Why I will NEVER have a smart house

[grsthegreat]

Texas power companies are adjusting residents' smart thermostats to higher temps. Here's why.

Some owners of smart thermostats in Texas found temperatures were going up, all done remotely by their power company, according to local TV reports.

www.usatoday.com

i would NEVER let the power company control my thermostat, much less anything else. There are no rind or amazon Alexa devices or the like in my house and never will be.

 

[oosik]

I agree, grsthegreat. However, I understand what the energy companies are trying to do AND it's with the consent of the homeowner.

During peak use they are upping the temps where your air conditioning will cut in. I bet they are doing the same with electric furnaces during the winter in cold areas. Lowering the temps where the furnace will kick on when it's cold.

We are slowly giving it away - piece by piece.

 

[5030]

Only 'smart' thing in this house is my wife.....

 

[dlctcg]

Texas power companies are adjusting residents' smart thermostats to higher temps. Here's why.

Some owners of smart thermostats in Texas found temperatures were going up, all done remotely by their power company, according to local TV reports.

www.usatoday.com

i would NEVER let the power company control my thermostat, much less anything else. There are no rind or amazon Alexa devices or the like in my house and never will be.

I agree on never allowing the power company (or any utility company) to control of my devices.... also on the RING & ALEXA devices. However if I'm reading this correctly these customers signed up for this.... Not smart on not reading the small print...

Part of my job is to design & build smart home tech... & we use none of these tactics or products. We actually educate the homeowners on the correct products & protocols to use. There are many smart home products available that don't leave you anywhere near vulnerable & are actually safe to use...

But I understand your (& many others) concerns... They are real & just...

 

[ericm979]

There's nothing wrong with signing up for a plan where the PoCo can turn up the AC in exchange for lower rates.

I won't have smart devices in my house for a lot of reasons: poor security, poor privacy, selling my data to others, and bricking devices the customer thought they owned. All of those problems are rampant in the industry.

 

[Jchonline]

I am my own power company...feels so good. Off grid for a couple of years now. Although at our altitude we rarely need AC in the Summer...I have a minisplit AC that runs on the abundance of excess solar energy we have on a sunny day. What if there is no Sun? Well then there is no heat so we wont need the AC anyway. It has been such a great experience.

That smartthingy stuff leeches power..so we only use the smartplugs. That way I can turn off everything that might leech power with the press of 1 button. The rest of it is pretty useless for us.

 

[5030]

I'm not off grid but I do heat the house with shelled corn and have for years. Best part is, the corn is free for me. Talk about cheap heat, I have it.

 

[Jchonline]

Yes we use wood stove. I live in a forest. We have radiant in floor (propane) and can even run the Minisplit heat pump if we have good sun on a cold day. However we never need either of them. We have a soapstone version stove from Hearthstone. I only have to load it 2 times a day. Morning and Evening. Its awesome.

 

[MoKelly]

Yes we use wood stove. I live in a forest. We have radiant in floor (propane) and can even run the Minisplit heat pump if we have good sun on a cold day. However we never need either of them. We have a soapstone version stove from Hearthstone. I only have to load it 2 times a day. Morning and Evening. Its awesome.

How do you get internet?

MoKelly

 

[Dftodd]

Power company here has been sending out letters trying to get you to allow them to turn off your ac compressors during peak usage times.

I invested in high efficiency widows, doors, added 10" of insulation to the attic. Including burying the ac ductwork so it is insulated as well. Plus I had ridge vents added to the roof so it vents properly.

My AC will kick on for around 10 minutes each hour when it's 95 degrees out and the sun is beating down. It will kick on once every 40 to 50 minutes when the Temps are over 100° out. Run time average is around 10 minutes a cycle.

I'll pass on allowing them to turn off the AC compressor when they feel like it.

If more people took the time to insulate and vent their attics properly and invest in good windows and doors, there wouldn't be as big of a strain on the power grids.

 

[SJay]

Texas power companies are adjusting residents' smart thermostats to higher temps. Here's why.

Some owners of smart thermostats in Texas found temperatures were going up, all done remotely by their power company, according to local TV reports.

www.usatoday.com

i would NEVER let the power company control my thermostat, much less anything else. There are no rind or amazon Alexa devices or the like in my house and never will be.

Smart phones are not much different than Alexa or Google home

 

[PuffyC]

If people really understood what tech companies and their silent partner (the government) knew about their personal lives they’d likely never use the Internet again. Not that it would necessarily help because they vector you through your connections anyway. For example:

Say your wife has been searching online for a new mattress. She has you listed as her spouse on social media. Guess what kind of ads you’ll start seeing. And that’s just the simple stuff. You get into IoT and you don’t even need you own devices spying on you, your neighbors will do it.

 

[TractorGuy]

Co-Op offered me a FREE smart thermostat when they first came out. I signed onto the list and didn't hear back for over a year. By the time they contacted me again to schedule the install I changed my mind and told them to take me off the list. Glad I did!

 

[lman]

If people really understood what tech companies and their silent partner (the government) knew about their personal lives they’d likely never use the Internet again. Not that it would necessarily help because they vector you through your connections anyway. For example:

Say your wife has been searching online for a new mattress. She has you listed as her spouse on social media. Guess what kind of ads you’ll start seeing. And that’s just the simple stuff. You get into IoT and you don’t even need you own devices spying on you, your neighbors will do it.

I won't see any ads. I use an adblocker.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I sympathize with people who live where the weather will kill you. Heat waves kill more people than cold, and losing the AC in some areas is life threatening. I have friends at risk in the middle of the continent, and remind them that a bathtub full of cold water will stave off heat stroke and death.

I have fortunately set up my house with 19th century and 20th century technology. My wife has commented that the comfort level of the house does not change when the power goes out, though catching a breeze in the gazebo by the creek is a good idea on a 100 degree day. This is a low humidity area, so the temp drops quickly after sunset. With 160 square feet of screened window, I can cool the house off over night. The windows are also low E, argon filled glass with honeycomb cellular blinds that add a lot of insulation while still letting in light. I also painted the house a light color and installed a light colored roof, with plenty of attic insulation and ventilation. Even on a hot day, the AC doesn't kick on before about 3 PM, and the sun dips below the hills about 7 PM putting the whole yard and house in the shade.

In the winter, we have wood heat primary and a heat pump secondary. We leave the heat pump set at 60 degrees, to avoid coming back to a cold house and to remind us that, if we are cold, get off our butts and build a fire.

 

[grsthegreat]

And I wonder how these same energy companies plan to charge millions of electric cars . If you can’t run a 30 amp ac, how can you charge an 80 amp f150.

ill gladly pay for the electricity that keeps my house cool in the summer.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Power company here has been sending out letters trying to get you to allow them to turn off your ac compressors during peak usage times.

I invested in high efficiency widows, doors, added 10" of insulation to the attic. Including burying the ac ductwork so it is insulated as well. Plus I had ridge vents added to the roof so it vents properly.

My AC will kick on for around 10 minutes each hour when it's 95 degrees out and the sun is beating down. It will kick on once every 40 to 50 minutes when the Temps are over 100° out. Run time average is around 10 minutes a cycle.

I'll pass on allowing them to turn off the AC compressor when they feel like it.

If more people took the time to insulate and vent their attics properly and invest in good windows and doors, there wouldn't be as big of a strain on the power grids.

I spent a small fortune on insulation and extra footing/slab material. It's been 1 month here in muggy NC and the AC has gone on 1 time, yesterday, because i left the doors open by mistake.

I keep it set at 78 and the problem is the humidity. The AC also drys the air.

I went to work for Westinghouse in Raleigh in the early 80s. They hired a bunch of "younger guys" to work on smart meters. Westinghouse is gone but the meters are here.

Early on here in the woods, building my house, I woke up about 5am to see bright yellow lites flashing in the trees. I jumped up to find the power co digging around my temp const meter.

I said.....WTF? I didn't really know i'd lost power.

They received an alarm from my smart meter, came out and fixed it, no call from me.

 

[Frankenkubota]

If people really understood what tech companies and their silent partner (the government) knew about their personal lives they’d likely never use the Internet again. Not that it would necessarily help because they vector you through your connections anyway. For example:

Say your wife has been searching online for a new mattress. She has you listed as her spouse on social media. Guess what kind of ads you’ll start seeing. And that’s just the simple stuff. You get into IoT and you don’t even need you own devices spying on you, your neighbors will do it.

1984 baby! I airways thought the govt would be the bad guy....which of course they are but....they are totally incompetent and unmotivated.

They will gladly let big tech do the dirty work. Of course big tech is very competent and highly motivated.

 

[CobyRupert]

Real time pricing (demand metering) would let a real supply and demand market fix many of the utility’s problems. People would welcome a smart home where the appliances run when the electrical cost is the cheapest. An the user’s/abusers (during peak times) would pay their fair share.
Right now it’s socialism!
Example: Me and a neighbor use same amount of electricity. If I run all my electrical loads during off peak hours (when the utility can buy power for $0.05 and sell it to me for $0.15) but my neighbor runs their loads during peak hours (when the utility buys at $0.20 but still sells at same $0.15), guess who is paying for my neighbor’s electricity.

 

[IXLR8]

I have a 'smart' home, full of automation and controls, I love it. BUT it is a stand alone system and is NOT connected to the internet, never will be. No Alexa, Ring, Siri, Google Nest etc for me.