The smartest house is designed with passive systems in mind. In the northern hemisphere the south and west are where you get hot summer sun. Deciduous trees planted on the southwest-west will block the summer evening sun, and then drop their leaves so you can still get winter sun.
The wise house (as opposed to intelligent)
In reality all the smart devices were discontinued so they no longer work
That’s not true at all. They’re still connected and part of a happy worldwide Botnet.
They still work, but not as originally intended.
they work, but for someone else
This is wonderful. To me, “smart” devices are usually things to be avoided. I interpret “smart” to mean additional cost, more points of failure, giving up my privacy to “register” the device, and possible future incompatibility (especially if the company fails or is bought out).
I don’t mind the smart home concept, but I find it falls apart at the planning and implementation level. People need to put more thought into what actually needs to be automated.
The best example I can think of is one of the older “smart” devices: a coffee maker. I had an old coffee maker, and I used the auto on function all the time. But, when I wanted to wake up at at different time, I had to fiddle with the coffee maker. Wouldn’t it be great if I could just tie it in with my phone’s alarm?
Eventually, the coffee maker broke. My first thought was “I bet someone makes a smart coffee maker”, but then I remembered not having coffee because the very simple controller died. How long would a “smart” coffee maker actually last? So I bought the dumbest possible coffee maker and a smart switch.
By identifying what part of the process actually needs to be automated, and buying devices that don’t require internet connections, you can avoid almost all the common problems people have with smart homes.
Yes, “smart” here is like “turbo” for electric power tools whete it shows they are weak so they try to swope that under the rug with a cheap selling technique.
Stupid me just kind of assumed a smart device would be a simple thing that would accept API calls or something. But no, you need an app that sends a signal to China every 10 minutes and you need to link it to Google too. Even better when you have three devices of different brands
A lot of smart devices are just an esp that basically does that. The zigbee and z-wave stuff isn’t even internet connected. A usb dongle connected to a PC running smart home software locally controls it.
It’s weird that so much has sprung up around personal homes when businesses had bacnet for years and years. Most of that stuff is wired up with basic analog inputs and outputs.
Personally, I like hardwired everything and would like to see more PoE stuff come out rather than wireless. I hate dealing with batteries because some people can’t deal with running low voltage wires.
boomer meme boomer meme boomer meme
The light is controlled automatically by weather and time of day.
Points at window
Zwave, zigbee, and VLANs
It’s just a matter of software vs hardware. I prefer hardware because it’s easier and cheaper for me to fix. Others might find software easier and cheaper to fix. Horses for courses.
This is verrry close to ForwardsFromGrandma material.
Yep, like for sure kernel of truth worth discussion and I don’t even disagree, but this is definitely an FFG template lol
Nah, the template is more “Master Foo’s Unix koans”.
love my 1912 house with the button light switches and old fashioned everything
makes my life as a systems admin at a small shop bareable. I am by default the SME on all technology to my coworkers and it’s draining. The old house is my true refuge. knowing it’s been there for so long, unchanged for almost all of that time. It’s something special. We had the outlets upgraded from knob and tube, but funny enough the electricians said it was basically perfect and the best they had seen, only one spot was a concern but it’s nice not having to worry about overloading that old copper.
I loved my 1900 house. When we moved in, our insurance company said they wouldnt insure us if the knob and tube running in the attic was active. Our inspector wrote up the report saying it was dead wire, just didnt take it out when they ran romex… fast forward to us selling the house. New inspector tells us that knob and tube IS active and we have to replace it to sell the house. Sigh.
Another fun was trying to fix a door that didnt close right. Naturally i assumed the frame settled and wasnt square. Eventually started to get to work when i realized the frame WAS square, just about the only square joint in the house. But it mustve no been because the door was planed at an angle lol. That solid wood door replacement was hundreds of dollars, so it didn’t get replaced
the only knob and tube we have left is for the antique light fixtures. but at the exposure point it is transferred to romex and all of the lines have a GFCI outlet between the fuse box and the lines. The electrician said it’s the acceptable solution since we didn’t want to tear into the walls and ceilings
