Smart home not so smart

So after this AWS outage I have realized that having all these smart devices is actually not a good idea after all. My entire home went out, I have everything Wyze and Alexa in my home and when I say everything I mean it. From smart bulbs and the latest switches to cameras and thermostat, doorbell, door sensors and motion. About the only thing I did not have was any locks I just refuse to ever rely on a smart lock. When this outage hit I was unable to even turn a light on or change my temperature in my home. I just did not realize that these devices relied heavily on AWS and IOT. I thought that by just having them in my own network that they will operate, I was wrong. I now am considering removing a lot of these devices and just going back to analog. This just isn’t a good thing. I could only imagine someone not being able to even get inside their own home because of a smart lock. I think a lot of us could learn from this and save ourselves a lot of headaches by stopping our reliance on these smart things.

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There should always be a fallback for smart devices even if they lose app control. I’ve always been leery about adding in devices that don’t have this. The thermostat should be fine since it will either follow the schedule locally or you can manually set it with the dial. Smart locks should still work with mechanical keys lock or unlock as well as manually turning the controls. Where I get more concerned is when it comes to things like switches and lights. The fallbacks for them are less clear but both should work as a dumb device if control is lost though I would prefer if the switches could also broadcast local control in the event of a server outage. Better yet, always broadcast locally with the app control as the the nice to have.

As like most people, all my items from Wyze went down yesterday. I found it odd that even my smart bulbs couldn’t be normally just turned on and off like my wall plugs could be pressed on/off. However I did want to mention that my HMS system still worked through the Keypad just not through the app and as Wyze mentioned, Noonlight would still be notified if anything went wrong. I know it’s not the best situation I understand that, however I did want to mention that silver lining.

At several points yesterday, all my HMS V2 sensors were offline along with the hub. That means no notifications to NoonLight.

I have started using Z-Wave switches recently for several of my outside lights. They work like a regular light switch as well as being controlled by SmartThings and openHab. I started down the path of Wyze color bulbs but they were too problematic and didn’t always come back on when the power is switched on and off.

I have both Wyze and Kasa smart plugs. The latter seem to work from the Kasa app with or without the internet and can also be controlled by SmartThings or openHab. Still learning openHab which is strictly local for most things.