Smart home tech

Chew Toy McCoy

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What are you guys rockin? I'm mostly just hue lights, including motion sensors in my kitchen and walk-in closet - the 2 most common lights that don't get turned off upon exiting. I also have a standalone motion sensor nightlight in my bathroom. Between timers and motion sensors I sometimes get appalled when I go to other's house and they actually have to touch a switch.
 

Alli

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I feel the same way. All the lights in our house are controlled by Alexa and Google. I have an Alexa in every room. One in the bedroom and one in the adjoining bathroom - cause those two feet are so important. Four in the living room cause I have a FireTV which answers to Alexa, a Show and a Dot, and a Google Home sitting by my work area.

The kitchen is also controlled by all these digital assistants. The den has another Alexa and Google, and the 2nd bedroom only has a single Alexa right now. The junk room is old fashioned. If we ever get it fixed back up, it will get the Spot from the living room.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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I feel the same way. All the lights in our house are controlled by Alexa and Google. I have an Alexa in every room. One in the bedroom and one in the adjoining bathroom - cause those two feet are so important. Four in the living room cause I have a FireTV which answers to Alexa, a Show and a Dot, and a Google Home sitting by my work area.

The kitchen is also controlled by all these digital assistants. The den has another Alexa and Google, and the 2nd bedroom only has a single Alexa right now. The junk room is old fashioned. If we ever get it fixed back up, it will get the Spot from the living room.

I have 7 ways to turn the lights on and off in my bedroom. That wasn't the intention. That's just how technology progressed.
 

Eric

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It looks like we're all automated these days, I get all put out if something doesn't work and I have to get up and manually turn off my light like a caveman. I have 5 echos and two google homes in our single story 3 bedroom home. I can say "Alexa" from anywhere and I will be heard. I mostly use Lutron switches but I also have several Hue bulbs that I'll use for some lamps.

I also have a few of the Amazon wifi plugs, those things are cheap and work great, just plug it in and the Amazon Alexa app finds it right away, easiest home automation device I've ever used. I also use a couple of Wemo light switches for easy on/off automation.

For home alarm I've setup the Nest Secure, it's a perfect solution for our home and you can opt in or out of monthly monitoring and during the pandemic we don't leave as much so we don't need it, if we do we can turn it on monthly if we want.
 

fooferdoggie

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all our house is smart more just because I needed something to do. but I have the lights on always when we are home it actually costs more to buy a motion sensor and sometimes they are slow. when we wake a single light strip coems on at its slowest setting and ramps up then another and another. the window ac and fan go off and the music starts.
 

Alli

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all our house is smart more just because I needed something to do. but I have the lights on always when we are home it actually costs more to buy a motion sensor and sometimes they are slow. when we wake a single light strip coems on at its slowest setting and ramps up then another and another. the window ac and fan go off and the music starts.

That sounds nice. I opted against any motion sensors. I have emergency lights for when the power goes out unexpectedly. I usually turn them off immediately. If I take a trip to the loo in the middle of the night, I keep it dark. The nicest thing about retirement at this point is that the light and the birds can wake me naturally.
 

chagla

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got echo plus for $75 now.. usually it's twice the price and it has a built-in hub. personally prefer google which seems more intelligent than alexa. you can ask it questions!
 

Alli

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got echo plus for $75 now.. usually it's twice the price and it has a built-in hub. personally prefer google which seems more intelligent than alexa. you can ask it questions!

We’ve got two of the Google hubs in the house. Don’t ask me why. I had no idea there was an Echo Plus. Will have to look into that.
 

fooferdoggie

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my wife battles with both to get them to hear her. they used to be too sensitive now they are not sensitive enough. she has too yell sometimes .She uses them a lot to control music as she is blind and its faster.
 

lizkat

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My house remains in human-operated mode, mostly so that in retirement all my muscles don't completely atrophy at the same time. I do let my laptops announce the hour, in case I happen to be in a room with them while needing a blunt reminder of the flight of my remaining time on the planet. Such a reminder is useful if I've been wasting time on yet another compelling episode of Suits, for instance.

I thought about getting motion sensor lights for the deck one year when the whole neighborhood along the ridge here was being hassled by some lively little juvie raccoons using the area as a playground and training center for how to take lids off trashcans and birdseed storage containers.

Fortunately before I got around to blowing money on the lights, a fishercat settled into the 'hood and starting teaching anything smaller than a border collie how to run really fast or else become a bedtime snack.

