how smart has your home gone?

[MassiveJim]

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)

Whilst I recognise the benefits of home assistant I just don't have the time or inclination to dedicate the time needed to get it setup and working correctly.
I know I will never spend the time on it and it will never work properly.
So I'd rather something "out of the box" as a solution.

 

[matt100]

I can't heard home assistant without hearing Paul Hibbert... home assistant? home assistant? HOOOOOOME ASSISTANT!!

And I totally agree, I spent several hours getting everything registered on a Pi and then tried to automate a light as I have it now, had to turn to google and at that point thought.. what the hell am I doing? Stop.

 

[katie279]

Hmmm, there's a bit of a learning curve - ultimately it's just like whether you want to get your next PC from Currys or build a custom pc - the latter is overwhelmingly better and free of bloat - and ultimately ends up less work as you have complete control, so it's dead easy to drop in a new graphics card rather than a) buying a whole new pc from Currys or b) relying on them to fix everything but certainly has a fairly minor learning curve initially.

To your point Matt100, there are integrations that automate your HA setup so you just install that and it'll automatically build a standard layout.

Each to their own though!

 

[jpaul]

Whilst I recognise the benefits of home assistant I just don't have the time or inclination to dedicate the time needed to get it setup and working correctly.
I know I will never spend the time on it and it will never work properly.
So I'd rather something "out of the box" as a solution.

yes I'm in the same box - don't really want the maintenance aspects of a home server server like a rasberry pi ,
autonomous devices that recorded energy data and provided it to a phone/laptop when I requested/polled are what I want;

equally, even with home assistant investment few folks here have solved my smart problems -

​

Energy - for home energy monitoring need monitoring of heaviest hitter oven+hob & daily 30s complete household measure to see trends​

have already established the energy consumption of devices with plugs by rotating an energy monitor plug - job done, don't need ongoing monitoring.​

( Avro &soon octopus appear to be offering smart meters you can interrogate 30s cloud data with a CAD device like hildebrand, but octopus doesn't have HA integration anyway )​

​

Boiler Having a smart condensing boiler able to send efficiency data outgoing/return temp+ modulation would be nice - for next boiler.​

​

lighting - Don't need any multicolour setup in, but reliable dimmable dumb led bulbs are still not very good yet - I want a smart dimmer/switch solution, without ongoing cost of having all smart bulbs​

 

[katie279]

yes I'm in the same box - don't really want the maintenance aspects of a home server server like a rasberry pi ,
autonomous devices that recorded energy data and provided it to a phone/laptop when I requested/polled are what I want;

equally, even with home assistant investment few folks here have solved my smart problems -

​

Energy - for home energy monitoring need monitoring of heaviest hitter oven+hob & daily 30s complete household measure to see trends​

have already established the energy consumption of devices with plugs by rotating an energy monitor plug - job done, don't need ongoing monitoring.​

( Avro &soon octopus appear to be offering smart meters you can interrogate 30s cloud data with a CAD device like hildebrand, but octopus doesn't have HA integration anyway )​

​

Boiler Having a smart condensing boiler able to send efficiency data outgoing/return temp+ modulation would be nice - for next boiler.​

​

lighting - Don't need any multicolour setup in, but reliable dimmable dumb led bulbs are still not very good yet - I want a smart dimmer/switch solution, without ongoing cost of having all smart bulbs​

Well, I've had HA for about five years and can't say it's required any maintenance at all in that time (other than hitting upgrade for new features or where I've wanted to install new things, much like windows really!)

Anyhoo!

Have octopus integrated with HA, so not sure what you mean here - basically use the API and pull data into charts. Also have solar panels, batteries etc all integrated. You can use Hildebrand too as you describe.

For oven - assuming not smart, then probably the easiest would be to hook a sensor to your consumer unit plug for this - imagine you'd have a separate one for hob/oven? There are smart consumer units on the horizon that'll make this much easier (basically show wattage being used by each line, but think they're a year or two away).

Boiler - not sure here, would rely on there being a smart boiler or you could again at least proxy usage by monitoring energy use.

