Artem’s Energy‑Smart Automations Without the Chaos

[SPEAKER_02]: Hello and welcome to the home assistant podcast and my name's Phil joining me. [SPEAKER_02]: I've got Rohan Hailing Knight. [SPEAKER_02]: Hey good man here. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, good. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: And today we are joined by Adam Hailing Knight. [SPEAKER_00]: Hi, I'm doing all right. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: This podcast is sponsored by Homeys and Cloud by NaviCursor.

[SPEAKER_02]: For a small monthly fee, you'll unlock powerful features, like Secure, FLS access to your system from anywhere, your choice of voice assistants, off-site backups, and more, or configurable in the UI with no Yamal needed. [SPEAKER_02]: It also supports the development of Home Assistant, ESP Home, and other open home foundation projects. [SPEAKER_02]: Click the link in the description to learn more.

[SPEAKER_02]: would also like to give a shout out to our Patreon members, including our executive producers, Benny and Rob. [SPEAKER_02]: You can help support the show and get early access to episodes all in an ad-free feed. [SPEAKER_02]: Just support the show, check out home assistant.fm and click Patreon in the menu. [SPEAKER_02]: Adam, thank you so much for joining us today.

[SPEAKER_02]: Can you give a little bit of an intro on who you are and what sort of led you to using home assistant to get onto the home assistant podcast today? [SPEAKER_00]: Sure, thanks for having me. [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, I'm a listener for year and a half giving me some episodes. [SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to learn much about it. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you for doing that. [SPEAKER_00]: Keep up the good work. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, my name is Arten.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm from Munich, Germany, but I was born and raised in Russia since I just worked. [SPEAKER_00]: But since a lot of years, Germany is home. [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm here now. [SPEAKER_02]: Nice. [SPEAKER_02]: And in your digital, I think you work on on some developer, you work at JetBrains, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I've worked at JetBrains, yes, if you don't know the company, it's we are doing tools for software developers.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the IDs integrated developer, development environments is our main product, everyone knows intelligent idea probably it's like very big for the Java market. [SPEAKER_00]: I used to work on pitchpistorm after that goal end. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, let's go. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because I've been, you know, we've paid for this long before, you know, for moving out of these codes, I sort of jump into, oh, I know that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, finally, it's not going to be very hard with these Cisco buddies, you know, like, I'll actually like, I'll be able to, I know that company, right? [SPEAKER_02]: I've got to use that product before. [SPEAKER_02]: So that's cool. [SPEAKER_02]: So I guess if you're in a software development background, probably similar to many people using home assistant or, you know, come on the podcast as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is that sort of, it's home assistant when you start with home automation or what was your first for a into the smart home? [SPEAKER_00]: It's, it is actually a very interesting question because when I started with a smart call, I didn't know about home assistant. [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, I didn't really put much attention in the smart home at the beginning. [SPEAKER_00]: So seven, yeah, seven, almost 80 years ago, I actually restarted building house.

[SPEAKER_00]: And initially, we expected that everything will be done in nine months, so we decided to skip non-essential parts, which was the smart home, and it was like, [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, maybe maybe in a couple of years, I'll retrofit something into my home, so. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: Turned out that it took almost four years to complete for, when it was real. [SPEAKER_00]: Wow. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it was the COVID summer in the middle and some other things.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, it didn't help much in terms of the smart home, so I think we moved in four years ago, actually almost precisely four years ago. [SPEAKER_00]: But then like, yeah, you got a new house, you probably have like different problems at the beginning. [SPEAKER_00]: So first I was changing the temporary lights to the, you know, like normal lamps, I didn't finish yet. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just funny.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think after the first year, we realized that it's getting very hot and summer if you don't close [SPEAKER_00]: external blinds I actually am a little bit confused about the terminology because I think the blites are inside and the shots are inside. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so it depends where I get to cut shutters we have also have warnings on the outside as well. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah, okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: So I guess it's a local terminology, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, probably. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, I have these the rolling sink outside which is it can close and open. [SPEAKER_00]: They doesn't yield so it's a [SPEAKER_00]: But it really helps because it is outside, so when it heats, the heat stays outside of the house.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the first year I was doing it manually and it wasn't much fun because if, for instance, at the attic floor, you forget to close it and it's like a very sunny day, then like, but at the end of the day, the rooms were hot. [SPEAKER_00]: So, like, fast forward one year, I was like, I need to [SPEAKER_00]: There is a German company, I think it's called Coutry, if I'm not mistaken, but they're very known for their product, how mighty KP, basically it's a line of products.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: So I got the shatter controllers from them and the term is that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So at the same time, but then I realize that actually I can use these controllers for [SPEAKER_00]: almost everything, but to think the shatters in the attic floor, which were embedded into the windows, it's the company called Velux, I think they have their own controller, and then I have the custom way, like the owning for the terrace, which is I have no idea what is run on, but it has the soft box, I think it's a French company.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the problem was that I cannot bring it into one place. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like already three apps, three different apps. [SPEAKER_00]: And I was trying to bring it into the Google home. [SPEAKER_00]: And it somehow worked. [SPEAKER_00]: But then it was three years ago, I think. [SPEAKER_00]: The Google home wasn't really good at automating things. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how it works now. [SPEAKER_00]: Never tried it since then.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I wasn't able to do the basic stuff

