[CT4u8798]

I've never got the reason for home automation over setting the heating to come on half hour before I get out of bed in the winter. I'm quite happy manually turning on lights, etc; and keeping things simple and off line. I also turn most stuff off, fridge/heating system excluded, before leaving the house or going to bed. I definitely don't see the point in smart lights and things like that.

[shepherdjerred]

If you’re curious I have all my automations on GitHub: https://github.com/shepherdjerred/homelab/tree/main/cdk8s/co...

Nothing on there is really crazy or complex. Just things like running the Roomba when I leave, or turning on lights at sunset.

I’ve found it to be very nice because I can automate common things around temperature, motion, waking up/falling asleep, and leaving/coming home. It also all integrates with HomeKit so I can control everything with Siri.

It’s definitely more in the hobby territory than something truly essential, but I would say that it is definitely useful and better than managing a bunch of random apps to automate lights or whatever.

[CT4u8798]

I definitely like the idea, and I do think it's cool. But I just can bothered with the complexity and the fact it needs to be maintained and networked, etc. Also yaml...

[shepherdjerred]

That's fair! For me it has been a really fun way to learn Docker, Kubernetes, etc.

For those who want something similar with way less work I'd use https://www.home-assistant.io/green

On the side of writing YAML, this was actually all generated by the UI and then exported to YAML when I decided I wanted to version control it. It's really nice because Copilot works pretty well for creating/editing automations.

[Cheer2171]

setting the heating to come on a half hour before you get out of bed is literally home automation

your thermostat just happens to support that internally. not everyone's thermostats are 'smart' like that.

[CT4u8798]

I can assure you there's nothing smart about my 15 year old boiler and it's thermostat supports that functionality externally, though the name escapes me it looks like this [0]. No need for any fancy nonsense, networking, "smart" anything. Simple and easy to use.

[0] https://www.ncelectrical.co.uk/product_images/FT24H-HiRes.jp...

[Cheer2171]

it's literally smart home automation, just analog. you like the functionality of automation, you just have a fashionable allergy to it in its digital form

[CT4u8798]

Timers are "smart" now? I just though they were timers. Does the timer on my cooker, so I don't need to set an external timer, make my cooker smart too? Is my outside light over my bins "smart" because it's connected to a light and motion sensor and come on automatically at night?

I've definitely no "fashionable allergy" to digital forms of automation. I simply don't want the massive complexity that comes with it.

I'm also not advocating against it, I just don't see the point it in.

[Izkata]

Setting schedules and automatically doing things in reaction to events is home automation. You've set it up to do something automatically when needed so you don't have to interact with it. I wouldn't include a timer you have to set manually every time though.

Your thermostat? Yes, based on the image above. The cooker? I'd say not. The lights? Definite yes.

[CT4u8798]

I agree it's an automation, I don't agree with it being "smart".

What I like about my thermostat timer is that it's simple, local, and requires nothing else. No networking, no app, no maintenance over changing the timer for if I'm away, etc.

[smitelli]

I think(?) you're thinking of "Adaptive Recovery" which has a few manufacturer-specific aliases.

The behavior is broadly as follows: Consider a thermostat heating schedule that is programmed for 64F overnight, increasing to 70F at 7:00am. A regular thermostat would begin heating at 7am, and take e.g. 40 minutes before reaching 70F. So between 7:00 and 7:40 the temperature is "less than 70F."

With adaptive recovery, the thermostat figures out (or is hand-tuned to know) that it will take 40 minutes to raise eight degrees, so begins the schedule at 6:20 so that it hits 70F right at 7am.

If that's not what you were saying then, uh, ignore me.

[robby_w_g]

The overhead and maintenance involved in setting up these home automations have always seemed to spend more time than it saves. I'm not convinced that automatic lighting is better than just flipping a light switch.

[CT4u8798]

Beyond the "cool" factor I'm with you. I don't know what the benefits would be but I can definitely see it being a pain to maintain and the extra cost in both time and money for running these automation do not seem worth it. I would definitely like to be proven wrong, but I have not seen anything to date.

[jjeaff]

Do you live with other people? Kids? I love being able to quickly turn off all the lights in the house as we leave.

[m463]

I remember automating the lights in my house decades ago (the X10 era!).

The first time I had someone over, I got into bed and hit all-lights-off, only to hear "Hey! I'm in the bathroom and all the lights just went out!"

[CT4u8798]

I just either do that manually or, better yet, make them do it.

[aucisson_masque]

That's basically a hobby for nerd. At least it's the way I see it.

Not once I found anything it allow actually useful. Cool? Yeah maybe the first time, bulb that can switch color is cool.

Beside that, utterly and completely useless.

[10729287]

Well. I'm not living in a big house, but believe me the simplest and less fancy automations make life way better. My favourites :

- Lights on when the first person living here arrive after sunset

- Shutdown every lights when the last person living here leave

- Main switch to shut every lights at night

- 30min light sequence from red to white every morning, everywhere, before playing the "birds" playlist on sonos : waking up like this and not having to deal with switches and darkness while my head is up my ass changed my life.

- Ungrouping every sonos devices each night a 5am and setting volume to each so I don't wake up to full volume and I can have birds in the bedroom, music everywhere else. Screw you Sonos for not making it in your app.

- Gently tone down lights when something is played after 8pm on Apple TV

- Gently lights up when something is paused or stopped on Apple TV

- Setting "night mode" on automatically on sound bar every night at 11pm

- Setting it off automatically every morning at 7am

- Using dirt cheap Ikea remotes for eveything connected, without limitation or Ikea Bridge.

Everything is possible thanks to Home Assistant and some efforts. Because manufacturers either don't care, don't want to be compatible with other brands, or want to keep new exciting features for the future.

Motion activated lights switch is also very useful for corridors and definitely not for lazy people as I often read.

For all of that, thank you HA and its beloved and passionate community !