I agree some devices save money (nest thermostat, automated lights etc) and some are just convenient when your hands are full or dirty (auto-door locks, auto-faucet, etc), but none of this stuff saves me TIME.
The only stuff that actually saves time is stuff like robot vacuums and robot lawn mowers.
Things that would actually save me time:
- work from home. Not having to commute every day (which isn’t going to happen for where I work)
- Automatic grocery delivery. Not having to go buy groceries every week. (which can’t happen because my grocery trips are small orders and require too much fresh produce aka I don’t trust the pickers)
- a robot that mows the lawn and picks up the dog poop first. But what would really be life-changing is a robot that can pick up all the leaves in the fall and eat them or stash them somewhere for me. I am surrounded by massive tree leaf-producers.
- a robot vacuum that actually picks up pet hair really well and doesn’t get stuck and can fit into all the corners. I currently have a roomba i7+ and it’s “OK” at pet fur on carpet, but still leaves some behind. I’ve been eyeing the roomba s9+ and reading reviews and wondering if it would do a better job with pet fur on carpet.
- something that lets you wash clothes, bed sheets, towels all at once. What’s time-consuming is having to do multiple loads to fit everything. high capacity washer and dryer with the obvious feature that warns you its about to finish.
- something that would keep the bathtub/shower and toilet automatically clean.
- something that would automatically cook for you. Meal delivery kits are too expensive and still require cooking of those prepped ingredients they mail you. Meals that are already cooked and delivered are even more expensive and even less food/filling. No restaurant serves anything healthy because they cover everything in animal products or huge amounts of oil. Huel is the only answer I’ve found, but its boring to eat that way.
Things that eat up my time every week are:
- sleeping
- eating
- taking a shower, shaving, drying hair.
- mowing the lawn and picking up dog poop (or raking massive amount of leaves in the Fall)
- commuting to work
- buying groceries
- cooking (if I want more food variety than Huel or plain fruit or microwaved soup can)
- doing the laundry (clothes, towels, bedsheets)
- running the sweeper to pick up dog fur the robot vacuum didn’t get
I could care less if my kitchen faucet or lights turn on automatically. What we actually need are solutions that cut down on daily and weekly chores. This is the beauty of the creation of the stove, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, fridge, lawn mower etc. Those things REDUCE time spend on chores. Whereas most of the smart home stuff is gimmicky and tries to save energy or serve you more ads or music/media content and does nothing to reduce time spend on chores.
What consumes your time? What are your solutions, or solutions you wish existed?
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Idk about if these hit your use cases but I’m building a house right now and here are the things I’m incorporating that are actually useful for me:
- Speakers and microphones in the ceiling to use with a local smart assistant that uses chatgpt or whatever the most capable model currently is (basically a much smarter version of siri you can ask most any question and can control home stuff with)
- An automated dog door with locking feature. Currently on weekends my wife or I alternate days of who gets to sleep in and who has to let the dogs out. In the new house we will have the dog door open at a certain time in the morning unless it has rained over the night in which case it will send us a notification to take them out manually
- Smart blinds in front of the window in our bedroom. They will slowly open up from being fully dark to fully open over a period of like 30 minutes based on an alarm time allowing us to wake up to what will feel like a natural sunset at any time of day we wish to wake up
Re: 2. This is a godsend for my cat. Should work for your dogs.
https://www.surepetcare.com/en-gb/pet-doors/microchip-pet-door
You can cut a hole in your glazing. Works by identifying pets by their microchips. They can go in or out as they please. Or you can set it to only let them out or only let them in.
It’s a long shot but, if you had a few kids they could do all those things!
I think you need a butler!
Smart homes are about taking the thought and manual actions out of the every day. Currently, at least.
The really hard stuff that you talk about is currently infeasible. But it’s being worked on. Self driving cars, washing machines do smarter load detection these days, etc. You can buy ready meals and put them in the microwave already, no need to prepare and cook from scratch. They just taste shit and will give you colon cancer if you eat too many.
It takes about thirty seconds of my time to boot up my computers and logon to work. That happens automatically now for me, that’s about the only time saving I’ve made 😄
I just like the simplicity and magic that can be made. Ceiling fans automatically turn off during certain triggers, all blinds and curtains are automated, lights come on based on room detection for my 3 year old and lots more stuff that does save me a small amount of time.
Instead of “aka” in point 2, you should’ve used “i.e.”
Aka = “also known as” I.e. = “for example”
That’s not correct. “i.e.” is “that is”, and “e.g.” is “for example”.
All of my home automation saves time and adds convenience. Things happen without my input, or they can happen with a simple verbal command. Shades go up and down without any effort from me. Lights, heat, air, landscape irrigation and lighting, the list goes on. Each on their own isn’t that big of a saving, but combined, they make my life much easier.