this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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Home Automation

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Home automation is the residential extension of building automation.

It is automation of the home, housework or household activity.

Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.

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So I have a bunch of home automation projects I've been tinkering with weather related. One of which is an air quality sensor that determines when the air quality is bad with the intention of displaying some visual notifications around the house. I've been working on the coding for it and currently have it sitting on my desk in my home office. My most recent addition to it was having it graphing the data out to a webpage on my home network so I could see the change over time. The day I finished it and started testing was the day before Thanksgiving, my niece, 14 years old, decided she wanted to spend the night to hang out with her cousin, my son, since her mom and dad were coming over for Thanksgiving the next day anyways.

My home office is also our guest room, so the bed she sleeps in is in there. She went to bed about 10, I went downstairs to play some video games and have a couple of beers. I finally went to bed about 1 am, when I walked passed her room, I could hear her talking on the phone.

Next morning comes and after everyone is up and moving I decided to check on my air quality sensor and see how the data looked on the graph. As soon as I pulled up, something was really suspicious. It was basically a flat line with values between 1 and 5 most of the time, but at 1:05 am and 1:15 am it spiked twice to ~150. I took me a few seconds to put 1 and 1 together... "the only time I've ever seen it get that high was when food was cooking and there was smoke coming off the stove"..... ohhhhhhhhhh.

I called her into the room and showed her the paper and told her, "The only reason these numbers would show like this is there was some kind of smoke in the room". She said, "I don't smoke". I said, "Or something like a vape pen." Her face went white, "Are you going to tell my mom?" "No, but you need to give me the vape pen". So now I have a vape pen.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Pull it out in front of her and casually vape. Assert your dominance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

“So now I have a vape pen”

HOME AUTOMATION FOR THE WIN

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Jesus Christ… all this just to find out she vapes. Congrats.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

lol, that ending..

"so now i have a vape pen."

Classic

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Personally I would have made her watch a documentary on how vape pens can lead to health issues like collapsed lungs and then I’d give her a test on it. Then I wouldn’t say anything. Other choice: she can turn herself in. Vaping is pretty dangerous and taking the pen may or may not help. She can likely just get a new one.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I thought this was going the "she farted" direction, cause I've heard of those modifying air quality sensor values.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It does. Don't ask me how I know.

Okay fine I darted on it and it read it got a warning light and said unsafe for vulnerable populations. 🤣

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

See I know I'm not mature enough to not fart near the sensor to try and set it off.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It was always fun farting on the M8 chemical detectors. WHOOP WHOOP, WHOOP WHOOP!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah that was my thought too. It always makes me laugh when my dog is sleeping behind my chair in my office and I hear Alexa tell me the air quality has recently changed to poor. I love that dog but her farts are toxic.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Farthing is not lady like. So she can’t use that as an excuse. Dudes are like whatever. I farted that’s why the air quality spiked.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I agree. I’d expect a young lady to deal more in pennies than farthings.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Opening any kind of alcohol upsets mine. Or rather, it did... suddenly it isnt anymore which is probably a bad sign.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can see both sides on telling her parents, but if you're not going to tell them, I would definitely pull her aside in the future and follow up on it. If you think she is continuing to vape, I woulh definitely tell them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

There is a lot going on with her, she's fragile. It was Thanksgiving, I didn't want to put her mom in that state of mind. I talked to my wife about it and we both came to the conclusion that she's probably going to be making some more bad decisions and when she does, we want her to know she can trust us. We did have a conversation with her, much more than what I posted. I don't think we are going to change anything, but I hope it's been driven in that we love her and are here for her.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Damn you're doin it right. She's lucky to have you guys.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Kids always end up outing themselves. Either the parents will figure it out, or they mess up and leave one in a pocket for the laundry.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

What sensor are you using?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Air quality sensors are scary, especially if you've got a good CO2 sensor. I can tell when my partner is home, food is cooked, window open, small group visiting, large group visiting, far-uvc sterilizers running, all from a few numbers from

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I bought a Kidde Co2 monitor the other day which also monitors TVOC. It’s fun to watch it get mad when there is a whole lot of cooking going on (ie Thanksgiving)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Just got mine. Only set it up Thursday.PM2.5 has been insistently high. Any ideas what causes that? Only asking you because you seem familiar with that sensor and the data signals / corresponding drivers

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

When my old room mates used to smoke weed inside even though we had a balcony, my auto air filter would kick on high speed and show red… it sucks. I hate people that smoke inside.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Good job not being a twat and narcing on her. Three rules for life, mind your business, don’t rat on your friends, and keep your mouth shut.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You're using your powers for evil. I remember when I was 14, cigarettes seemed so expensive. Kids these days have to get a pod and a device. Probably going to take a week to save up that much. I guess unless they have an OnlyFans page and now look at the bigger problem you caused here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Don't be a dick

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

When I worked this in a big office we did optimizations but the trends were kinda funny. My findings were that IAQ was good except at 10pm and that IEQ was good all day and we'll below decibel targets until 10pm.

My big take away was to make sure night time cleaning crews had breathing and hearing protection. I have no pen, no mask, no muffs!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'd love to read the post from her perspective too

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Sweet, how’s the pen hit?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

lol that’s a helluva way to come up on a vape pen

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Stop being her friend and be an adult. Give the vape pen to her mom and explain the circumstances and let mom decide what, if anything, to do. At 14 she has no business vaping and you might just save her long term lung damage.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Every family is different. Get out of here. You’d also have a way bigger influence on them if you remain the cool trustworthy aunt/uncle. You can teach them lessons they will actually listen to if they trust you. Not so much if you’re a nark.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm so glad you posted this. That's exactly what my wife and I came to. We know she's got some more bad decisions coming up in the future, were hopeful she knows we are here for her if she needs it.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Sometimes in life there’s a bigger picture than just the black and white aspect of situations like this. You as an adult have to try to see that bigger picture and make compromises when necessary but also be able to put your foot down for shit when absolutely necessary.

In this situation it’s a small thing now and maybe later it buys goodwill when things get crazy. She’s 14, she’s going to be experimenting with dumb shit going forward. And her knowing that you’re trustworthy and she might come to them asking advice she wouldn’t ask her parents. Wouldn’t you rather he ask her uncle/aunt shit instead of her friends?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

you'll make for an awful parent that pushes their kid away in times of trouble just speaking from experience

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Meh. I disagree

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Not everyone has a great home life, and there are absolutely situations where the right answer, even for stuff that's quite serious, is to not say a word to the parents.

And that's ignoring the point everyone else is making regarding having someone that the kid trusts, so that when they screw up badly, they have someone that they are willing to call or tell about it, instead of trying to hide it from everyone, letting stuff get much, much worse.

A whole lot of this can be summed up like this: Sometimes, there are no good answers, and you only have the choice of different kinds and degrees of bad ones.

In this case, I think OP made exactly the right call.

Can she get another vape pen? I mean, let's be honest, she probably already has.

But now she knows that if she gets into a much worse situation, she has an adult who is both willing to call her on stuff, and who isn't going to do something to make it worse.

She's 14, that's both old and young enough to do stuff with people that she's not supposed to, in places that she's not supposed to be, and for it to turn into something bad in a hurry.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Kids need adults they can trust, you're not going to stop her by talking to her parents.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So now I have a vape pen.

THC, or something more benign?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Surely you don’t think THC is more dangerous than nicotine

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

What’s the not benign one?

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