IOT (Internet of Things) Lighting, not all it's cracked up to be after all

[mrbadger]

Right now I don't exactly have a lot of this, all though I am bidding fair to be heading towards a fairly connected home.

But last night we had our first encounter with a problem, of the non OMG 3V1L hack3rs!!! type.

Yeah, no pesky chinese or NK hackers took down our connected house, just a simple powercut....

It didn't actually take long for most stuff to reconnect itself. over the course of about 10 minutes my BT Broadband stuff got its act together, the Apple stuff then, having already started working internally, reconnected to the internet and everything was business as usual.

Except that is for the Hive stuff. Once the power came on my lights had lost all their low light or 'off' settings, and came on full bore, forgetting, in the case of the livingroom one, that it was supposed to turn itself off at night and stay off till morning. That was the only one I've tried that setting with, mostly we just turn them on or off ourselves.

Very irritating. And it took a while to get the system logged back into the hive network so I could reset it. Obviously I could have just turned it off at the wall, but I didn't buy it to do that, and I needed to figure out what was going on.

I did some research after this, and apparently the Hive heating system is even worse, with no remote ability to reset a system borked by a powercut, you actually have to get into the house and reset it on site.

I was just about to buy one of those too, I think I've changed my mind, or at least I won't be going with Hive any more. I can't UPS my entire house.

[brucewarren]

What does IOT mean? Is it Internet of Things? If so then don't forget what Kellyanne Conway said.

The microwave oven is spying on you. She's a senior staffer at the Whitehouse so she must know what she's talking about

Never mind what the oven's up to, imagine what those lighting circuits are up to when the fridge door is closed. It's a conspiracy I tells you.

[mrbadger]

What does IOT mean? Is it Internet of Things?

yes, original post corrected.

If someone wants to waste their time spying on me they can. I'm really not all that interesting.

My only concern is that while they are doing that, someone who really is up to no good might be doing all sorts of stuff.

besides, I don't own a microwave. Hate the things.

If I want to defrost stuff to eat it I have this revolutionary technique called 'get it out of the freezer the day before', and I don't eat junk food.

[felter]

Never tried to hack into a hive system, but I've not heard anything too many good things about them either. Lights on the other hand, I have done, and they can be fun to play around with, especially if your neighbour has them, as you can piss them off to no ends. Make sure you are good friends with your neighbour first before hand, and just remember you may not be good friends after.

As for defrosting, I would like to recommend one of these. doesn't have to be that make, there dozens of them, but they are pretty darn good. Many a time I've forgotten to take a chicken breast out of the freezer, take it out and throw it onto one of these things, and a couple of hours later it's defrosted, instead of the twelve hours or whatever I love it. I just hate defrosting in the nuclear wave and I only do it if it is really necessary.

[mrbadger]

As for defrosting, I would like to recommend one of these. doesn't have to be that make, there dozens of them, but they are pretty darn good.

What an odd thing. Not too uch either, well worth a speculative purchase, thanks

[Jericho]

Re-heating pasta or chillie in the microwave always gives it an extra bit of flavour. I slow-cook my pasta sauce or chillie sauce for 6-8 hours, put it in the fridge overnight, and then microwave it the next day. Always tastes better after the extra bit of cooking...

As for your lighting issues... Well thanks for the warning. I was wondering about trying to hook Alexia up to lights and electricity and stuff, and seeing what I could manage.

[Chips]

then microwave it the next day. Always tastes better after the extra bit of cooking...

Are you sure its the "extra cooking" that does it? Try taking your soon to be eaten dinner, give it a quick blast in the microwave, and see how it tastes. I'd have thought it's the overnight treatment that improves it... not the method of reheat.

[Morkonan]

... I can't UPS my entire house.

Sure you can! It's fairly simple and backup power generator cost vary depending upon what you need and what energy sources you have access to. Natural gas is probably the most reasonable, with a hookeup either to local nat gas lines or, if not available, a backup nat gas tank.

Switching is automatic with no loss of power due to response time, depending upon the unit. Whole house backup power generator costs vary from around $3000-$4000 USD up to $10,000 or so, depending upon draw need.

I've been looking at getting one, but keep putting it off because I'm lazy, I guess. Power here can go out from time to time due either due to heavy snow load, high winds effecting transmission lines, etc.. The longest it has been out was a week. (I have nat gas lines and a fireplace with gas logs, so it was all good, if a little bit chilly. )

[Rapier]

... I can't UPS my entire house.

Solar panels with battery storage.

[Jericho]

then microwave it the next day. Always tastes better after the extra bit of cooking...

Are you sure its the "extra cooking" that does it? Try taking your soon to be eaten dinner, give it a quick blast in the microwave, and see how it tastes. I'd have thought it's the overnight treatment that improves it... not the method of reheat.

