The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 7, 2016 20:17 UTC (Sun) by mhumpula (guest, #108642)
Parent article: The Internet of Onions

I simply fail to see how IoT devices could make my life better. Can anyone point me to a useful device that he is using?

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The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 3:56 UTC (Mon) by lakeland (guest, #1157) [Link]

I put my garage door on the internet. It has a few benefits. To be fair I primarily did it because it was a fun project rather than because of the benefits below.

The remotes that came with the garage have to be kept charged while I'm already managing that with my phone. Also the range of the remote is perhaps 10 meters, while I can connect over the internet from anywhere.

I get a notification if I forget to close the garage.

My phone beeps when the garage is opened which means my wife is home (and visa versa for her).

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 4:52 UTC (Mon) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (8 responses)

My thermostat is on the Internet, so I can turn it on when just before I go home.

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 10:24 UTC (Mon) by mhumpula (guest, #108642) [Link] (7 responses)

That seemed like useful feature to me, until I realized it takes 15min to heat up my apartment which I spend mostly ventilating the air anyway. So again not much of an improvement.

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 11:22 UTC (Mon) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link]

IME, the main use of "connected thermostats" is for a pretty programming UI -- once set up they're almost never touched again.

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 13:04 UTC (Mon) by johannbg (guest, #65743) [Link] (4 responses)

There is no savings in doing this either since it takes about as much energy to reheat your house to the previous temperature as the amount of energy conserved while the temperature was dropping + I would think that anyone reading lwn would be smart enough to know "the connected home" leaves people vulnerable to behavior pattern mapping and utility attacks and break-ins.

Now whether they choose to sacrifice their own privacy for perceived convenience is another story + IoT also increases the risk of obesity since it removes one exercise out of people lives which involves them having to stand up from the couch to flip the switch on the wall etc.

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 13:19 UTC (Mon) by micka (subscriber, #38720) [Link] (1 responses)

> it removes one exercise out of people lives which involves them having to stand up from the couch to flip the switch on the wall etc.

If this exercise is not in the *noise* of physical activity, then we're all already screwed.

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 13:30 UTC (Mon) by johannbg (guest, #65743) [Link]

Good old fashion switches are the solution to the world of IoT problems since they dont have any issues with software security, complexity of setups or gpl violations and they help contributing to healthier lifestyle ;)

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 13:27 UTC (Mon) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link] (1 responses)

"No savings" is strongly dependent on your house and location; in my location, it takes about 2 hours of heating off before I start to save money (heating from the temperature my house cools to after 2 hours to the 20 ºC I set on the thermostat uses less energy than sustaining 20 ºC continuously, because the rate at which the house cools is partly controlled by the temperature difference to outside).

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 15:15 UTC (Mon) by johannbg (guest, #65743) [Link]

well it all boils down to how well the house is insulated and airtight ( Unless you live in for example Rio ) then people are using [¹] for their energy-related calculations for their savings ( if any ).

1. http://www.degreedays.net/

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 17:36 UTC (Mon) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

It's mostly cooling for me. I keep thermostat on 28C when I'm away and set it to 23C when I'm home, it takes about 30 minutes to do the cooling.

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 12:35 UTC (Mon) by tao (subscriber, #17563) [Link] (2 responses)

In my old apartment I had temperature sensors hooked up in all rooms. The only one being really useful was the one
in the sauna though. That way I vegetate in front of the TV or computer until the sauna had heated.

One thing I'd love to have is temperature sensors in my fridges and freezer -- if the temperature starts rising in either
of those there's an obvious risk for at best spoiled food, at worst food poisoning.

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 14:16 UTC (Mon) by hummassa (guest, #307) [Link] (1 responses)

> One thing I'd love to have is temperature sensors in my fridges and freezer -- if the temperature starts rising in either

Well, temperature rising in the fridge would indicate (99% of the times) power failure... so, unless your home's internet has a good no-break (or your sensor is of the logging type) this is not very useful.

Anyway, in the last 20 years I had *one* instance of power failure that spoiled the food in the fridge, and the excess water on the frozen goods was a dead giveaway...

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 8, 2016 16:58 UTC (Mon) by johannbg (guest, #65743) [Link]

Alot of IoT concepts are stupid for end users but practical for corporates like for example detecting if the trash can is full [1].

Stupid for end users ( next time you would put trash in the can you would literally notice it was full and you would have to empty the trash can ) but apply the same idea on a larger scale it becomes very practical/profitable for corporates
etc.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asjrEdECnhU

The Internet of Onions

Posted Aug 9, 2016 21:02 UTC (Tue) by st (guest, #96477) [Link]

Here's an example: I have friends who own two vacation properties in a different state. They rarely visit the properties themselves, but rent them out most of the year for several days to a week at a time. They use their IP-connected temperature control panel to manage the temperature when the properties are vacant.