I was playing today with various ways of reporting about things that are happening in my home and around. I like weather forecasts, I like to be notified about individual events when they happen, but I don’t know what general Home Status Reporting other people use.
In a perfect world, what reports do you use or would like to get from your home, via text or audio messages?
I get voice notifications via Google Home when the garage opens or closes or any of the exterior doors is left open for 5 minutes. Push notifications when the side gate opens or closes. Reminders on the first half hour and every hour afterwards if the garage door is open. Push notifications when inside temp exceeds or drops below outside temp. SMS when the doorbell rings. SMS if any exterior doors open while the house is in Away mode, also SMS if the alarm is armed or disarmed while mode is Away or Night. SMS if the alarm siren activates.
I treat voice notifications as lowest importance, as they aren’t persistent and only work if someone is inside to listen to them. Push notifications are more important, but don’t ring through when my phone is in Do Not Disturb mode. SMS messages are treated as highest priority, I use those for critical things that I want to be notified of even if I’m asleep, so I have a SmartThings contact set up in my phone that has a louder notification sound and is set as VIP so it rings through even when my phone is in DND mode.
Great examples. I think notifications/alerts are valuable in Home Automation for information purposes. Like you, I use them for things that are not on automated pilot or for audio/visual cues (closing/locking the door as it has been open/unlocked for x minutes,). Also get weather alerts (audio and visual) when National Weather Service issues one…
What I was really interested is what kind of more complex reporting people use. For example, in the morning when my Good Morning Routine runs, I get…Good morning! today is …date…the sun rose at …sunrise…The weather today is …weather conditions… with a chance of rain of …X %…
I haven’t used a whole lot of reports in the past, but with a fully customizable one I definitely would. My boys wake up every morning and ask their Dot’s what the weather is going to be and a few other things. I plan to make some nice reports for each of them based on exactly what they are wanting.
Mostly I like instant feedback of things like how many and which windows are open, if a door has been left open. Reports are a great way to get that comprehensively.
I really like the weather reports, especially when there is sever weather coming my way.
I have my reports set up to send both SMS and Push for extremely important things… severe weather, garage door left open if we are all away…
How? What’s your setup?
I like the audio confirmation after routines run…Yeah precautionary actions since the big melt downs of the past year, but still is nice to hear…I turned the lights on and set the temperatures the way you wanted. You have 3 lights on, the temperature is set to 73 upstais and 68 Downstairs. The system is idle. The total household power consumption is x watts, and the back door is still open.
Here’s the DTH for Chromecast & GH. Requires a node.js server running on your network. I have a CoRE piston that handles the trigger and execution.
What I want is for my family to say, Alexa, tell home to run Nathan’s good morning report.
Nathan is six
Alexa:
Good morning Nathan. Right now it is xx degrees outside, so if you need a jacket make sure you take one. This afternoon it will be xx degrees. The chance it is going to rain is xx percent. Today is Tuesday, xx month xx year. There are xx days until your birthday! Have you thought about what you want? Good morning and have a wonderful day!
Then, when he gets home from school, he can say, Alexa, ask home does Nathan have any messages?
Alexa:
Hello Nathan, you have one message from your dad, the message is, "Nathan, get your snack as get all of your chores done. I love you."
Would you like anything else?