I’m in the process of waiting for my new home to be built, so I will have to buy all new appliances in a year time or so. I want to automate and integrate as much devices as I can so I can view their status and give commands to them.
I’ll also have to buy a new dishwasher, oven, washer, dryer, etc etc. Right now I have all Siemens Studioline harware for my kitchen. My parents have it as well, and I think the hardware itself is great. However, the ‘smart’ part of them is so crappy IMO. It uses Home Connect for Siemens and Bosch devices, but it’s a cloud solution and I think i don’t have to explain why that’s not preferred.
My question is, are there any other ways? Is there a local API? Are there other high-end brands that have a nicer way for smart home integration?
How about a washer and a dryer for clothes? How are the integrations with such devices?
I have done some searching but it seems like the big brands are barely supporting it, and if they are it’s only with closed source software and services. I wouldn’t want to lose control over my devices when their service shuts down or when they deprecate my hardware…
Really? No one in the same boat as me?
No, there are many in the same boat, the problem is the answer to the original question, “Are there any good and open standards for home appliances”, even though it may be yes, for quality hardware you actually would want to own it is no, since they want to tie you into a proprietary ecosystem.
We chose our washer and dryer years ago based on specific features, general quality, and known reliability. They are not smart devices, the smart ones were not as good. Now that may be different, but for home appliance manufacturers, “smart” pretty much means “cloud connected security nightmare device you dont want connected to your network”.
My suggestion would be do all power monitoring at the breaker panel and use that for primary automations, you may not be able to control the devices but you can know when they are on, when they finish a cycle. Wash cycle ended but dryer cycle did not start within 10 mins? Send an alert. Home alarm armed but oven is drawing power? Alert and give the open to trip the breaker.
Also, a lot of the good higher end stuff is straight up dumb hardware, no smart anything by design, but would you spend 4 grand on a mini fridge even if it had MQTT?