Quote:
Originally Posted by riser4
With no electricity at all thats pretty hard without city water. You could get a propane fridge, skip having AC and heat with wood or coal but running a well without electricity would be a trick.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by riser4
With no electricity at all thats pretty hard without city water. You could get a propane fridge, skip having AC and heat with wood or coal but running a well without electricity would be a trick.
Sorry, I explained that poorly. What I was trying to explain is that it would not be 100% dependent on electricity for 100% of its functions 100% of the time. That is, it "could" function, if it had to, fairly well for a reasonable amount of time. Homes today are more and more dependent on a fully functioning grid. Smart homes with microcontrollers in everything are in my opinion a step in the wrong direction if there aren't no-tech alternatives in place. And I dont mean just generators and large batteries. Those are useful but should only be part of the solution. Its about not having all the eggs in one basket. We had decades to work on that and we arrived at "just make the grid green "Quote:
Originally Posted by ötzi
I'll pick on your well water example. I'd like a several hundred gallon inline tank so that I have some reserves should the power go out and a deep well pump wont work. In an earth bermed house you can place this in a mechanical room similar to a root cellar high enough up so that it can gravity feed the lower part of your system and still stay above freezing year round. The spot im most likely to build in during this lifetime also has abundant natural springs, which i would use as a secondary. For urban dwellings there are obviously other challenges to providing water and water reserves.
Ive found that as long as you can flush the toilets you can live without electricity for quite a while.
I too would like to add a smart controller to my garage. The Meross looks good. I'd rather avoid wifi, but it seems like most of the major options are WiFi.
The Ratgo can have both a vehicle detection feature and a parking assistance laser which could be nice? Tailwind looks good too.
Mostly I just want the ability to make sure the garage is shut when I'm not using it. I don't really care about fancy features like opening the door when I pull into the driveway or whatever...
I would also like whatever setup I use to be able to expose the door open/closed status to other devices. Then I can avoid blasting heat in the garage when the door is sitting open by having the thermostat turn itself off.
I think you're in the wrong thread for that...Quote:
Originally Posted by riser4
FWIW, as I've added more smart features, I do try to only do stuff that is local and self-sufficient. I have Home Assistant running and I've been slowly moving light switches to Lutron Caseta (even if the system is down, the switches still work like normal switches).
I try to only add new features that work without cloud connections, and I try to use devices that don't need WiFi or are happy on a IoT-only network. The only exception is really things that are completely non-essential. E.g. I have a Google home picture display thing in my kitchen. It is nice to see my photos on display and to be able to talk to it and ask it questions like "how many grams are in 6 ounces" but if it stops working I'll be fine.
Next on my list is adding more sensors to prevent my own fuckups. Humidity, water leak, temperature sensors can tell you there's a problem *before* it costs you money. Stuff like that. Maybe I can get a camera to tell me I forgot to take out the trash yet again.
And I think that's an entirely different question vs a house that doesn't depend on electricity. If I lose power, my smart home stuff stops working. But that doesn't really matter because everything it controls is also electronic. My house would have the exact same problems in a power outage with zero smart home tools.
I'll give that a shot, thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by jackstraw
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Originally Posted by Name Redacted
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Look into Z Wave switches. I know they make switches, dimmers, and thermostats that are Z-Wave.</p>
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I sell the switches on ALF and ILF projects. The parent company of these places uses the Z Wave switch and thermostat to control lights and temp when there are no residents in the unit.</p>
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I do have the Lutron Caseta fan controls. They worked great on the old fans we had, but we recently put in new fans that are only controlled by remote. When I try to use the Caseta switch to control the fans, they make a lot of motor noise. They do work great, and allow you to voice control the fan, which is cool, but YMMV.</p>
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The Lutron app should be able to control that fan from anywhere.</p>
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I will look into those, thx. Tryng for the least complicated option. It is an old condo, but it did get remodeled in the last few years so maybe the fans will work with an app.Quote:
Originally Posted by warthog
I just bought a cabin that I will sometimes rent on airbnb. It has a combination of electric baseboard and rinnai wall mount heaters. I'd like to tie the baseboards onto smart thermostats that I can adjust remotely. I'd also like a smart door lock that I can set access codes to remotely. Preferably this all works on one system through one app. What does the collective think is the best solution here?
Do you have an preference on ecosystem?
- Google Home
- Apple Homekit
- Amazon Alexa
- Samsung whateverthefuck
Or do you have a preference towards:
- Nest (owned by google)
- Ring (owned by Amazon)
Then choose devices based on that…
The legacy manufacturers (Schlage, Yale, Honeywell, etc…) make smart devices that work on the various ecosystems, you just have to read the product info and ensure you select the correct one.
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No preference on system, but I want ease of use and I don't want something that will just become a brick in three years. Homekit seems the most likely to not have that problem, but Alexa seems like it might be here to stay as well. One caveat is, I don't know if I will have an Alexa (echo, etc) there. It would all run through an app. That possible? Not a deal breaker if so but I'm trying to avoid having an echo in each room since the baseboards all have dedicated thermostats.Quote:
Originally Posted by nickwm21
You will need each individual devices app anyway for setup and configuration.
Google home app will give you some control of smart devices linked. Organized by “Room” (location).
