Being able to just say, "make it cooler/warmer", without having to go to the thermostat every time....😍 Especially when I'm sleeping, and wake up hot. 😍
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I think this is the future and will help older people who want to still live independently and be secure. If they could not be contacted or in a emergency a fire fighter or police officer could have a special unlock code to open the door. There are many older Americans that do not have someone to contact in an emergency situation.
"I can do that myself", is what people said about TV remote controls...
I'm really enjoying our smart home set up. Much more convienent. Going to watch a movie? Cool - all unwanted lights are turned off! Forgot to turn off a light after leaving home - no problem - can turn it off remotely!
I've found Smart thermostat is also well worth the money.
It's really minimal effort... if the Wifi goes down? That's going to impact us more than just having our smart switches / lights not working. We won't be able to work from home for starters.
I'm really enjoying our smart home set up. Much more convienent. Going to watch a movie? Cool - all unwanted lights are turned off! Forgot to turn off a light after leaving home - no problem - can turn it off remotely!
I've found Smart thermostat is also well worth the money.
It's really minimal effort... if the Wifi goes down? That's going to impact us more than just having our smart switches / lights not working. We won't be able to work from home for starters.
This has been a god send for many handicap or older people that do not have mobility. Remember you will be there some day. We do not stay young forever.
I've got to get this done. It's sort of the one thing that slips our minds on occasion, like a late trip out to toss more boxes in the recycle bin, or using the telescope with the little G. I do have a camera in there, so I can at least check the status, but I have to remember to do that too
I believe our garage opener optional "cloud module" is also Home Kit compliant, oh good, something to research today
Steel door, stone wall but of course as long as windows come with breakable glass you can still get in with a little bit of violence and slight gymnastics.
This looks really nice. But I know I will be standing there holding a bunch of stuff, telling Siri to unlock the door and hearing some dumb thing about not being able to find that device. Happens all the time with the different lights. Homekit seems to work about 70% of the time for me. When I really need it to work, there's a whole lot of "updating" going on in the app and nothing actually working.
The point of locking the front door is that people can't walk out with your property. Climbing through the window with a large TV is just so inconvenient...
Looks like a very nice lock but unfortunately not suited to many front doors in the UK. The last few homes I've lived in have those complicated multi-point locking systems and the only compatible smart lock I've found is the Yale Conexis which is expensive and has a load of drawbacks. Maybe it's a UK thing but insurance companies really don't like single-point locks when they're giving a quote.
As for the question of the utility of smart-locks and other smart devices, I understand all the arguments against them. In isolation they're a pain in the ass and not really much of a time saver. The real value I've found is when you're able to get them to play nicely together. Right now, my house can only do the basics ... it knows when I've left the house so it can turn off the lights, heating, TV and arm the cameras and alarm. On my way back home it'll turn on the heating during winter and disarm everything. Life changing? No. Convenient? Yes, when it works.
As for the question of the utility of smart-locks and other smart devices, I understand all the arguments against them. In isolation they're a pain in the ass and not really much of a time saver. The real value I've found is when you're able to get them to play nicely together. Right now, my house can only do the basics ... it knows when I've left the house so it can turn off the lights, heating, TV and arm the cameras and alarm. On my way back home it'll turn on the heating during winter and disarm everything. Life changing? No. Convenient? Yes, when it works.
Providing access to a door is only one part of the proposition of a smart lock. Other things are notifications when the door is unlocked/locked (think teens arriving home safely from school, housecleaning folks arrived/departed), available times the key code works for things service providers such as housecleaning folks, ability to remotely open the door for someone. My wife didn't find much value in a smart lock over a regular lock until she started receiving notifications of teens arriving home safely.
With smart switches it's not about turning on one light, you can control everything at once. So go upstairs and leave all the lights on downstairs and then with one command the entire downstairs is shutoff. Does your wife hear a noise at night? One command can turn on every outside light from bed. When they are there you use them more than you would think.
I did the same, but I do have keys to everything in a weatherproof hidden box in my yard as back up.
It is not uncommon for front door locks to be openable from the inside without a key. So you only need to climb in through the window, and be able to walk out through the front door.
I agree with everything you wrote. I don't love my Schlage Sense, but so far it's the best smart lock out there imo. It has a number pad where the codes can be long, it has a key hole for the old fashioned way, it has bluetooth for basic phone access, and it's HomeKit compatible for remote access. It checks all the boxes.
But the battery life isn't great, it does fail to properly lock (rarely) sometimes due to wood swelling and contracting as you said. The app is slow and meh. And the numbers on the numpad are basically invisible until you press a button to turn on the backlight, which is not super intuitive.
