Do I need to say more? 
Thoughts?
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My WAF was high until her android phone presence sensor kept triggering our Alarm… Now she wants me to send it all back…
As long as the 11 Philips Hue bulbs and lightstrips in our formal and family living rooms are set to some romantic color… She is fine… As long as my ma-in-law who’s visiting us doesn’t topple while going to the barroom at night (motion activated sensor and hallway night light… ) She is fine… Never messes with any setting! So, mostly WAF is neutral but hates it when geofencing keeps notifying her xxx is back… Has arrived home…
I think WAF is more about how you implement ST than the product itself, with a couple exceptions due to bugs or limitations. My WAF is high since we’ve done enough home theater and other geeky projects together, I knew what to avoid going in.
My advice for good WAF:
- Keep it simple for users and guests.
- Keep your home automation nearly invisible to the user and guests. Over 60 devices and you don’t notice much when you walk into my house, except some motions sensors and the lights come on when you enter a room. Wall switches there if you need them.
- We are keeping home security and home automation separate until things evolve much more. I have and older entirely separate Alarm.com based security system setup. I use ST for automation and access, but not real security. Like Internet security best practices, I like having two layers of home access and alarm/security for now. No added usability complexity to hurt WAF by taking this route.
- Avoid trendy “look how cool this is” guy things like over use of colored lights, noises/unexpected music or announcements, status lights, or overly visible dashboards on the wall. Automation implies eliminating the need for manual control devices.
- Avoid over-automation of things that are already simple and silly easy. Like, trying to implement presence with R.A.G.D.O smartapp, instead of simply pushing the homelink garage door opener button on your car’s sun visor or rear view mirror. Related, put safety first. Manually controlled garage doors are much safer for the home and family and your legal liability until better sensors and controls become available. I did setup “left open” notifications and have automatically closing garage doors after left open for xx minutes. I just only use that automatic close for rare special forgetful cases where home safety could be compromised. There are abut five reasons why presence based doors opening would be bad and cause annoyances for us. I avoid this potential WAF issue for now.
- Be consistent. If you have lights come on automatically in some rooms, have them come on automatically in all rooms. Reaching for a switch becomes a pain quickly once you get used to automated lighting.
Things I have that create WAF:
- Focus on the bonuses home automation can give you, joining multiple lights and other conveniences.
- Keep switches for special needs but mostly eliminate the need to use them. Every room has motion/occupancy based lighting with carefully thought out schedules to disable, and time out/off “after xx minutes” settings. Motion sensor type and placement is important. I use Z-wave switches triggered by motion in the main rooms and walkways. Simple occupancy switches in the smaller bathrooms, closets, lightly used rooms.
- Use a couple luminescence sensors to keep lights off when not needed, yet keep occupied areas bright and happy on dreary/dark days. When mamma’s happy, everyone’s happy.
- Use big switch app with a room light switch and z-wave duplex outlets with lamps or wall sconces to add even more lighting to often occupied family/living rooms. Avoids manually turning on multiple lights and creates a better lit environment than you had before automation.
- Wife and kids love keypad locks and automatically locking after xx minutes. This is worth the investment especially when a lot of in/out activity using different doors on the weekends etc. More secure house yet no need to carry keys.
- Thermastat set when someone wakes, arrives, at home, away. Always comfortable temp yet maximized for energy efficiency is a big WAF.
- Jawbone activity tracker integration. Motivates the family to compete for exercise. Daughter’s Jawbone turns off her bedroom light when put in sleep mode. Wife’s Jawbone locks the doors, my Jawbone puts the house to sleep, thermostat adjust, and locks doors if needed when I go to sleep.
- Careful Ubi integration. Mostly for announcements. Weather report just before we head to the morning school bus stop, calendar based reminders to pick up kid etc.
The most significant WAF issues:
- Despite careful placement and concealing as much as possible, visible motion and door open/close sensors are the biggest issue. (ST + the security system sensors). Looking forward to 1 cm sized micro-sensors of the future!
Our adoption of ST started early this summer with the decision to replace dated bright brass door knobs and aging loose light switches. Overall WAF is super high for ST because of how we implemented it. The added Neato robot vacuum for pet hair was icing on the cake!
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I’m gonna go ahead and say the WAF in my house is LOW. Lights that are not controlled by wall switches are the biggest frustrations.
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WAF… HA! My wife tolerates my adding technology to make our home “smarter”. That said, she loathes technology and will be the first to blame the “smart” devices when something goes wrong. Even if it is her being unable to turn off the TV where I have not installed a z-wave receptacle or switch. lol I think this post just turned into a rant…
It probably does not help my case at all that my original reason for implementation was lowering the household energy usage. I would come home after work only to find every light in the house on and nobody around. I could see the lights in the house on via security cameras, but could do nothing about it. Not any longer! Now if I notice lights are on in the house and there is no movement…off they go. The WAF is very low in this area. ha ha ha
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When I 1st got a camera I had it in the living room for easy access and tinkering. The WAF & the CAF (children acceptability factor) were in the negative. When ever the Foscam switched to IR mode & you could hear the click, & it was perceived I was watching them from work, so the family talked to the camera. The camera is now outside.
I made a smart coffeepot, and the WAF was good… a few days later I noticed the coffeepot had its smartoutlet removed, which was easier then trying to find her tablet I am told. The outlet is now utilized in a room mostly used by the cats, the AAF (Animal acceptability factor) is very high.
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CAF pronounced CALF!!! hahahaha!
How did you do the coffee thing? I have a coffeemaker. I can definitely switch it on…but what about the inputs on the coffeemaker like brew etc.? Call me dumb. I am new to all this and can’t figure that out. If I can do that well, WAF will hit 100% as it is my “duty and responsibility” to program the coffeemaker every night for next morning…
Get a percolator. It only has two states: unplugged and On. Kill the outlet and it’s off. Turn the outlet on and it’s brewing. Plus, despite it being “old” fangled, it actually tastes really good.
@vitamincm Thanks a lot for the info but believe me if go a few models back on coffeemaker from keurig, that will drop the WAF big time! 
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yup, I did what Vitamincm suggested… plug in dumb Mr.Coffee to a smart plug, turns on the coffee pot 10 minutes before we got up, shuts it down 2 hours later. This was a pain when you wanted a lunch time cup of coffee though. May come back if I construct a dashboard & some voice commands perhaps.
Well described @Dlee
"Wife" is unpredictable anywhere in the universe so to get acceptable acceptance is very difficult.
It is low if “wife” thinks she can do better but not that low if i can do something before “wife” can think of it.
Lately the WAF has been extremely high since I hooked up the front patio and back porch holiday lights, strings etc. using three GE zwave outdoor modules/outlets which have been working extremely well with ST.
I Know this is old. Any chance you have found a way to make the Neato only run when you are away?
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