Rather than add this to the Grumpy thread, I thought I'd create a new thread.

I got my new smart heaters this morning. I set up the one in the cat room. So far so good. It's a GiveBest branded. It's got a much bigger heating area than my Govee. Sits nicely on the mini fridge. It connected to the Smart Life app without issue and right away with Alexa. I set it in the app to Eco at 71. It kicked off at 72, so that's good. Both apps handle all the functions nicely.

I'm waiting for the monitor stand to arrive to set up the bathroom one.

All my lights are smart bulbs, switches or plugs. I started with one bathroom whose switch is behind the door, so people can't find it. Now, I can tell Alexa to turn on the bathroom light before they get there. The second one I did was my stairway. It had only one switch at the top of the stairs defeating having a stairway light. Then I switched the rest out. I also have a smart kettle. I love that. I simply tell Alexa to "make hot cocoa" (or "make tea") and when it beeps I get up to fix my cup. I can even tell it from my bed and have the water heated by the time I get downstairs.

My thermostat is also smart. It's great to be able to adjust the temp while I'm cuddled on the couch. Tornado-dog and Cat-dog like all the smart devices too as I'm not kicking them off my lap/legs as often.

Anyone else have smart devices? Any you really like? Anything you want to have?

Not for me. We have none of that stuff. The mirror that people exercise in front of is the creepiest one to me. Way too 1984.

This old house doesn't even have central heat/air. We just run some heat when we feel cold, turn on an A/C when it's too hot. Don't usually know what the temp is in here. It would be ironic to have some of that tech stuff in such an old setting if we did want them. LOL!

We have similar struggles with our light switches. Our lights switches are all inconvenient. One per room. Since the clocks fell back, it's dark when I finish working & I need light from my phone to get out of my office & to the light switch in another room. Coming in the front or back door, the inside switch is on the interior wall, not by the door. Our house would have been 37 yrs old when electricity came to this area in 1937. I'd like to wire additional switches, but nothing more high tech than a traditional manual switch. Motion-detector could be cool. Sounds like something that is probably out there, but it's not something I've looked for.

It sounds like you're enjoying your things, which is very cool. Gadgets like you describe must be life changing for people who have mobility issues. I can see myself wanting some of it later if I manage to stay here long enough that those issues progress beyond convenience into more of a necessity.

I agree about the mirrors and such - that's just icky. I see no reason for many of these items. With Alexa, I just have the Dots - no video, just audio.

I looked at hardwiring the stairs, but it was going to be a pain to do. Instead I got a smart duplex switch. It has a wireless second switch that I hung at the bottom of the stairs, then I just replaced the wired switch at the top. Some of my switches, I rarely use the app or Alexa - but when my hands are full of laundry, etc, it is nice to not have to try to reach a switch. Others are really about the switches or lamps not being accessible in a dark room.

Motion detecting lights can be a pain. We had them at work. If you sat too long at your desk, the lights would go out. Then you'd have to jump up and down waving your arms to trigger the lights back on.

You can get wireless duplex switches that don't use internet. They run on radio frequencies. With those, you could add a second switch by the door for the light without having to hardwire anything.

Toedtoes said:Then you'd have to jump up and down waving your arms to trigger the lights back on.

LOL! I was wondering about that.

Thanks for the info about add-on switches. Those sound like something we could use.

I forgot about my latest smart devices. I set up two old fashioned sprinklers on smart timers for the front yard. I used to hand water once every two weeks but now have the timers water once every week for a shorter time. Where the smart part comes in handy is:

1. The tap is at the far end of the yard so I had to run through the sprinklers to turn them off or adjust the settings of the timers. Now I can do all that from my phone. The timers also connect to check the weather and if it rains, they will cancel watering from 1 to 7 days. I have mine set to cancel for 7 days. So, they are scheduled to run every Wednesday early morning. Because it is raining today, it has automatically cancelled the watering for this Wednesday and will next water the following Wednesday unless it rains again before then.

In contrast, my backyard soaker hoses are on dumb timers. I had to turn off the taps in order to maintain the seven day watering schedule for my preferred day but cancel this week's watering. I'm going to update those to smart timers in the future.

@purpleinopp glad to offer up ideas. Older houses and small houses have unique issues that many people don't realize until they live in one.

