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I'm moving into my first owned condo in about a month. I've never really paid a lot of attention to smart home stuff because I was living in a 1960s built rented apartment and I didn't even have thermostat control in my own unit. I do heavily use 6-8 smart plugs (like the ones that sit between the device's power cord and the wall outlet) but that's about it. Are smart home things worthwhile? My place was renovated in 2015 and is pretty modern as far as condos go in my area but nothing 'smart' was built in. I wouldn't need any security stuff or automation really but this is as far as I can tell also the smart home thread. I've heard of nest thermostats which I think aren't even around anymore, not sure if that world is worth hopping into. I guess I'm not really sure what I'm asking besides to try to figure out if there are certain ecosystems of products in this space that are huge goon favorites that I would benefit by installing and getting used to from the beginning and not trying to shoehorn into my daily life in a few years.
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Mar 20, 2022 13:39
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Is there any benefit to the Nest thermostats if you live with other people? 3 of us (2 adults) in an apartment, we work from home so there won't be any "turn my heat on when I come home" stuff.
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Mar 26, 2022 19:06
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Three Olives posted:It's pretty and I love that it can be set to both heat and cool automatically. We live in north Texas so it is not uncommon that we will have to heat the house at night and cool it during the day. Cornjob posted:In my case i have a 44 year old house that needed new switches and outlets, as many of the existing ones were original and very worn. The cost to put in smart switches was about $10-12 per switch, as opposed to about $5-7 for regular decora. Switches in my house was very wierd, due to a 20 year old remodel, and i had multiple switch locations for multiple rooms. I tried a few different brands and found that Kasa gave me what i wanted, for the most reasonable price. Can now turn on all the kitchen lights with one switch if needed. Thanks to both of you. I'll probably get the Nest thermostats but there are like 3 thermostats (for electric baseboard heaters) plus a switch for a fireplace, plus also one or two of those humidity-controlled switches for bathroom fans (you set a relative humidity you want and it runs the fan until the humidity drops to that level). Any cool smart home stuff for those humidity ...switches? Or the fireplace (just a normal switch I guess)? Does phillips hue stuff talk to Google Home?
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Mar 27, 2022 23:29
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Motronic posted:Electric baseboard is gonna be a whole other thing, and nest isn't gonna do it, at least not on its own. Why can't a Nest do an electric baseboard? It's just "if the temp at this device gets below [x] turn the heat on"? And yeah fair enough about the humidity thing. I haven't moved in yet so I dunno how well it works but I just figured if I'm stepping slightly into this it makes sense to have everything/as much as possible on it. e: Forgot to mention the humidity switching thing is a really ugly original to 1999 yellowed plastic thing on the wall so I'd like to replace it if only for that reason. This is going to be a place I live for probably the rest of my life. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Mar 28, 2022 |
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Mar 27, 2022 23:58
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Hed posted:I really like this for electric baseboard heat. Thanks, what do you like about it compared to the Nest? e: or is it just the fact that it's like 1/2 the price and electric baseboards have multiple thermostats per home? VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Mar 28, 2022 |
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Mar 28, 2022 00:07
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SpaceCadetBob posted:This. A electric baseboard thermostat is just a light switch with a thermometer attached. The full current that heats the baseboard up has to travel through the thermostat, and thats just now how nest, ecobee, and similar models work. RIP Paul Walker posted:Nest (and most other thermostats) can’t control line-level voltages that baseboard heater thermostats control. Regular thermostats use low-amp low-voltage signals to control relays and poo poo that your HVAC unit contains. Thank you both. That makes sense and it's absolutely wild to me that they don't have it behind a relay still. I guess there's a relay in the switch itself that's controlled by the movement of mercury or something in the original thermostats.
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Mar 28, 2022 00:28
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Motronic posted:It's more/worse than that. Baseboard electric heat is usually 240v so it's not a "regular" light switch that could handle it. You need a 2 pole switch. With a thermostat. Thanks, and thanks re: the plumbing in the other thread. The things aren't even IN the bathrooms, they're like in the hallway outside the bathroom so I don't know for sure but I assume it's sensing the humidity in the hallway right outside the bathroom and not the bathroom itself. As you mentioned it's just to protect the structure.
