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What do you guys think of the idea of smart homes? I could make a basic setup using https://home-assistant.io to control my home temperature and lighting; the tools for doing this are everywhere nowadays and implementation doesn't seem too horrific anymore.
But setting aside what I "can" do, is this something that I "should" do? How can a person implement this without connecting any devices to the internet?
I'm not a fan. Any exploitable issue with the software, and my house can be viewed by anyone from anywhere.
I've got zero smart devices at home, to the point of even using my TV as a simple screen only.
As a hobby, yeah, go for it.
To save time and money, not so much. You will spend much more time in setup and debugging than you will ever recoup due to the automation. Same goes for the money.
I like mine. It has a lot of nice convenience features, and it feels good to have stuff happen automatically based on your presence. Scripting useful automations if a time-consuming hobby though, and if you're mostly just interested in doing voice control for lights it may not be worth it.
I'd recommend staying away from anything that connects directly to the wi-fi if possible. ZigBee lets you isolate the garbage hardware from the Internet so they can't be used as zombie devices in a botnet or worse, and have home assistant be the one point of contact.
What's your network infrastructure like? I have my network segregated across several VLANs, and IoT devices are on VLANs that are blocked from the internet (and the rest of the network) at the firewall level. I can access them, but they can't access anything.
I do similar. And keep some devices (like my kasa plugs) from hitting the internet altogether.
And others that need it go on its own DMZ with the roku TVs and like. They have no inbound access.
Biggest thing is making sure you have wifi coverage cause boy the amount of shit I have on network now has kinda gotten out of control
HA is pretty nice, but has a pretty big learning curve.
As for avoiding turning your internet into a IoT botnet, you need network gear that can segregate clients and prevent internet access, and to pick devices that have a local-only API which is not something everything has.
The real question - and this is coming from someone who spent way more time than I'd like to admit with HA automating things - is what you're expecting. I absolutely wouldn't bother doing a setup again because once the shiny wore off, all I use this for is setting a temperature and turning lights on and off: two things the hardware vendor apps does just fine.
It's great, unless for some reason it doesn't work, and that's kinda an unfortunate state of things for what is still pretty early software. Matter should help simplify things since it'll be less 100 vendors, 100 APIs you have to support which is kinda the state of being right now.
Also don't buy anything from Belkin, screw those guys.
Using home assistant since 2017. As you add stuff there's more synergy, like a network effect. I have automations and services that:
Adjust the bathroom floor thermostat according to the prevailing hourly energy price
Adjust the colour temperature of lighting during the day so blue light is reduced in the evening, allowing natural melatonin production to function
Announce on a local speaker when our child gets to school in the morning using their phone location
Operates festive lighting in the winter with reference to sunset and sunrise
Turns off all lights when leaving; or sometimes if I'm feeling more paranoid
Replays lighting patterns from a previous week to simulate* occupation
Sends me an alert if motion is detected and nobody's home
Turns off the picture on the TV if nobody's in front of it for a while using a 60GHz radar sensor
as well as a few other things. I don't want a smart home that's just remote operation with a phone. I want to use capabilities to automate things so I don't need to be concerned about them.
The only smart objects I have are some light bulbs. I think, some processes are good to automate and put software in control of, and some things I want to have explicit control over (I.E. Door locks, Safe locks, AC settings, Heating). Technology can break in fantastical ways, but a lock should just freaking work.
As someone who has spent many years working on my smart home, I suggest, as do others, KEEP IT LOCAL.