[SPEAKER_00]: So I started looking for something they can do that and then I remember that one of my colleagues actually told me about homo systems, few years back. [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember it was in the office kitchen, he was showing me how like he opens some of them, some French and home and he gets a telegram notification. [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, yeah, all stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: That's what they need. [SPEAKER_00]: Probably not.

[SPEAKER_00]: But turned out that like, [SPEAKER_00]: how much system can do to things very well first you can bring everything into one place and then you can automate everything at the same time this no regard what's the background hardware and it was so cool so like it immediately like hooked up on the things i started [SPEAKER_00]: So the shatter's automation is the first one, it's probably the most complicated one. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't like it very much, but it works well.

[SPEAKER_02]: What makes it easy to say like what don't you like about it? [SPEAKER_00]: It's complicated and it is hard to predict.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what I realized that [SPEAKER_00]: It is annoying when you don't understand how you smart home boards and obviously like I kind of wrote it So I supposed to understand I don't sometimes but my family they just have no idea that like they sit in a room Out of pure sky the Shutterers are closing it's dark now they go open it they close again Then they open it when it's still shining it's like [SPEAKER_00]: Like, when I go and look at the logs, everything's fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: So everything according to what it was like to how it was supposed to work. [SPEAKER_00]: But still, I think like there's one important component missing now. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a present sensor actually because currently the only presence I use is the location base. [SPEAKER_00]: So if someone is in home or not, [SPEAKER_00]: And actually I rely not on GPS, but on the unify, so it provides the device edges.

[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, I can check like if my phone is inside my wife's phone inside, it's on. [SPEAKER_02]: And that's actually a really good way to do it, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Like if a phone is connected to the network, at my home, yes, or no. [SPEAKER_02]: I think before the home is in companion app, when home is starting out, that was the most reliable for me to do it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Until my wife would turn her wife off because you know, would have internet issues or whatever, so she could go back to 5G, and then I'd have no idea if she was home or not, and it was, [SPEAKER_02]: it was frustrating, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Like, I'd be like, oh, you know, like she would at that time was just us to renting an apartment, so she would get home and she would then message to be like, hey, this lights not working or why is a TV keep turning off?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, oh, [SPEAKER_02]: The house doesn't know your home, can you turn your wife on and as soon as her wife I was turned on, then the house would disarm and act as expected. [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I think it is as long as you keep your wife on, you know, your wife my presidency is perfect, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: 100%. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and you can't get super granular with that either, right? [SPEAKER_03]: But it's fine, it's good enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's good enough. [SPEAKER_00]: And also it works for for people who you don't want to or cannot ask to install the app. [SPEAKER_00]: For instance, we have a clean, clearly coming from time to time and obviously like that makes sense to ask her to install the app. [SPEAKER_00]: It is the component, but [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, Wi-Fi, I can find her device obviously, it's not one of our devices and I can connect it. [SPEAKER_02]: So, what do you do with Lao?

