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Home Assistant 2023.9: New climate entity dialogs, lots of tile features, and template sensors from the UI!
(www.home-assistant.io)
Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io
Right, I see your point and it makes sense. But at the same time consider this: would you still like all the smart stuff if it was completely automated and you had no access to it? It just works, and you can't make it work a little differently if needed? And I offer an example of something that I can't imagine how it could be automated... I have a smart fan, power and orientation is dependent on where I am and how hot I feel. Easy enough to change that with the app as needed. Remember this is something I can control but would not want to give control to other people in the house.
On top of that what about sensors? Without the app you can't see them so for example no quick glance to check the temperature in multiple rooms and outside.
Also while the app is a bit clunky, it sure beats using that one rather than all of the Philips Hue, LIFX, Yeelight, Xiaomi, Tapo, Kasa, Daikin...
Yeah I would still enjoy everything if it was completely automated. I don't need to see my sensors, if I feel hot I feel hot, don't need something to tell me the number. Do want to turn on my heating if the number is low.
I don't really understand your smart fan situation. My fan has a remote control.
So you would be fine being a guest in someone's else house, no control over anything and just let whatever automations are in place do their thing? But all of this in your own home? Temperature is an important value to know, tells if it's better to turn off the AC/heat and just open the windows at that time, or when it's the better moment to open them and air the place. Same with air quality, if it gets worse with the windows open it's better to close them, or if it's not great inside it might be a good idea to open.
My fan has an app or a pair of buttons on top, no remote.
I have control over my stuff, its control via physical controls in the real world. I don't want to use an app that I have to get out my phone, open up, navigate and eventually control a thing when I can just change a dial or press a button.
Temperature is not for me, an important value to know. I already know if its hot enough to air the place out or not. Don't need to see a number for that.
The value for me in home assistant is not putting all my buttons into an app on my phone, it's on the connections I can make between things, it's the ability to make my home work for me, without having to constantly be doing things to make that happen, and if i do have to do a thing, I don't see a single reason as to why I would want to have to do that thing in an app on my phone.
You do need to know the number, IF you want to maximize the amount of cooling via open window vs AC.
That aside I'm pretty sure this is an "agree to disagree" situation, mostly because it's clear we have different tastes. A smart home for me has the value of letting me control everything in a single place (always on me), without going around looking for remotes that might need a new battery. Automations are good, but I want to keep control over every little detail.