Alexa does have an app but I no experience with it. I assume it’s similar.
Each individual devices app can sometimes also link to other devices apps. For example on my Ring app I can see the status and have limited functionality of my Schlage lock and MyQ garage door.
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Originally Posted by nickwm21
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Try the If This Then That app. Lots of these things work with that. ITTH basically turns stuff on and off based on what else is on and off.</p>
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It is pretty cool. It does start to get a lot like streaming services though, where before you know it you have 23 apps and no idea which to use.</p>
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I was at my FIL's friend's place in Naples once, and he had a pretty killer pad. Type of place Architectural Digest might showcase. Anyway, he knew I was in the electrical construction end of things, so he had a few questions. He had a pretty high tech older Lutron setup, where everything is programmed through scenes. All the switches were multi button nightmares. His question- Can you just tell me how to turn on my F'in lights?</p>
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They have come pretty far since then, but it can turn into a tech jerk off really quickly. Get going in the Crestron home automation direction, and it becomes Tron. You are living in the computer.</p>
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I know an older couple who were sold the “smart home system” when they were spec-ing their Toll Brothers.
They have a straight up IT rack taking up half their coat closet with a full size ethernet switch, commercial style video gear for a security system, commercial style audio amp and pre-amp for the kitchen and yard speakers, etc…
All controlled via a clunky remote and an OS on the main TV.
It’s a disaster.
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Look on the bright side, that rack is probably a great space heater. Warmest closet in town. I bet it makes a great place to proof bread.
Bet the have to leave the door cracked with a fan or else the system will run like the TGRz...Quote:
Originally Posted by riser4
My dream is to get a heat pump water heater that can share a closet with all my networking and IT/home gear.Quote:
Originally Posted by riser4
All of that electronic stuff that gets annoyingly hot is now free hot water. The annoyance of a cool zone around the water heater is minimized by the heat of the electronics.
Sounds expensive when anything in that closet breaks. I kid I kid. That does seem pretty ideal though in concept.Quote:
Originally Posted by singlesline
In terms of my original question, I'm leaning towards the following two solutions, both which supposedly work on alexa.
Thermostat:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08J4C8871...oaAkabEALw_wcB
Lock:
https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Yale-A...-0BP/322081823
Any strong preferences against?
See, I grew up around hippies, my first thought was about the neverending quest to find a place for the loaves to rise.
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Originally Posted by nickwm21
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Sounds like Crestron Home stuff. Could be great for a few years, till it isn't.</p>
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I prefer the Caseta stuff and my Sonos, shitty app and all.</p>
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KISSS (Keep it semi-simple stupid)</p>
Yeah, one thing you can say about Lutron is the stuff works. And yeah, the old stuff took a computer science major to program and use, but the newer basic stuff is pretty intuitive. The RadioRA stuff can be a little more complex and you need to be a certified installer.
I think it should be fine? Figure water heater is in a pan and hooked to a drain (and you need a condensate drain for a heat pump anyways). Electronics are all elevated on some sort of shelf/rack.Quote:
Originally Posted by AdironRider
I've almost got the perfect setup for it--all the cable/ethernet wiring currently terminates in a closet just above where the water heater is. Main problem is my water heater closet is under the stairs. I've got a mid-height water heater now that is on its last legs and all the heat pump heaters I've seen are full height (they use a shorter tank and put the heat pump on top) so they might not fit under the stairs.
The closet doesn't have enough area for the requirements of a heat pump so I'd have to put on a louvered door. I'm not sure I want the noise of the heat pump though--it opens into a mudroom so it is slightly out of the way but still within the main living space and near the master bedroom door.
I think the optimum thing would be an extra deep full height closet attached to a mudroom: Heat pump in the back corner, electronics rack on the opposite side, and then a clothes rail in the front with vented door and a boot dryer on the floor.
Heat pump will happily suck the heat out of the electronics and boot dryer AND will suck the moisture out of your outerwear and boots/shoes. If I ever design a house, that's what I'm doing.
Are your baseboards line voltage? I think your Rinnais can be hooked to a standard thermostat (although it might require some fuckery to hook multiples up to the same thermostat), but most baseboard heaters need line voltage thermostats or a custom system using relays.Quote:
Originally Posted by AdironRider
Honeywell has some systems that use wireless remote Equipment Interface Modules and I think you can mix and match between line voltage and 24v EIMs. So you could in theory hook both the baseboards and the rinnai units to one thermostat...but it gets expensive fast and details for how to do it right are scarce as this stuff is mostly sold to the pros. I looked into it at an old place and eventually just gave up....
Listen to a heat pump water heater running before you put it in your house. I like mine in the garage, but it sounds like an air-conditioned. There isn't any reason that these couldnt be as quiet as a refrig.
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Originally Posted by jackstraw
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Pffff- what would YOU know.</p>
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Why does it do that with the quotes? Took me months just to figure out how to login again.</p>
Good point! [emoji23]Quote:
Originally Posted by warthog
Lutron has nice Asian pears!
Did you do their "tour" at their factory and then place your order for your house? Nice perk that GC's and builders get.
No wonder every builder I know has Lutron throughout their house.
They really do make nice stuff though.