My Home Automation Addiction

now thats smart and very simple :smile:

I did this exact thing in my half bath off the garageā€¦ instead of bulbs or a smart switchā€¦ I just use an occupancy sensor. saved a ton of money and even when the internet is downā€¦ it still works.

Good Job!!!

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I know this is tragic, but it made me laugh. This was on the littlebits site this morning. Their Valentineā€™s Day haiku:

Who needs a lover
When you can eat burritos
And invent cool stuff.

:sunglasses:

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I woke up this Valentineā€™s morning and saw my shadow. Looks like 6 more weeks of being single.

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Iā€™m at a BBQ at my brothers house and having a great time, and then he decides to ruin it by giving me his old Harmony remote and hubā€¦now all I want to do is research how to connect it to ST and Alexa and go home to set it up! Way to ruin a partyā€¦I call this ā€œSHD,ā€ or ā€œSmart Home Disorderā€¦ā€

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See, Iā€™m actually an extreme couponer. I started this to save money and to fulfill my love of new tech crap! My goal is to have a comprehensive system that will pay for itself In 2 yearsā€¦it started with an Echo I got for a gift and took off from there! I was also planning on adding things over the long term, but because of awesome clearance finds Iā€™m sitting here 3 months later with 20 lights (between bulbs, smart hard wired switches, and smart plugs), a nest thermostat, 4 hue accent lights, half of my security system, and the capabilities of having a voice controlled TV. Iā€™ve spent about $550 so far and am looking at another $300 to be where I really want to be (trying to find a deal on a nest smoke detector and a few cameras)ā€¦but I keep adding things to the list of wants and now I realize that this going to turn into a never ending project that will consume all of my money! Lol. Iā€™m wondering where itā€™ll end! One thing saving me is that we are saving $600/year alone on our security system. I used to work in security system monitoring and realize that you donā€™t need someone monitoring for you as long as you have a good enough system in place! Iā€™ve also been saving money on my energy bill between the LEDs and not running my AC/heat all the time. So I can probably have this thing paid for (including my immediate wants) in a little over a year!

Just make sure your married before you allow yourself to be drawn in by SHD. If your not married before you definitely wonā€™t be afterwards. However as long as you can sell the advantages to your spouse you can allow SHD to set in.

I just scored brownie points today, were away on holiday and my wife has been able to text the neighbours to tell them our cat is stuck in our garage. Whether that will allow me to buy more sensors only time will tell.

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So far not been brave enough to inform the wife of the capital expenditure involved to date ā€¦ :unamused:

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Iā€™m engagedā€¦but my fiancĆ© is getting noticeably annoyedā€¦Iā€™m going on hold with Lowes trying to get a few switches shipped to meā€¦please donā€™t tell her!

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I sold my Roomba so I have some gadget money to spend. (Itā€™s kind of a long story why I decided to sell it, so I wonā€™t bore you with that.) Anyway, I was one minute away from buying a Hue Bloom for $54 from Amazon & 2 minutes later it was back up to $60. That pissed me off; but Iā€™ll just wait.

Was gonna put it behind my TV that sits on a stand in the corner of my family room. Off topic, but curious if anybody has tried that.

I bought that Roomba with my birthday money, so I figure the ā€œbossā€ has no right to complain. Who knows, time will tell.

I have a Roomba - it has actually done about 8 years service (with multiple battery replacements) so canā€™t complain. It formed a theme of buying my wife various vacuum cleaners including the latest Vax cordless followed by a Dyson as wedding anniversary presents ā€¦

Do you think that the Divorce Courts class Home Automation Addiction as a irreconcilable difference ?

(The intention behind the Dyson was when I read that I could jump start my car with the Li-on Cobalt battery :smiling_imp: )

Havenā€™t tried the hue anywhere but on tables because my 2 year old wonā€™t stop touching them! As soon as heā€™s out of that phase Iā€™ll be able to put them on the floor. Lol

Hahaha. Howā€™d the jump starting work out?

Still completing the cost/benefit analysis as to the value of the Dyson battery versus the brief kudos of starting a car ā€¦

My intense curiously would have forced me to check the warranty of the battery before I bought it! Lol

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SmartThings is not a security system, no matter how hard they try to convince you otherwise. At best, it can be used as an auxiliary monitoring system, but it does not replace a dedicated security system. So, itā€™s like saving on gasoline by riding a bicycle instead of driving a car. Yes, it works, but it only gets you so far. :wink:

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I definitely get what youā€™re saying. But Iā€™ve worked in home security monitoring in the past and Iā€™ve realized a few things. I donā€™t need someone monitoring for me. All I need is to get an alert if a sensor is tripped and to be able to see inside my house when the sensor is tripped. Having someone monitoring my system is useless if I have those capabilities. As far as if power or internet going out, the likelihood of something happening during either is very unlikely. I know there isnā€™t a backup cellular or phone alert system, but Iā€™m ok with that. As for the reliability of the sensors and smartthings working correctly, thatā€™s what concerns me the most! But Iā€™m sure itā€™s something that will improve over time. I canā€™t see paying $600/year anymore for something that I can do myself, especially since I live in a low crime area. The main focus is to deter people. If someone really wanted to get in my house by cutting the cable or hacking my system, I guess they couldā€¦but good luck getting anything of value cause I ainā€™t got sh*t! Lol

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Unfortunately, itā€™s not as much as Internet going out, as SmartThings cloud service outages and hiccups. Itā€™s not a big deal if you just cannot turn your lights on/off remotely. But itā€™s a different story if you cannot disarm your alarm system and get stuck with the siren wailing in the middle of the night and not being able to turn it off. Iā€™m not saying you have to pay $600 a year. I also prefer self-monitoring, I just donā€™t trust SmartThings for the job. :sunglasses:

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Aaahhhhā€¦ok. That makes sense. I really havenā€™t run into that problem (yet). Do you have any suggestions?

There are security companies that donā€™t force you into a contract, have a mobile backup option and professional monitoring on demand if you go out of town in vacation and donā€™t feel like monitoring your homeā€¦I found one, right after the first time I wasnā€™t able to disarm SHMā€¦