Leviton smart load center

I’ll try again …

YES! Totally agree that solid-state control of electrical switching (especially high pole/current/voltage) is the way to go from a technical/safety/notification standpoint. It seems inevitable.

NO!(?) Non-wired control of that solid-state controller is not(?) the way to go in many cases (critical infrastructure etc). Making breakers break safely is one thing but making breakers too easy to manually & remotely (wireless) switch is another. I suppose eventually wireless communications will feel as secure as wired (why not?) but like solid-state breakers we aren’t there yet.

BTW: Case in point on a low-level …

  • Put my fridge on a Wemo Insight to view with Sense. Cool.
  • Deactivated the switchability in the Sense interface to avoid inadvertently switching the fridge off. Good.
  • Changed a Hue bulb that was set to light RED if my hot water was ON for more than an hour (IFTTT) to go RED if my fridge was OFF for more than an hour. Backup plan. Excellent!
  • Later … vacuumed around where the Wemo is and managed to switch the fridge off without realizing it.
  • Later … I see Hue bulb is red and think “Oh, I guess my hot water was on for a while because we had showers; did laundry and so on. Fine”. Did nothing.
  • Oops.

Point is: Humans can be pretty stupid sometimes, either inadvertently or deliberately.

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