down the stairs.

Ah ok so are you saying you've jailbroken the fridge? I've got samsung tablets (HA controls), TV's, Fridge etc and never had a problem. I run HA on a VM though not a PI.

Sorry I am confused - not sure what you mean by "stopped me using HA" if I can help I will!
 
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Yes likewise not quite sure I follow - I have HA on a tablet embedded into the wall in my hall, on our phones, on Google Hubs around the house and any PC/laptop.

Are you saying because you've bought a fridge, you're now just using Samsung's stuff out of convenience or something?

Either way woefully limited experience compare to HA IMO!
 
Soldato
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Ah ok so are you saying you've jailbroken the fridge? I've got samsung tablets (HA controls), TV's, Fridge etc and never had a problem. I run HA on a VM though not a PI.

Sorry I am confused - not sure what you mean by "stopped me using HA" if I can help I will!
HA on a smartfridge is through the web browser, if I moved over to HA I'd loose the baked in smartthings stuff on the fridge I prefer it as it is with smart things as we use the fridge along with the cameras and the shopping list etc on screen.

After dropping 5k on a fridge freezer I'm not fudging it by using the webbrowser. Woefully limited or not. I have all the kit to move to HA but I'm not.

I know HA is better and I could integrate some WiFi smart switches I have and some fan controllers. But I'd gimp my fridge freezer.
 
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Soldato
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HA on a smartfridge is through the web browser, if I moved over to HA I'd loose the baked in smartthings stuff on the fridge I prefer it as it is with smart things as we use the fridge along with the cameras and the shopping list etc on screen.

Got it. I just use HA in the browser on a tablet, never tried it on the Tizen browser on the fridge. I have played Sky Vegas slots though and whatever that uses (HTML5 or the like) struggles :D

It's faff, but I also use a Galaxy Tab S8 because you can screen mirror on the fridge and that works very well. I have an HD Home Run and streaming live TV to the fridge is my party piece to show off to the elderly who won't give you any respect just for having a smart fridge.
 
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Soldato
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Got it. I just use HA in the browser on a tablet, never tried it on the Tizen browser on the fridge. I have played Sky Vegas slots though and whatever that uses (HTML5 or the like) struggles :D

It's faff, but I also use a Galaxy Tab S8 because you can screen mirror on the fridge and that works very well. I have an HD Home Run and streaming live TV to the fridge is my party piece to show off to the elderly who won't give you any respect just for having a smart fridge.
I've screen mirrored and played doom on the fridge via Xbox streaming ha ha as my brother in law asked me if it could play doom.
 
Soldato
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Great - I've done likewise, you show me yours and I'll show you mine!!

As promised.

Quick view of lighting by room and individual lights:
ht4IZLo.png

Then making use of the utility meters function, so i can track daily/weekly/monthly/yearly of room lights:
XD7Vsa2.png

For smart plugs i've graphed the watts/amps, i could make a similar page to the first one for lights.
aDyiJ01.png

Next page is then utility meters for plugs the same as image 2.

I then have another two pages to track individual devices (such as TV) along with utility meters. I'm using an addon that you can create virtual power sensors, so for things like the TV not on a smart plug you can create a virtual sensor to set a power consumption based on certain states.
 
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