Well, folks, I’ve been lurking in the Home Assistant community for a year now, watching you all gleefully tear apart your homes like kids with new Lego sets. Meanwhile, I’ve been clinging to my “dumb” house like a captain going down with his ship. “Is this some sort of collective madness?” I wondered, picturing my poor appliances cowering in fear of being “upgraded.”
But after months of internal debate (and a few more sky-high electricity bills), I’ve finally cracked. Home Assistant, you win. I’m ready to join the cult of the connected home. So here I am, about to embark on my own remodeling odyssey. Buckle up, because I’m documenting every triumph and disaster of this total home reboot right here!
Picture this: my current abode is a shrine to the “good old days” – you know, when we had to walk uphill both ways just to flip a light switch. Every single device demands my personal attention like a needy toddler. “Turn me on!” “Turn me off!” It’s exhausting. I’m pretty sure I burn more calories racing around the house managing switches than I do at the gym.
And let’s not even talk about my electricity bill. It’s less of a bill and more of a monthly mugging. I’m convinced my appliances are secretly throwing wild parties when I’m not looking, because how else could it be this high? I have no clue which devices are the energy-guzzling culprits, but I’m determined to find out.
So, here we go. I’m trading in my running shoes for a smart home hub. Will it be a smooth transition to a life of automated bliss, or will I end up tangled in a web of smart plugs and broken dreams? Only time will tell. Stay tuned for the thrilling (or possibly horrifying) details of my smart home transformation!
So, today I took the plunge and made a list of devices to buy. It’s like writing a letter to Santa Claus, except instead of toys, I’m asking for things that’ll make my house smarter than me. I’ve got my eye on XIAOMI’s lineup – apparently, they’ve got more gadgets than a spy movie props department.
unless you really leave all of your lights on WAY too long or are still using old incandescent bulbs then getting smart devices (bulbs and/or switches) might not give you all the savings you hope for since all smart devices have “vampire” loads that are needed to keep the internal smartifying electronics alive even if the lights aren’t on.
as for other smart devices (your examples of “appliances”) I doubt that getting things smarter can likely save much since the “smartness” only provides reporting/feedback/remote controls conveniences. I.e. most people don’t turn on the dryer and let it continue to run forever because they forgot to turn it off.
Not that all of those “smart” conveniences aren’t nice and…well…convenient I just wanted to temper your expectations for the savings on electricity. The initial purchase price might be more than the savings you get in your electric bill over the near/medium term.
Thanks for the advice and the heads up! I think I may need to rectify my statement, I’m mostly concerned that my landlord is overcharging me for electricity without my knowledge, and I wish I could visually see where all my electricity is going.
Yesterday I captured a very large number of suggestions from you all, so I’d like to say a special thanks for all the help you provided, and today I’m here to continue turning in my homework.
Then it’s a 2~3 day delivery time, so I guess I can start accessing Home Assistant tomorrow with the arrival of the first batch of devices.
So today I’m going to come in and do something else with some equipment I have on hand:
MCU: XIAO ESP32-S3
a 7.5’ micro snow ink screen
a 60GHz millimetre wave radar that can measure breathing and heart rate
an AI and LLM based behavioural monitoring device SenseCAP Watcher.
So I thought I’d start by displaying the dashboards of these little devices I have on hand that can access the Home Assistant, on the ink screen.
That way, when my equipment arrives one by one, I can start applying these steps to display the sensor values that are necessary to observe on the ink screen.
I spent the whole day and got the following result.
I just wanted to temper your expectations for the savings on electricity. The initial purchase price might be more than the savings you get in your electric bill over the near/medium term.