[SPEAKER_02]: So, that's interesting, just like a, uh, that sort of edge case. [SPEAKER_02]: Would you allow like a cleaning person to connect to your Wi-Fi, like you expecting them to connect? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's unify right, so I have, I don't know how many T4 Wi-Fi networks, so there is the isolated guest network, it's totally fine.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, interesting, yeah, just even as a, like, I wouldn't expect if I had an open network that, you know, a cleaning person coming to my house, would then think to join the Wi-Fi, like that would just give 5G. [SPEAKER_03]: Depends on what they're doing right is maybe they just want to I don't know throw some again Like here are our data plans and stuff are pretty bad, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Again, I think Europe is not terrible, but like you know Whatever you want to put some music in your ears and it's gonna spot a fight while you're clean or something like that, right? [SPEAKER_03]: I get just offline and whatever just options, but You have to know about those options for to do it, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And there's another thing that the reception, I'm currently in the basement and the reception here is not good. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, interesting data.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to call and receive calls here is the Wi-Fi calling.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

[SPEAKER_02]: If I don't know when things are changing, because I rise doing it, then I would just become a passenger and it doesn't look good. [SPEAKER_02]: So I can imagine, if you've got these shutters and the automation isn't predictable enough, then you can imagine that it can be a point of frustration for yourself. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, 100%. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think this part of me comes from my work on diabetes because I started as a software developer,

[SPEAKER_00]: And basically, like the hour line of IDs, there's sort of kidding feature is that that's smart. [SPEAKER_00]: But it was always very hard to keep the balance between being smart and being in so smart that developers, they just don't understand what's going on. [SPEAKER_00]: And this is from the user experience because if SS software developer, you try to do something that ID takes over, does some crazy stuff, you don't understand what's going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: like I mean the the fun part of working on PHP store was that it's like a bit less than one million users and if you do something and you do it wrong like you get the feedback and Twitter like the same day basically yeah I mean if you do something good you get [SPEAKER_00]: The good part that this is like learning experience on one hand, on the other hand, like have to learn.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what I learned is that the ID has to be smart enough so that it helps the developer but the developer is still in charge. [SPEAKER_00]: So they are still in the ship, they write the code, they have to do, like they have to be able to do whatever they want. [SPEAKER_00]: The ID shouldn't stop shouldn't prevent them from doing this. [SPEAKER_00]: it should be helpful but not crazy helpful so that they lose touch.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is kind of a problem design, I think sometimes it feels that yeah I do in Samsung and as a developer I just don't understand why. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah the the other thing is to you also have to work with [SPEAKER_03]: kind of keep it generic enough to work with how they want to work with, right? [SPEAKER_03]: Like, for example, Phil and I might have two very different styles of working or whatever, doing the same task, potentially, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: And that's also, like, again, I use one of my latest annoyances has been, [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I mean, Gmail has always had this, but they have their focused inboxes, right? [SPEAKER_03]: We're like, they start moving certain things into certain inboxes, and then, and I just started using notion mail as well. [SPEAKER_03]: And it also does that same thing, and it just frustrates me to know extent, right? [SPEAKER_03]: And because that's just not how I work.

[SPEAKER_03]: So you also have to kind of keep it super generic and do that kind of thing there too. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think there is, there is this thing called WF, WF approvals, approval factor. [SPEAKER_00]: I can, in my hand always rename it to the pf, the partner pf, yeah, that's all we need to, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but it's like basically it's about the usability, so if they can use it or not, and if it works for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So my philosophy here is that [SPEAKER_00]: It is the dump first in the way that if you have buttons on the wall they have to work no matter what. [SPEAKER_00]: If you have people inside, they have to be able to figure out how it works without knowing that there is any software running in the background. [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, it's not always possible 100% of the time, but I always try to keep it in mind when I do the automations.

[SPEAKER_00]: I always [SPEAKER_00]: ways to override the actions. [SPEAKER_00]: For instance, speaking about the shutters, at some point I had to add a bunch of timers so that if there is any manual action, these the shutters, the timer starts and it prevents any automation from running for like flowers. [SPEAKER_00]: So basically I call it like [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, like there's no polite version of this, but in any case it's like the shut up and don't bother me with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it's kind of what what you have to do otherwise it's just basically an annoying when it goes up and down all the time. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's fair.