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Mar 28, 2022 03:50
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CancerCakes posted:I am literally looking at this at the moment, and blue iris seems like a good option. However, electricity costs are so high now that cannibalising an old pc and running it 24/7 will cost quite a lot. Power costs should be pretty low, I use a cheap 4 core AMD APU in a server and it's like 25w. I don't think you need a very powerful chip for this.
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Apr 4, 2022 19:05
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Is there a goon favorite smart switch/dimmer? Has to work with Govee. Thanks.
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Apr 29, 2022 21:47
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I have one with a magnifying glass and it's even better for really small stuff.
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Apr 30, 2022 16:22
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blastron posted:I don't know how Govee works, but if it's capable of being operated with a normal, not-smart dimmer switch, then I recommend the Lutron Caseta series, which replace hardwired switches. I have them controlling basically every important light in my apartment and am very happy with how reliable they are. Cornjob posted:Govee is homekit compatible. Do you use homekit? Thanks, I'll look into these. Govee does work with a normal switch. I haven't set up any homekit thing.
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Apr 30, 2022 23:05
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Rakeris posted:Anyone have any recommendations on a smart thermostat or at least one that can be used remotely? So many seem to be hit or miss garbage. For baseboard heaters, the Mysa stuff was recommended in here and I picked them up, very happy with them. They make non-baseboard thermostats also and I'd probably go that direction if I need that one day because I've been happy with them.
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Jul 15, 2022 17:42
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Gerdalti posted:Anyone know of a Zigbee tilt sensor (garage door)? There seems to be one that's out of stock for god knows how long. I don't know how much you enjoy tinkering but I can imagine using a normal door or window open/close sensor and attaching it to the frame of the garage door rails, with the other side of that piece mounted near the bottom of the garage door such that they meet when it is fully closed. If you're more technical I can imagine a very simple arduino solution with a position sensor but you'd have to run power to it.
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Aug 5, 2022 17:03
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I'm looking to make the change to smart bulbs for most of my ceiling lights. I'm going to use Govee bulbs because I already have them and I like them. I'm here to ask about my options for a smart bulb switch. I know the Lutrons are really nice, I guess I'm curious if there is something that is maybe less feature rich that comes in much cheaper but does a great job still. I don't for example need to be able to take the switch off and carry it to the couch or something. Thanks in advance. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Nov 9, 2022 |
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Nov 9, 2022 07:10
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OP said it's in his garage where he wouldn't hear it IIRC.
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Nov 22, 2022 13:35
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BigFactory posted:The alarm can be on a phone Ah sorry.
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Nov 22, 2022 14:12
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:I reset my Google Nest Hub because it stopped appearing as a castable device. After setting it up again, it still isn't a casting destination and when I say "hey Google open YouTube" I get "sorry, I don't know where to play the video. Please tell me the exact name of the screen". But I want to see YouTube on the display, not cast to a TV or something. Any ideas? Is it maybe part of a different "home"? Do you use google home? Do you see it there?
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Dec 9, 2022 23:51
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Yes, it's visible in my Google Home, as the only device in there. When I go into the device settings I can set the default display, with itself selected, but this doesn't fix it. I can pull up YouTube using the touchscreen interface, but ideally I'd like to be able to cast to this thing again. Awesome, I hope to one day also have more than one display in my kitchen! I asked awhile ago for recommendations for smart light switches and didn't really get any replies. Is the Lutron stuff really so much better that it's the only game in town? I have 4-5 switches I want to replace and I don't really want to pay $4-500!
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Dec 10, 2022 00:51
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McPhearson posted:I have a bunch of the Jasco/GE z-wave switches around my place, which I guess are sold as Embrighten now. Although if you have smart bulbs you probably want a scene controller instead so you don't cut the power to them when you hit the switch. Thanks, yeah is that the term? I do want my bulbs to have power always so I can use Google home to turn them on or off etc. Appreciate the reply regardless.
