[rebuilder]

I think it’s also just that there’s not that much it makes sense to automate in the home. I run Home Assistant, and I do not have much of the typical home stuff on it. Why would I want to automate lights? My cat feeder has a timer already. I’m not about to get a smart lock and can’t imagine why I would want to automate one.

The useful things I do use it for are:

-heating control to take advantage of cheaper electric rates (I’m on 15 min spot pricing)

-automatically setting EV charging times to optimized cost

-a remote to start and stop a water pump to water plants in the garden, optionally with a timer

-a remote to consolidate a couple of lights that I want to turn on and off simultaneously to watch movies.

That’s it. Controlling my pool heater would be good but unfortunately it has a safety that trips if the power is interrupted. I’ve been using this system for years and simply cannot think of much else I want to automate.

[biotinker]

There are some really nice things that home automation enables that was previously impossible.

I live in Bend, Oregon. We have hot summer days, cool nights, and sometimes really bad wildfire smoke.

I can save a lot of money on AC if I open the windows at night and use the attic fan to pull in outside air. But if smoke rolls in, then we'd all be breathing 200+ AQI air all night.

I have outdoor AQI sensors, which if the AQI spikes, will close up the house and turn on the air purifiers.

> Why would I want to automate lights?

We're bad at remembering to turn lights on and off. We like having our porch light on an hour or two after sunset, but don't need to leave it on 24/7. We also have stairwell baseboard lighting that's completely unnecessary during the day, but very nice to have already be on if we get up in the middle of the night. To each their own, though. These are just nice to have. The AQI automation is an actual health benefit to us though.

[ssl-3]

I have all kinds of lights automated. Lights that turn themselves off with a software timer. Lights that turn off when nobody is home. Lights that turn themselves on when I get home. Lights that do things in response to the status of other lights. Lights that fade on slowly every evening beginning at sunset and reaching 100% brightness at civil twilight, and do the opposite every morning.

I suppose that it does make some things less frustrating.

The days when I'd come home from work and see that the porch light got left on all day or find that the pantry light has been left on for hours are all behind me. That's not as important (money-wise) with LEDs as it was with incandescents, but it's good.

It's also fun -- for me, at least -- to think of ways to automate things.

Like: I have a bedroom that tends to get hot on sunny days and overlooks a busy road, and I don't like feeling like I'm on display. So I'd like those blinds closed at night, and open during the day. Sounds simple. I can do that the old fashioned way by opening and closing the blinds with my hands.

Except: If it's hot in there, then maybe they can just stay closed during the day.

Except: Maybe I can let ambient daylight in, and only close the blinds during the day during times when the position of the sun allows for direct sunlight to pour in.

Except: If it's cold in the room and it's during the heating season, then that sunlight is useful energy that saves me money and they should stay open.

Perhaps I could manage all that myself manually every day (and maybe I'll remember to try to get it right, or maybe I won't bother trying at all), or I can code something up one time that does it for me. The latter might not actually be less work, but it's more fun and it's probably going to be more reliable than I am myself.

[seanmcdirmid]

I automate lights because we have a bunch of then to manipulate: four switches for the living room. Shades are worse, we have 10 windows so automating them so they open and close at once on demand is a win (I told my wife we should always keep them open and she was really against that, so automated was a marriage saver).

I have some security stuff setup to turn on a siren when tweakers poke around my open garage and doorway after 11 PM. It doesn’t do anything else, this is just a way to scare them off a bit and to let me know something is up. H the light will also turn red if detects a person at the door (again to ward tweakers off or make them feel watched at least).

I’ve been recently discovering the joy of robovacs, except we have three floors and so I found we need three of them, ugh.

[TylerE]

> Why would I want to automate lights?

Wait until you're disabled and there are days you can't get out of bed.

Having your bedroom lights fade in at low brightness a few minutes before your alarm goes off is also really nice.

If you live in an area that's not great time wise there are also a lot of arguments to be made for making it look like your home is occupied when you're away.

[chihuahua]

I have some lights on mechanical timers so the living room has a minimal amount of light in the evening, and they turn off automatically at midnight. That's useful to me, and it was cheap and simple. Haven't had to touch it in 10 years, except to adjust the timers to the seasons. The mechanical timers (Ikea) predate Alexa, and it's cheaper to just keep using them.

I also have a porch light that used to have a light sensor, but those sensors keep failing after a few years, and it's a hassle. Instead, Alexa has a schedule for that porch light switch, and you can specify "turn on at sunset" and "turn off at sunrise", and it's perfect.

And I have an Alexa rule for turning off the other lights that it controls (living room, dining room, family room, hallways, but not the porch light) at midnight. Simple and useful in case I forget to turn the lights off.

[Retric]

An alarm with a built in light does that slowly getting brighter thing just fine.

These days a smart home doing that slowly getting brighter thing regularly fails.

[TylerE]

Mine has literally never failed, and I haven’t owned an alarm clock in two decades this reply is peak HN.

[Retric]

Your smart home has never failed? What brand are you using?