In the sense of “Smart Home” I do not use the HomeApp from Swisscom, but rather apps from Apple and Eve (depending on the device). With the introduction of “Matter” this should hopefully become easier in the coming years - for me, I won’t miss the Swisscom HomeApp in this regard. Sometimes it was only helpful for troubleshooting to see which devices were activated on the LAN; You can also access this directly in the router (log in via VPN). I will especially miss the landline telephony functions, for which I don’t yet see a replacement.
@Stauldoteiy82 wrote:
What does the smart home table look like in the shops now, is the home app still visible there or are there alternatives? (I haven’t been to the shop for a few weeks and I don’t have one nearby at the moment)
What else should Swisscom show there?
The SmartSwitches were canceled without replacement and are now sold by my Strom under the name wifi Switch Zero:
https://mystrom.ch/de/wifi-switch-zero/
The Swisscom TV-Box with smart home functions is no longer available and the Swisscom Home App will also be discontinued on March 31, 2023.
Swisscom is definitely no longer involved in the Smart Home issue.
@hed wrote:
The Swisscom TV-Box with smart home functions is no longer available and the Swisscom Home App will also be discontinued on March 31, 2023.
So Swisscom is definitely no longer involved in the Smart Home issue.
Are there providers on the market who are better and want to stay in the premium range?
@swissbird wrote:
Are there providers on the market who are better and want to stay in the premium range?
Google Home, Apple Homekit, Philips Hue, Ikea Tradfri, MyStrom, etc.
….keep on rockin' 🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼
Providers and products are a dime a dozen. New ones are constantly being added and others are disappearing again. However, no consistent standard has yet been established; the Matter Standard could become one. We’ll know more in a few years.
For me, this topic is still very much in flux and I don’t feel like playing early adopter for once. I also consider the whole topic to be a major “energy destruction machine”, although it is always claimed that you can save a lot of energy thanks to SmartHome.
Anyway, I’m out of the topic and back to manual operation, switches and power strips. Everything without apps, very simple and fast, and very energy-saving thanks to zero standby.
@hed of course Smart Home needs electricity, but as you may have noticed, so does the writing here in the community 🤣.
I’ll put it this way: anyone who uses Smart Home sensibly, which includes the Smart Switch, at least saves electricity as if they had all devices plugged into the socket normally.
Everyone can do it the way they want and can pay.
What else should Swisscom show there?
The SmartSwitches have been canceled without replacement and are now sold by my Strom under the name wifi Switch Zero:
https://mystrom.ch/de/wifi-switch-zero/
The Swisscom TV-Box with smart home functions is no longer available and the Swisscom Home App will also be discontinued on March 31, 2023.
So Swisscom is definitely no longer involved in the Smart Home issue.
When Google withdrew from the gaming market, it announced that the costs incurred by Stadia would be reimbursed.
It would be nice if Swisscom would do something about this, even if it is more complex, as a certain product was often purchased from a third-party provider based on the home app.
@swissbird wrote:
Are there providers on the market who are better and want to stay in the premium range?
I would be interested in that too. Cheap will be easy to find in the next few weeks, but I imagine it will be harder to find a telco and TV provider that also has a good community. Therefore, the timing of the shutdown announcement is ideal, at least for the competition.
@hed wrote:
Anyway, I’m out of the topic and back to manual operation, switches and power strips. Everything without apps, very simple and fast, and very energy-saving thanks to zero standby.
Is there a way to reduce power consumption (e.g
on chargers without a connected device) visible? This seems to be too low for the MyStrom switches.
For the purpose previously covered by these infrared power switches, a power strip actually seems to be a good option.
But there are not only these. When I had to leave the house earlier than usual, I left a window open and only noticed this because of a smart home device that measures the temperature. Then anyone with a spare key to the apartment could close the window.
In this case, with a smart thermostat it would have been possible to also close the valve on the radiator.
Unfortunately, simple, inexpensive measuring devices for household use cannot be used to carry out useful measurements of small consumers such as plug-in power supplies without a device connected.
In my opinion, this is not necessary, because if you are interested in using as little electricity as possible, you don’t need any measurement, but rather consistently disconnect all devices from the mains when not in use, including plug-in power supplies and chargers.
And people who value the convenience of a smart home are usually not interested in the fact that the intelligent device x or sensor y or the built-in Raspi constantly draw power.
This article lists 80 well-known smart home devices and their standby consumption:
Overview: Standby consumption in the smart home • digital room
A lot of small animals also make crap. Energy Switzerland assumes around 30 watts of standby consumption per household. Calculated across 4 million households in Switzerland, this amounts to 1,050 GWh or around 30% of the annual production of the Beznau I nuclear power plant.
Where I live, the 30 watt standby costs just under CHF 90 per year.
P.S.
We don’t have a freezer.
There is always a question about the total bills when it comes to standby.
If x watts are saved by replacing a Mystrom plug with a power strip that can be switched using a hardware switch, but then y additional watts are consumed because switching it off is often forgotten and is not possible remotely, the benefit in terms of the running energy of the small consumer is canceled out again if y >x is.
The situation is different when it comes to the energy used for production. A convenient exchange system would probably help, where devices that have not been used in one household for weeks can be brought to another household that would otherwise purchase them new.
You can always find an excuse if you look hard enough. Ultimately, they are just automatisms/habits that you get into very quickly. The source of error that I or someone in the family forgets to turn off the switch on the power strip is almost 0, but we have been doing this consistently for 30 years 🙂
@hed wrote:
@Stauldoteiy82 [Post 94]
Unfortunately, simple, inexpensive measuring devices for household use cannot be used to carry out useful measurements of small consumers such as plug-in power supplies without a device connected.
In my opinion, this is not necessary, because if you are interested in using as little electricity as possible, you don’t need any measurement, but rather consistently disconnect all devices from the mains when not in use, including plug-in power supplies and chargers.
Mount a device on a power strip with constant, preferably small (but measurable) power to bring the measuring device into the operational measuring range.
Then connect 1, 2, 3,… small consumers (e.g. unloaded power supplies) in parallel and notice any difference.
For my measuring device, the measuring range is stated as 0.2W upwards according to the package insert. Unfortunately, the power in watts is only displayed accurately to one decimal place. When measuring from an iPad (100% charged) it shows fluctuating power - between 0.1 and 1W.
I assume that it will also display values around 0.1W (roughly).
As a preload, I connected a USB LED mini lamp (IKEA JANSJÖ, nominal 0.3W) to a power supply. The device mainly shows 0.3W, sporadically 0.4. The power seems to be just under 3.5W.
After plugging in the first power supply, 0.4W is constantly displayed (3.5 to 4.5). This value remains unchanged if two more are inserted.
Three additional devices increased the measured power by a maximum of 0.1 W. On average, a maximum of 0.033W.
Finally I unplugged the LED lamp. With 4 plug-in power supplies, 0.0 W is displayed. So together less than 0.1W (0.05W?). Average max. 0.025W.
In my opinion this is negligible. I won’t use a clunky power strip per charger: the cheapest ones usually have 4 or 5 sockets. The excessive power strips are completely messing up the feng shui in my place. And pulling out a charger often becomes a struggle because of the inward-turned pins.
I use a switched power strip next to the freezer.