So true. I think it's cool that people can get devices to run heat/cool per room, using modern tech in an old-fashioned way. If one only goes in the bedroom @ night, the temp in there only needs to be comfortable during those hours, for example. I've said I would never want to go back to a house with a central system because of the added expense, but with the ability to administer per room, it could be reasonable.

The idea of being able to water anything w/o standing there with the hose in hand does have a lot of appeal. But that would just mean more time spent couch-sitting, so I'm not sure that's a a worthy goal for me.

Exactly.

For me, automating the watering means the plants get watered in the early mornings. If I had water, they get it between 9 and 10 pm to avoid the heat of the day.

Love the smart watering, sounds great.
I can't wrap my head around most of the other smart things you wrote about. Maybe because I am not a very verbal person, it feels h a rd to learn to talk to a device. I don't do any transcribing with my phone like I know some people write texts by saying them.

It's much easier to talk to Alexa (which is the voice control I use for everything) than talk to text as you are just giving commands not having a discussion. You give each device a unique name so that Alexa can distinguish between them. That is key for good communication.

For example if you have two tvs and you name them tv 1 and tv 2, Alexa might miss the number and get confused. I named mine tv and tele.

There are a few idiosyncracies. When I tell Alexa to set the thermostat, he responds (I changed his name to Ziggy and gave him a British male accent*) with "The heat is set to X" - yet if I say to set the heat, he'll tell me the thermostat is set at X". A bit passive aggressive.

And if I say "Ziggy in thirty minutes turn off the lights", he doesn't always understand. But if I say "Ziggy turn off the lights in thirty minutes", he on rare occasions jumps the gun and turns off the lights immediately.

Some commands are just automatic, like turning on a light or setting the thermostat. But if you want complex actions or multiple devices to respond, you can set up groups and routines. Routines can be triggered by time of day, relational to sunset or sunrise (like turn on outside lights 15 minutes before sunset or at sunset), or by a command phrase. Use a short phrase that is disinctive from other routine phrases.

*One major flaw with Alexa is that if that name is said on tv or in conversation, it will trigger Alexa and she will respond. This was notoriously illustrated by radio jockeys who would say things like "Alexa turn on the lights" on air so homes with that radio station turned on would respond. When I first started using it, Alexa commercials were all over and my echo device would respond to the Alexa command on the commercial. You can now select from Alexa, Amazon, Computer, Echo or Ziggy. To me the only good choice is Ziggy because unless you have a pet named Ziggy or are obsessed with David Bowie it's not a word you will use in normal conversation like the others. I am waiting for them to allow you to choose your own wake word rather than selecting from a few choices.

None of anything "smart" in my house. Don't want it except I'd take the sprinkler but then I'd have to program it and I hate doing that. I,m old fashioned I guess. I don't want Alexa living with me. Thats creepy/

I don't mind Alexa - especially now that she's a British man... I do not have any visual devices so the idea of something/someone watching me is moot. I have "tested" it by saying something like "I really want an exercise bike" and see if Istart getting ads for them or they show up on Amazon's home page and that has not happened.

The programming of my smart timers is no different than adding a new appointment to your phone/computer calendar. You select the time of day, the duration, and then the day(s) of the week. You can also schedule multiple waterings. So I can set my normal watering schedule for 5 am for 20 minutes every Wednesday, and add a second schedule for 10 pm for 5 minutes every Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

There is also a "cycle and soak" schedule. With this, I can tell it to run the spinkler/soaker hose at 5 am for 2 hours every Friday, but to only run it for 15 minutes with a 20 minute interval during that 2 hours. So it will run from 5 to 5:15, stop for 20 minutes, then run from 5:35 to 5:50 , and so on, stopping at 7 am.

And you do not NEED Alexa to have the smart sprinkler timer. Alexa simply allows you to speak to the device. Without Alexa, you simply go into your phone app to control it. I mostly use Alexa to use voice control for my lights and heating devices.

My hubby being a techy guy loves using smart devices.
One of our sensor outdoor lamps before does not last long enough, so he opted to use a smart switch, so now we get more life out of that light bulb by programming the time it goes on and off, and also controlled through our Alexa devices.
Our outdoor fountain is also controlled by a smart extension cord plug, so during summer all we have to monitor is adding water as needed, but the Alexa control handles turning on and off the water pump.
Outdoor security lights are solar powered, but it has a smart wifi connection thru the ring app, so we can easily view live video as needed and also control the viewing field we want to see, or download footages as needed. Peephole doorbell also has a ring app interface so aside from being able to do two way talk we can also easily who is at the door through our mobile phones.
Christmas light decors indoors are also easily controlled by the smart plugs so it makes it easier to program when to run or if needed turn it off without constantly manually unplugging the lights.

