Smart Home Setup Two Years In: Money Saved and Convenience Gained
It's not as grand as it sounds. In fact, all I use are 8 light switches, 6 plugs, 1 thermostat, 2 door sensors, and 1 CCTV. They're all connected to Google Home rather than HomeKit.
There were moments when I wondered, "Do I really need this?" but there are a few features I use more often than I expected.
1. Away Mode – When I lock the front door, all lights turn off and the robot vacuum starts on its own.
2. Sleep Mode – The bedroom light dims gradually over 10 minutes, and power to the living room electronics is cut off.
3. Scheduled Heating – The boiler turns on around the time I get off work, so the house is warm right when I walk in during winter.
4. Open-Window Detection – While the door sensor is open, the boiler is forcibly turned off.
My electricity bill has definitely gone down—about 18% compared to the same period last year. Cutting boiler waste and standby power seems to have made the biggest difference.
There are downsides too. After firmware updates, connections occasionally drop, and voice recognition sometimes misfires, turning on the living room light out of nowhere. Still, I'm satisfied just knowing I no longer have to go back to check whether I turned the lights off.
6 answers
Yeah, going out mode is the best lol
Wow, I use it similarly and I can really feel the difference in the electricity bill. The boiler schedule especially seems to make the biggest difference. But I did everything over Wi-Fi without a hub, so it's annoying when it occasionally drops.
Well... what if the living room light suddenly turns on due to a firmware issue? I still don't trust smart homes.
How do you set up turning off the boiler with a window sensor? I want to try that too.
Second year in, so you've pretty much settled in. I'm in my third year, but I only use smart plugs for cutting standby power. Still, with 8 light switches, the upfront cost must not have been cheap—if you're seeing 18% savings, how long did the payback period take? Just curious.
Sleep mode is nice, but if it cuts off power to the living room too, it's inconvenient when I need to find something at night. The time periods need to be adjustable.