Private smart home: Structural monitoring and control with open-source technology

Private smart home Structural monitoring and control with open-source technology Morgan Look, Wayne Holmes, Nigel Yee and Deepinder Sidhu. Previously • 2018 Asked to develop remote temperature and power monitoring solution in a short time frame for two "research houses" • Significant reliability issues arose as system was implemented, although usable data was captured as requested. • Root cause unclear • Software interventions applied to improve reliability (i.e. reset on failure) • Timer on power supply required to ensure recovery from long term interruptions • Conference paper in 2019 presented on reliability issues encountered. Now • A new high efficiency building completed 2022 • Renewed interest in energy efficiency and environmental monitoring • Potential issues with control of heating solution • Many off-the-shelf monitoring solutions available, most corporate owned and cloud based.. Underfloor Heating system (UFH) • Only senses temperature at a single location via portable control panel • Control panel user interface (UI) difficult to use • Support for App/WiFi control, but requires cloud service account • Multiple zones, can be manually adjusted (with taps) but difficult to evaluate effect of changes • Hot water (HW) heat pump supposed to control HW element, unsure if this was implemented correctly • No monitoring of HW tank temperature for UFH, can run tank cold if not configured carefully. Initial goals • Implement monitoring and broadcasting of temperature in multiple zones including HW tank temperature • Establish current state of HW element control • Configure local server to acquire sensor data • Investigate functionality of HW heat pump operation further. Easy wins • Analyse sensor data via server dashboard • Adjust manual taps for improved UFH zone balance • Review and optimise configuration of HW heat pump • Optimise placement and configuration of UFH control panel. More difficult • Replace UFH pump controller for control by local server • Add contactor to HW element, add control of contactor • Power (current) measurement for HW heat pump, element and/or whole house. Other monitoring and control • Environmental:. • Humidity • Air quality (CO2, VOC, CO, Formaldehyde, particulate) • Fridge/Freezer temperature. • Other home systems: • • • • • • •. Water tank level Septic tank level TV/Home Cinema (CEC) Lighting Dehumidifier "did I leave it on?" Security cameras. Available systems: Server side: • MQTT broker • Home Assistant Smart sensors and controllers • Tasmota • ESPHome • BTHome. Server Raspberry Pi (if you can find one in stock amiright?) • Raspbian / MQTT Broker • Home Assistant HA also supports MQTT including Tasmota. Sensor platforms WiFi: ESP8266, ESP32 • Tasmota (MQTT) • ESPHome (Home Assistant) Bluetooth Low Energy (BT-LE): • Xiaomi Mijia: Native, BTHome • BTHome: ESP32, ATC (Xiaomi), nFR5 Mixed: • Bluetooth Proxy (BT to Ethernet or WiFi). Temperature monitoring • • • •. Xiaomi Mijia BTLE "ecosystem" Useful stand alone with LCD Approx. 1year battery life Proprietary protocol, but out of box support from Home Assistant. • Firmware can be replaced with BTHome. Home Assistant • Runs on a computer on local network • Raspberry Pi, but can run in Docker • Custom Pi OS • Highly customisable • Finds most things automatically • Wide community support. BTHome (Bluetooth LE) • Can be uploaded to Mijia sensors • Many custom settings • Native BTHome protocol • Can also be applied to DIY ESP32 sensors (water tank monitoring) • Long battery life (> 1 year from 2032 cell). ESPHome (WiFi) • Support ESP32 and ESP8266 • Simplified configuration compared to DIY code • YAML configuration files • Simple upload (+OTA if configured) • Broad sensor support • Discovered by HA automatically. Preflashed devices • ESPHome or Tasmota installed from supplier • Many devices power control devices available • Safter than DIY for high voltage • Captive Portal. Water tank monitor • ESP32 supports ESPHome or BTHome • BTHome (Bluetooth LE) should run on 3xAA for several years • ESPHome (WiFi) simple configuration. Other devices. Automations • What happens when? • Under floor heating • Water tank alarm • Septic alarm • Dehumidifier • Lights • Etc.... Questions?.