Man those fishers are ugly, ill tempered and have a mating call that could wake the dead in another county. But as long as you don't have outdoor kitties or some small dog, they're your friend when it comes to clearing an area of critters you might not be all that fond of anyhow, and they mostly mind their own business out in the woods or meadows... as opposed to trying to set up housekeeping under your porch. And, they work even during power outages.

My only wonderment is how do fishers and skunks get along. Hope I don't ever have to find out, because whether a skunk wins or loses a battle, in a way it always wins anyway as far as any nearby humans are concerned. Anyway skunks are another reason I don't have those motion sensor lights. A pal up the way got some and when the lights went on the skunk took offense. 'Nuf said.
 

DT

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I definitely want to get a smart garage door opener/monitor, you know, where I can set it up to close at X time, or at the very least message me it's open, do remote opening/closing - I know the opener we have has a "cloud module", and I understand it's Homekit compatible.

I have an IP camera in the garage, so I can see if it's open, but if I forget to close it, I'll probably forget to check if it's close ... :ROFLMAO:
 

JBaby

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I don’t have a Smart Home. I have two Smart Rooms. My bedroom and office have devices. I have a Hunter Symphony ceiling fan and a Vizio M558-G1. The tv is new. My TCL 43S525 broke in May. I didn’t even get a year out of it. I couldn’t get it fixed under warranty because of Rona. At the time when I bought the Vizio I didn’t even know it was a HomeKit TV. I love it though. I like integrating it into my scenes and automations.

In my office I just have a Koogeek Smart plug that I used to use with my Vornado tabletop fan in my bedroom before I got my Symphony. Now the Koogeek controls my floor lamp.

Oddly enough I don’t have any smart bulbs.

I want to get the IKEA smart blinds for both my bedroom and office windows.
 

Eric

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I don’t have a Smart Home. I have two Smart Rooms. My bedroom and office have devices. I have a Hunter Symphony ceiling fan and a Vizio M558-G1. The tv is new. My TCL 43S525 broke in May. I didn’t even get a year out of it. I couldn’t get it fixed under warranty because of Rona. At the time when I bought the Vizio I didn’t even know it was a HomeKit TV. I love it though. I like integrating it into my scenes and automations.

In my office I just have a Koogeek Smart plug that I used to use with my Vornado tabletop fan in my bedroom before I got my Symphony. Now the Koogeek controls my floor lamp.

Oddly enough I don’t have any smart bulbs.

I want to get the IKEA smart blinds for both my bedroom and office windows.
Sounds like you have all you need and that's what really matters. I have so many frivolous devices to turn on little things that are totally unnecessary but also fun. If something doesn't work and I have to get up and turn out a light like a caveman I get all putout about it.

I've been looking at IKEA too and actually wanted to buy some of the FYRTU shades but they were out and had no future date for releases so I gave up on it.
 

JBaby

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Sounds like you have all you need and that's what really matters. I have so many frivolous devices to turn on little things that are totally unnecessary but also fun. If something doesn't work and I have to get up and turn out a light like a caveman I get all putout about it.

I've been looking at IKEA too and actually wanted to buy some of the FYRTU shades but they were out and had no future date for releases so I gave up on it.

I know what you mean. I get so annoyed when stuff doesn’t work. Like 4 days ago HomeKit was being crazy. Everything kept turning on and off. And that went on for hours.

I want the FYRTUR blinds so badly! I hope they’ll be in stock someday. They will complete my smart room setup.
 
U

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I don’t have a Smart Home. I have two Smart Rooms. My bedroom and office have devices. I have a Hunter Symphony ceiling fan and a Vizio M558-G1. The tv is new. My TCL 43S525 broke in May. I didn’t even get a year out of it. I couldn’t get it fixed under warranty because of Rona. At the time when I bought the Vizio I didn’t even know it was a HomeKit TV. I love it though. I like integrating it into my scenes and automations.
Lol I have the same TV just 55". Not a fantastic TV, but still the best $250 I've ever spent.
 

JBaby

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Oh yes. The TCL

I totally agree with your assessment. I got it only because it was a daily deal on Amazon. I bought it in September 2019 for my birthday. I had a 2012 32” Vizio smart tv previously. Compared to that I thought the TCL was amazing. But since getting the M558-G1 I realize just how wrong I was. But fir the price it was amazing and I’d still be using it if it worked. I’m hoping to get it fixed by a local repair person and then selling it. To recoup some of the cost of the Vizio.
 
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