introducing what home automation offers
visitors this year: 311 When you look for home automation equipment you find many systems. They turn on lights and plug sockets; water the garden; unlock a door, turn up the heating; record a...
Tagged: Home Assistant
the need to use a home automation ‘platform’
visitors this year: 415 In the beginning there was the smart bulb that changed colour and convinced me that here was something trivial and fanciful. Today I’m surprised by the usefulness of the smart...
calculate how long is the day
visitors this year: 1,039 … and see how to add features to the Home Assistant display An interest in solar energy is a possible reason to record the sun’s azimuth and the time of...
project: smart thermostat – nest and hive
visitors this year: 1,495 The Google nest thermostat (or its Hive equivalent) are devices which I’d be happy to pay for and recommend. I could easily make something that turned on the heating with...
add your own smart devices to Home Assistant using ESPHome
visitors this year: 1,200 what’s needed to start using ESPhome? option 1: an ESP32 development board with a micro-USB socket option 2: an ESP8266 development board – less power use, but no Bluetooth option...
starting with Home Assistant
visitors this year: 9,148 Home Assistant is software that connects smart devices. It enables them to have a useful life outside of the app that they come with. You will gain unusual flexibility where...
use an ESP32 board with Home Assistant
visitors this year: 1,945 When a ESP32 device, such as a development board like the wemos D1 mini or ESP32-CAM, has been flashed and powered, it will use the password you added to the...
customise a Sonoff smart relay (esphome 3b)
visitors this year: 825 ‘own’ your own devices THE FOLLOWING PROCESS IS STILL USEFUL – HOWEVER SONOFF DEVICES CAN WORK WITHOUT MODIFICATION IN HOME ASSISTANT (SEE HERE) AND THE EWElink app. THE ADVANTAGE OF...
flash a ESP32-CAM to make a smart camera
visitors this year: 19,860 Costing less than £10 or $10, the ESP32-CAM board comes equipped with WiFi, a camera and a micro SD-card slot. It needs a little work to turn this ‘development board’...
an automation to make the immersion water heater turn off and waste no energy if the water is already hot
visitors this year: 605 The Sonoff POWR2 can replace the timer on a hot water immersion heater. This model also measures electricity as volts, amps and current. This feature provides the key to saving...
some uses for a raspberry pi computer – introduction
visitors this year: 440 A Raspberry Pi is a small low power computer that hopefully has a use that chimes for you. I don’t think you’d want to use a Pi for emails and...
project: cameras around the house
visitors this year: 253 There are a variety of camera types to help monitor the drive, a pet, a baby, a device, a bird feeder – whatever. You might want to know what’s eating...
project: does my broadband speed vary?
visitors this year: 114 Here’s how to add a little functionality to Home Assistant, the automation platform. Do try this especially if you’re just starting to add features to Home Assistant. speedtestdotnet: scan_interval: hours:...
a home dashboard with the information you need just now
visitors this year: 359 When you have a few smart devices you meet a need to be able to see them easily. We might have a camera pointed at the front door but it’s...
automation: turn on lights when I enter the room
visitors this year: 652 The LED striplights in a kitchen use 12v transformers and they are powered through smart plugs / sockets. The sockets are by TP-link – and they remember their on-off state...
project: smart electricity meter with historic energy use
visitors this year: 3,744 fit a sensor to the electricity meter for a minute by minute readout The UK electricity meter shows electricity use in kWatt hours, and a human sometimes pops by to...
heating oil tank level sensor – JSN-SR04T version
visitors this year: 5,640 make a heating oil tank level sensor that’s more useful than anything you can buy Some homes use oil as a fuel to keep warm in winter. Over the course...
some of us have a thing about units, data and graphs
visitors this year: 194 The Home Assistant sensor graph offers painless autoscaling with options to set detail and timespan. But how do I alter the data itself? A car fuel tank measures in gallons...