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Dec 11, 2022 11:19
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SomeDrunkenMick posted:As few as possible pls. My budget for smart lights in the place is currently zero but I'll find a few quid if it means I don't have to go around retrofitting stuff in the future. Govee bulbs may be your answer here. I've slowly been picking them up and replacing the lights in my place. Works well with google home and all that. It's been good.
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Dec 29, 2022 10:28
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haveblue posted:My solution to that was replace the switch with a Leviton multi-button scene controller and map one of the buttons to off/zero brightness. Then you just have to remind people not to hit the one button that actually cuts power. But yes, it is also the expensive option Yeah I'd love to find a more economical solution - I have like 6 switches I'd like to replace.
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May 24, 2023 16:48
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toplitzin posted:The Kasa switches are only ~$11/ea for singles, ~$15 for 3 ways or dimmers, and $20 for the motion ones. Hm but those seem like they're not for smart *bulbs*. From reading their site it seems like you use an app to control the switches, which presumably alter the voltage they're providing to the standard bulbs in order to turn them on/off or dim them. The lutron stuff as I understand it allows for a smart *bulb* to receive constant voltage and the switch is tied in somehow to signal the dimming/colour/etc changes via google home or apple whatever. Am I misunderstanding this? I wish Govee would just make a light switch.
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May 24, 2023 19:40
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Wanderless posted:The Zooz 72 dimmer switches I have give you the option to use them either as scene controllers or physical switches, which is a nice option. Hmm cool. So do scene controllers talk to google home etc or how do you pair them to 3rd party bulbs? Asking anyone, thanks. I have govee bulbs and I use google home.
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May 27, 2023 01:59
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smoobles posted:Dumb Google Home question: "Hey google lower the volume of the living room speakers"
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Aug 26, 2023 05:01
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biznatchio posted:If it's a night vision camera, get used to it. Spiders are attracted to the infrared light and will constantly be building webs there. Does this also mean if I direct an infrared emitter towards someone I don't like they will experience what I'm imagining?
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Dec 7, 2023 02:37
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Tamba posted:Yeah, for temperature and humidity, you probably can't beat the Aquara sensors in price, especially if you order a stack of them from Aliexpress. I always feel this compulsion and I guess tonight I'm turning into Mr. Hyde about this poo poo. I work as a respiratory therapist, obviously in the hospital and not like doing home IT installations but I really think that people monitoring the CO2 in their own homes is some crazy poo poo. If you can detect that it's stuffy in your home yourself, that's the only indicator of low ventilation that you really need. If you crack a few windows in your house, or a window in your condo, that's gotta be pretty much good enough right? I feel like this feeds into people's anxieties and makes them obsess over numbers floating in their air instead of just being reasonable. I spend hours and hours every week worrying about the CO2 in people and it kills me to see people decide to start worrying about it at home for what I perceive to be no good reason. Why???
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Dec 12, 2023 09:20
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the yeti posted:Couple questions: The bottleneck for data is extremely far from any use case like this. I built a second windows PC as a permanently-VPN'd server/torrent/plex/jellyfin/syncthing machine. It's really nice being able to leave something on VPN and to not have your main system being used for this stuff when you're also trying to play games or even turn it off at night and that kind of thing. There's a NAS thread that is very good for figuring out your hardware requirements and just reading about these solutions.
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Jan 7, 2024 16:46
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slidebite posted:Hi thread I'm extremely happy with my Mysa products (4 or 5 baseboard heater smart thermostats). What kind of heating do you have there? Looks like they can cover a variety of applications. I have it tied into google home but the default app is more than fine. https://getmysa.com/
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Jan 24, 2024 03:28
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:The best part of like every IoT device is the setup button on it you have to physically push on every single one of them if you change WiFi networks or WiFi passwords. Seems pretty counter-intuitive to security never being able to change your password. Every time I see the 30 connected wifi devices to my router I'm like ha yeah I'm never changing my SSID or pw.
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Feb 28, 2024 21:10
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