My wife had her office Christmas party last night, and came home with an Amazon Echo Dot she received as a gift from one of her co-workers. I was a little torn on this, as I had planned on getting her one, although largely just for the speaker aspect. So, I decided to proceed forth, and see what I could now buy to make the most of the thing. You know, wall adapters, and things of that sort, to make at least one room of the house a truly ‘smart’ room.
I will cut to the quick: I will not be making those purchases for the big day. Oh, I might pick some of the necessary accoutrements after December, assuming they go on significant discount, and I mean significant. While really neat technology, I am just not prepared to spend upwards of $40 per electrical outlet, from what I can tell, just so I can order Beth’s electronic device to dim the lights. That sort of thing.
You can call me a Luddite all you want. However, it isn’t that I don’t see desirability of such technology. It is just the estimated, current expense of adapting my house is greater than my perceived benefit. That will certainly change as I age and the cost goes down, both in absolute and relative terms.
Regardless, the Pandora’s box is open, and I fully anticipate ALL new homes in the near future will be fully ‘smart,’ not just the super pricey ones. This will, or should, cut down on per capita energy usage in the United States, maybe. After all, it will be, or is, much easier to turn off all the lights in the house with a simple voice command than it is physically doing it. Trust me, I have no idea how many times I have told my wife I turned off ‘all the lights’ before climbing into bed, knowing full and darn well I hadn’t.
Now, consider the following chart/picture/table from the Energy Information Administration: …Read More…