Tomorrow’s prices
From Octopus, 16:05
Cheapest two hours
02:00 to 04:00 · 7.4p a unit
Dearest
16:30 to 19:00 · 38.2p a unit
Yesterday
18.6 kWh · £4.21
Unusual
Nothing last night
The house, watched over and well run.
Doors, cameras, heating, the network and the post, seen from one place. Nothing that matters happens without your yes.
I.
Cameras and alerts
Every camera, described.
Cameras report what they see: a person, a vehicle, an animal, a parcel, the doorbell, someone lingering, a line crossed. Each snapshot is scanned for viruses before it is kept.
Alerts follow your rules. Security goes to the wall, the television and every phone. During quiet hours, 23:00 to 06:30 unless you change them, only what is critical comes through.
II.
Access
Locks, the alarm and guests are never casual.
Unlocking asks an adult first. Setting or unsetting the alarm also needs the owner’s passkey. A lock tapped on the hall screen waits for an adult’s phone.
A lock
Asks first, one lock at a time
The alarm
Asks first, with your passkey
A guest
An invitation for 72 hours; a fortnight at most
Guest Wi-Fi
Asks first; 24 hours by default
III.
Comfort
Lights, heating and sound, by word or by touch.
Through Home Assistant, whatever the house is fitted with: lights, switches, blinds, heating and scenes, up to 40 at a time.
Sound too. What is playing in each room sits on the wall, and Sonos, Apple TV, Denon and Chromecast answer to your steward, up to ten players at once.
IV.
Who is home
The house knows who is in it.
Several signals, weighed every 30 seconds, become one answer for each person: home, arriving, leaving, away or asleep. Routines follow it.
Routines and presence
Wi-Fi
A phone joining the house network
Home Assistant
People and trackers it already knows
Geofence
Each phone says home or away, and nothing more
By hand
Set it yourself, for five minutes or a whole day
V.
Energy
The cheapest hours, found for you.
Half-hourly prices and usage from Octopus. When tomorrow’s prices arrive, the cheapest two hours are named. Ask for the best window for a three-hour wash that must finish by seven.
Unusual use is noticed: a night that draws more than twice the usual, a day that runs at double its fortnight’s median.
VI.
Network
Who is on the network, and whether it is up.
From UniFi or ExtremeCloud, every two minutes. Restarting equipment and letting a guest on both ask first.
A new device
Named on the timeline the first time it joins
An access point drops
Noticed, and named
The internet goes down
A notice once it has been down ten minutes
Restart a device
Asks first
VII.
The running of the house
Parcels, renewals and the paperwork.
Parcels
Read from your order emails, since Amazon has no way in, and followed from dispatch to the door: Royal Mail, DPD, Evri, UPS, DHL, FedEx, Yodel and Parcelforce.
Renewals
Insurance, the MOT, the television licence, warranties and subscriptions. Found in your documents and post, confirmed by you, reminded at 30, 7 and 1 days.
Cancellations
A cancellation letter drafted for you when a renewal is not wanted. It is a draft: it never leaves until you send it.
Documents
Up to 25 MB each, scanned for viruses, read once and searchable. Answers quote the document and the page.
A steward for the whole estate.
Tell us a little about your house and your business. We will be in touch.