In our @smartest_home appliances like hair straighteners can easily be connected using standard smart plugs or appliance modules. In this particular case the hair straighteners were connected because they were once left on, with something sitting on top of them and this nearly caused a fire in our home.
Aside from the peace of mind that comes with this approach, the user experience has been improved by an nice easy to push button on the module, which also has a nice clear indicator (a bright red light), showing when they are on. The switch on the hair straighteners is small and fiddly and there is no audible or clear visual indicator that they are on.
In this case the hair straighteners are connected using an Everspring AN7-3 Z-Wave appliance plug/module but our technology abstraction allows any similar type of appliance control plug to be used. This is used to simply tell our Home Control System when the hair straighteners are switched on and off. This particular module does not support energy monitoring.
Our Home Control System models all connected appliances and all types of connected appliances in our contextual smart home. Our technology abstraction this means that they inherit all of attributes supported by our models and all of the common capabilities supported by our contextual smart home. Essentially, every connected dumb device or appliance becomes much smarter and can also contribute to the wider pool of whole home context.
Our models include the ability to track when devices are switched on or off and how long each state is maintained. For all devices it is really easy to set a time period to generate notifications and/or change the state. So with some simple configuration, any connected device or appliance can behave this way. It is also possible to configure voice announcements or trigger the alarm.
Since these hair straighteners have been connected to our Home Control System, there have been no further times where they have been left on. This could be down the technology being a subconscious reminder or simply that the indicator is a clear visual reminder to turn them off. Either way it doesn't matter as we have peace of mind that the situation will be handled should it ever occur again.
In our @smartest_home appliances like hair straighteners will generate a notification and voice announcement if they are left on longer than the configured time period. This will inform family members that preventative action has been taken taken and that they have been switched off.
Our contextual smart home generates a voice announcement if these hair straighteners are left on for too long and plays it out throughout out home on a number of connected speakers.
