If you’re willing to do a bit more work yourself and perhaps not have the best interface, then there is open source software out there that does all this - home assistant for one. It doesn’t phone home and will probably keep working as long as you need. The other nice thing is that it’ll be easier to add new standards to it as they’re developed. You can run it on a raspberry pi + a z-wave USB stick controller.
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I just got a house and the previous owners already have the sprinkler system & exterior lights on timers.
I am looking to add automated security system.Which would be a cost effective and efficient system. please Advise.
How much would it cost in electricity to buy LED light bulbs and never turning them off, as opposed to buying smart switches?
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When I moved in, the dimmers in my house didn’t work with LEDs. So, I had to replace them if I wanted LEDs. Since I had to replace the dimmers anyway, seemed like a good idea to replace them with connected versions. The incremental difference wasn’t that much.
Glad I found this thread, although the technical discussions may be a bit off-topic for Finance. Where do home automation hobbyists hang out these days?
I’ve had an X10 and JDS Stargate home automation system since the early 90s. Extremely affordable switches and controllers, and flexible programming that covered everything from lights, devices, telephony, IR, analog and digital interfaces, etc. But it is getting long in the tooth, X10 is flakey especially with LEDs, and it had no Internet or mobile story. I have to keep a 32-bit Windows XP VM and old-style serial port around just to be able to talk to it. It’s time to move on.
I’ve been looking at the $50 SmartThings controller but holding off based on reviews that question reliability. Also, although Z-Wave seems to be very popular, one has to wonder why the new Amazon Echo Plus doesn’t support it. Amazon is jumping into home automation in a big way, so why did they dis Z-Wave?
Lately I’ve been playing with IFTTT and having some fun. One thing I’d like to do is to be able to trigger an action from my old HA system to actions in IFTTT. My limitation is that I can cause something to happen on a command line which could be used to trigger IFTTT. I tried cURL of a webhooks event, but finding a lag of 30-120 minutes between successfully firing the event and having IFTTT trigger the action. I guess I could try a command line way of sending email or SMS and triggering off of that. Any other ideas?
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I was hesitant with SmartThings also based on the reviews I read.
However, after about a year now, it’s been excellent and gotten better after every release cycle. My biggest gripe is geofencing - but Samsung has been working on this diligently on the iOS platform. I have ST cycle based on who’s home.
Other than that, it’s been great. No regrets.
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Whether you’re on a budget or waiting for the incompatibility that physwa mentioned upthread to shake out, I’ve been looking at some bootstrapped home security for my relatives.
You can buy some prepaid phones at a dollar store for $10 each, and utilize one of these apps:
- ‘Salient Eye’ is free, and uses the phone’s camera to sense motion, and sends you alerts via e-mail or text. Then it begins capturing photos of the intruder and uploads them to a free cloud storage account. Then it triggers an audible alarm that will hopefully scare the intruder away. A password is required to disable the alarm.
- ‘Alfred’ is free, and utilizes motion sensing to send alerts to your cell phone. You can press a button and talk through one of the cameras to talk to a pet or tell an intruder that the police are on the way.
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I’ve had SmartThings for a couple of years. There were reliability problems in the beginning but now it’s reliable. You sound like someone who is willing to try things out/tinker, so I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend SmartThings to you. For $50, it’s a pretty good deal.
Finally getting back up and running after FW!
Just got our home in August…
I got a Nest and we’ve been very happy with it. Seems more efficient and there’s great value for the ease of checking temps and adjusting from your phone.
We also got a ton of motion sensor plug-ins for bulbs and for all outside lighting we got the daytime/nighttime light sensors that automatically turn off with some light. Those have been great and mean we don’t ever have to think about it.
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Here’s what I’ve done.
- Switched out all smoke detectors to Nest Protect
- Switched all thermostats with Nest thermostats
- Switched outside and hallway lights to Philips Hue on a auto on/off program setting
- Of course, all is integrated with Alexa.
So far, so good. 
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You know that CO2 detectors have to be replaced every 10 years, right? Seems unnecessary and expensive.
Talked to a friend last week who updated the firmware on his lightbulbs. Something went wrong and the bulbs wouldn’t turn on after.
This is why I went with the less expensive First Alert z-wave smoke/CO detectors. Recently $26 on Amazon, though now they are back at $40.
Can’t stand those chirping noises. Plus, got them on eBay for around 50 bucks around the holidays. My old ones were installed 10+ years ago, so it was time to update.
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CO alarm - every 5 years
Fire/Smoke alarm - every 10 years.
5-10 years for CO. Since 2009, they are required to have an end-of-life signal.
http://www.nafd.org/pdfs/CODetectorInfo.pdf
Automation hubs are a dead technology IMO. There is a lot of innovation going on with low power WIFI and mesh WIFI. Devices will be able to skip the hub and go straight to the cloud.
I wouldn’t call something dead when its replacement hasn’t arrived yet. If you want to do something today, the best option for many use cases is a home automation hub.
So, where will the logic reside? I mean, I still want my light to turn on and siren to sound if I lose cloud connection so I don’t see how you do that w/o a local “brain”
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