Home Automation

[Reciever]

I've been on and off looking at automation but mostly for monitoring power usage. Since my power bill has hit 600 this month I am again interested in revisiting this topic.

 

Just curious to others' experience in this domain 🙂 

[Aaron44126]

I've heard of this thing but haven't tried it.  You can install it at your breaker box and it will help tell where your electricity is going.

https://sense.com/

[Reciever]

Hadn't seen this option yet, thanks for sharing! 

 

I'm fairly certain it's just poor insulation and inefficient air conditioning. 

 

It's using 3x the power of my mining rig (10x GPU's) and still can't keep the house below 70F. My room is typically 80-85F these days 

[Aaron44126]

I did just pick up a "smart thermostat" a few weeks ago, which has the perk of being able to see the temperature and control the AC while away from the home.  Not sure if that would really be helpful in your situation but maybe you could set it higher and then lower it while you are on the way home from work or something.  I selected "Ecobee3 Lite" and I'm quite happy with it so far...  Ecobee seems to be a leading brand and this was one of the few current models that I could find that has HomeKit support and does not have a microphone for Alexa / smart assistant support.

[Reciever]

8 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

I did just pick up a "smart thermostat" a few weeks ago, which has the perk of being able to see the temperature and control the AC while away from the home.  Not sure if that would really be helpful in your situation but maybe you could set it higher and then lower it while you are on the way home from work or something.  I selected "Ecobee3 Lite" and I'm quite happy with it so far...  Ecobee seems to be a leading brand and this was one of the few current models that I could find that has HomeKit support and does not have a microphone for Alexa / smart assistant support.

Yeah I am also not keen on buying a bug for my house. While I am a nobody that no one cares about, I've heard about the breaches of privacy that have happened already. Even iPhone support has been known to breach that as well. They brag about firing them afterwards but that doesnt resolve the initial breach.

 

For now I have picked up a couple of KASA smart plugs since in one of the top reviews the guy noted that it can be controlled "locally" without need of cloud support or even manufacturer support. This will be my gateway drug into automation I am sure

[Custom90gt]

I use a homeassistant (https://www.home-assistant.io/) on a raspberry Pi with some Z-wave smart plugs as well as a few Kasa smart plugs.  It's really easy to schedule things.  It has options for energy monitoring and such as well, but I've not gotten into that.  There is really a ton of stuff out there for home automation stuff with lots of ways to go. 

 

Sadly your basically running the AC and a heater with all the mining your doing.  Does it still turn a profit after the dramatic drop? 

[Reciever]

1 hour ago, Custom90gt said:

I use a homeassistant (https://www.home-assistant.io/) on a raspberry Pi with some Z-wave smart plugs as well as a few Kasa smart plugs.  It's really easy to schedule things.  It has options for energy monitoring and such as well, but I've not gotten into that.  There is really a ton of stuff out there for home automation stuff with lots of ways to go. 

 

Sadly your basically running the AC and a heater with all the mining your doing.  Does it still turn a profit after the dramatic drop? 

I haven't been mining in the last few months, when I do though it's only in my bedroom which is sealed off and made into a negative pressure room. It's not an airtight seal of course but I'm not directing any air into the room. 

 

At my previous location air conditioning running and mining I was at about 440 per month, this new location with no mining it's averaging 600. It appears that the AC is running 20 hours a day which is the principle issue. 

 

I tore down the mining stuff to clean it up and will be getting it going after I get some supplies, namely a few shelves, my power is free overnight so that's when I tend to mine. 

[Etern4l]

The (single?) advantage of smart plugs with remote access is that you can see if something is wrong if the power consumption is not as expected. Privacy breaches can get very real with AV-capable devices: