- higher maintenance
- loss of privacy
- loss of ownership of things in my home
- reliance on subscriptions
Additionally, there's quite a few benefits: - It's all wired, so it's been rock solid; - It's vendor agnostic; - It's entirely local, so there's no subscriptions or even an internet connection dependency; - There's a ton of gateways available that allow me to interface with non-KNX products;
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. It is just a matter of convenience however, it's hardly a must-have.
The way communication works is each device has a number of inputs and outputs that have defined data types (there are one hundred or so in total). When programming devices you just tell them which channel (group address) the inputs and outputs (group objects) should be linked to. Inputs can be linked to any number of channels, but outputs can only be linked to 1. Some devices have basic logic units if you want to do more complicated things. The group address is 16 bits, so there's lots of room for flexibility.
For example, if you have a switch and the on/off output is linked to channel A, when you switch it on, it would send a 'switch on' message on that channel. If you have a light actuator (in simple terms, a programmable relay) that listens on channel A, when it receives that message it would turn the light on. If you want to add another switch at the other end of the hallway, you only need to program that switch to send the on/off output to channel A - the other devices don't need to be reprogrammed.
Devices are certified (which is one reason why they are quite expensive compared to consumer smart home devices), but that means they are guaranteed to work together regardless of the manufacturer. The protocol itself hasn't really changed over time (there are a few minor new features which are not backwards compatible) so if you have a installation from the early 00s, you can buy new hardware today and know it'll work without issues.
So basically first world problems. And for sure you could try to do something similar with Philips Hue bulbs (I have in the apartment I live in now), and 80% of the time that works, but I'd like to solve the other 20% too.
I'll also have a heat pump for hot water, heating and cooling and solar PV, so I will tie those together to try to optimise my power usage to use as much solar as possible. I'd love to be able to do that with appliances too (e.g. load up the washing machine in the morning, and have it turn on when there is excess solar), but it seems that's a few years away yet. Now I can monitor power usage and know when the washing is done. And if nobody goes in the room for an hour (from motion sensor) I can send a push notification to remind someone to get the washing.
If it needs any kind of connectivity or it comes as a service - no way in hell I'm exposing my family to the risk of not being able to flush a toiled one day because of a tweet or god know what.
That sounds like the plot to a Black Mirror episode
1) People don't understand and don't want to have to understand how WiFi, servers, clients, protocols, GUIDs, etc work so they can up a standalone system. Manufacturers create systems requiring internet connectivity so they can abstract away some of the complexity from the end users. Unfortunately, that means when stuff fails, it's totally opaque, as described in TFA. I mean, shit, most people couldn't wire a lamp correctly or change a tire [citation needed, but you get my point].
2) Rent seeking and data mining. Why let the customer pay for the lightbulb once and use it forever when you can make them pay for a monthly subscription and sell the usage data? And then you can force an upgrade when you deprecate the service before the light bulb burns out. Win/win!
Remember: when somebody says "internet of things" what you should hear is "billions on unpatched, unmaintained Linux devices sold by companies whose core competencies aren't securing computers racing each other to the bottom".
I can see what potential benefits IOT devices could bring but the risks of all these outdated devices in my home scare the hell out of me. I know it sounds like paranoid talk but my whole life is digital these days.
The first point is confusing because the majority of tools people use today they can't repair themselves. That's what happens as technology advances, you need specialists to understand each system.
If you look at things like earthships that are built to manage a lot more factors than a typical home, it becomes pretty clear how useful automating some of those systems and allowing them to share data could be.
If you had good open standards for the tech and were actually trying to make things that improved people's lives or saved energy rather than mine data or recurring revenue, you could make some cool shit.
Really the complaint should be about the way these products are developed and marketed, which is hardly unique to this sector.
I think if you view this is a hobby and a chance to play with electronics then that is probably a great use case. But if your goal is to minimize the amount of time you are spending on this stuff, I'm very skeptical that whatever system you are throwing together on your own is really a good way to do that.
There is a reason that so many of the systems out there suck. Building good ones is really hard, takes a ton of research, R&D, and collaboration between many experts. I fail to see how removing all of that and throwing something together yourself really creates a reliable system
Every extra feature is a regression.
Imagine the fun when it all goes obsolete in five years, a controller board dies with no replacement available, all for very little advantage.
Maybe this is Peak Technology. Sticking a computer and communications network on things that gain little from the addition. The one exception I might make is low-cost surveillance cameras, but of course it took the industry about ten seconds to add subscriptions and spying-on-you to the business model.
Being over-driven.
Big Clive loves to tear down LED bulbs to examine the driver boards. Often shows you ways to drop the current to sustainable levels and get back your 20-year lifespan LED bulbs (caveat, at lower power levels).
https://www.youtube.com/user/bigclivedotcom
More specifically, example: https://youtu.be/klaJqofCsu4