[SPEAKER_02]: So in 2018 you, so you've started building your house and you said you're going to do the smart time stuff later, did you going through the process now, is there anything that you regret that you didn't put in back then, like maybe you didn't design for, you know, enough peo e-port or maybe you would have done smart switches from the get go, like it's only that you would have changed. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: We put some effort to accommodate for the access points. [SPEAKER_00]: So I knew that, like, I mean, I've worked in ATI in the reliable internet, and I have four stories. [SPEAKER_00]: So basement and three, three levels on top.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, you can not cover it with a single access point, so I was like, OK, every floor, [SPEAKER_00]: but that's the only thing probably I've done specifically for the smart home, but now realize that actually, a friend of mine, he was like used the double cables, like the cables that carry like the twice the amount of wires so that you can have two circuits, just one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, ah, whatever, but he was right because like, [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot have enough power outlets, and you cannot have enough LN LAN sockets, because it's the POE, you know what it is, and VSPOE, you can power basically anything like the access points that's what I'm doing now, but then you have these small switches from unified that you can power them using POE.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you have it, I don't, so I have, like, ugly, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: the public setup where I have to use the normal power outlet and 20 volts to POE stuff and then you have the cameras again, POE on the end. [SPEAKER_00]: Would I build the house today? [SPEAKER_00]: It will be like, I don't know, to launch rockets and every corner probably. [SPEAKER_02]: It won't happen. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it won't be enough, yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: That's, yeah, that's a good point.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's, it's funny to deal with that, but the other side of this beyond Wi-Fi is, I mean, you mentioned that you, you have essentially four stories, right? [SPEAKER_03]: So it's a fairly stacked home. [SPEAKER_03]: How are you dealing with stuff like ZIGB and that kind of stuff is, is the mesh working well and Z-wave, like all of those kind of things.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a very good question, because finally enough, I'm probably the only person who is not using homocyst and enough for it's like the original purpose, so if I'm not mistaken, it was created for the Light Automation, and yeah, Philips here was the very first integration of Paulus found a pharmacist and did right, he just wanted the better way to automate his Philips [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_00]: So for me, the Philippe's hue was the last actually had variable, so like the the lights there were never often interest to me. [SPEAKER_00]: And only recently I started experimenting a little bit with the lights, so I got zig be like maybe half a year ago. [SPEAKER_00]: And it is challenging in a way that it's. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I think that the same frequency as Wi-Fi right, so the same problems. [SPEAKER_00]: But I found the very nice hardware.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the hardware itself, it has a fancy name, S-L-Z-B, if I'm not mistaken. [SPEAKER_00]: It's probably, if I remember it correctly, it's the Ukrainian company, actually. [SPEAKER_00]: And they did a fantastic job. [SPEAKER_00]: It works well, boss from the hardware [SPEAKER_00]: it has many mods, I think it can work as the ZigBee. [SPEAKER_00]: ZigBee rotors, ZigBee Peter, it can do matter if I'm not mistaken.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't try it yet, but the killer fish of me is the lung connection. [SPEAKER_00]: So basically my homosystem leaves here actually in the same room in the basement, but the lights are up top in the attic room. [SPEAKER_00]: So I used long to basically create this ZGB network. [SPEAKER_00]: So the... [SPEAKER_00]: the rotor. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not that familiar with the B, actually. [SPEAKER_00]: So I think this is the rotor.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it is a double top of the building, but it works over the lawn with the home assistant. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, interesting. [SPEAKER_02]: So you've actually just got the, yes, you're basically pushing the, the antenna physique bay up to the top of the house and taking it to your home assistant in some of the basement through land. [SPEAKER_02]: That's, yep, that's very good. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because I have a few, they have the POE units, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, and I think if you have the new we want specifically, but yeah, they're wiring one. [SPEAKER_00]: I cannot use it because I don't have enough a lot of circuits, so I still use USB-C, but yeah, but if you stay.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I have a repeater in the kitchen, where is the living room located. [SPEAKER_00]: So, so far it works well, the only thing is that [SPEAKER_00]: because we have the IK-Akishan and it has the very nice and bad at liking from Ikea, I think it's the controller called Tat-Tat-Free. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, try for a guess. [SPEAKER_00]: It works perfectly. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, from the very beginning, I have the controller, I have this round button, but then I realize maybe I'm wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if someone can teach me how to do tried, but what I found out on the internet, you can do either. [SPEAKER_00]: So either it is connected to Zignetwork or it is connected to the button, which means that I have to connect the button to the Zignetwork.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll tell my tablespoon how [SPEAKER_00]: it wasn't straightforward but I did it but the problem is now that sometimes it's like very noticeable lack because my wife should press it the button then if you say it after that the light comes up and she's like oh my god you broke everything. [SPEAKER_02]: I think, so I had the same thing being in the Philips Hue ecosystem. [SPEAKER_02]: They have a dimmer switch that you could pair directly through the Hue hub to a light bulb.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it was instant, right? [SPEAKER_02]: You would turn it flick it, push on, and let it turn on. [SPEAKER_02]: It was fantastic. [SPEAKER_02]: As soon as you try to do that and take the Hue hub out of the mix, [SPEAKER_02]: you would then have to, yeah, basically, look, listen for the, on the off event in home assistant and then get home assistant to trigger the action on the globe.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not like a big delay, but it could be, you know, depending on latency and all that, it could be one, half a second, one second, but it still just doesn't feel instant, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: I believe what you have to do now, if you're using ZigBeat in Home Assistant, depending on what flavor, if you're using ZHA or ZigBeat to MKTT, there should be a way to bind the IKEA button directly to the bulb, so then that will basically tell that button that you are controlling this light, and if your home assistant goes offline, those two will be linked and then that should be instant.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the only thing there is you can't obviously because it's linked to the light you can't control other things whatever, right? [SPEAKER_03]: It's just kind of [SPEAKER_00]: That's fine. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's in Mark. [SPEAKER_00]: My birthday goal of Gase is totally fine, so I'll go check it out. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but yeah, that's just the nuances, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like it's always a little nuances about our home assistant, the smart home, they can catch people out, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Like it's like, oh, yeah, why doesn't this button turn the light off? [SPEAKER_02]: Like light on as fast as it used to, and then it's a whole technical explanation for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, finally enough this is precisely the reason why I left the list in the podcast because all the time I find something like the next way to do something core