Some of our old flat screen tv were not smart tv's but since they still work quite well, we just use Amazon smart tv stick, and that keeps all devices in the same Alexa smart controlled environment. Pretty much if there is a smart device we wish to have we make sure it works well with Alexa. Our other tv's are now built in with Alexa so it is more straightforward, easier to integrate in the Alexa smart environment we have. Being able to view many shows and stuff via streaming apps, so we have been able to cut our cable subscription many years ago. But we bolstered our internet to the max, since these smart apps is only as good as the stable connection via internet. Hubby installed extension wifi mesh access points around our house, so there are no dead spots.

The other things we cannot integrate with Alexa unfortunately is our Litter Robot 3 since it runs on its own app, as well as Choueer, which is another separate app controlled automated litterbox.
Xiaomi smart stand fan also runs on its own app, but it is okay, as long as it has apps we can download, then it is just a matter of doing the programming with our mobile phones.

Accessing favorite music catalogs have gone easier too, we use Amazon music app, so we can make our own playlists and play them thru the app. A friend gifted us an Alexa auto device, so now we can play our stored Amazon music playlist in our car as well and this is while my hubby uses his Waze Navigation app.

All mine are Alexa controllable as well. I have a couple devices that disconnect from Alexa a lot, but they work in their app so it's OK.

I have one plug that constantly goes offline but it's for a small accent light that I rarely use, so I haven't replaced it yet.

I have ring and blink cameras around the outside (4 rings and 6 blinks) that all give me alerts via my Alexa echos, phone and fire tablet.

Both my smart tvs are Fire but they are older ones so don't have full Alexa integration.

For music, I still use my good old Zunes. I love them. I have about 6 of them just so I don't have to worry if one dies. A lot of my music isn't available via music apps.

Tarev that's interesting and seems so easy but-I'm a fuddy-duddy with IT and tech stuff. A light switch is about as tech controlled as I get!

I'm pretty low tech — for instance only analog clocks — and lead a simple, low consumption life, but I've become quite attached to Alexa! I use her for info and conversions... Celsius to fahrenheit, kilometers to miles, etc, definitions, spelling, weather forecast and all sorts of calculations, facts and miscellaneous questions. Also for music...I can request any song or artist, plus podcasts and radio. When I'm cooking and run out of something, I just say "add ____ to grocery" and the list is on my phone when I go to the store. Same with notes and to-do lists. If I suddenly remember something important after I've gotten into bed or into the bath I ask her to remind me about it the next day or next week or whenever. I use her instead of an alarm clock. Maybe this makes me sound lazy... maybe, but it's certainly streamlined and simplified my life in my old age.

I've never seen any evidence that she's eavesdropping on me, but of course she must be listening to react to the wake up cue. On the other hand, my phone eavesdrops nonstop and I get ads for things I've casually mentioned in conversations. I've been through the privacy settings many times and can't seem to fix it. Don't like that at all.

I was checking out at the vets one day and I picked up a pamphlet on a particular brand of pet health insurance. I thought I'd look into it more when I got home. When I got home and went on line t my gmail! The add was there before I even put the information into my system. I don't have a smart phone. No upgraded techie devices. How the heck did this get on my lap top? Maybe there were cameras at the vets office? Creepy. Talk about 'spying'!

maybe a drone was video-ing you thru the window and saw you pick up the pamphlet. just kidding.. I hope!
If you carried a phone with Google location enabled, it could guess you were in the vet office.

It could have simply been a coincidence. Coincidences do happen. Our tendency is to ignore all the times there isn't a coincidence and remember only the coincidences - so they seem to be everywhere. But if you look at a entire week, how many times did you look at something and then have an ad pop up for it when you got on the computer? In a month?

Also, most websites use cookies to track where we've been and what we look at. If you visited Chewy or some other pet site or did a google search on a pet topic, not necessarily insurance but anything pet related, or even got an email from a pet related business, in the recent past, then it could have easily triggered that ad to pop up.

The smartest I get is my phone.
The alarm announces the name of the event you put in when you set the alarm. So on work days, my phone alarms at 7:15 and says "Holy crap, you gotta work"