The worst part about a vacation is often the return home, or so they say. While I do enjoy the comfort of my own bed and the company of my pets, there have been times when coming back from vacation has been far from ideal. This summer, however, my smart home saved the day by alerting me to a potential disaster before it happened.
It all started when I landed at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport after a long nine-hour flight from London. As I switched on my phone, I was bombarded with various notifications, one of which caught my attention. It was an alert from my Ecobee SmartThermostat, informing me that there was a problem with the cooling in my home. Curious, I tapped on the alert and discovered that my thermostat had been calling for cool air for the past four hours, but the room temperature had actually increased by 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Worried about what awaited me at home, I decided to investigate further. I used my Google Nest floodlight camera to check the outdoor HVAC unit and found that it was indeed running, despite the rising temperatures. To be sure, I checked the other temperature sensors in my house and found that every room, except my bedroom, was hovering between 86 and 92 degrees. This was not good news, especially considering I had a bunny in the house that could be suffering from the heat.
Thanks to the Apple Home app, I was able to easily see the temperature readings from various devices in my home, confirming that something was definitely wrong. Thankfully, my bedroom, equipped with a Mitsubishi mini split unit connected to a Sensibo Air smart controller, was a comfortable 78 degrees. I quickly checked on my bunny using a camera near her hutch and saw that she was alright. Now that I knew the problem was with my main HVAC unit, I was faced with a decision. Should I call the HVAC company’s emergency line and have a technician come out to my unoccupied home at significant expense, or deal with it later when I arrived home?
Opting to wait, I boarded my flight home. The homecoming was far from pleasant, with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees upon opening the door, but at least I was prepared. The following morning, I called the HVAC company and they sent a technician out to my house 24 hours later. Fortunately, he was able to quickly diagnose the problem as a fried capacitor and fix it in just five minutes.
While I consider this incident a success story for my smart home, it also shed light on a common problem with connected homes. Despite being able to receive notifications about issues, we often have limited capabilities to take action remotely. A truly smart home would not only alert us to problems but also offer solutions and fix them with our consent.
Some proactive solutions are available today, but they often require expensive tech and proprietary systems. For example, Moen’s smart water system can shut off water if a leak is detected or run it at a trickle through a faucet in freezing temperatures. However, these solutions rely on all-Moen hardware and can be expensive to implement.
In the case of my HVAC problem, the technician informed me that he had seen several capacitors go bad that week due to the intense and prolonged temperatures. With more connected homes, the HVAC company could have used historical data to identify the issue before it happened. This would require more direct integration between the thermostat, HVAC system, and the service provider, similar to how a home security monitoring service works.
A similar experience occurred with my Samsung Family Hub smart fridge, where it alerted me to temperature issues, and Samsung remotely diagnosed and repaired the problem. Such connectivity-powered services are a compelling aspect of the smart home, but they also require a significant level of trust. While it would be amazing to return to a cool house after hours of travel, there are privacy concerns associated with providing the necessary data and access.
The biggest barrier to realizing the full potential of a smart home lies in the tension between convenience and the data and access required to make it happen. While I appreciate the alerts and information my smart home provides, I also want it to be capable of taking action. Finding the right balance between privacy and functionality remains a puzzle that needs to be solved.
In conclusion, my smart home saved the day by alerting me to a potential disaster before it happened. However, it also highlighted the limitations of the current state of connected homes, which are largely focused on notifications rather than actions. Creating a truly smart home that can proactively identify and resolve issues will require closer integration between devices, service providers, and homeowners, while also addressing privacy concerns. The future of the smart home holds great promise, but there are still challenges to overcome before it becomes a reality.