[SPEAKER_02]: want to particularly like it's people kind of in these their stories how they do things and sometimes like oh my god this is so cool I want to have it too yeah exactly yeah and that's why we love doing this podcast right because there's always that there's so many ways to skin a cat and then someone's just going to skin that cat slightly differently and that spark a whole new way of doing that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

[SPEAKER_02]: We back with Adam in a moment, but if you're looking to upgrade your smart home, you can't don't pass the zoos. [SPEAKER_02]: Zoos have just released their brand news that way the long-range Siren in China is at a C-50-800-LR. [SPEAKER_02]: You can trick an audio and visual LED alarms based on smart sensors or other conditions, and the audio speaker plays your own files, personalized automation. [SPEAKER_02]: Or there's a selection in a pre-loaded library.

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[SPEAKER_02]: then use Zen 78 high power relay allows you to control the monitor higher load appliances, up to 40 amps, which is perfect for pool pumps, air compressors, and other high power outlets. [SPEAKER_02]: For the best prices on all Zeus products, head over to the smartesthouse.com. [SPEAKER_02]: That's the smartesthouse.com. [SPEAKER_03]: So in terms of automation, those kind of things like, what are your top like, what are your top couples on that that you like using?

[SPEAKER_03]: And, uh, you know,

[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think is the coolest ones or what do you think is the most practical ones? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the most practical one is definitely, there's actually not one, there is a few around the electricity. [SPEAKER_00]: Because I have the dynamic electricity strip, and they recently like in October the switch to the 15 minutes intervals, so basically every 15 minutes. [SPEAKER_00]: It used to be one hour before, but I think the European markets switched to 15 minutes, recently.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a very good way to optimize things. [SPEAKER_00]: And I have the plug-in hybrid vehicle. [SPEAKER_00]: It has a really good small battery. [SPEAKER_00]: It's like 10 KW.

[SPEAKER_00]: not new, so it's probably like the maximum charge now, it's like 8, which is still not simple especially like if the price difference can be easily liking the 9, it's 15 cents and in the rush hour 60, 70, like last year I think one day it was 30, not 30, like 3, 3 year [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that was crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, this is something that can be easily automated and easily optimized in a way that [SPEAKER_00]: I can do both better in terms of the price, in terms of the environmental impact and then at the same time I don't lose in terms of my usability comfort. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm guessing you would then have access to the pricing through an API like and it is an updated real time, like can you see those 15-minute increments when you need to or is it a delay?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, there is no delays, so basically how the European market works around one PM, they set the price for the next 20, not the next day, basically so the 24 hours starting 12 a.m. [SPEAKER_00]: So basically you always have like day and half of prices, which is predictable enough. [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, they don't change for this period of time, so it makes it easier to automate things.

[SPEAKER_00]: The situation changed a little bit for me because this summer I got the solar panels And now like it's and also layer on top that I have to consider because before it was just price and it was easy Basically if it's cheap you start if it's expensive you stop that's more or less it but this Is the solar panels now I have to rely on the forecast and the forecast for the solar panels It uses the weather forecast vicious never like precise

[SPEAKER_00]: And turns out that the difference can be like we're in a civil, but in terms of the optimization, it's like [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe now it's actually even more complicated than the Shazar Singh because I guess they can. [SPEAKER_02]: Of course. [SPEAKER_02]: Because you look and you have to take into account what that price is going to be over the 24 hours. [SPEAKER_02]: How much sun is there going to be?

