How interactive would you want your home to be?

No. I usually dislike being second-guessed by machines, such as motion-sensitive lights. I think 1970s technology is plenty. Laundry chutes are fun. I kind of like vacuum outlets.

I might be ok with a few nasty security features designed by me. I’d like to be able to block cell phone signals, wireless, and surveillance. Maybe automated systems against mosquitoes or to use hypersonics to scare off any dogs thinking to poop in my yard or chase my cats.

I would be happy if it had some automatic green technologies, such as solar panels and circulating water to heat and cool the house also via sunlight.

All sounds like overkill. Just because I’m in a room, I don’t always want the lights on or particular lights on. It depends on my mood and what I’m doing. Similarly, in winter I like my shower hotter than in summer and my preferred temp varies from day-to-day. My mood, hormones and the weather influences how hot or cold I want my shower to be.

I don’t feel the need for more automation in my home.

As much as possible.
I already have those Belkin things that allow me to turn lights on and off from my phone or on a schedule. Plus a couple of minicams- I live in an “improving” neighborhood.
And I have three Sonos speakers around the condo that I control from my phone.
I think all that stuff is cool. The more the better. Expensive though.

I bought a NEST learning theremostat when it first came out, installed it myself, andlove it. It works exactly as advertised. I especially like being able to control it from my phone. Beyond that, I’ve felt no need for further home automation.

After watching an episode of Eureka where an advanced smart house like this decided to go rogue and act like HAL 2000, trapping people inside to prevent Carter from leaving Eureka, I’m not too vividly enthused about the idea.

Of course i’m not as worried about my house developing it’s own mind (I can distinguish fact from fiction) as I am about someone hacking into it and seizing control.

That’s not an entirely far fetched scenario as it’s been done with cars which had the brakes, steering and other systems computer controlled. I’ve seen the tape of what happens when the driver can’t steer or stop his own car and that was NOT fiction at all.

Whatever convenience features a smart house had would have to have a manual override foolproof (and hackproof) option.

I don’t even want electric windows on my car because if there’s a short or fail in the electrical circuit, you’re stuck until you can get it repaired. There is no manual option. And even then, you’re in for a BIG BILL.

I’m not yet so feeble that I can’t use a good old fashioned hand-cranked window.

Not.

I am in the computer/online industry, and that makes me quite sure that I don’t want a ‘internet of things’ home. Individual appliances, yes. I have no issues with the Nest.

I have a big problem with my refrigerator or my oven or my front door lock being controlled by some internet server somewhere. Those are essentials. What happens when the power goes out or the internet line is cut by a backhoe?

And I definitely am not into the Smart TV craze where the TV manufacturers monitor every time I change the channel.

Not by any measure would I be considered a Luddite or technophobe. However, I prefer to keep my house and systems isolated from the internet. I have set-back T-stats which work flawlessly. “Upgrading” to a Nest would yield slim to no improvement while opening up my home to who knows what. .
My refrigerator does not have to tell me that milk is getting old. I know.
Security cameras are hard-wired and record and write on a local drive. They write over the data after 3 months. If the net goes down I lose nothing. And there is nothing to hack. Of course I have the option of connecting the ethernet cable and turning on the report function but I rarely do.
I plan to keep these types of stand-alone systems as long as I can.

Heck even my TV is over the air. I do have a Roku and Netflix but I can unplug it and watch via radio waves whenever I want.

QG, especially as more technology-oriented features created to “enhance” our lives are created.

If there is enough pocket money to spend on home-enhancing features, I’d prefer it be spent on something that reduces our carbon footprint. The more gadgets, the harder this becomes. Then there is the additional cost when an object needs repairs that is out of our league.

The one advantage I see to any remote controlled features is if a person has a disability and is willing and able to maintain a level of independence via this type of technology.

@Earthbound_Misfit Just because I’m in a room, I don’t always want the lights on or particular lights on. It depends on my mood and what I’m doing. Similarly, in winter I like my shower hotter than in summer and my preferred temp varies from day-to-day. My mood, hormones and the weather influences how hot or cold I want my shower to be.
That is easy, somewhere I am sure they will have a little fob you can carry in your pocket, around your neck or clipped to a belt that will monitor as you traveled through the home, and if you wanted to change any of the preset settings you can override it from the fob or a touchscreen display on the wall, or tablet PC, etc. then if your mood changes you can direct the house to keep up.

@josie I think all that stuff is cool. The more the better. Expensive though.
Like cell phone, PCs, flat screen TVs, handheld calculators, etc. the more prolific they became, the cheaper they got. When 40% of homes become interactive it will be cheaper to do so than those when interactive homes were just 2% of the population.

@Buttonstc Whatever convenience features a smart house had would have to have a manual override foolproof (and hackproof) option.
It is supposed to interact with you, not take control, so humans have to be the ultimate control. Hack proof? I don’t think there is anything that is not monitored 24/7 by a small unit of humans that cannot be hacked by some really crafty people.

I want the smart house of the future that Woody Allen was sent to in the movie: Sleeper.
With Rex the dog. It was a 1970’s look at the future. Funny.
My living space- the pets control the atmosphere. I just pay the bills.
Although it is my weekend to control the remote. Animal Planet and Nat Geo all the live-long day! Yeesh!

@Hypocrisy_Central

Good point. I feel better.

@Hypocrisy_Central, I actually love technology. However, I don’t see any need to carry around a fob so I can change the lighting, temperature etc. in my home. I have these weird and amazing things on the wall. They’re called light switches. I just reach out as I enter the room and press a button and the light comes on. Miraculous really. And on the small tables in my room, there are these tall items, with illuminating globes in them. If I press a button on the side of these devices, the globe lights up. Takes but a second, and my home is filled with light. Such an improvement on the gas mantles my grandmother had to light and the candles we took up to bed at her house.

I also have a long, rectangular thing with buttons on it. I press the buttons and cool or warm air is emitted by this box on the wall. It means no matter how hot it is outside, my rooms are at a stable temperature.

I don’t really care what’s happening to the lights and temperature when I’m not home. I can see the value of being able to turn the lights on and off so potential burglers think someone is home, but the crime rate here doesn’t warrant such technology.

Seriously, given how much these systems cost to install even if done at the building stage, and has been said above, the increased risk of technological failure, I can’t see the point. I don’t see sufficient lifestyle enhancement to justify the effort or cost.

@Earthbound_Misfit Were you reading my mind? I, too, have those magic manual switches that turn on lights when I flip a small lever. I can buy them for $2.00 and they last for decades. That is all I need. I do not need to adjust the lights when I am not home. I will admit to having a couple of higher tech devices. I have a sound activate light at the top of the stairs and near the door to the garage. I can walk inside carrying bags of groceries and it will turn on for a minute or so. I also have a couple of battery operated motion sensing lights. All of the “high tech” switches are stand alone and do not require an internet connection.

The coolest technology we have today will be considered comically outdated fossils in 10 years. My manual wall switches work as well as they did 30 years ago. And they will likely last another 30 years.

@LuckyGuy, I think I might have been! You have those little magic switches too?

I like the idea of streaming sound, and especially the systems that allow people in different rooms to listen to music of their own choice. However, the technology is still cost prohibitive and in my experience, not reliable.

A year or two ago, my husband and I saw this Bose thing that allowed you to stream music from your laptop wirelessly to anywhere you want the sound. We bought one because we like to listen to music out by the pool. The thing cost a few hundred dollars and is absolute crap. It might start streaming, but then it stops and you have to get out of the pool, and jigger around with the thing to try to get it working again. It’s now a white elephant that sits on the shelf and isn’t used. Instead, we use the old battery-operated radio or I stream music from my phone to a small Sony speaker that cost me about $70.

Technology is great, but often things that are heralded as being fabulous are not. I teach online and I have to use technology constantly. I’m always on the lookout for reliable applications that will allow me to communicate with my students easily. I have yet to find a method that works for the majority of students reliably. We end up going back to the tried and tested but boring applications because the new stuff lets us down time and time again.

Sometimes, simple is best. Technology should solve a problem or make life easier. I can’t see how the technology you’re suggesting @Hypocrisy_Central makes life simpler or better than a light switch etc.

@Earthbound_Misfit Technology should solve a problem or make life easier. I can’t see how the technology you’re suggesting @Hypocrisy_Central makes life simpler or better than a light switch etc.
Look at the big picture, we have auto door locks, mirror adjusters, remote gas caps, and trunk/hatch openers, not because we really need it but it saves time and effort. If one is of the lazy sort, and Americans are getting that way more and more, the house can sense @Earthbound_Misfit is about to enter room ‘B’ or room ‘C’ and ready the lights and music etc. just the way you like it. Whichever room you enter, the house set it that way. Then you do not have to go around to each ”magical switch” and cut them on and adjust them to how you want it, or once you sat down found a light casting too much glare you can dim it or cut it off without ever leaving your seat, just as you can lower the rear windows of your car without having to wait until you stopped.

@Hypocrisy_Central The bigger picture? Are you looking at it?

No one needs the technology you are talking about unless it is a person with a disability living in a first-world country who couldn’t live independently in a non-disabled home housing facility.

@Hypocrisy_Central, I’m not a luddite. I love technology. I just don’t like technology for the sake of technology. The technology you’re suggesting is superfluous to my needs. I don’t need or want it. I’m fine with turning on the magic switches.

Apart from not wanting to use technology unless it really is the best option, technology you don’t need, and that complicates a usually simple process, has a habit of creating problems down the track. For instance, we renovated our bathroom a couple of years ago. Instead of the normal, bog standard rubber drain plug in our hand basins, we put in these super-duper, metal plug things that you push down to close and then push again to release. Except they’ve stopped releasing and you have to buggerise around with them to get the water out of the sink. So now we don’t use the plug, we just let the water run. Oh how I wish I’d just used a rubber plug! It will cost quite a bit to replace those stupid, super-duper plugs.