Smart Homes. What are your thoughts?

[CindyJane]

We are about to refurbish a house and my OH is keen on making it smart. i.e. lights on by voice command etc. I'm not that keen as I'm not sure how it would be received by potential buyers. What do Mumsnetters think? Would it be an investment or waste of money!

Get him a hobby.

As long as people can turn the lights on and off the usual way, then it won’t be a problem. We went to view a house with these expensive built in appliances where the extractor fan automatically came up from the counter top when you press a button and I kept thinking how much that would cost to fix or replace when it’s broken. I would have wanted to rip it out and it would have left me with a hole on the expensive counter top. As long as it’s nothing like that, I wouldn’t mind as a buyer. It won’t add value to your house and it might put people off. On the other hand, if this is a long term house, I wouldn’t worry about potential buyers’ thoughts and I would do it how I like it.

If you are renovating to sell, then think about who would buy it. Starter home aimed at younger people then it may well be a plus. A bungalow aimed at retirees in their 70s, probably less so.

As already mentioned, think about how easy or not it will be to use in a conventional way or to fix if broken.

It would turn me off a house. All those systems need maintenance or to be replaced regularly. Plus being on standby means they waste electricity needlessly.

I'd be constantly mending the auto-curtains that my oldie relatives didn't know how to use. I definitely prefer under-engineered.

I think gadgets are such a boy thing.

It would be a no from me. In order to be “smart” they collect and store data. No thanks

I wouldn't want one. I suppose you can set it up so that the lights can also be turned on and off at a normal switch, but that would be my preference and I would be unlikely to used the smart system.

I'm not a fan of too many smart systems around the house. I can see their advantages for some disabled and mobility impaired people but I am not otherwise personally very keen. I don't want my appliances and lights ruling me. I prefer it the other way round.

More things to go wrong. More cost. And what is the actual benefit ? Less physical movement ( bad for you) ? A slightly warmer house when you have been away ?

if someone is disabled I think these things can be great

The more tech the more time.you spend updating software, maintaining and repairing. And its annoying when the wifi goes down. And eventually the software isn't supported anymore and, worst case, it's completely unusable.

Think of using your mobile phone from 15 years ago now......no, I suspect its unusable!

What matters is the basics insulation, good manually controllable electrics, thermostats, and ethernets to as many rooms as possible.

Then you can add extras as additional features which, if they go down, won't matter. I think remote on off lights are a good added security feature - but only when on top of the basics.

It's useful to have things like smart sockets smart heating controls and sensors.

But equally some can be annoying. For example I like the ability to be able to switch lights on and off manually but I also like the ability to program them via a timer.

A lot of it is down to personal preference and most of the time it is fairly easy to convert things like light switches and sockets from normal to smart ones.

We have a bit of this in our house. Loads of SmartBulbs controlled by Alexa being the main one. But they are on normal light circuits which we normally leave powered on but told to turn off by Alexa. They are really good, its amazing what difference different brightness and colour make to a room. Our living room has 2 ceiling lights and 5 table maps. We can turn these all on and off just using our voice. Another feature with having lots of Smart Bulbs is your safety. From anywhere in the house with an Alexa just say 'All light on 100%' and your 3am dark house will be lit up everywhere like a christmas tree. Excellent if you hear noises in the night - scares the shit out of intruders!

We also have a smart heating system (EvoHome). This allows us to control the temperature in each room. This has saved us loads of money in the 7 years we've had it - and we're warmer!

We also have a few smart plugs which go between your sockets and plugs. Again, controlled by Alexa and very good.

Point is, unless you really want to there is no real need these days to install fixed smarthome gadgets - all mine are removable and it just reverts to a standard 'dumb' house. We wouldn't be without them now, expecially the heating controls.

The shit breaks down and is a massive pain to repair

I’m not keen on voice activated lights. I find it more effort to say ‘Alexa, turn off the kitchen light’ than it is to just flick a switch.

No would put me right off. Don't even have Alexa. Waste of money in a house that you are refurbing to sell.