I’m a bit late, but if it helps, I’ve had good results with the Sonoff and Tuya zigbee sensors. I prefer the Tuyas, just because they use AA instead of CR2032 batteries.
$50 will easily get you everything you need to start.

You might also want to think about getting a 433MHz radio for the system.
If you live in a built up area, you’d be surprised how many people have equipment transmitting on 433MHz already (free data!).
And a lot of generic wireless temperature sensor kits use it as a standard, making it a good value way to get weatherproof gear.
I got a generic fridge/freezer kit for about £10 that works perfectly with this. Again, $50 or so for a DVB-T2 receiver. Just be aware that it’s a little more technically involved than pairing zigbee devices.

Bother me with DMs if you like, I’ve been fiddling with just about every protocol I can get my hands on for under £100!

Someone else already raised the mains wired safety/budget issue, but I may have a side suggestion for you: Bulbs as repeaters.

I’ve added hue bulbs directly to my zigbee network, where they also act as repeaters.

The problem then was people switching off at the switch. This has been resolved by adding a little zigbee button by the switch (as people can achieve the function without the mains switch).
Which gives the bonus of being able to do different taps.

(So for example, I have one click as toggle on/off, two clicks is daytime+bright, press+hold is evening+dim)

This is the reason I haven’t gone down the smart light switches path yet.
Anything that I’d trust enough on 240v is out of budget!

It definitely threw me the first time I was out of the house.
I decided the best solution was just to limit alerts to non-sensitive things.
While I’m generally very big on privacy, I really don’t give a monkeys if Apple/Google is relaying a message that says “Cat in garden!”

Thanks for the post, it persuaded me to get off my bottom and add another one to the list.

I can absolutely see that happening in vsphere.

And eventually, 10 years and over £100 for a domain you’ll never use.
It’s me. Too many domains I have no idea what to do with.

This is a really nice guide, and covers everything from source source to sea, so to speak.
Ideal for someone installing for the first time, thanks for sharing!

Generic orange juice is a commodified product (ie, you can order a standard 1 tonne of frozen orange juice whenever).

The freezing process destroys a lot of the flavour, so some rind extract is included to bulk up the taste.

Freshly squeezed still has the original flavour, and not the added rind flavour.

(I didn’t look this up, mind, it’s possibly I’ve just repeated an old wives tale!)

feddit.uk clocks in at under £40/month. That’s hosting, and backups. lemmy.zip is similar.

Plus our time, but we’re obviously doing it as a labour of love.

But they are ready to take the jobs of motivational speakers.

Security wise, while I love automating everything, I personally would just give them a physical key to the front door. (Or an RFID keyfob system).
What you’d be achieving is the equivalent of keyless car entry, with the additional downside that your son can’t choose not to open the door if something sketchy happens.
And instead of entrusting them with a traditional key that they can treat responsibly, you’re just putting something in their backpack that they don’t have to think about.

If you really want to do it, basically anything in homeassistant that has wireless capability and a state would probably work.
A zigbee radio, and pretty much any device doing anything would do it.
When device_name becomes available, activate door opening.

That’s a pretty neat bit of kit. If they did it in metric sizes, I’d be tempted.

Your meter may have some kind of magnetic flux that occurs as the dial spins, which you might be able to sense and interpret.

I’m curious to hear what people come up with, as I quite fancy one too.

I would be wary of installing anything that actually touches the water that doesn’t come from an accredited manufacturer, however. As you don’t want Ali-express grade metal in your drinking water.

Which unfortunately means the options will be either expensive, or building off the back of other equipment currently installed (water meter, etc).

The level of AB use in livestock in various countries is astonishing.
Most european nations have to keep a very strict log of which antibiotics are used, and for what reason.
Meanwhile, until recently India was using Colistin as a growth promoter.

Seeing the flying foxes around Sydney surprised me.

The bin chickens, I simultaneously felt a little sorry for, and enjoyed watching.

You will be truly British once you register on feddit.uk

In seriousness, I like to think it’s a state of mind. If you find yourself generally aligning most with the more positive British attitudes, you’re British. Though living in Wales, you may end up feeling more Welsh eventually!

If you want to feel more connected, try getting involved with local festivities and traditions.
Explore the countryside with the Ramblers. Do some pub quizzes. Go to a folk festival.
The sorts of things that involve you with pleasant people.

If any federated banning networks do pop up, I’d expect them to form groups, with different groups having different standards. And the idea being that if someone’s banned from one place with similar standards, the rest of the group probably wouldn’t welcome the content.

It’ll come down to places and groups being reasonable, and not banning for stupid reasons (at least by that group’s standards). And if they are unreasonable, it’ll reflect on the group, as nobody would bother posting to those instances any more.

And in a way, the ultimate “ban” will be with the host instance, similarly to email.
An admin at lemmy.world might get a report that an account is spreading csam links everywhere, and to consider banning them, for example.

It was broken for a few weeks of 2024.2 (I think). I ended up learning how to do a manual downgrade while they fixed it!