How often do you adjust the color temperature and lumens of your light bulbs to optimize for circadian rhythm? I can see why you're so physically fit if you're going around to all your light switches and making these adjustments all the time ;).

I don't care to.

A non-technology solution? In this forum? How dare you, good sir?

Seriously, I've been going as back-to-basics with my newer purchases as possible -- I recently purchased a used sewing machine that has gears made of metal, has no LCD/screen or computer firmware, and only relies on electricity to run its motor.

You are asking for snark with a reply like that you know.

I have forgotten to close the garage a few times, so I get a notification if it's open for more than an hour, or past ten pm.

Motion sensor connected lights are great, and even better if they are time aware.

I like waking up to sunlight and yet I still have some trouble opening the shades while asleep, even as a physically fit human.

You could read a newspaper to get the news or send a postcard to share your opinions with others, yet here you are on the internet.

Technology marches on, you get to chose if you want to engage with it, but I don’t think suggesting that people looking to leverage new technology are somehow less physically fit or lazier than you is the right answer.

How do you flick that switch when you're on vacation and want your home to appear occupied?

You joke, but we both know that automatic lamp timers have existed for decades. I like home automation stuff as much as the next person but this is a disingenuous argument.

With an automatic lamp timer, you lose the ability to (easily) control the lamp manually. Also, what about all of the lights that aren't lamps?

If all you've got are lamps and you're willing to be a slave to the timer, then by all means just use the timer. But once it gets just a little bit more complicated, the timer isn't so great.

I've got an "evening" scene that turns on 10 or so different lights. I will trigger it manually when I'm home and feel it's time, or if my system is in vacation mode it will trigger based on the sunset time. I don't have to worry about accidentally having left a switch off or anything like that. You cannot even begin the replicate this with an automatic lamp timer.

I went from those to a basic HomeAssistant setup, and really enjoy the fact that my light timers can be "30 minutes before sunset" instead of a fixed time that needs to be adjusted throughout the year.

On the other hand, the fact that everything stops working if wifi goes down is a real bummer. I can't for the life of me understand why these "smart" plugs don't just use powerline ethernet. I guess I should just be thankful that their API could be reverse engineered.

You should be using Z-wave instead of Wi-Fi for anything that you can, but in reality how often does your actual Wi-Fi network go down? HA runs locally, so it's not like you need Internet access. Unless your smart plugs are actually controlled over the Internet, in which case you should throw them away immediately and buy something better.

Not sure why another wireless protocol would be any better -- isn't powerline ethernet the obviously best choice for something that has to be plugged in to work, anyway?

powerline is sadly terrible when it comes to radio interference (which isn't surprising: it just dumps HF on power cables, and power cables go in long-ish straight lines - you got nice antennas). Regulation against that is just barely enforced.