Dehumidifiers already do that. They're equipped with hygrometers that kick the machine on or off depending on the relative humidity. It's old tech and it's pretty reliable, wifi isn't really necessary for it.

To steel-man the argument some more, if you have variable-rate electricity, it could turn on when electricity is cheap.

that vent thing is surprisingly clever, thumbs up 👍

I just installed motorized dampers in my crawl space using Shelly smart relays! Now I have an automatic schedule so I'm not cooling rooms that aren't in use (like the bedrooms during the day and the lower level of the house at night). Already seen significant power savings!

It would be a lot more difficult to hide a backdoor on a bare ESP device, than a proprietary Tuya one, just putting that out there. Regardless, I still block internet access from my ESPHome devices, because I don't want to feel like I need to constantly be on top of updates, that can cause things to break at times. I do them every couple months when I have the time to sit down and make sure everything's still working, or roll it back where it's not.

Any appliance with IoT is a value-subtract.

They do it so in the future they can monetize you in perpetuity in some way

Most people tend to stay in the same room (or a neighbouring room) when they're microwaving something. They could probably save on the cost of having a full-blown computer with wifi inside the microwave by just having the noisy thing from an alarm clock. But, ah, the fuck do I know?

My appliances are ‘smart’ but I didn’t bother actually connecting them to my WiFi. I guess preheating the oven remotely could be cool(?) but nah.

The stuff I do use…

The microwave above the stove can talk via Bluetooth(no app or phone involvement at all). Turn on a burner and you can set it to turn on the light and/or vent fan. Another nicety is being able to set the clock on the stove with the full keypad and it just syncs to the microwave.

How long are people microwaving things to the point where that is useful??!

Right? Like half of what I want from these things is when is the battery low? When is the outbox full? When is the feeder empty? And metrics to verify the device is generally operating safely.

Controlling the device? We've known how to do that for 50+ years. Help me maintain the device.

I put mine on a zigbee plug into my home assistant (docker on nas), and created an automation to notify me when the power consumption drops below 1 W or so (lower than when it's only running the fan when the hunidity is near setpoint). All local, works so far.

I feel you, trying to find a smart gadget that is actually smart in 2025 and not just a data collector is nearly impossible. Learning to DIY a lot of these projects. Throw one of these or similar in there with a little control board set to email you if 0 changes to 1 or w/e

https://aeotec.com/products/aeotec-water-sensor-7-pro/

This little thing is a beast :)

Shh shh shh, don't give them ideas.

You joke but my dehumidifier has an automatic comfort mode of some sort.

I guarantee that next run will have that button with screen print AI something something above it instead.

Unless you have an even dumber dehumidifier that starts working the moment you plug it in.

Just use a smart timer with a dehumidifier that either doesn't have a switch, or has an analog one that can stay in the on position when power is off

Just use a power timer or whatever those devices are called.

Why not plug a dumb dehumidifier into a Home Assistant controlled outlet?

My brother in christ, you bought the machine