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Home automation - why?
(lemmy.ml)
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I personally don't have any of that but here's what I would like to use it for. When I go away for, say, two weeks, I'd like to be able to randomly flick lights and TV on and off in my apartment to seem like someone's home. Currently I do it by plugging floor lamps into timered power socket controllers, but they aren't internet enabled so all I can do is program them to come on and off at specified times during the day, which an observant burglar could figure out.
I would also like to save on gas bills and turn the heating off when I go away. But if it's winter time and I go away for 2 weeks, I hate coming back to a cold flat that take ages to warm up to comfortable temperatures. I'd like to be able to turn the heating off when I leave, and then back on, say, a whole day before I come back.
That latter one can be accomplished by plenty of different WiFi thermostats. That's become such an integral part of things that I hardly think of it as any kind of home automation anymore. Damned if I want to get up at night to go adjust the thermostat when it's too hot or cold.