Smart Home

Real-world smart home builds with Home Assistant, sensors, and integrations that survive past the honeymoon period.

Fix Zigbee drops: routers, channels, and placement

Fix Zigbee device drops by optimizing mesh topology: add routers every 10-15 meters, move coordinator from WiFi, select a clean Zigbee channel number.

A smart pet feeder on ESPHome costs $20 and stays local

A smart pet feeder ESPHome build costs $20, or flash a feeder you already own. Portion calibration by weight, wiring, YAML, and which models flash.

Modern Nordic kitchen at twilight, dishwasher glowing green, EV charging in garage, tablet showing Home Assistant hourly price chart

Dynamic electricity pricing automations in Home Assistant with Tibber and Nordpool

Home Assistant pulls hourly spot prices via Tibber or Nordpool to schedule EV, water heater, and heat pump loads, cutting Nordic bills 20-40% in 2026.

Build a Thread device with ESPHome and the ESP32-H2

Build Thread mesh devices with ESPHome 2025.6 on ESP32-H2 and ESP32-C6, join a border router, and expose battery-efficient IPv6 sensors to HA.

Build an ESPHome soil moisture sensor for under $10

An ESPHome soil moisture sensor costs under $10 and reports to Home Assistant. Wiring, YAML, calibration, and the fix for a reading stuck at 1.07V.

Automate your pool or hot tub with Home Assistant and ESPHome sensors

Monitor pool or hot tub temperature, pH, and ORP with waterproof ESPHome sensors on ESP32 for under $80. Home Assistant alerts and calibration.