I just bought a home, and just started a considerable renovation. I&#x27;m putting in new water pipes, new electrical wiring, etc. I thought of putting &quot;smart&quot; devices (i.e. switches, alarms, thermostats, etc.) given the &quot;advantages&quot; these promise.<p>After considerable research, it&#x27;s not worth the hussle or money. Let&#x27;s put aside the fact that these are considerable more expensive, and won&#x27;t breakeven in years (some devices smart devices simply don&#x27;t breakeven).<p>The main reason I decided not to have any of these installed was due to how cumbersome they are to operate. Each appliance&#x2F;brand has their own app&#x2F;portal, which does not connect to other brands, making it impossible to have an overview of your &quot;smart home&quot;. Even more scary, some of these devices are operated by startups, god knows, if they will be alive next year. Good luck getting that app to work with iOS 10! It&#x27;s a true headache, it&#x27;s even a headache for contractors, who have no clue how these work. It&#x27;s going to take some time (and education) to have an OS that makes a smart home smart...<p>and don&#x27;t get me started on the smart baby monitors, etc... if my siblings an I were brought up just fine in the 80&#x27;s without being in a &quot;smart onesie&quot;, I&#x27;m sure we can do just as fine today.