Morning :)

Today's forecast: getting up to a balmy 26C before we open the floodgates of doom and drown you all

Bring it on. Especially that rain.

I knew it :D

This morning is really pleasant tbh, sunny with a breeze and not too hot :)

secured all loose paper and opened everything up, feels nice

"not too hot"... XD It's already 20 degrees here, which is waay too hot for 8AM

I really like it :)

Of course you do :P

;)

I love these days where you can walk out in your T-shirt early in the morning and not feel cold \o/

gf woke up and left really early today, so I did a nice round of cycling

I love days where I wake up, and not immediately have to get out from under the blankets because it is too hot XD

Our bedroom's not seeing any sun until late in the morning fortunately :)

And we use a thin summer blanket and one of those standing fans

Right now there's this breeze going through the living room which is really pleasant <3

No breezes here, which explains why the living room stayed at 22 overnight.

(And I did have fans running)

we're about 20m up, so that probably helps in getting that breeze :)

The plugs arrived. It's nice! I can now turn off all standby stuff with one button press :D And the lady from the cashback organization replied, apparently I could just use any box... so fingers crossed XD

I love home automation <3

I'm still trying to decide if I should do it or not, and how ._.

Oh, it's not really automation, just a remote that allows me to press an 'all off' button XD

Well, security and privacy are concerns

And you're best off picking an either widely supported or open standard, anything proprietary might lose support if the originating company decides to change its product line or go bankrupt

bol.com/nl/nl/p/… < That one. Really easy set up: Plug one in a wall socket, press a button on the remote sending an 'on' signal, it will couple. Put plug for devices into plug, and you're done :)

I'm currently still only doing light switches, but considering more advanced stuff - IF I can control this locally rather than through some company server

@Tinkeringbell That's exactly the one I'm using right now, got a ton of them :D

klikaanklikuit (trust smarthome) is basically pretty old so I'm not worrying about that going out of business anytime too soon.

they're rated to 2300W, so you can even connect stuff other than just led lights

hooked up the standing fan for example :)

@MiG waiting on Matter to happen

and well decide what I want to automate and how to control it

Not familiar with that one, url?

@MiG I hope so! :P I've got two power strips on them now XD

for extra fun SOME of my new place will have a propritary system provided by the power company

@MiG its basically a universal standard, one moment

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_(standard) feels like the best place to start

Thanks, sounds very interesting :)

@JourneymanGeek Well that could be nice. I kinda feel new houses here should just be built with (remote) switches for every wall plug :P

I'd love to take this to the next level (including security, but taking into account privacy so hosted locally), and I don't think KlikAanKlikUit is particularly suitable for that - I only use the local remotes atm, not the base station

@Tinkeringbell we got that

BUT I don't know if I can hook in the SP (power company) system into everything else

@MiG Matter will do that

Yeah, that may be a bit more difficult.

AND everyone will support it

@Tinkeringbell it's a fast moving market though, you wouldn't want whatever the builder installed to become obsolete in 5 years

@JourneymanGeek Market's finally maturing then, excellent :)

@Tinkeringbell so I don't want to commit till I move in

@MiG Eh, maybe not... :P

@Tinkeringbell I can fairly easily DIY retrofit my switches to stuff that supports it. Plugs... the ones we have will monitor power use through a central app

Aircon, I'm not sure

@JourneymanGeek Which is a good thing. I moved in without this stuff too, took a while thinking I wanted it... But living for a while and realizing which stuff you often leave on, how many sockets you may need this for, etc. is a good thing.

but that seems essential

Hopefully there'll be backward compatibility - after all, if you know the protocol, you should be able to tie in existing stuff, even if like that KlikAanKlikUit basic set it doesn't come with two way comms

@MiG I think most of the FOSS hubs would do ok as a bridge

@Tinkeringbell it's pretty great being able to configure groups on different remotes / wall switches - I created a master switch in the hallway that turns EVERYTHING off with one click, great when we go to sleep or leave the house

@MiG I think I can do that too, as I ordered a separate (slightly more advanced) remote as well. Not sure if I will need it, but I needed a remote for the power strip anyways and everything came with a 50% cashback so why not :P

@JourneymanGeek it's appliances that'll be the difficult one, you'd have to get a lot of manufacturers to agree to adopt your standard for that to work

@Tinkeringbell you can do that already, I used double sided tape to stick one of those tiny remotes (that you have too) to the side of my desk, with which I can control all the lights in the room (including my desk lights) :)

I don't recall the programming limit, but clearly ten lights for a single button is no problem

And as soon as you use a base station, there's a hell of a lot more you can do - I also have a sunrise/sunset detector, gonna tie this to a night light in the hallway :)

Heh, I don't really think I need that. I can just swivel the desk chair and reach the light switch that way :P

Well, it's possible now :)

If there's a Hornbach nearby btw, they have that exact set of yours for 18 euro, cheaper than anywhere else :)

There is a Hornbach nearby, but they didn't have the power strip and I wanted everything in one go ;)

looks like it's 20 euro now, but most other places ask 26-27 euro for it so it's still a pretty good deal :)

Besides, I'm getting half the money back, so if I buy something more expensive, I get more money back!

lol

you'll also still spend more money :P

I'd rather get more stuff for that half money I'm spending :)

Oh, for sure. I usually look for cheapest as well. But like I said, in this case, I had more stuff I wanted that the Hornbach doesn't seem to have, and I'm lazy :P

surprised Hornbach didn't have what you're looking for, they have a larger selection of anything than all the others here :)

Yeah, but apparently not the klikaanklikuit power strip XD

Hornbach and Bauhaus both cater to professionals, so less prepackaged stuff (you can get screws by weight for example) and just a huuuuuuuuge collection

hehe

Also, couldn't find bol.com/nl/nl/p/rori-dubbele-tochtrol-aanpasbaar-95-cm-wit/… in their assortment.

probably more of a consumer thing, hence less present there

Yeah, probably. Still, all together it made more sense to just order from bol.com in one go, than go to Hornbach and then still have to get half from bol.com XD

@Tinkeringbell what are you using that for? the open strip at the base of the door is also a ventilation slit

hehe

@MiG In winter, I want to close that slit for the bedroom. I sleep with the window open, so the bedroom still gets plenty of ventilation. The living room has it's own ventilation rosters and windows/doors, so closing off one slit shouldn't do much except keep the chill more in the bedroom and not the living room.

