Fact, to run my smartphone I spend about 200€/year 'cause I have about 50+ smart devices and a nuc running 24/7
I can’t think of a clever answer to the begging question “does your smart system actually saves you that much money?”
… assuming you almost never forget to turn off things that consume electricity or other pricey energy sources like gas or water.
So, I spent like a thousand+ to buy all this stuff, now I’m paying just to run it, looks like a bottle with a hole at the bottom and I always have to keep filling it.
Dear fellow members of this awesome community …thoughts?
I believe it’s hard to see what you save since you do actions based on your smart home naturally.
We can see that we save money on heating, I believe with all the gear we will break even this year on heating.
We have displays on the fridge showing the electricity price and we use this information to save money.
Without the $50 display we wouldn’t know the proces and it would probably feel like we all is great.
Now with the display we can plan accordingly and it feels like that’s natural so we aren’t saving anything. Or are we?
We obviously do but we can’t see the money.
Looking at our electricity consumption then it’s about the same as before but the price for the same consumption is probably less.
And then there is the making things easier.
Taking care of all the nagging on the kids and making sure things just happen.
Yes that technically cost money, but then not reminding us could cost us more.
In the last three winters, HA and an EMS ESP allowed me to reduce gas usage for heating by 40%. In my case that’s a low four digit number. It also allowed me to properly size the heat pump installed this summer. About two handfuls of connected thermometers also allow me to understand which parts of my house are heat loss traps and which aren’t.
A 55€ Zigbee valve controller paid for itself between February and August by saving another 200€ in gas used for domestic hot water (old hot water tank was connected wrong, so the water circulated unless the whole circulation valve was shut off).
There are other aspects of my Home Assistant setup that don’t directly save money like outlined above, but at least I can make informed decisions. As hobbies go, it’s more money efficient than many other activities.
I have two main consumers of electricity, the water heater and the electric car. Both run on excess power from the solar panels on the roof.
Home Assistant is running the automation for that. Also air conditioning when possible.
Thank you all for the tasty food for thought on the above posts!
Let’s put it together… Time is money, I couldn’t aggree more!
Big devices/consumers benefit from smart automation, yes! this is, well, big!
What if you don’t have a big house, or family, or anything big (even the car)… You are one-man-show living in a small apartment, you are out of home most of the time and you use your appliances economically by default.
Having a smart setup you certainly win on comfort and maybe you look and feel cool but you can’t win on saving money. (or can you?)
So, this is the challenge. I’m working on a presentation for a company that builds a momentum on tiny housing for digital nomad …“the sad truth about an ever shrinking budget”
One water leak sensor event successfully shutting down the water main and announcing the error… Immediately saves >$25,000usd in one incident. (ask me how I know, this is whiy I have leak sensors in the first place)
Problem is unless you have a leak you never realize that.
if you are already living small and frugally, there perhaps maybe there is less margin for savings from automation, given the upfront and ongoing costs and time needed.
But that is a different consideration for every unique individual and situation. Convenience should also be considered, how does that help you or the others in your house, but not necessarily save you in direct monetary costs?
Do I spend 100-500 up front in time and devices, and when I will I recoup that in savings? No one else can provide that answer but your self.
saving is one thing, but you also gain in quality of life. balance +&- and you maybe consider your financial “loss” with a different eyes.
Now I agree smart home cost money and even more time for discovering and setting HA. (I am a pensioner so time isn’t too much an issue).
shelly mostly 2.5 is not helping with bad caps, they die one after the other, grrr…
For me the future would be to maximized the power/water envelope our home use (solar & batteries, artesian well). Some sort of priority of loads when supplies and forecast are low, don’t turn on without confirmation (awarness of the low point).
Not entering in a cascade of trouble* would be the main gain of home automation.
(+ being free from invoices)
irrigation with low water tank, not enought power for a task eg: artesian well
If you are already minimizing consumption there is little to save.
Smart switches etc use more energy than passive dumb devices so if you only automate what you did before manually it won’t save you anything.
Automation can sure help increase QOL and do so at minimal energy costs.
I don’t think that with the energy I use I will recover the monetary investment I did in smart home electronics. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the price, because it is for me.
I’m with Nathan on this. Monitoring my home, especially when I’m away, is my big justification for HA. Everything else is mostly for the fun of it.
I’m one failed sump pump away from having to replace my whole heating system. Likewise, monitoring temperatures in key locations will prevent a pipe bursting in winter, and I already know how much that costs. I probably wouldn’t replace the spa (hot tub) if the heater or pump in it froze, but even getting rid of the debris would be expensive, not to mention disappointing.
For some people knowing when doors and windows are left open, or are opened unexpectedly, could save not only money but lives. My biggest security threat is probably me leaving the barn door open and letting mice or skunks or something in there, but with HA I can monitor that sort of thing, too.
Whatever made you think that saving money was a goal of Home Assistant?
I don’t monitor power on any device - I don’t care. I use Home Assistant to automate things. Use Alexa to turn things on or off. Turn off lights when no one is in the room. The Frigate add-on to integrate eight cameras around the house. Home Assistant tells us, through Alexa, when our clothes washer and dryer are finished. Alexa also warns us when the freezer in the basement is above 0°C for more than a minute. There is also a water sensor in the basement that if triggered, Home Assistant alerts me through Alexa and sends a text message to our phones. As @robertklep said, Home Assistant saves me time.
Using The HA Recap:
Security/safety is definitely a big plus. So, why spending (same) money to install 2-3 separate systems when you can integrate all with HA.
Convenience and QOL, we have you covered!
Economy, … let’s say, it depends, -30% to +30% or more.
Sidenote: room for selling a service contract by someone who can devote time and effort to maintain a number of installations for users that don’t know/care how.
The major selling point (cost) is not lost yet in this battle, next, we declare war on Breaking Changes!
Well, big name couldn’t charge every device’s companies and have them integrated and up to date as HA does with the community. (all ressources are limited)
This will become even worth for big tech when those companies join the open source movement.
AI is their last big argument in the race, but the last few years show open source is well advanced in home automation, a lead hard to catch up.
Voice PE & Nabu casa subscription without AI vs big tech AI is one of the main decision to make. Underlying than AI is not compulsory could be a point to make, but I would not live without voice.
Instead of having to check if $DEVICE is done whatever it’s doing, I get a notification when it’s done
I get a notification when there’s mail in the mailbox so I don’t have to walk a full 12 meters to check it
I get a notification if the water tank of my coffee machine is nearly empty (so when making coffee I don’t run into the problem of the water running out and having to start over)
I get a notification if it’s going to rain and:
the roof window is open (so I don’t have to mop up any rain water that got in)
there’s laundry hanging on the clothes line outside (so I don’t have to wait longer for the laundry to dry because it got rained on)
If I forget to lock my car, I get a notification and can lock it from my phone, instead of having to walk to the key and lock it manually
If we go to bed and there’s still a window/door open, I get notified, so I don’t have to manually check all windows and doors.
I have a smart kitchen scale and some automations set up that will allow me to almost automatically track water intake of our cats (due to health reasons), so I don’t have to manually measure and track it
.