For me, things were pretty easy/quick to set up, and the benefit? Lower electric bills. More convenience.

Why use a garage door opener when you can just get out of your car, open the door, get back in your car and drive it in?

Now keep asking that question about little things around the house and it starts to make sense.

I do it mostly because I’m forgetful. So I automate what I forget. For example I always forget I’ve put the washing on so I get repeating alerts to hang it out. The alerts stop once I’ve scanned the NFC tag on the washing machine.

Well, it’s a hobby/passion. Simple as that. I’m a nerd, i love such things. And home automation is thing I’ve dreamt of since the first automatic door in star trek. Automatic lights, alarm-system, cameras, a smart AI (locally, no stupid alexa et al),a tablet at the door which tells us everything we want to know on a quick glance (weather, shopping-list, fuel-prices, status of all machines etc). And all that with some many thousand lines of code and triple redundancy 😍

When i visit other people I actually find it “retro” to use light-switches 😁

My wife is nearly home. System alerts me. I quickly tidy my day’s mess. She doesn’t need that after a big day.

She arrives. Gate opens for her automatically.

As she approaches the door, the light turns on for her.

Her night time play lists starts on low volume, overriding mine.

A leopard approaches the house. The house robot with bolt on subscriptions, (the expensive “hunt and defend” add on), wreaks carnage on said leopard, only to find it was a child trick or treating. Lawyers for subscription bot are arranging payment to child’s family for their lost family member.

All in all, it’s really useful.

For a lot of people it’s just a hobby and they use their home as a digital playground.

I have smart radiator valves I use to reduce heating cost. During weekdays the morning when the heating comes on, I know the main living room isn’t going to be used, so the rads turn themselves off, coming on late afternoon, just before the kids get home.

Smart bulbs are only really used while we are away on holiday, to simulate people being in.

I have solar panels, batteries and am on sn agile electricity tariff that changes every 30 minutes with 24 notice. Automations make sure the batteries are charged up ahead of any peak rate. Occasionally energy prices go negative if there is an excess of wind power on the grid. At that point my immersion heater starts heating water in my hot water tank, saving gas and making me money.

The most useful automations I personally have are rules to control the AC. It basically only kicks in if it’s too hot or too cold, and I set it to turn off if I leave the house or at night. Basically saves money, and removes the need to use the remote control.

There’s more stuff I’d like to do (like controlling lights and house fans), but that’s definitely less urgent to me.

It’s fun, like most other people said. And for some things, it’s nice.

I have two of my doors with network compatible smart locks with fingerprint readers so I don’t need a key to get into my own house, and I have a remote garage door opener that I can fire off with my phone to let somebody in if need be.

All of the entrances to my house have video cameras over them that alert my phone if they detect any movement, and some of my lights are on schedules to let me know when to go to bed because I have problems with that anyway.

Other than that it’s kind of nice to be able to turn on all of the lights in my house with a few clicks, although many of my lights are on motion detectors so I don’t have to try to find the light switches, mostly in hallways and closets.

The one thing I have left to set up of the stuff that I have bought is a sensor for my front door.

Once it is set up, I will set it so that when I open my front door it will turn on the main light in the living room so I don’t have to try to reach around and find a switch.

Finally, it’s nice having the peace of mind to know that if I’m away from my house I can double check and make sure all of the lights are out, adjust my air conditioning so that I’m not heating an empty building, and once I’m done with that I intend on setting up a smart watering system so if I’m away from the house during the summer I can make sure that my plants receive enough water.

It’s just handy stuff. Makes my life easier, gives me something fun to do, and it can be really cool to watch my house take care of itself without me having to lift a finger.

Because it’s cool.

That’s kinda it really

I use it to control some of the lights in my house. WiFi enabled plugs and switches are more convenient than having to go to each one and manually reprogram them. In my bedroom, I have one set to turn on every day at 7am and again at 9am in case I turn it off and go back to bed. It’s basically a silent alarm clock.

I also have WiFi control for the mini-split (AC and heat) in my workshop. I can view the set temperature vs the actual temperature from my phone and I can adjust the temperature remotely if I want.

Same as others, convenience. You can entirely live without it, but after some learning curve it’s not much to maintain.

I’ve got opening sensors on all doors and windows so my heating turns off if something is open for a few minutes.

I’ve got a dark hallway with some movement sensors and smart bulbs so the lights can turn on when someone walks there, with the lights being dimmed if it’s late at night or not turning on if it’s super late or the luminosity sensor considers it already usable (e.g. on sunny days when there’s enough light bleeding in)

I’ve got smart bulbs in most rooms we use a lot which change the color temperature from warm to cold to warm over the course of the day depending on the sun position/time (it’s a dark country, we often need lights even during the day, especially during winter)

All in all, for me it was definitely worth the price and the investment, I’d not want to go back to not having them but I imagine for someone who hasn’t experienced it, it might seem superfluous or gimmicky.

I’m bedridden and home automation allows me to control the heating without getting up. I hate the app I have to use and would rather have an open solution, but it’s better than nothing.

• Waking up via lights slowly dimming on is much nicer than an acoustic alarm.
• Light temperature adjusting to current time of day is very nice and does loads for my mood
• Lights automatically turning on and off based on presence and measured light levels is totally unnecessary but just so convenient
• Getting a reminder to take the wash out when the machine is done
• Smart plug automatically turns off power to other devices when the TV is turned off

In short, enlightened laziness.

I can turn the bedroom lights on and off, from my bed.

I can turn the bathroom light off, after my young daughter left it on, in the middle of the night.

My livingroom lights colour shift, to keep my family’s sleep cycle in vague check.

I can turn my heating down room by room, if it’s not needed. Conversely, I can preheat the house, on the way home.

While the setup took a bit of prep work, it’s now highly reliable, and makes my life a lot easier.