Comment by Mister_Snuggles | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Mister_Snuggles | Hacker News Reader

Mister_Snuggles

It feels like this is already a mostly-solved problem.

The wireless switches/sensors/bulbs are already handled by various things in the Zigbee ecosystem. RF energy harvesting is already a thing[0]. I've even got a Zigbee switch[1] that uses the energy from pushing the button to power its transmitter. Turning lights on and off based on occupancy is also a solved problem, as is HVAC zoning.

The only innovation here is to combine the various pieces into one package. Hopefully it uses an existing standard like Zigbee, ZWave, or Thread/Matter instead of inventing something new and incompatible.

I am 100% on board with anything that eliminates the need to change batteries in all of these devices.

[0] https://www.mouser.ca/new/e-peas/e-peas-aem30940-rf-energy-h...

[1] https://meethue.co/products/philips-hue-tap/

> The only innovation here is to combine the various pieces into one package.

Isn't this how any and all innovations work? (At least in the consumer product area)

Integration is not innovation.

It is, but honestly this feels pretty weak.

There are already a bunch of Zigbee energy harvesting switches on the market that work well. There's the Hue Tap that I mentioned, plus other commenters have pointed out other ones.

If you replace the "one or two RF power transmitters to power up all switches inside the house" with a Zigbee gateway you've got a packaged solution that you can buy right now.

The rest of the article talks about sensors, "seamless automation", etc and feels like future thinking (i.e., they don't have a solution here but they're working on it), but also feels like more already-solved problems.

For example, lighting driven by occupancy is something you can easily do by adding a Zigbee motion sensor to the system.

HVAC zoning is also a thing, but a lot more complicated as it requires dampers and needs to be designed as a complete system. You can't simply open the dampers for just the occupied rooms, you have to keep in mind that the furnace needs to maintain a minimum amount of airflow so that it doesn't overheat. You could also go with a mini-split heat-pump system where each major room (e.g., bedrooms and living rooms) will basically have its own HVAC system. I doubt that the costs of a zoned HVAC system would ever pay for itself in energy savings vs, e.g., an Ecobee thermostat plus sensors (another off-the-shelf solution that you can buy right now).

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