For sure, it is the refrigeration (and the moisture extraction) and the reheat. The fact that it is microwaves have nothing to do with it. I was just contradicting the point that microwaves are for nothing more than heating junk-meals.

[mrbadger]

then microwave it the next day. Always tastes better after the extra bit of cooking...

Are you sure its the "extra cooking" that does it? Try taking your soon to be eaten dinner, give it a quick blast in the microwave, and see how it tastes. I'd have thought it's the overnight treatment that improves it... not the method of reheat.

A good point. We often cook meals certain types of meals (curries, stews, lots of meat and sauce based things like this) the day before we eat them and leave them overnight in the fridge to, what would you call it, mature? Marinade?

The result is usually yummy.

[Morkonan]

There are some chemical stuffs going on with letting things "marinade" or letting sauced foods sit in the fridge for awhile. I forget 'em all, but the interactions are known, at least for some popular dishes studied. The increase of savoriness is pretty popular.

For myself, I always find that my chili is always best the next day, after it has sat in the fridge for a bit. Some things don't do so well, though. Pasta and sauce=yes, fish and sauce = no.

[CBJ]

Interestingly reheated pasta and sauce can actually be better for you too.

[mrbadger]

Interestingly reheated pasta and sauce can actually be better for you too.

That is extremely useful. My wife is diabetic, I've sent her the link. Thanks

[Cpt.Jericho]

It would be a more interesting read if it was eleborated in what way the starch had been changed chemically. To me this looks more like popular science than being science at all.

[Morkonan]

Interestingly reheated pasta and sauce can actually be better for you too.

Curious.

This would seem to point to the idea that pre-cooked, frozen, ready-to-heat-and-eat meals containing past could actually be more healthy for many people than "home cooked" versions.

[CBJ]

This would seem to point to the idea that pre-cooked, frozen, ready-to-heat-and-eat meals containing past could actually be more healthy for many people than "home cooked" versions.

In theory, maybe, but not in practice. Anything you'd gain from the re-heated pasta you'd more than lose because such meals are invariably made with far too much salt, fat, sugar and preservatives.

It would be a more interesting read if it was eleborated in what way the starch had been changed chemically. To me this looks more like popular science than being science at all.

I think you're expecting a bit much from an article on the BBC site aimed at interested readers rather than scientists. My reading of it is that they conducted the initial empirical experiment fine, but that they now needed to go away and investigate things such as the actual chemical changes in more detail in order to understand the reasons for it. I don't think they claimed it was definitive, but that doesn't stop it from being interesting.

[Morkonan]

This would seem to point to the idea that pre-cooked, frozen, ready-to-heat-and-eat meals containing past could actually be more healthy for many people than "home cooked" versions.

In theory, maybe, but not in practice. Anything you'd gain from the re-heated pasta you'd more than lose because such meals are invariably made with far too much salt, fat, sugar and preservatives.

Most frozen meals don't require preservatives, since they're frozen. The most popular preservatives are citric acid and salt, I would assume. In frozen meals, I wouldn't think either would bring much of an added preservative value - Bugs don't like freezing conditions. (There's another common food preservative I'm forgetting, atm. :/)

Salt and sugar content are generally higher in prepackaged foods. But, that's not necessarily true for all, since there are prepacked frozen meals that are marketed as being "healthy" with less added salt, sugar and lower fat concentrations.

Still, it is worth noting that one is more capable of self-regulating the content of home-cooked meals. BUT... with a value that could equate to a 50% reduced impact in terms of sugar metabolization? YET, with an increased savoriness and appeal? Hard to say, really, so it's a case-by-case basis. Worth considering, though, for some meal types, I bet. (If the story turns out to have reproducible results.)

[CBJ]

I was making a general point about pre-packaged meals rather than specifically taking a potshot at preservatives.

And the fact that "bugs" are killed off by freezing isn't necessarily a good thing either. According to various articles I've read/heard recently (admittedly also in non-scientific media, but reasonably respectable ones!) the range of bacteria in your gut could have more effect on your health than many of the simplistic "too much X is bad for you" doctrines we've been basing our eating habits on for so long. Processed, and presumably frozen food even more so, seems to be part of the problem, precisely because so many "good" bugs are killed off in the effort to keep the "bad" ones at bay.

[felter]

You need to look at those ready made frozen meals, and just see what is in them. You really should not be eating those things, they are so bad for you, probably eve worse than eating a MacDonald's. I'm diabetic and when you get diagnosed you have a little conversation with a medical person, normally a nurse. They tell you what you can and what you should avoid, and ready made meals is high on the list of things to avoid, frozen or fresh.