I’m using a Drayton Wiser thermostat, which uses WiFi but has a fully local integration via HACS. Has worked great for me so far.

I have a smart water meter installed by the utility provider with a cloud integration, unfortunately the readings have a 24-48h delay so it’s no use for real time monitoring.

BPAs have been shown to absorbed through the skin. Headphones are increasingly worn for long, continuous periods. Unlike other plastic objects which are handled for shorter periods.

I’m not entirely convinced of the danger myself (tinnitus seems a bigger worry for headphone use to me), but I thought it was a matter worthy of further discussion.

Mostly Zigbee. Depending on the sensor, location and activity I’m getting between 6-18 months per battery, but I do have a lot of sensor, so there’s a regular churn of batteries.

Having passive sensors for smart home use would save me lot of time and money changing batteries. Interesting to see where this goes.

For a lot of people most of their content isn’t even 1080p. Plenty of people watching DVDs and many TV channels only broadcast in SD.

Display technology has long outpaced content delivery.

In a lot of cases “AI” is slapped on as marketing buzzword for anything with even a simple algorithm controlling it.

We got a new “AI” washing machine last month. As far as I can tell it the same as last years model just with some of the auto settings renamed to something AI.

A proper permissions system for entities has long been one of my most desired features for Home Assistant. It should be possible to set visibility and control for each entity and user.

Trying to do control access via dashboards as always seems the wrong way around to me.

So far the only inline option I’ve found is this dimmable switch from Samotech. I haven’t tried one yet myself, and there’s mixed reviews online. For the lamps I have I only want an on-off switch though, not a dimmer.

Making due with plugging them into smart plugs for now, but an inline option would be much neater.

Disable or remove the lamp switches. Add more smart buttons if there is a need for a physical control near the lamp.

As it happens I’m actually looking for a smart lamp switch if anyone knows of any options.