[SPEAKER_02]: You then have to determine is it going to be more, am I going to get more benefit out of charging or using solar drink? [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if you've got a battery, but if you don't have a battery as well. [SPEAKER_02]: You've got a battery as well. [SPEAKER_02]: And that's another complication, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Isn't it better for me to charge my battery? [SPEAKER_02]: It's stored or used.

[SPEAKER_02]: or yeah, like there is so many moving parts so yeah, that is complicated. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, in general it works well, I'm very satisfied because basically from time to time often it looked like what's going on now and yeah, there is actually another layer because I have the heating pump for the house, so basically I produced my own hot water and heating for the [SPEAKER_00]: And it has the small tank for water like 200 liters.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is also the azure accumulator, because normally I keep it at the comfortable temperature. [SPEAKER_00]: So basically every time someone opens the hot water, it is good enough so you don't really need to mix. [SPEAKER_00]: You can just use it right away. [SPEAKER_00]: It is like cheaper in terms of the energy because you need less energy to heat it to the lower temperature.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then if you get the free solar energy, you can hit it a little bit more, so this way you can accumulate a bit of, well, not electricity anymore, but heat, but still you can you will use later, so if it's hotter, you can mix so you use less hot water. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, that is complicated. [SPEAKER_03]: It gets complicated. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'm going to say that like, there's so many equations. [SPEAKER_03]: You've got to kind of balance there, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's, can you do anything to like help with homes? [SPEAKER_02]: Can you use homelessness to then help, you know, energy shift or load shift some of your usage to those cheaper hours?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like can you then use home assistant to help you determine, okay, this is a cheap time, which you use electricity, wait for that time before you put the dishwasher on or put the washing machine [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, actually I have the whole set of homoplineses from Bosch, they'll, if I connected. [SPEAKER_00]: And ever time I tell it to someone who doesn't have a smart home, they laugh like, why would you need the if I connected this for sure?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's making a sense. [SPEAKER_00]: But actually, [SPEAKER_00]: In our previous apartment, which we were renting, we had a laundry room in the basement. [SPEAKER_00]: And basically, if you go there, you put the washing machine, you'll never know when it finishes. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you can put the timer, but it's annoying all the time. [SPEAKER_00]: So, what is Wi-Fi connected? [SPEAKER_00]: And I managed to bring the Wi-Fi back to the basement over the power network.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then you get the notification, and it's perfectly fine. [SPEAKER_00]: But then when it connected to homocystened, actually my first attempt was to use the cheapest hour. [SPEAKER_00]: So basically I had the sensors that were saying that, okay, this is the cheapest hour, this is the second-year hour and so on.

[SPEAKER_00]: But turned out that it is useful but not very practical, because normally you want to know when it starts, because if you are seeing sometimes you don't care, but sometimes you want to be sure that it will be done on time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what I'm doing now is actually I use this forecast for the electricity, so that I find the cheapest timeslots, so it takes the, it's actually kind of funny because like to activate it's called the asynchronous control on the washing machine and the dryer, we need to press the physical button every time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's this is probably the safety safety [SPEAKER_00]: So you go down, you put everything into the version machine, you close the door, you push the button, and then if the button is pushed, it means that the homocy system can start, which means that a user requested the automatic start feature, at least in my logic.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what it does, it tries, it first takes the current program, takes how long it takes, [SPEAKER_00]: And then it creates, well, it basically populates the sensor using the information when it will start. [SPEAKER_00]: So you can always open the home assistant and like, well, actually, I can probably do trends now and say that if the washing machine will start, it will do it actually in a lot of minutes, because this is the cheapest time slot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is predictable and it like, [SPEAKER_00]: If I need it now, I just press the star button, so it does not affect the comfort area, but it's an easy way to safely do a little bit of money, because if I don't care, I just do things inside push the remote art, forget about it, then get an notification when it's done. [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm not like it's also ties into your, it should be done by default, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like it uses, like, should be able to start the washing machine, not know that there is also a wave [SPEAKER_02]: make that in the best window. [SPEAKER_02]: If you just want to put a load of washing on and it's saying my expensive hour, you can still do that. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to do that. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. [SPEAKER_00]: Furthermore, I actually had to put a delay because initially it was like when you push root control it was starting.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was starting immediately, but then I realized that you don't have a chance to put your own time because you can use the Bosch app to say, I wanted to start like I didn't [SPEAKER_00]: And if it starts immediately you can not do that so it's now 15 minutes delay so you have time to put your own timer if you like the if you don't it will like best cases will start in 15 minutes or when it's

