zlacker

>>pictur+(OP)
Can someone explain to me what this ecosystem is and the appeal of it?

I have nothing automated in my life, that I know of? I don't have a garage; the door to the house has a key; the lights I turn on with a switch; no Alexa, don't use Siri... I am not exactly opposed to automation, but I am hesitant to share even more demographic data to cloud services.

>>triyam+f5
If you have lots of windows and lots of shades, you can open and close them all at once, making life easier if you and your spouse disagree if they should be mostly open or mostly closed, possibly saving your marriage if that applies. Lights follow the same trend: it isn’t that turning on and off the lights is a pain, but being able to turn on or off all the lights with just one command is useful. We’ve only bothered with our open kitchen living room, but we had 4 switches all around the 2nd floor to manipulate before (and we went Lutron for our shades anyways, so we can set scenes with both).

I don’t get the mood lighting. And really, if I lived alone I would just keep the shades up all the time and forgo the electric shades as well (but given my wife they are indispensable).