> My air conditioner just died, would be great if a matter compatible one became available.
What would you want the API to look like here?
I would be very conservative about opening up an API if I was a manufacturer. The reason being that there may be misuses by amateur coders that may increase wear on the product, and leading to increase in warranty claims.
I, as a manufacturer, would much rather prefer customers buy something like a Nest/Ecobee, etc. and manage that. Nest (and likely Ecobee) likely have smarts to not turn the AC on/off 30 times within 10 minutes, etc. Also, you benefit from other algorithms like "Time-to-Temp" (Nest), malfunctioning equipment alerts (Nest), etc. If you're in the US, many electricity utilities will give you a discount if you buy a smart thermostat, and then you can further gain $$ by enrolling in demand-response programs.
Hue -- it was the only option that felt 'mature' and well supported. We got a really great price on them and accept that we may swap them out in 3-5 years.
I’ve been looking too, and the more research I do, the more it looks like the best idea is to get regular dimmable bulbs + zigbee dimmer switches - that’s generally going to be simpler and more reliable, the main downside being lack of any colour temperature / RGB support :(
We tried this first in one room and couldn't get the bulbs with the range that we wanted. Hue really stood out in how dark and bright they could get. The RGB also ended up being much more useful than we thought.
What would you want the API to look like here?
I would be very conservative about opening up an API if I was a manufacturer. The reason being that there may be misuses by amateur coders that may increase wear on the product, and leading to increase in warranty claims.
I, as a manufacturer, would much rather prefer customers buy something like a Nest/Ecobee, etc. and manage that. Nest (and likely Ecobee) likely have smarts to not turn the AC on/off 30 times within 10 minutes, etc. Also, you benefit from other algorithms like "Time-to-Temp" (Nest), malfunctioning equipment alerts (Nest), etc. If you're in the US, many electricity utilities will give you a discount if you buy a smart thermostat, and then you can further gain $$ by enrolling in demand-response programs.