In spring/summer, I just keep the bedroom door open XD

@MiG Most of the appliance I 'need' are fairly dumb

@Tinkeringbell ah ok :)

fairly simple oven, gas stove, cooker hood

aircon is provided (and daikin's standard wifi modules are supported by openhab I think(

@JourneymanGeek tbh, I'm of two minds on smart appliances... There's also an inherent security risk that you don't have when it's simply not connected

else will use the power company for that

@MiG seperate wifi network/router's the plan. AC also has an oldschool remote

And I'm also not entirely sure there's an added value everywhere - dishwasher and washing machine maybe, because then you can schedule them during a low tariff period (which will be come more relevant with more sun and wind on the grid), but others probably no added value

AC would maybe also be nice, making climate control more intelligent

@MiG never thought of smartening the washing machine

that one too, same reason

dishwasher... we don't generally use em, and I won't have space for a full sized one

@JourneymanGeek that's my vague plan as well

Possibly on a seperate vlan too

@JourneymanGeek oh man, I wouldn't want to not have one tbh... No dishes stacking up on the countertop, and no tedious scrubbing (well, rinsing of course) - and with fragile stuff like wine glasses, the chance of breaking them is minimised because you're not handling them as much

shouldn't be too hard to do

nope

@MiG its just me, plus my future apartment is like

45 sqm

the kitchen is small

I guess SG has small apartments in general

@MiG ah so

If I was married, I got more options

as a single person I can

1) Buy a one bedroom apartment from the government in a newer estate

2) pay a premium for a resale public housing unit

3) buy private property, which I can't afford

If I was married, I could buy a 2 bedroom or bigger apartment with a slightly sweeter subsidy

@MiG I'm still a little disappointed I can't schedule the heat pump that way. It now starts heating the hot water whenever it reaches a certain lower bound, and that's usually in the evening. If it's hotter, I can see it uses less kWh to heat up that water again XD

But the 8th of July I will get someone to do maintenance, I will ask them about this.

@JourneymanGeek Yeah, combined incomes help a lot, same here

@MiG Oh

I could afford a 3 room new build

They won't sell me one

@Tinkeringbell some of these are able to be controlled remotely, don't know about yours

and I'll literally get 15K sgd if I got married from the government

I will ask :D

@JourneymanGeek also the same, mortgage has very strict income rules, so even if you want to spend a larger chunk of your income on housing, they simply won't provide you with a mortgage

@JourneymanGeek lol wtf?

what incentive does the SG government have to get people to marry?

@Tinkeringbell what was the brand/type again?

@MiG An alpha innotec, but type I don't know from the top of my head :)

@MiG babies

@JourneymanGeek doesn't need a marriage tbh :p

@MiG I mean, even if I could afford to pay cash, no subsidies... they won't sell me a bigger apartment

@MiG we're very victorian

unless you're rich

there's literally a government matchmaking service

@Tinkeringbell looks like the company at least has some sort of communications protocol: alpha-innotec.nl/alpha-home.html

@MiG Sure, but if that's just 'you can put the thermostat at 20 or 21 from any room' and not 'you can tell the heat pump to start pumping NOW'... it's not all that useful XD

Like, I wouldn't mind if the pump would heat the water this afternoon, and then when I take a shower tonight, it just waits until tomorrow afternoon to heat up again, because I don't need hot water before that.

But I don't have a switch that says 'heat up now' and 'don't do anything now'.

I could put in a schedule, but that goes per day and means that if my heat pump doesn't hit the minimum to start heating between e.g. 2 and 3 PM, it just won't, but I may have cold water in the evening for the shower XD

@JourneymanGeek another joyous legacy of the british empire I'm sure :x

Naw, I think that's very much us

@Tinkeringbell there's a communication protocol, so presumably there'll also be something that can talk to the heat pump :)

And as soon as you've made the bridge to regular home automation, you can define schedules a million years in advance

They'll be here next Friday, I've got questions on a note :D

:D

So I probably won't forget to ask them.

Don't know if maintenance people will know the answer to that, but who knows :)

I've got a load more questions, so we'll see. I also want to know about the 'sluipverbruik' and confirm that this one indeed isn't suited for cooling, and they are also supposed to do maintenance on the mechanical ventilation, so I want to know how to turn that on for more than an hour at a time, if I can get/couple a second/third remote to that, and if they can do something about the noise it makes when on, especially in the living/bathroom.

I guess you'll have to see how many questions you can get in before annoying them :P

But I suppose you already have prioritisation there

They're a service person. They shouldn't be annoyed at me for asking questions, if they do, I will complain.

I mean, if they're not the right person to ask, that's their answer XD But if they get annoyed without redirecting me... I'm going to complain

Sure, but the time scheduled is probably needed to poke at your device, and lots of questions make that part go a lot slower :)

Like I said, if they're not the right person to ask. that's an answer too XD

Alright :P

Blegh. This morning it looked like rain would be here at 7, now it's already showing it'll not be here until almost 8.

I think it's local showers today

Sure, it's local but it should hit the entire country eventually iirc

yep, seeing some intense lightning on the horizon atm