A while ago, I wanted to try Home Assistant. Then I realised that I didn't have a single thing to use it with. The locks are mechanical, the lights are simple LEDs, the irrigation system is manual, my car has push buttons, and I live in a safe enough area (by European standards) to not need doorbell or security cameras. Nothing I own depends on any external services other than the electric transformer down the street.

Never a better time to be a modern Luddite.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I can be a bit neurotic about turning off lights when I leave a room, so Home Assistant was a nice way to free up brain space for me. A few motion sensors here and there + some simple automations, and the lights mostly handle themselves. Zigbee sensors and Zigbee or Matter-over-WiFi bulbs, so everything is local. A free VPS+WireGuard setup means I can access them remotely should I need to, with TailScale as a backup.

Cloud failures mean I can't access remotely, but local control is unaffected---if my smart devices stop working it's almost certainly my fault :)

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Automating lights made sense 20+ years ago when lights were power hungry. But leaving on a 10w light bulb today is so meaniless. Especially after adding in all the power draw of the automation requires...

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 11 points 6 days ago

Especially after adding in all the power draw of the automation requires...

What exactly is the incremental power draw for automation? My network gear and server (a little nuc) are sunk power costs as I self host other services.

Idling, my home uses around 100W with the fridge off. One 10W light is an additional 10% of my power budget, and I have a lot more than one light in my house. I also pay about $0.40/kWh.

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

A single raspberry pi that draws maybe 3 watts, and fraction of a watt standby draw per device?

Also, 10w draw for a year is 87kWh. And you probably have more than just one light in your house.

[–] MarauderIIC@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

What VPS do you use?

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Oracle Free tier, amd64. Only use it because it's free---limited bandwidth, but given I have slow upload at home it's never really been a bottleneck. Hate to admit it given it's Oracle, but I've been completely happy with it.

If I switch to a paid VPS I will probably go with racknerd (suggestions welcome though if you have thoughts).

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