[SPEAKER_03]: The other side of that is do you have any restrictions in the times it can run because again, for example, let's say, I don't know, you load your dishwasher at, sorry, you dishwasher, you load your washing machine at, I don't know, let's say 10 a.m. whatever. [SPEAKER_03]: And then now all of a sudden the cheapest time is it's running at.

[SPEAKER_03]: Midnight, at which point you'll only get to, you know, pulling it out, putting it in the dryer, five, six, whatever hours later, raining, oh, you know, by the time it might be, you know, sitting there in the wetness and whatever rain gets kind of smelly, they'll do whatever. [SPEAKER_03]: Do you have any protections against that kind of stuff in there too? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: This is the way basically how you learn.

[SPEAKER_00]: So initially you do it the way that it just finds that you just choose timeslot. [SPEAKER_00]: But then funny things happen. [SPEAKER_00]: For instance, one example you just gave. [SPEAKER_00]: Another example would be that if it's Friday, it probably means that the Saturday will be cheaper, but the Sunday will be even cheaper. [SPEAKER_00]: Which means that it might not start up until the Sunday night.

[SPEAKER_00]: because just realize that it will be cheaper next day, like why would I start now? [SPEAKER_00]: To overcome this, I use the schedule feature that I have a schedule sensor, which is basically I tell that okay, on weekdays, it has to finish by, I don't know, like, 6am, 7am, I don't remember, like, basically for either in the night or in the day.

[SPEAKER_00]: has to finish by six or by five p.m. [SPEAKER_03]: So for the cheapest time slot between these times and then and run it there. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, the same for the dishwasher. [SPEAKER_00]: So the logic here is that if you start it in the in the night, it will work over the night. [SPEAKER_00]: If you start it in the morning, you probably want it done by by the evening. [SPEAKER_00]: So we can load the new watch. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that makes sense.

[SPEAKER_03]: That makes sense. [SPEAKER_02]: You mentioned that you're using Bosch appliances there. [SPEAKER_02]: Did you take any consideration into which brand of device you wanted to get based on its need for working with home assistant? [SPEAKER_02]: I know Bosch is pretty good at working with home assistant. [SPEAKER_02]: Was there a, is that the reason you went with the Bosch brand? [SPEAKER_02]: Or it just happened to work out nicely that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: The lighter, so the washing machine, I actually got it in the previous apartment and didn't have any, like it was around the apartment I didn't have any automation there. [SPEAKER_00]: But it tore it out to be very well integrated, it has very nice app. [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, this is probably the only vendor app I'm so using, because everything else is in home assistant, but the boss app is just very good.

