Smart home

O

Oildudeny

Joined
Aug 2, 2018
Messages
1,550
how many bitog members using a smart home?

I gave it a try had a nest thermostat that came with one of those Google pod speakers.. ordered a 2nd and had those smart plug adapters that a lamp could be plugged into. Also had a wemo switch with a schedule turning on and off my garage lights.

There was something that made me not comfortable with the entire smart home set-up... having my Gmail account giving access to these various applications.

I was bugged that I had a wake up schedule for the thermostat to a set temp at 6am... well I have a Samsung phone and somehow the nest picked up on my phone alarm at 5:30-5:45 depending on me snoozing the alarm... the schedule i set in the nest app never changed but that thermostat started putting my furnace on between 5:30 & 5:45.

Long story short... I'm back to a wall timer for the garage lights, turning my lamps on and off manually and stuck up a simple programmable thermostat.
 
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I'm old school; analog thermostat, I turn my lamps and garage lights on and off myself but I do have a doorbell camera though; does that count?
 
You can control all of this more. Yes, by default, these linked systems try and "help" as they learn your habits. In many cases, people like this. In others, people think it's creepy.
 
Are you certain that your Nest communicated with your phone somehow? I don't have a Nest thermostat, but my Honeywells will start the heat or AC prior to the schedule to have the temperature that I want at the time that I want it.
 
The Nests auto learn mode probably picked up on your daily schedule by you simply walking past it at roughly the same time of day and adjusts accordingly. We have that disabled and use it mostly as a “dumb” thermostat we can control from our phones. I will be getting a Nest temperature sensor for our bedroom though, my wife complains that the heat in that room makes it too warm.

We also have a google home, but we just use it as a kitchen timer/to play music while in the kitchen, or the kids watch a video while they’re eating.
 
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55hambone said:
Are you certain that your Nest communicated with your phone somehow? I don't have a Nest thermostat, but my Honeywells will start the heat or AC prior to the schedule to have the temperature that I want at the time that I want it.
Click to expand...
Well I know I read about geo referencing which can be turned off... that feature does use your phones location to warm or cool your home depending how far you are.. that i see as a useful feature.. but as mentioned i believe that all the tech was learning my habits "Ai" which could be useful just creepy for my mentality.. I am old school I told the wife I wanted it all disconnected.
 
My son in Washington just finished settingup his gas fireplace to turn on when asked and the blower also to turn on when asked. He has smarted his home. At least I think he now is using English commands. He has been taking classes in Japanese and did have them set up for that. He is a very intelligent young man. Proud Dad
 
vwmaniaman said:
My son in Washington just finished settingup his gas fireplace to turn on when asked and the blower also to turn on when asked. He has smarted his home. At least I think he now is using English commands. He has been taking classes in Japanese and did have them set up for that. He is a very intelligent young man. Proud Dad
Click to expand...
i feel like i am living with and in bed with all the tech giants having all them smart speakers and smart home devices learning mine and the wife's habits.. it's scary how easily we'll give up our privacy for smart home automation.. well as long as i use a tablet, pc and some kind of a smartphone android or apple there's no real privacy anymore i already engrained my digital footprint with the NSA.
 
Ecobee thermostat, being able to set schedules and download data is very nice. Smart electric meter lets me know energy usage down to the hour. Smart garage door opener. Ring doorbell. We have a alexa but I only use it for a few lamps and playing music.
 
I have 4 smart plugs and 1 garage opener in my house, they are all individually controlled via push buttons or wifi app instead of Alexa or Google.

1 has a scheduled on and off for the water kettle (coffee and tea), 2 are there to let me turn on and off rice cookers (steamer) without plugging and unplugging every day, 1 to power cycle the smart garage opener just in case it crashes (and it crashes about once a week) as a backup reboot mechanism.

I do not like the smart home nonsense but in some situation if the price is right they can be handy.
 
Oildudeny said:
how many bitog members using a smart home?

I gave it a try had a nest thermostat that came with one of those Google pod speakers.. ordered a 2nd and had those smart plug adapters that a lamp could be plugged into. Also had a wemo switch with a schedule turning on and off my garage lights.

There was something that made me not comfortable with the entire smart home set-up... having my Gmail account giving access to these various applications.

I was bugged that I had a wake up schedule for the thermostat to a set temp at 6am... well I have a Samsung phone and somehow the nest picked up on my phone alarm at 5:30-5:45 depending on me snoozing the alarm... the schedule i set in the nest app never changed but that thermostat started putting my furnace on between 5:30 & 5:45.

Long story short... I'm back to a wall timer for the garage lights, turning my lamps on and off manually and stuck up a simple programmable thermostat.
Click to expand...
Oh brother, more is so much less. I have a Mickey Mouse non-programmable t-stat for the furnace. I actually turn my lights on and off manually as needed. When I need garage lights I turn them on manually and believe it or not shut them off the same way. What I really need is someone to help me put this gigantic air fryer that my daughter bought me back into the box so I can return it...Alexa..where are you??
 
Aredeeem said:
Oh brother, more is so much less. I have a Mickey Mouse non-programmable t-stat for the furnace. I actually turn my lights on and off manually as needed. When I need garage lights I turn them on manually and believe it or not shut them off the same way. What I really need is someone to help me put this gigantic air fryer that my daughter bought me back into the box so I can return it...Alexa..where are you??
Click to expand...
They make Alexa enabled air fryers...
 
Who's "dumb" thermostat can do this ?
ecobee Alert: There may be a problem with the furnace.

[email protected]
4:14 AM (15 hours ago)

Hall, you have an alert message from ecobee for thermostat: Ecobee-184 (xxxxxx):

There may be a problem with the Furnace. For the past 2 hours the thermostat has been calling for heat, but the room temperature has decreased by 3.0.
Click to expand...
My high-limit switch had tripped... In our case we were home and felt the colder temps so we knew something was wrong. Would be handy if this happened while away, at work, for example.
 
I guess it comes down to your individual needs.I’m not anti-tech. If I was still putting in 12 hour days miles from home it would be reassuring to know what’s going on at the homestead. When you’re home most of the time..not so much. To each his own. Although it would be nice to get a call occasionally from someone, anyone. Even my thermostat.
 
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