from Hacker News

Why the Ultrarich Are Unplugging from "Smart Homes"

by billybuckwheat on 4/20/25, 9:15 PM with 61 comments

• by WalterBright on 4/20/25, 10:27 PM

  Looks like I was ahead of the curve. When building my house, I looked at all the smarthome stuff, and eventually decide "nope". It's all conventional wiring. Consider that the dimmer switches, over time, all failed, some I had to replace multiple times. I finally gave up and replaced them with simple on/off switches.

  What I did do, which paid off handsomely, is run RG6 coax and Cat5 cables everywhere in a star configuration. I did all the work myself to make sure it was done right. Haven't had any trouble at all with it, despite lots of upgrading of the electronics.

  BTW, another thing I did, which isn't exactly home automation. I bought a $10 microwave from the thrift store, and put it in the bathroom. I don't have to run the faucet anymore waiting for hot water for a wash cloth. Just wet the washcloth and throw it in the microwave. Aaaahhh, the luxury of hot washcloth on my face! If I was designing a house these days, I'd build in a special spot for the microwave in the bathroom.

• by avidiax on 4/20/25, 10:43 PM

  I feel there is some baby being thrown out with the bathwater here, but I'd blame the automation companies that are pushing complexity as a means to vendor lock-in. The Crestrons and Phillips Hues and Samsung SmartThings of the world refuse to make an app-free cloud-free commodity smart home system.

  Matter is unfortunately not that vision. It is still locking you into a cloud-based system, but you can take your devices to a system of your choice.

  The system just needs to be simple. You should be able to buy a smart switch from any company. It should power and dim attached dumb and smart bulbs the old fashioned way. Pairing directly connected bulbs should just be turning the switch on and off 5 times quickly. Wireless pairing shouldn't require an app or attestation or other cloud stuff, just sharing a secret one time in-band on some standard protocol over 802.15.4. If you want to have a wireless switch clone a wired one, turn them on and off together 5 times. If you want an all-on, all-off wireless switch, turn all your lights on, and flip the master breaker 5 times along with your new switch. If you want something complicated, get an 802.15.4 bridge/controller. If you want to control with an app, let the bridge controller be accessible via a TailScale-like tunneling VPN or the local WiFi, still no cloud.

  This could all be simple and interoperable, but that won't let any company tell their shareholders that their cloud-based smarthome base is growing X% YoY or that their gross margin on smart bulbs is 80%.

• by cmiller1 on 4/20/25, 10:23 PM

  A long time ago when I envisioned a "smart home of the future" I imagined using lots of sensors to control vents, windows, blinds, and HVAC to more efficiently heat and cool the house and optimize comfort in it while using less energy. I still would like something like that but instead we got dishwashers you can turn on with your phone...

• by 9x39 on 4/21/25, 6:00 AM

  “Technology has gone too far man. My roommate is logged out of his lightbulbs because he forgot his password”

  https://x.com/fakekenty/status/1904364284823400748?s=46&t=Eu...

  A lot of this tech is just half-baked. Competing standards jockeying for market share, stuff that doesn’t scale, most end user tech is still baffling to the demographics with the funds.

  I stopped at Hue lights and some garage freezer thermometers. Eventually I realized I was going to have to rip the system out if I didn’t approach it from “how does my partner control these without having to think about it and without using tech skills”. I settled on a remote or two and a variety of battery-less mechanical switches at significant cost just to restore the basic functionality and reliability of a $5 light switch.

  It was a reality check I needed before I plunged into a million sensors and integrations and hardware I was always going to fiddle with and only I would probably ever finesse into acting right. Even the chain of audio receiver to the TV over ARC to everything waking up when the Apple TV awakens occasionally breaks and leaves my partner unable to watch TV until I come cast the magic spells (rebooting things) and make it Just Work again. I can’t imagine how all the smart home junk ages - it probably doesn’t degrade well.

• by psyclobe on 4/21/25, 1:39 AM

  I’ve had nothing but 100% uptime with a complete installation of Zwave switches at my house.

  They act like normal switches but can be controlled with anything that can talk Zwave; in this case home assistant.

  Runs off the grid, works great!

• by xg15 on 4/20/25, 10:32 PM

  Interesting that most of the issues seem to be UI problems - or rather, the idea that we don't need physical switches anymore because the phone is just the universal remote for everything reveals itself as incredibly stupid.

  If we're already struggling with phone addiction and an out-of-control attention economy, probably the last thing you'd want is to constantly be forced back to your phone if you just want to do basic household things.

  Also, I don't understand how anyone could think that random passcodes in the place of what used to be a button would be good UX.

• by WalterBright on 4/20/25, 10:28 PM

  I use "The Clapper" to turn lights on and off :-)

• by robotnikman on 4/20/25, 10:33 PM

  I'm reminded of the Mr Robot episode where they hacked into the Lawyers home and messed with all the smart appliances.

• by kkfx on 4/21/25, 9:25 AM

  Well savvy people simply do want to own not being owned and spied, especially if they are wealthy, it's simple.

• by mystraline on 4/20/25, 10:17 PM

  I prefer simple tech. It can still be automated, and 'smart', but using HomeAssistant, its smart for ME.

  No passwords, no stupid. Doesn't even need internet, just the local network.

  I can even share access creds to pur garage doors remotely.

  Again, I focus on simple and effective 'smart', not throwing enshittifying internet garbage everywhere.

• by mohi-kalantari on 4/20/25, 10:19 PM

  Tech-free homes are the new rich people flex? Crazy that in 2025, the super wealthy are spending millions on houses with no smart gadgets or Wi-Fi, like they’re living in the old days. It’s not just about hating tech maybe more about buying privacy. No Alexa listening, no data tracking. Is this just for billionaires, or are we all tired of being online all the time?

• by username135 on 4/20/25, 11:09 PM

  i take the battlestar galactica approach. has been working exceptionally well.

• by barbazoo on 4/20/25, 10:18 PM

  “Why the people that can afford smart homes are unplugging from smart homes”