Is Smart Home tech a fad or the future?

ka7e

I'm quite fond of my 2 Echo Dots, mainly for music around the house, but use the kitchen one as a timer and for setting reminders. Colour-changing light bulbs are nice for mood lighting and entertaining children! I have a smart plug that can turn on my electric blanket from downstairs, so bed is toasty while I'm shutting everything down for the night.

Hive thermostat/app for CH gives instant control wherever I am. Robot vacuum cleaner is great as I have 2 long-haired dogs and it scuttles underneath furniture and devours dog-hair tumbleweed so saves me having to move beds and sofas.

I have a motion-sensor camera that can go indoors or outside, but stopped using it when I was getting multiple alerts that my dogs had jumped on a chair/gone outside/scratched an ear etc. I haven't bothered with a Ring doorbell as dogs alert me if a vehicle parks outside my house, let alone someone opening the gate.

My most useful "smartish" gadgets are motion sensor lights. I have them everywhere and rarely use a light switch after dusk. I use a combination of battery operated Eufy ones and rechargeable strip lights as I found the ones that go in normal light fittings were too slow to react and generally unreliable. I have them at floor level upstairs so they come on when you get out of bed (just under bedside cabinet) and then they illuminate the landing and bathroom as you move around. Downstairs I have them above doorways in the hall, downstairs loo and garage. Also great in wardrobes and cupboards.

Andy_L

TELLIT01 said:

Internet connected fridge and kettle - why??????

Its so the fridge can update your supermarket order as you use up stuff.

The kettle's just an updated teasmade, so about as necessary as they were

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teasmade

[Deleted User]

TELLIT01 said:

Internet connected fridge and kettle - why??????

I have an app for my washing machine that bings to tell me I have turned it on.........

Frank99

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions folks, we are going to go for things if we feel we need them rather than a whole set of stuff. 
With electricity prices going up i still wonder if less is better to save on energy use, our neighbours have all of these gadgets cameras, smart speakers, alexa, alarms and they are now having a full house re-wire due to an electrical fault so we are going to go a bit slower.

Sandtree

TELLIT01 said:

Internet connected fridge and kettle - why??????

Depends what the "smarts" are of the fridge... some its just a screen on the front that displays your calendar or to do list and other light tablet type activities. Clearly you could have a paper calendar instead or look at your phone but sometimes a bigger display is handy.

Others have cameras that can either let you double check if you need milk when you get to the shop and suddenly realise you forgot to check before you went out; others can build a shopping list based on what it sees going out and isnt returned. Cameras can also be used to check whats inside without actually opening the fridge... some will claim this has green credentials but no idea the true environmental impacts of the extra parts and wifi etc -v- escaped cold and rechilling.

Personally can live without both for now.

Though the timing is somewhat fortuitous as was reading an article yesterday trying to sell the virtuose of an electric kettle over a stove top kettle to Americans... maybe in 10 years there'll be the similar article on selling smart electric kettles to the uninitiated  

Slinky

We have smart cat flaps. These are great for knowing whether the cat is in or out, and which direction she left the house. They work off reading microchips so help to keep other cats out. The timers are programmable so as it gets darker, I adjust the curfew times. Every time she passes through the catflap an app on my phone miaows. It provides reassurance when we are away on holiday that we can see she is in the house overnight.

fenwick458

I have a fair few devices now, all super convenient in my eyes.
I have a ZigBee hub to control my bedroom light switch, and another light I recently added but didn't want to bother chasing out walls to add a switch.
bedroom light is now effectively my alarm clock, I find it much easier to wake up to light than an alarm. 
I also have a smart socket that controls an electric plinth heater in my kitchen, so when I wake in mid winter and it's really cold, just tell Alexa to switch it on and by the time I make it downstairs (5 mins later) the kitchen is warm.
got another smart socket that controls a solenoid which fills my coffee machine and my one cup kettle with water too.
I'm an electrician for the day job and can think of 5 occasions this year where I have suggested to a customer that instead of paying me £150-300 for 1/2 day-day to install a switch for something (plus then having to pay plasterers or decorators to make good afterwards) that they just buy a smart plug for £20 and control it by voice(assuming they already have an Alexa, if not then another £20 outlay), it seems like a more efficient solution

fenwick458

I predict in a few years everything will be smart, so for example you could leave a pan of rice on the hob and turn it on as your driving home from work, or leave a meal in the microwave and turn it on whilst you are on the way home.
fridges & freezers, aren't they going to have internal cameras so you can remotely check what you have when you are in the shop?
smart doorbells & CCTV, seem an absolute winner to me. deliveries are so much easier to handle, I can see the price of these coming down so it's affordable for everybody soon. I have met a few people recently who have budget WiFi CCTV from amazon which cost £30 per camera, and they say they are brilliant....
only problem is if you've ever watched "Black Mirror" you'll probably realise we are slowly creeping towards an awful dystopian future where you can't do anything without leaving a trace, but hey, convenience right?

Sandtree

fenwick458 said:

I predict in a few years everything will be smart, so for example you could leave a pan of rice on the hob and turn it on as your driving home from work, or leave a meal in the microwave and turn it on whilst you are on the way home.
fridges & freezers, aren't they going to have internal cameras so you can remotely check what you have when you are in the shop?
smart doorbells & CCTV, seem an absolute winner to me. deliveries are so much easier to handle, I can see the price of these coming down so it's affordable for everybody soon. I have met a few people recently who have budget WiFi CCTV from amazon which cost £30 per camera, and they say they are brilliant....
only problem is if you've ever watched "Black Mirror" you'll probably realise we are slowly creeping towards an awful dystopian future where you can't do anything without leaving a trace, but hey, convenience right?

The future is now! 

We use a steam oven rather than a hob for rice but can do your suggestion already... leave the rice in the oven in before going out and turn it on remotely when we are heading back. Our hob isnt smart (and is gas so more safety Qs around remote operation) but our next will be induction and smart (simply because the one with the other features we want happens to be smart) - not sure what you can control remotely but it looks like you can start it. 

With the oven, and by the looks of it the hob, you also dont have to go to the hassle of deciding you want it at level 3 for 20 minutes but simply tell it you're cooking rice and it sets the time, temp etc... you can say start now or I want it done by 7:15. Plus the hob and extractor talk to each other so the extractor adjusts its output based on whats cooking or level of heat etc

Fridges certainly already have internal cameras which allow you to see if you've milk whilst you pass the shop on the way home but some go further and will add milk to your shopping list when it sees you take the last one out and not return it. 

YellowCarBlueCar

TELLIT01 said:

Internet connected fridge and kettle - why??????

More to the point, there is a pretty compelling "why not" to have a smart appliance which adds little benefit.  How many of these, especially cheaper devices from obscure makers, ever get security updates?

Ok so if someone hacks your kettle would you care? Well in fact you should, as this can be (and historically has been) a way into a wifi network by revealing WPA keys, after which more extensive breaches can be made.
https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/new-wi-fi-kettle-same-old-security-issues-meh/

In another case malicious code has been put onto smart appliances to act as DDOS sources to attack other legitimate systems.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37504719

I've got a few smart devices, but as a telecoms consultant, do so with my eyes open.