# What are your practical use cases for automation, no "fun" things? **URL:** \ **Category:** Projects & Stories\ **Tags:** project\_getstarted\ **Created:** [January 8, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/what-are-your-practical-use-cases-for-automation-no-fun-things/34992 "2016-01-08T17:02:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 12
**Author:** ![JDRoberts](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/smartthings/user_avatar/community.smartthings.com/jdroberts/32/56577_2.png) [@JDRoberts](https://community.smartthings.com/u/JDRoberts)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://community.smartthings.com/t/what-are-your-practical-use-cases-for-automation-no-fun-things/34992/12 "2016-01-08T18:04:13Z")
This is my project report from my first phase of home automation. My emphasis was always on practical. 🕶 > [@Adding Home Automation in Phases: my limited investment strategy](https://community.smartthings.com/t/adding-home-automation-in-phases-my-limited-investment-strategy/26001): > > i’ve been working on this over the last year and I’m just finally getting around to writing it up. I’m quadriparetic, use a wheelchair with limited hand function. So home automation isn’t a hobby for me. I want to get maximum return on investment, with a pretty small budget, and I want everything to be working and practical from the beginning. [image] At the same time, my personal belief (and this is just a guess) is that while there will be several good candidates for plug-and-play home automation systems that will do most of what I want for under $5000 by the summer of 2017, The reality is that there is no system yet that will fully meet my requirements. (edited to add we did finally get this by 2019, more details when I get around to updating this for 2020. wink ) There are ex… --- _[View the full topic](https://community.smartthings.com/t/what-are-your-practical-use-cases-for-automation-no-fun-things/34992)._