one many people will have come across might be a meeting room, with stateless lights - we had them at work in a new building, no manual switch, just a PIR ... our meetings didn't have people all fallen asleep, but they did need someone to wave vigorously at the ceiling every now & then ... pretty dumb, and it's what many will think of as being what you get when you have automated lights ...
likewise our office in Germany, with its BMS to control everything - lights, heat, ventilation, blinds ... if we worked late, we were left in the dark and, on sunny days with passing clouds & winter days with a low sun, the blinds would go up & down many times a day with no account taken of glare to our eyes, just heat-gain to the building, and just up & down, no tilting of the angle ... again no manual switches & pretty dumb, and the sort of thing that puts people off ...
when people here locally ask about our house & its automation, the things that seem to catch their imagination most are :
- the (as we're now calling them) stateful lights ...
- not having to hang-around while things happen (eg: being able to fill the bath or a bucket without having to hang around to turn the water off, being able to set the yard gate ajar or double ajar also without having to hang around to stop it when it's opened far enough) ...
- being told when & where visitors are when then arrive (front door or gate, or on their way to the back door) ...
- things like running the dishwasher when people are not around without having to think about when that might be ...
- lighting scenes that cancel themselves appropriately ...
- heating & ventilation looked-after in a way that takes account of people ...
- having a button that acts as an alarm-clock that speaks & takes care of things (tells how long we were or have been asleep, tells what the weather forecast is & the temperature outside, tells if any doors or windows are open, automagically deals with all the lights around the house in a sensible way) ...
- being told useful things (clock needs winding, bins need putting out, something's been left open abnormally, etc) ...
- being able to check-on & action things from a 'phone or laptop, and do things like put the freezer into boost-mode while out shopping ...
- being sent e-mails when something particular happens ...
things visitors tend to worry about are buttons, what they're for - even when told they'll seldom need to touch them ... some sort of neat labelling is on our to-do list !
likewise our office in Germany, with its BMS to control everything - lights, heat, ventilation, blinds ... if we worked late, we were left in the dark and, on sunny days with passing clouds & winter days with a low sun, the blinds would go up & down many times a day with no account taken of glare to our eyes, just heat-gain to the building, and just up & down, no tilting of the angle ... again no manual switches & pretty dumb, and the sort of thing that puts people off ...
when people here locally ask about our house & its automation, the things that seem to catch their imagination most are :
- the (as we're now calling them) stateful lights ...
- not having to hang-around while things happen (eg: being able to fill the bath or a bucket without having to hang around to turn the water off, being able to set the yard gate ajar or double ajar also without having to hang around to stop it when it's opened far enough) ...
- being told when & where visitors are when then arrive (front door or gate, or on their way to the back door) ...
- things like running the dishwasher when people are not around without having to think about when that might be ...
- lighting scenes that cancel themselves appropriately ...
- heating & ventilation looked-after in a way that takes account of people ...
- having a button that acts as an alarm-clock that speaks & takes care of things (tells how long we were or have been asleep, tells what the weather forecast is & the temperature outside, tells if any doors or windows are open, automagically deals with all the lights around the house in a sensible way) ...
- being told useful things (clock needs winding, bins need putting out, something's been left open abnormally, etc) ...
- being able to check-on & action things from a 'phone or laptop, and do things like put the freezer into boost-mode while out shopping ...
- being sent e-mails when something particular happens ...
things visitors tend to worry about are buttons, what they're for - even when told they'll seldom need to touch them ... some sort of neat labelling is on our to-do list !
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