Your average day starts with an alarm on your phone.

Sometimes, you wake up a couple of minutes before it sounds.

Sometimes, you find the button to snooze it.

Sometimes, you’re already on the phone and it appears as a notification.

But when you finally stop it, the lights in your room turn on and you start your day.

You walk out of your room. A presence sensor detects your motion, and a bulb in a cute little bamboo lamp from IKEA outside your room lights up.

You go downstairs, into the living room/kitchen/workspace area. As you come in, 20 different lights turn on in perfect sync. It is very satisfying.

You put some buckwheat to boil. Go upstairs to load a washing machine. Go through your morning routine (when you stop by your room, the lights turn on as you enter).

You go back downstairs. The lights are still on: You’ve not left the area for long enough. You eat your buckwheat with oat milk, open the laptop, and do some work.

An hour later, a notification appears: the washing machine has finished washing. (Depending on whether you tapped an NFC tag next to the washing machine with [...]

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Outline:

(04:28) 1. Home Assistant

(06:52) 2. Local network

(08:16) 3. Lights

(10:02) 4. Sensors and actuators

(13:30) 5. Automations

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
November 3rd, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/eoFuko87vWhARSCNE/how-and-why-you-should-make-your-home-smart-it-s-cheap-and

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Notification from House Elf app: washing machine has finished washing.

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“How and why you should make your home smart (it’s cheap and secure!)” by Mikhail Samin

LessWrong (30+ Karma)