Case Study: Apartment Smart Home
Discovering Smart Home world and needed a lab to play and learn. Best and most affordable is my own home. P.S. Wife not happy.
Client: Me
Project Requirements
- Complete home infrastructure (electrical, networking, security)
- Real smart home devices, install, update, change firmware
- Day by day real life use to use scenarios and AI/ML
Project Overview
I wanted to create not just a smart home enviroment were I could set some scenarios to turn my light on and off at preset hours. The goal was to make the smart home adapt to my daily rutine from waking up to coming home from work.
The Challenge
Using so many different devices from different brands I did not know what to search in technical data sheets so integrating them in one single system it was quite hard. The other hard part was to make the house learning from my daily routine.
The Approach & Solution
First I had to find a platform to be compatible with the smart devices I already had. Firts choice was OpenHAB. Stable, not very friendly but I really like it. Some of my smart devices were not compatible so I had to take a look at Home Assistant. Luckily for me all my smart devices were compatible with Home Assistant.
After Home Assistant was up and running I had to adopt all my devices from lights, outlets, A/C, heating, TV and setup my home network to keep everyting safe from intrusions and attack.
The Results
If I had to do it again it would much easier and a lot cheaper because I know what to buy and for what I would use it. First time I was very excited about the hole Smat Home thing and I might bought a lot more that I really needed.
Also the most important thing I can recomend you is to have a plan from the beginning. You need a vision of the finall project so you can stay in your budget.
More about this project on the blog. Read More...
Client Testimonial
I will tell you what my wife said: "I am not happy with all the electrical cables out of the walls and you playing with the Smart Home devices remotely when I am working from home".
Want me to help with your project?
If you take on freelance work, you can use this section to prompt any potential clients to get in touch with you with their project requirements.