Switch - you looked at hue inline switches? (Think this is what you're describing) - also lots of non-hue ones, some of which are better IMO. Again not sure if you're wanting something you can just plug in, but these basically just sit behind your light switch and make the existing switch 'smart'.

 

[jpaul]

Have octopus integrated with HA, so not sure what you mean here

problem is they are beta testing a CAD device which can tell you what your 30s household usage pattern is, but apparently HA integration is not planned, like Avro option (via their chamelon IHD)

For oven - assuming not smart,

yes the problem is the dam oven isn't smart to tell you how much energy it used .. in the absence of that if you had 30s household data you could overlay days (waveforms/graphs) and determine oven usage, knowing the type of meal you cooked.

Switch - you looked at hue inline switches?

yes those would work, not sure they are offering an inline smart dimmer yet, to go with that - both of those would eat into their hue smart bulb market, so might be counter productive.

 

[LuckyBenski]

problem is they are beta testing a CAD device which can tell you what your 30s household usage pattern is, but apparently HA integration is not planned, like Avro option (via their chamelon IHD)

To be honest I don't think many companies do HA integration - I think the HA community tends to do it regardless of "support"

 

[katie279]

To be honest I don't think many companies do HA integration - I think the HA community tends to do it regardless of "support"

Yes think that's exactly the point, much like 'Google Chrome' or 'Microsoft Windows' don't actually release 99.9999% of all the software used on their platforms, most of the stuff on Home Assistant is community/developer led - which is great because I like the usual apps from Samsung, Nissan, LG, Gardena and the many many others I've tested in the past ... they actually work.... Oh and they won't make you have to replace your fridge in five years as they bork/stop supporting the software.....

 

[katie279]

problem is they are beta testing a CAD device which can tell you what your 30s household usage pattern is, but apparently HA integration is not planned, like Avro option (via their chamelon IHD)


yes the problem is the dam oven isn't smart to tell you how much energy it used .. in the absence of that if you had 30s household data you could overlay days (waveforms/graphs) and determine oven usage, knowing the type of meal you cooked.


yes those would work, not sure they are offering an inline smart dimmer yet, to go with that - both of those would eat into their hue smart bulb market, so might be counter productive.

Re ovens - yes they are a bit naff, you can use AI profiling to 'recognise' your oven energy patterns and CT clamp on the wire would work also - but whilst easy in HA, I'm not sure how you'd achieve this in the usual walled gardens (eg Samsung, Google, Alexa etc).

Re dimmers - yes, just Google 'smart inline dimmers' and you'll see various options - Shelly or any ZigBee versions (eg Sonoff) are well tested and very good/cheap - again, whilst this is pretty plug and play in HA (have done so with lightwave, hue and Sonoff in my house and they just get detected by HA and you pick what you want them to do), I'm again not sure how you'd do this in the Samsung Compound......!

 

[aVdub]

We are tied into Alexa with most of the home having Smart tech and has been so for a few years now.

Next upgrade when I re-wire the bedroom will be Smart sockets and more Hue lighting.

 

[jpaul]

Re dimmers - yes, just Google 'smart inline dimmers' and you'll see various options - Shelly or any ZigBee versions (eg Sonoff) are well tested and very good/cheap - again, whilst this is pretty plug and play in HA (have done so with lightwave, hue and Sonoff in my house and they just get detected by HA and you pick what you want them to do), I'm again not sure how you'd do this in the Samsung Compound......!

I thought you were saying philips/hue were now doing an inline dimmer
... whose dimmable bulbs have you used with lightwave/shelly/sonoff dimmers - I want a bulb that holds its colour temperature (holy grail)

(some CU/house supply monitoring discussion we had last week https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...ide-or-plug-specific-cheap-no-cloud.18958716/ )

 

[katie279]

I have - we've got two hue inline switches (would send link, but don't know forum rules), but have others non-hue - was just giving extra options. In short Lightwave are poor (buggy software) - had them for years, Hue are decent but insultingly priced and shelly/sonoff tend to be the best.

Re bulb - yeah, think you just need to find the dimmable LED that you fancy really - as long as it can step the wattage / reduce the PWM smoothly enough, it should do the job.

