4 ms·

You are over-thinking it. I am as convinced as ever that almost all home automation needs, realistically, are covered by a WiFi-enabled drop-in replacements fo

You are over-thinking it. I am as convinced as ever that almost all home automation needs, realistically, are covered by a WiFi-enabled drop-in replacements for conventional wall switches, junction boxes and sockets. Everything else is nice, but you must get the basics right before moving on to the fluff. And nobody still has got it. I want to be able to switch off a floor lamp 5 feet away and turn up the heat in the bedroom without lifting my precious behind from the couch. Whether there's a motion in a garage is really secondary. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3957590 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3957590

askpete 14y ago
Well said @huhtenberg we certainly hope to serve your lazy ass ;) We do remote control sockets today. Not elegant but at $10-15 a piece best priced laziness available. We are cooking up something for IR controlled heating/cooling.
- huhtenberg 14y ago
  Do show them sockets. A photo/render and a spec if you have them. The IR controlled heating/cooling ... IR? How is that supposed to work?
  - askpete 14y ago
    We will be shipping these http://www.shop.wattsclever.com/european-socket-type/47-ea.html http://www.shop.wattsclever.com/european-socket-type/47-ea.h... in a couple of weeks. They don't have UL/ETL unfortunately so we won't be selling them in the US. You can get these from amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OH2EUS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OH2EUS/ref=oh_details_o... which work alright. In Australia, central heating/cooling is rare and high-end - in most places cooling matters much more than heating. The most common climate control method by far are split system airconditioners. We are working on a retrofit device specifically for these, though it will work on any IR controlled appliance.
windexh8er 14y ago
WiFi enabled HA is a bad idea. Please one of my earlier posts as to why. To recap, though (since you're self-proclaimed lazy and all): Wifi is subject to a single transceiver - that does not automatically extend. This is a big problem in tight spaces, because generally the smaller you go, the worse reception / transmission power you'll have in these systems. What you want is a mesh network (i.e. ZigBee, Z-Wave, Insteon, etc) that will automatically handle the mesh aspect of being able to continually extend itself as you build out. It is also much less maintenance long term as well (for a variety of reasons). But if you think that there aren't drop in replacement wall switches already - there are. Aeon Labs (http://aeotec.com/z-wave-in-wall-switches http://aeotec.com/z-wave-in-wall-switches) makes some killer stuff that is in-wall, and there are a multitude of others. Check it out - everything you want is out there. And you can build an entire HA system in a decent size living space for far less than $750 USD.

askpete 14y ago

Well said @huhtenberg we certainly hope to serve your lazy ass ;) We do remote control sockets today. Not elegant but at $10-15 a piece best priced laziness available. We are cooking up something for IR controlled heating/cooling.

huhtenberg 14y ago
Do show them sockets. A photo/render and a spec if you have them. The IR controlled heating/cooling ... IR? How is that supposed to work?
- askpete 14y ago
  We will be shipping these http://www.shop.wattsclever.com/european-socket-type/47-ea.html http://www.shop.wattsclever.com/european-socket-type/47-ea.h... in a couple of weeks. They don't have UL/ETL unfortunately so we won't be selling them in the US. You can get these from amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OH2EUS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OH2EUS/ref=oh_details_o... which work alright. In Australia, central heating/cooling is rare and high-end - in most places cooling matters much more than heating. The most common climate control method by far are split system airconditioners. We are working on a retrofit device specifically for these, though it will work on any IR controlled appliance.

windexh8er 14y ago

WiFi enabled HA is a bad idea. Please one of my earlier posts as to why. To recap, though (since you're self-proclaimed lazy and all): Wifi is subject to a single transceiver - that does not automatically extend. This is a big problem in tight spaces, because generally the smaller you go, the worse reception / transmission power you'll have in these systems. What you want is a mesh network (i.e. ZigBee, Z-Wave, Insteon, etc) that will automatically handle the mesh aspect of being able to continually extend itself as you build out. It is also much less maintenance long term as well (for a variety of reasons). But if you think that there aren't drop in replacement wall switches already - there are. Aeon Labs (http://aeotec.com/z-wave-in-wall-switches http://aeotec.com/z-wave-in-wall-switches) makes some killer stuff that is in-wall, and there are a multitude of others. Check it out - everything you want is out there. And you can build an entire HA system in a decent size living space for far less than $750 USD.