These DIY smart home projects sound useful, but aren’t
It’s easy to get carried away when creating a smart home. You may feel compelled to take on elaborate projects and automate things that don’t need to be automated, just because it’s possible.
This isn’t a bad thing in itself, but you might be going wrong if you use the utility as an excuse to tinker.
Dashboards without a clear objective
I’m not saying that wall-mounted dashboards and touchscreen control panels can’t be useful, but they are far from the optimal way to interact with your smart home.
For many of us, invisible automation is the goal when possible. Lights that turn on when you’re present, air conditioning and heating systems that maintain a comfortable temperature, sensors that trigger devices like dehumidifiers, and garage doors that open and close automatically.
For everything else, most of us are content using smartphones and wearable devices or speaking out loud to a smart speaker. The same goes for checking sensor status or video camera feeds. You can even involve your TV and display notifications and other items while you’re sitting in front of it.
The challenge of creating a wall shelf might be more appealing than the utility it offers, and I have no complaints about that. You probably already have everything you need to make one, and they have some good uses. They allow guests to easily control various smart home elements, and you can leave camera feeds on the screen at any time if you want, for at-a-glance security.
But before you take the time to build one, perhaps consider more useful projects, like building your own occupancy sensors or Bluetooth occupancy trackers with an ESP32.
Rate your showers
The Home Assistant community loves a good project. Chances are if you can imagine it, someone has tried to build it. Considering the existence of smart home compatible water flow sensors, isn’t it surprising that there is an excessive dashboard of real-time shower stats?
In all honesty, it’s not so much a project with its own GitHub page and an army of followers, but rather the madness of one person. Two flow sensors measure the amount of water used, while a probe connected to an ESP32 measures the temperature. Home Assistant then displays this information in real time, with a summary at the end that shows how long you took and how much water you used.
It’s one way to visualize water consumption and calculate costs, but it’s shamelessly overkill. If your primary goal is to reduce your water usage, you might be better off investing your money and time in installing a flow-limiting showerhead and using a simple timer to let you know when it’s time to get out.
Dishwasher end of cycle notifications
I admit I’ve already floated the idea that notifications following a completed dishwasher cycle might be useful in a guide to getting washing machine cycle notifications to work in Home Assistant. While it’s undeniably helpful to know when your laundry needs your attention, I can’t really make the same argument for the dishwasher.
Unless you want to dry the load by hand, whatever you just washed will still be damp. Opening the door is not helpful in this situation, as many modern dishwashers have drying cycles that start when the main wash is finished. Even those who don’t will benefit from heat retention inside the dishwasher, which can help things dry faster.
The best I can come up with is to use the same laundry cycle model, but add a delay that only sends you a notification when the dishes are likely to be dry enough to put away. Even if it seems like overkill, you’ll probably do it when you have a moment.
Configuring notifications for each sensor, camera and function
Setting up notifications doesn’t have to be a project, but managing too many of them can feel like one. While Home Assistant requires you to go out of your way to enable them, platforms like Apple Home are only too happy to enable them for devices like contact sensors and garage doors.
Although it may seem helpful to know that someone is home because the garage door just opened, you will receive the same notification when you open the garage door yourself. This gets tedious quickly, especially when you can simply check the status of a sensor or set up an alert to let you know that your garage door is only opened after a specified time or delay.
The same goes for notifications from security cameras and smart doorbells. It’s helpful to know that there’s a package outside on your porch, but it’s less helpful to know that someone is about to ring the doorbell (moments before ringing the doorbell).
Security cameras can alert you to all kinds of events, from stray cats to cars blocking your driveway. But do you need real-time alerts for these things? Have your camera system record them as events and choose to interact with them later if you wish.
Looking for more tips on what not to do with your smart home? Here are five time-wasting habits you need to get rid of.