Re other post - yes, lots of easy stuff in HA here (influxDB, grafana and MQTT all nice and easy to get running). I've got a raft of Kasa Energy plugs and would just use something like an Efergy CT Clamp for easy integration around the cables I need. There's smarter stuff to AI recognise devices from a single signal: https://developers.evrythng.com/docs/intelligent-appliance-classification - you'd just need to train the ML pattern by running around switching your devices on and off initially, but pretty cool once your model is set up - but obviously much more technical and still pretty PoC state, so you'd need to be comfortable ingesting manually.

 

[jpaul]

I have - we've got two hue inline switches (would send link, but don't know forum rules), but have others non-hue

maybe we are talking different thing - all I can see for hue are smart wireless switches eg. https://morehue.com/every-new-upgrade-of-the-philips-hue-dimmer-switch-v2/

different from dimmer switches incorporated inline in an existing wiring circuit to control dumb Led bulbs like sonoff d1, shelly,

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yeah, think you just need to find the dimmable LED that you fancy really -

we've had earlier discussions about poor dumb dimmable led bulbs

I have different dimmable bulbs in every room. They all flicker to some degree when dimmed.
If you look at our dog wagging his tail when dimmed it has a strobe effect. But you don't really notice it otherwise.

and, today, if I look now
4000k, b22 dimmable I have one bulb from megamann !

 

[MassiveJim]

maybe we are talking different thing - all I can see for hue are smart wireless switches eg. https://morehue.com/every-new-upgrade-of-the-philips-hue-dimmer-switch-v2/

different from dimmer switches incorporated inline in an existing wiring circuit to control dumb Led bulbs like sonoff d1, shelly,

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we've had earlier discussions about poor dumb dimmable led bulbs

and, today, if I look now
4000k, b22 dimmable I have one bulb from megamann !

I think things have improved, but its still a bit of a minefield in terms of getting the right smart dimmer and bulb combo.
I have moved house since the post you quoted and I now have a dimmer switch and GU10 combo that I am happy with.
no flickering and dimming works as expected, perfectly controlled by echo devices.

Another factor to consider is the load on the switch as well, I have some smart dimmers from Aurora (crap do not buy them) that were literally uncontrollable with 2 x GU10 bulbs, but worked reasonably well with 4 bulbs.


even non smart dimmers can be problematic though, in my "office" I have 5 x GU10 bulbs dimmed by a varilight "dumb" dimmer switch and they will flicker at the lowest setting after a few minutes, then I turn up the brightness slightly and it starts doing t again a few minutes later, so I have to increase brightness slightly again.

 

[katie279]

maybe we are talking different thing - all I can see for hue are smart wireless switches eg. https://morehue.com/every-new-upgrade-of-the-philips-hue-dimmer-switch-v2/

different from dimmer switches incorporated inline in an existing wiring circuit to control dumb Led bulbs like sonoff d1, shelly,

----------------

Hue announce Switch Module - Homekit News and Reviews

Philip hue has announced a new in-wall switch module that works with the company’s Hue bridge to allow direct control

homekitnews.com

This is what I'm meaning - sorry, was trying not to add links to other sites due to forum rules - this sits behind your light switch and basically works inline (also allows you to control your lights even if switch is physically off) - much like sonoff, shelly etc

we've had earlier discussions about poor dumb dimmable led bulbs

and, today, if I look now
4000k, b22 dimmable I have one bulb from megamann !

Yeah, there is a lack of 'grading' here of the quality difference - only thing I'd add is more often than not this has been about the switch, not the bulb (eg trickle residual current being enough to cause them to flicker when off or ramp down of the PWM too rough which causes the flicker) - replaced a bunch of expensive switches in the house when we renovated and this solved the problem. I've since move to hue/smart bulbs anyway, so not a problem anyway now.

