Smart Meters - let me know the pro's....

AndyCF

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

You'll be able to turn the washing machine on remotely over the internet.

Then your smoke detector will be able to send you a text message telling you it's caught fire.

Likely quite true!

Unless you mean the smoke detector is telling you that *it* has caught fire, not the washing machine followed by the rest of the kitchen/utility room/wherever said machine lives.

I'm slightly sceptical of "internet of things" in some ways and I do like tech but only to a certain point. I can see some practicalities with some items connected but not all of them by any means.

I do not see a need for the fridge to tell you that you are low on milk or whatever or order it for you, you'll soon know when its getting low (hopefully!) before it runs out. Same as having the toaster connected ( ! ) , unsure how that's going to be of any practical help lols as you're going to have to get up to get said toasty bits out anyway. Regarding the fridge content, well you may want to run out of item x on purpose. Online shopping with 'last shop again' or 'similar to last time' is quite reasonably handy as a reminder I think.

One neighbour does have quite a lot of remote controlled (via smart phone app) lights, I can't remember which company it was, not one of the two well known ones. The app did not look familiar from what I saw of it. Anyway he was vaguely on about a relay box so he could switch on/off various appliances with a thought to having the kettle on (but unpowered) and then switch it on 5 mins from work so it was ready when he got home. I'm not sure if that was a wind up or not actually, I know they have safety heat cut-out (if it emptied itself in the day or something) but still. Mind you if it was full of water its likely reasonably self-extinguishing! :rotfl: