4 ms·

Some IoT is a fad. But there are very useful things that you can do if you have many connected data devices and sensors at home. I have ~15 temperature sensors

by steven2012 10y ago

Some IoT is a fad. But there are very useful things that you can do if you have many connected data devices and sensors at home. I have ~15 temperature sensors and door sensors that alert me when doors get opened. I was able to use that data to definitively measure the positive impact insulating my house had. I can tell when people enter or exit my house, and I also have ~10 cameras for security. If I get a notification that someone is around my house while I'm gone, I can call my local police department a lot faster than any alarm company. My Nest also tells me how long my furnace is on every day. Of course their data is useless so I constantly request and store this data in violation of their terms of services, because fuck Nest and their useless TOS. But with that I can make smarter decisions on how to save money in heating and I've halved my bill by manually adjusting my heating (not relying on their stupid algos). Do I need a fridge that tells me I'm out of eggs? No. But having metrics and data lets me as a homeowner make smarter decisions that save money.

brianwawok 10y ago
So you got a smart thermostat, wrote some code to hit an API, and do some fancy math to half your heating bill. Why could you not just turn your thermostat down 4 degrees for the same thing? I get that there might be some marginal gains you can get with tech ("A heat wave is coming tomorrow, let's shut off the furnace 1 hour early"), but it seems really small and crude compared to existing offline tech can do (look for leaky holes in your insulation, add 6" more blown insulation in your attic, etc"). Or for example replacing a 80% efficient with a 99% efficient furnace has a pretty huge impact. Does nest magic timing have more?
- steven2012 10y ago
  The nest cost $250, insulation cost 10x that, and new furnace is 40x. I agree that insulation and upgrading the home would produce the nest results but my point is that the data is useful, not useless. I could shut my heating completely and save 100% but that misses the point. What I did was turn on the heating in the morning to a temperature that was comfortable and then shut it off so that by the time everyone left for work/school the temperature would still be acceptable but on the lower bounds. That saved about 45 mins of heating a day. Overnight as well I could see how my furnace behaved and tweaked based on that, etc. The key isn't just the nest but the other temp sensors so I have a complete idea of what my houses characteristics are.
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    Ya so you don't just need a nest.. you need a nest + other sensors + a bunch of other code. If your bill rate is $200, it is pretty quick before the amount of effort you spent engineering a nest solution would have been beat by just having some guys come blow $1000 in insulation in your roof.
GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
> . I can tell when people enter or exit my house, and I also have ~10 cameras for security. If I get a notification that someone is around my house while I'm gone, I can call my local police department a lot faster than any alarm company. What kind of cyberpunk dystopia are you living in that you need this?
- steven2012 10y ago
  It's fun as hell knowing what's going on in the house at all times and feeling that I'm protecting myself and my family. Whether or not that's true is to be determined.
  - r00fus 10y ago
    What about the increased security liability and added attack surface you've exposed for the benefit of the smarter criminal or random online script kiddie just wanting lulz? I'd seriously be interested in how you addressed that.
    - steven2012 10y ago
      What security liability? If you're talking about a random attack, then they would need to somehow piece together my various email addresses and break different passwords. The cameras (Dropcam, Smartcam, Ring) don't keep ports open on my firewall. If you're talking about a targeted attack, there's likely nothing I can do except sit in my house with a loaded gun.
lostapathy 10y ago
Are you running off the shelf temp sensors or something you built?
- steven2012 10y ago
  I use wirelesstags.net which is good enough for me. Pretty effective for my uses, batteries last about 1 year for updates every 10 mins, and you have access to all your data for all time.

brianwawok 10y ago

So you got a smart thermostat, wrote some code to hit an API, and do some fancy math to half your heating bill. Why could you not just turn your thermostat down 4 degrees for the same thing? I get that there might be some marginal gains you can get with tech ("A heat wave is coming tomorrow, let's shut off the furnace 1 hour early"), but it seems really small and crude compared to existing offline tech can do (look for leaky holes in your insulation, add 6" more blown insulation in your attic, etc"). Or for example replacing a 80% efficient with a 99% efficient furnace has a pretty huge impact. Does nest magic timing have more?

steven2012 10y ago
The nest cost $250, insulation cost 10x that, and new furnace is 40x. I agree that insulation and upgrading the home would produce the nest results but my point is that the data is useful, not useless. I could shut my heating completely and save 100% but that misses the point. What I did was turn on the heating in the morning to a temperature that was comfortable and then shut it off so that by the time everyone left for work/school the temperature would still be acceptable but on the lower bounds. That saved about 45 mins of heating a day. Overnight as well I could see how my furnace behaved and tweaked based on that, etc. The key isn't just the nest but the other temp sensors so I have a complete idea of what my houses characteristics are.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  Ya so you don't just need a nest.. you need a nest + other sensors + a bunch of other code. If your bill rate is $200, it is pretty quick before the amount of effort you spent engineering a nest solution would have been beat by just having some guys come blow $1000 in insulation in your roof.

GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago

> . I can tell when people enter or exit my house, and I also have ~10 cameras for security. If I get a notification that someone is around my house while I'm gone, I can call my local police department a lot faster than any alarm company. What kind of cyberpunk dystopia are you living in that you need this?

steven2012 10y ago
It's fun as hell knowing what's going on in the house at all times and feeling that I'm protecting myself and my family. Whether or not that's true is to be determined.
- r00fus 10y ago
  What about the increased security liability and added attack surface you've exposed for the benefit of the smarter criminal or random online script kiddie just wanting lulz? I'd seriously be interested in how you addressed that.
  - steven2012 10y ago
    What security liability? If you're talking about a random attack, then they would need to somehow piece together my various email addresses and break different passwords. The cameras (Dropcam, Smartcam, Ring) don't keep ports open on my firewall. If you're talking about a targeted attack, there's likely nothing I can do except sit in my house with a loaded gun.

lostapathy 10y ago

Are you running off the shelf temp sensors or something you built?

steven2012 10y ago
I use wirelesstags.net which is good enough for me. Pretty effective for my uses, batteries last about 1 year for updates every 10 mins, and you have access to all your data for all time.