AI;DR: I wrote the first draft, AI helped me edit and rewrite it, and I made the final pass. The rules, setups, and talks are my own.
TLDR; If a light switch in my house needs someone else’s server to work, it doesn’t go in. That has been rule one for ten years of home automation, and the other rules I follow grew out of it. Below are the rules and why I keep them, followed by both talks I’ve given on this, slide by slide.
Hardware you pay for once shouldn’t stop working because a company changed its plans. It happens anyway. My Nest integration worked until Google broke the API. A Samsung fridge shows a TLS certificate error on its own screen. A Camp Chef grill controller needs Wi-Fi to tell you the temperature.