 

[jpaul]

Yeah, there is a lack of 'grading' here of the quality difference - only thing I'd add is more often than not this has been about the switch, not the bulb (eg trickle residual current being enough to cause them to flicker when off or ramp down of the PWM too rough which causes the flicker) - replaced a bunch of expensive switches in the house when we renovated and this solved the problem. I've since move to hue/smart bulbs anyway, so not a problem anyway now.

it's predominately the bulbs, in race to replace the incandescents they have cheaped out, to control price and the led lifetime promise doesn't get delivered - look up Dubai bulb design.

even in the USA where they have L+N at the socket flickering still exists, although the system recently posted where kinetic energy from using switch reharges the smart/wireless electronics may help in the UK.

 

[martin363]

This is my first foray into Home Assistant, I found it amazing how many devices and entities exist around my home! for example all the Hue motion detectors I have also contain a Thermostat! Who knew, well I didn't.

I am running HA as a virtual machine in Docker on my Synology NAS, and have repurposed an old surface tablet I had as a wall mount display. It seems to work well using edge in full screen mode, is large hi def and I think looks great. (wife is on the fence...). Still exploring and tweaking, so much to learn and get right.

A couple of questions for all you experts:

1. What dashboard would you recommend, beyond the standard?
2. I would like to use the built in camera to trigger the screen coming on when it senses movement. Can I do this in Windows 10?

Thanks!

 

[katie279]

Hehe! Yes indeed - I remember discovering all these hidden sensors - if I recall it was hue or our TVs or something that also had light sensors - which is great as you can automate lighting, music etc based on light levels)

Re dashboards - I'd stick with the home assistant dashboard itself, I've tried various ones, but just google 'lovelace' dashboards and 'best lovelace cards' and your mind will be blown by the years and years of cool ideas...! Depends really where you want to start, but suggest playing with the inbuilt cards first - eg graph/statistics cards are great for showing light usage, activity, temperatures over time. You could obviously use Apexcharts Card for more advanced stuff eventually!

Re camera/movement - you can definitely do it, I've got an amazon fire I'm using as a wall mounted controller (embedded into the wall). It uses the fully kiosk app to do some handy stuff (eg have screensaver/turn off screen, then turn on when someone moves near using the same camera). Not sure about Windows 10, so worth a google - someone will have worked it out....!

 

[martin363]

Hehe! Yes indeed - I remember discovering all these hidden sensors - if I recall it was hue or our TVs or something that also had light sensors - which is great as you can automate lighting, music etc based on light levels)

Re dashboards - I'd stick with the home assistant dashboard itself, I've tried various ones, but just google 'lovelace' dashboards and 'best lovelace cards' and your mind will be blown by the years and years of cool ideas...! Depends really where you want to start, but suggest playing with the inbuilt cards first - eg graph/statistics cards are great for showing light usage, activity, temperatures over time. You could obviously use Apexcharts Card for more advanced stuff eventually!

Re camera/movement - you can definitely do it, I've got an amazon fire I'm using as a wall mounted controller (embedded into the wall). It uses the fully kiosk app to do some handy stuff (eg have screensaver/turn off screen, then turn on when someone moves near using the same camera). Not sure about Windows 10, so worth a google - someone will have worked it out....!

Thank you!

Yes, the Hue motion sensors have Lux meters. I am just starting out, working out what I want to do and how I want to do it. Took me a day to get the smart meters to feed into it! but then once I had done this the car took 10 mins, so a definite learning curve. I suspect it is harder to do in Docker, but seems more - future proof, or sensible. who knows...

Thanks for the information re. Lovelace, will look.

 

[nst68]

This is my first foray into Home Assistant, I found it amazing how many devices and entities exist around my home! for example all the Hue motion detectors I have also contain a Thermostat! Who knew, well I didn't.

I am running HA as a virtual machine in Docker on my Synology NAS, and have repurposed an old surface tablet I had as a wall mount display. It seems to work well using edge in full screen mode, is large hi def and I think looks great. (wife is on the fence...). Still exploring and tweaking, so much to learn and get right.

A couple of questions for all you experts:

1. What dashboard would you recommend, beyond the standard?
2. I would like to use the built in camera to trigger the screen coming on when it senses movement. Can I do this in Windows 10?

Thanks!

How are you getting the current days power usage?

I'm with Octopus and have got a smart meter, but can only get the previous day's stats.