The Smart Home Chronicles

Smart Home – it’s one of those buzzwords that have been flying in every which direction for the last few years. The term, vague like most IT buzzwords in recent times, is pretty vague, and depending on who you ask, it holds either the promise of a fully automated home that takes most of the mundane tedious stuff off your shoulders, leaving you to spend more time with your loved ones…or posting selfies, whatever floats your boat. For others, it spells certain death once the machines invariably rise up, with connected locks, blinds, & windows all sealing you in and slowly killing you. And invariably, it has drawn the ire of certain circles of conservative-minded people who see it as just another step in the “feminisation” and emasculation of white males, who are now to weak and wimpy to even throw a light switch, a view that also seems widely shared in Germany. So of course, I had to get in on the action ;)

First, let’s talk about what this term “smart home” actually means. In general, it is just a loose term to group together all types of home appliances that have a network connection and can be controlled via either a web interface or an app. As you might imagine, this encompasses quite a wide variety of devices. This can start from pretty innocuous things like lighting solutions to connected speakers like the Sonos range, to full-blown security solutions like Ring or even autonomous vacuum cleaners, such as iRobot’s Roomba range. As is almost unavoidable with such a wide range of devices, a number of larger “ecosystems” to tie together these devices has developed, ranging from comfortable packages such as Google Home or Apple HomeKit to more customisable options such as IFTTT, with the latter being a prime choice for people who like to script their own solutions.

This is how it all started. Just three hue light bulbs and a bridge. Somehow I never managed to write a review on it here. Let me know if you're interested in the comment section :)

Next was nanoleaf.

Their light panels sure are something else and add quite a bit of flair to the place :)

For me personally, the journey to a smart home started in my first apartment here in Ireland, back in October 2016. It all started with a starter set for Philips Hue lights, with three B22 bulbs, and a Hue Bridge hub, which was just enough to switch over the kitchen/living room ceiling lights, as well as the bedroom. Having only 1 room per bulb was a bit limiting, and so the system expanded over the following months, and a Netatmo Weather Station also joined the fray around Christmas 2016. The plans remained on the back burner until I moved into my current apartment though, where Nanoleaf Aurora light panels were added to the setup, followed by a Sonos Play:3 connected speaker, courtesy VMware, my employer at the time. A more serious bit of smart home tech was also added, a Netatmo camera, following an attempted break-in back in Spring 2017. 

Some Smart Home components arrived rather unexpectedly, such as this Sonos Play:3

Things were kind of on the back burner for a while, especially given the fact that my attention was pretty much taken up by dealing with death of my parents, followed by the announcement that my department at work was to be shut down. Only recently have I been able to complete what I call Phase 1 of my transition to a smart home. All major lamps have now been converted to Philips Hue, my Sonos system now encompasses multiple rooms, and only recently, I‘ve added my first smart speaker, an Amazon Echo Show 5, to the setup. All is tied together by Apple‘s Homekit ecosystem well as well as Amazon Alexa. 

So far, the final component has been Amazon's Echo Show 5, with it's excellent voice assistant Alexa.

How does all this work in everyday use? Surprisingly well, thanks for asking. There‘s the obvious comfort that comes with adjusting the lights to your liking either from your phone or via voice command, or extending your music playback from your living room to the home office before heading over to get some work done. Having your smart home sense your presence and automatically turn on a predetermined light pattern when you get home only adds to that. There‘s also an additional aspect of peace of mind with being only a tap away from your security camera, door sensors, or internal environment sensors. The downside is a pretty sinking feeling when you watch the interior temperature dropping from afar and you‘ve noticed that you left the balcony open in the morning on a cold November day. I‘ll leave it up to your imagination as to whether this really happened.

That being said, smart home systems have attracted their fair share of criticism. One major issue, and one that I acknowledge from personal experience, is the risk of vendor lock-in. Take Eve Home. They are now exclusively locked in to Apple‘s iOS & HomeKit ecosystems, while Nest is similarly locked into Google Home. This can lead to issues when you‘re thinking about switching from Android to iOS or vice versa, so a bit of planning can‘t hurt. Then there‘s the issue of spare parts. Some smart home devices utilise replaceable batteries, and tend to use rather unusual battery sizes. My Eve Home door sensor for example uses a battery type that is pretty much impossible to get in Ireland, and can‘t even be imported from the UK, leaving me in a bit of a bind.

Smart Home ecosystems such as Apple HomeKit can really tie all of a smart home's components together. Just be aware of the risk of vendor lock-in.

Another issue is reliability, particularly when using  things such as smart locks, thermostats, blinds, and other similar items that I consider „active“ smart home components. While they are generally reliable, particularly if you choose reliable vendors, any malfunction can have consequences that range from inconvenient and embarrassing, such as blinds opening at the wrong moment, to potentially dangerous, such as a runaway heating systems or being locked in/out. I haven‘t heard too many reports about this, so it‘s not too likely, but it is something to keep in mind.

The big issue of course is privacy. Almost every major manufacturer of smart home components has a mandatory registration requirement, with Philips Hue being the notable exception in my experience. With such an increased exposure comes the increased risk of emails or passwords being compromised in case a malign actor manages to breach those manufacturers systems. For devices with cameras, there‘s the added risk of someone getting access to the camera feed as such. While this is partially remedied by devices such as the Amazon Echo Show 5, which has a physical slider to block the camera lens, this approach is understandably counterproductive for security cameras. Finally, there‘s the issue of digital assistants, smart speakers, and the sending of verbal commands to a device manufacturer, as was recently demonstrated by the likes of Apple or Amazon. While I‘m personally neither surprised nor necessarily outraged by these two cases, particularly since I have behind-the-scenes experience with Apple, I can absolutely understand why this might be an issue for some.

Having said all that, I do plan on expanding my smart home further in recent months, with plans of adding new door sensors, as well as an additional security camera to cover another sensitive area of the apartment. What? Did you really expect me to disclose the location of these cameras? Finally, and most expensively, I aim to have an autonomous vacuum robot in my apartment in the first half of 2020. Given the time I spend in the office at the moment, I need the weekend to recover, so having a robot that can take at least that particular task on is a major help for me. Plus, I AM a nerd after all ;)