My lock and door is only slightly better than that of my neighbors. Even the second slowest runner gets away from the bear; same thing applies to locks imo.
Go turn off my 42 lights for me at night in bed turn the thermostat down and then on my room fan. I’ll wait an hour for you to do that.
in the morning turn on those same lights plus my kitchen lights. Turn on the tv and set it to Appletv.
or i can just walk past my hue sensor and have it trigger for me and not do anything. There are tons of benefits for a smart home.
If you can’t get passed you can turn off each single light you have one at a time I think you are missing the point of convenience.
its also nice to come home and be carrying a ton of bags and have your door unlock so you don’t have to struggle to get your keys out while dropping half the bags and being mad.
Wouldn't the battery life improve drastically if those devices would use as much of the user's force as possible to execute the physical actions such as locking and unlocking. I mean, it's cool that such a device can lock a door when you forgot to do so, and it's okay that if you are so lazy as to rely on the device to do the job for you. But then battery life is dependent on your behaviour, and then it would be totally acceptible that battery life decreases accordingly. But the concept of these things moving bolts for us at any time, is pointless to the point that it results in a product for lazy people, not for smart people.
The vision of these devices should be to replace physical authentication, as that is what a physical key does. In a way, the goal of such a device should be to offer a mechanism that allows the user to combine it with other physical products, allowing them to secure a door with multiple bolts, and whatever mechanical wizardry that turns our home into a vault. The force to move all those mechanics should not be performed by electronic action, but by human interaction.
If the device would only lock and unlock the turning knob that replaces the key and cylinder, making it either functional or not to transfer the turning power of one's hand to the lock mechanism, I'd be saying we'd have the potential to have a product that not only appeals to geeks, but to anybody. The battery life wouldn't be the least of an issue in that scenario, off course.
I mean, did I forget something? Am I naive?
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I had the same thought until the day I needed to install outdoor lights on my patio, deck and backyard. Since not a new construction I was limited to options and had to install 5 light switches in different areas of the house to get light bulbs on all the places I wanted. Thus, to turn all lights I would have to walk around the house, upstairs and downstairs flipping switches until all were on. That is when I decided to do some research and found that I could install 5 smart switches and control all of them from my phone. Bought smart switches from Kasa and couldn’t be happier. I created a group called “outdoor lights” and by touching a button on the app all lights are on or off and I can dim them as I want. For this scenario it was the perfect solution.
As for smart thermostat, my Nest installed over 5 years ago has been life changing. It never failed. I travel a lot and had issues when out of the house for several days and had to leave AC or Heat on for long periods of time so the house would be at a nice temperature when I got back. Now, I can change it to save energy while I am out and a day before I get back I turn it back to normal so it is nice when I get home.
The big win for smart lighting isn’t “turn that light on”, it’s “set (name of scene)”, which adjusts a bunch of lights at once, like “set reading” or “set tv time”, which affect as many as 6 lights, going to particular brightnesses and colors (e.g. “tv time” for me sets all the living room lights and the light in the adjacent hallway to dim red, and turns off the lights in the adjacent dining room). Sure, I could walk around and do all this by hand, but with Siri I get precise repeatable levels, and it’s very quick. Also good for you’re nearly asleep. Getting up to go turn off that light in the other room you forgot might wake you back up for a while, while a “goodnight Siri” is much less likely to do that. Plus, my porch light comes on precisely at sunset (via astronomical calculations, not unreliable photo sensors), and dims periodically through the night, going off at sunrise. And this adjusts automatically for DST and such.
For lights, I’m very happy with home automation. I’m gonna skip the “smart locks” for another ten years. If someone overrides my lights somehow (even though HomeKit is pretty secure), they can make it bright. Locks present more risk.
Good point. My wallet is thin enough that if I have to carry a card, I mine as well carry a physical credit card too. Plus, I would be worried about my ID falling out of gym shorts.
Let the "Lockpicking Lawyer" on YouTube have one to play with.
And I'll really enjoy to see his views on this, and how long he takes to open it.
Before I know what to think about it.
www.youtube.com
If it takes him more than 1 or 2 minutes to open then I'll be impressed
And I'll really enjoy to see his views on this, and how long he takes to open it.
Before I know what to think about it.
LockPickingLawyer
This channel aims to educate consumers about weaknesses and defects in security devices so they can make better security decisions. It should go without sayi...
www.youtube.com
If it takes him more than 1 or 2 minutes to open then I'll be impressed