in some cases the tech world can seem like a private mens club. Thankfully that’s changing with every year that passes and our newest ‘My Automated Home’ feature comes from our forum member Mavis.
Read on for a female perspective on the smart home, the good and the bad, and even an admission that it’s not just men that sneak those tech purchases into the home past their better half!
Catching the Bug
As a 47 year old woman I guess I am in the minority when it concerns my love of all things techy. I can think of nothing better than getting a new appliance or gadget and sitting down with the instruction book and trying out all the features.
My love of anything technical began when my father purchased me a ZX80 way back when computers were only just becoming the ‘norm’. I studied computer science at A level and even though I failed all my A levels, I still remember with fondness the programme I wrote on a BBC computer with BASIC.
I have always lusted over the fully automated homes that used to appear on Tomorrows world with such gadgets as automatic lights, blinds and curtains that operated remotely and piped music. Well, my dreams are finally turning into reality.
My smart home So Far
We moved house last year and I chose after reading a few forums on operating heating remotely that I would invest in the Honeywell evohome system. I like the freedom being able to set each room to a different temperature, as well as having the technology to turn the heating off or down remotely.
The touch screen controller is a dream to use and it is so easy to, for example, increase the temperature in the restroom just before using it. My home feels much much more comfortable and we have the added bonus that it looks as though we are saving a significant amount of gas although it is early days yet and we don’t have any true data to compare against. I have also had a bit of a play with IFTTT and now have some radiators set to come on if our child is on day shift at the weekend – it picks up essential words from my Google calendar and triggers the radiators to come on at a set time. ideal for irregular shift patterns.
So I have caught the bug and now have moved onto automating my lights. I went with the LightwaveRF range and have changed all our light switches and some of the electrical sockets too. This has enabled me to get round issues such as a light switch behind a door – I have installed a wireless ‘Mood Switch’ in a much more available place and a wireless light switch next to the exterior kitchen door. I have also installed a PIR in the hall for the night time trips to the bathroom. again the techy part of me was not pleased until I got the remote gateway so I have now set my sitting room lamps and light to come on at dusk every day (and one touch of the ‘Mood Switch’ switches them all off.)
To monitor all of this I have the loop energy Tracker which monitors both electrical power and gas. The advantage of the loop is that it produces usage graphs so you can compare your usage day on day.
But it has not all been practicality. In the bedroom, purely for decoration, I have a set of fancy string lights plugged into a LightwaveRF timer plug set to come on at dusk and go off at a set time.
What I don’t like about modern automated living is all the clutter that comes with electrical connections. Every room has at least one tower electrical adapter and the number of Internet gateways, chargers and remote controls does not make for a tidy home.
I have never been a shoes and handbags girl and instead get the same rush over a new Sat Nav or phone. I have also been known to hide purchases from my husband as he thinks they are a waste of money – I certainly did not tell him how much the light switches cost!
Future plans for My smart Home
Change to LED bulbs throughout, not as straight forward as it sounds as I am struggling for compatibility for LWRF and dimming in general.
Streaming music throughout the bungalow – possibly using ceiling speakers in the restroom and kitchen and possibly wireless elsewhere.
Making much more use of IFTTT
Redesigning my garden with automated lighting and possibly a water feature.
I have always liked the idea of Raspberry Pi and would like to dabble with this and/or Python although I guess without a particular purpose then it would be pretty meaningless.
I also have a bit of a problem – possible situations may imply that we will relocation house again in a couple of years time so this has shifted my focus a bit to only installing semi permanent or easily removable tech. The plus side of this implies that tech will have come on even more and I will be able to plan from scratch.
I have dreams of what I could do if I had a small win on the Lottery. I’d have someone come in and draw up a plan for the whole house so that I could gradually purchase and install suitable and compatible tech that works with each other.
My other dream is for that large lottery win and entails someone developing and installing the whole house so that it is bursting with tech, from colour changing shower cubicles with music, to concealed speakers in every room. Oh well, a girl can dream
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Last update on 2021-10-04 / affiliate links / images from Amazon product advertising API