I feel your pain.
I am quadriparetic, use a wheelchair and have limited hand function. So I pay a lot of attention to various automation solutions. They make a very significant difference to people in my situation.
I live in the United States, here neither insurance nor government support pay for most home modifications. They will cover the wheelchair, but not the wheelchair ramp to get in and out of one’s house. Nor do they cover a bed hoist. And they definitely don’t cover any home automation technology that would also be of benefit to able-bodied persons.
There are many solutions available at different price points. And that have been available for about 25 years. There’s actually nothing New or dramatically different from an engineering standpoint about what SmartThings provides.
Home automation that works – – if one is willing to pay for it
The one thing that was revolutionary about SmartThings was the price. For at least 15 years in the US one had been able to purchase a full-blown, very reliable, very stable, full featured home automation system that would control window coverings, home entertainment devices, the thermostat, the lighting, etc. But the price would typically start at around €40,000 and go up from there. The systems would be installed and maintained by professionals for significant annual fee.
Less Expensive Alternatives: the Security System and the Medical Support System
Then there were two less expensive tiers. One was sold by home security companies, which added on some light control, and a monthly fee of around €75 and different initial set up fees. Usually no integration with window coverings or Home entertainment devices or even the thermostat. But cameras, sensors, door locks, garage door controllers. Many people felt that these worked, they were certainly stable and reliable, but the contracts and fees seemed too expensive for the delivered value.
“Environmental Control Systems” for People who use Wheelchairs
The other tier was aimed at people in situations like myself, and has generally been marketed under the name of “environmental control systems.” Something to give more independence to a person with limited hand function. These almost always did control home entertainment devices, frequently allowed for telephone dialing, sometimes included thermostats, almost always included lights and window coverings. Typically used motion sensors only for switch replacement, not for burglar detection. Usually included automatic doors. The systems were often limited to a single room in the home, the person’s bedroom, and had a cost of anywhere from €8000 to 15,000. Very very stable, that was always an essential for any system of this type. Professionally installed. Didn’t always require maintenance contract. Limited ability to customize. But what was delivered worked extremely well.
The New Frontier: Inexpensive DIY Systems
Then along comes SmartThings, and some of their competitors in the US like wink, Iris, and staples connect. They said, we can deliver a home automation controller that can handle almost anything that uses two standardized network protocols (zwave and zigbee). And we’ll sell the controller for less than €250. A revolution in pricing. No contracts, and people will buy exactly the pieces they want. All DIY installation and maintenance.
The different competitors chose different differentiators. Staples connect, a business supply house, aimed its product primarily at small businesses who are its chief customers anyway. Their number one goal from the beginning was reliability. And they delivered it. But they did so by severely restricting the choice of devices that could be connected, and by eliminating anything that might cause instability, including Geopresence detection, custom coding, and most outside Service connections including IFTTT. And the devices that they did choose tended to be among the most expensive in their device classes (whilst still less expensive than the professionally-installed systems). Very high-quality, very reliable, but expensive. It does not require an Internet connection to run. So one can run the lights and the window coverings and the doorlock and the motion sensors in the Office or a small shop, day after day, no problems. Most of the complaints in the Staples customer forums are about not having enough choices. Not about things that worked on Monday failing to work on Tuesday.
The Reliability Question
What does all this mean? Well, clearly it’s possible to create a home automation system that is very reliable, and that delivers what it promises, and that covers a wide variety of device classes. But it may not be possible to do that for under €300 in a DIY set up. That’s really the big question. How much does it have to cost to make a system that will be stable and full featured? What’s the real minimum price?
And from the consumer side, the question is how much should one expect from a €200 controller with no contract? Setting aside the question of features promised that aren’t delivered, which is a whole different issue, if everything that was promised worked perfectly, what would “perfectly” mean in this price range?
How does one compare a Skoda and a Range Rover? The first step is probably just to know that the different categories exist. Which is really why I’m writing this post.
When you go to the conference, I think there will be many people who will confirm the possibility of a reliable IOT system. Even one with a large cloud component. But are they thinking about the kind of system bought by the homeowner who is willing to pay €6000 for a refrigerator? Or are they thinking about the DIY system where all of the component parts together cost less than €1500?
I do like SmartThings, and I do use it, but I only use it for convenience use cases where I have a Plan B immediately available. It gave me voice control of lights and door locks and the television when nothing else under €5000 would have. I set my initial budget of about €1500, and I’ve stuck to that. And that included harmony and a smart watch. But it still infuriates me several times a month, when something which was working fine stopped working. Eventually it starts again but the maintenance is tedious. I accept it, because I don’t want to pay the €15,000 it would cost me to replace equivalent functionality with something that does work reliably every day. (Staples connect as yet does not have any good voice options.)
That doesn’t mean I think it would be a good solution for everyone. It all comes down to what you need and what you’re willing to pay to get it. I just think the question of “Can an IOT home automation system be reliable?” Is certainly yes. The open question is how much it costs to get that reliability.
Submitted with respect.