[SPEAKER_00]: which is nice and I used it initially, but for some reason I think it cannot press the start button. [SPEAKER_00]: It probably changed, I don't know, but usually it was that you can say start this program. [SPEAKER_00]: So you have to define the program in the automation, not on the machine itself, knowing because it kind of contradicts this dumped first approach.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there is a very good, I think it's called home connect out like a alternative integration, it's on hacks and someone put a lot of effort to overcome like many things that including this one. [SPEAKER_00]: So basically there is a start button. [SPEAKER_00]: So I just, or my wife, or my kid actually, they pick the program on the on the machine and then the automation just presses the start and that's it and I allow it to it's one of the main favorite integrations.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's cool. [SPEAKER_03]: That's actually really interesting. [SPEAKER_03]: OK, so on other stuff, I know you mentioned you're not using presence or it's like that, or your presence is basically, like, hey, you're in the house, you're not in the house. [SPEAKER_03]: Any considerations around using like, actual presence sensors, or those kind of things? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I really want to get some control presence, because for instance, I have the [SPEAKER_00]: the terrorists, but it's isolated. [SPEAKER_00]: So basically you can only go there from inside the house, and it has like the very big window and the shutter as well. [SPEAKER_00]: And this is probably the only shutter which is not automated because I always have a year that if I go outside and for some reason the automation kicks in and it just locks me out of the house.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is one of the reasons to put the [SPEAKER_00]: But again, the movement sensors, the chip, and I need a lot of them because I have quite a few rooms. [SPEAKER_00]: But then they're kind of annoying in a way that if you don't move, they don't work. [SPEAKER_00]: And then you also have a little control over the what they catch. [SPEAKER_00]: So I have no idea how they will work with the like the neighborhoods, for instance.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, when I go for the sensor, it will probably [SPEAKER_00]: they kind of solve all of these problems that but they're more expensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there was actually one reason that was always preventing me from exploring this pass is that the predestination of the acquires sensors, they were [SPEAKER_00]: requiring the power outlet power and it's not that it is also that I think is P2 the cable is embedded so it's like you cannot you cannot take the longer cable if you want to well you can use the connection and that's it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, so I was like, yeah, probably I will go for something when there is a better power to one. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think they announced one at the beginning of the year, and now we can even buy it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's Fp to 100, I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And actually, just yesterday, at least for the, for the one of the latest episodes, I think it was about the brewery. [SPEAKER_00]: And you discuss a lot of brand that's produced. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there was the Lincoln Lake one as well. [SPEAKER_02]: But I was, that they sent me that one. [SPEAKER_02]: One is USB-C powered. [SPEAKER_02]: And then use an interest.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's, you can use their core. [SPEAKER_02]: Or you can just plug a USB-C core into it. [SPEAKER_02]: And then integrates with NQTT, which is nice. [SPEAKER_02]: But it's not going to require a rep. [SPEAKER_02]: Right, but yeah, like I think a millimeter wave is the way to go, but using, you can, are you using this, is your attention to use this outside as well?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because I think outside there would be just too much movement from your like trees moving or an animal walking past or anything. [SPEAKER_00]: Might, yeah, you're probably right. [SPEAKER_00]: So I need to try it, but by idea was that I will try to [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, except for their neighborhoods, it shouldn't have anything more in there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Unless you want to do, like, if, uh, I think real-ink cameras, um, if you can get a, uh, payaway outlet out there, um, they have a local AI detection on them, and they interact in an awesome environment assistant, and you can actually determine, like, is that a person on the frame, or is it a, uh, [SPEAKER_02]: animal. [SPEAKER_02]: And then you have to go, okay, if there's a person in the terrace, don't close the shutter, essentially.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but of course, requires payway and whole bunch of other stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: I actually have a least, it's called the the Dex house. [SPEAKER_00]: The next. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I put things like there on the on that least and I think it has a line for the outside P.O.E. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: So it's good. [SPEAKER_02]: So G, on that then, I think it got like a smart doorbell, like a ring doorbell or anything like that as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've got one from the Ubiquiti. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's, I used to have G4, but they recently released the G4 Pro. [SPEAKER_00]: And I switched because it has the fingerprint sensor and NFC. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh nice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Churns out that the finger print sensor really sucks and sorry to say that, but I remember I think my first phone that had a finger print sensor, I think it was some Sony experience like 10 years ago and it was terrible and it's kind of like I am back back to that taste because nowadays like the MacBooks, I don't know all the modern phones, they just work. [SPEAKER_00]: But for some reason, the default processor, it just doesn't work.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's sort of what you think around the right way. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: I automated it so that it is through the Home Assistant. [SPEAKER_00]: It can use the smart lock to open the door, but then usability wise, it's just terrible. [SPEAKER_00]: And I see it's good, so I immediately replace the keys for my son, he stands, he loses everything all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll play as the physical key is there and I'll see you because if he loses his day, he doesn't care because last night. [SPEAKER_02]: So he, when he gets home, he scans an Fc card onto the doorbell and then the doorbell will then return a message and unlock the smart lock. [SPEAKER_02]: Is that how it works? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's cool. [SPEAKER_02]: How is the delay on that? [SPEAKER_02]: Like I know before we're talking about turning lights on and off with the delay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you find any delay from wanting to scan something on the doorbell [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, it is funny because it's even faster than the unified itself, so yeah, just that the doorbell produces sounds when you do something, so if you put the card to the NFC reader, when it recognizes the card, it's like places sound, so that door opens like two seconds earlier than that, I don't know why it worked this way, it doesn't make any sense, but yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: What's the smart look that you're using on the door? [SPEAKER_00]: Are you using your key? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I see. [SPEAKER_00]: You had a very good episode to recently. [SPEAKER_00]: These, the city hall floor.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, one of the co-founder communities. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I know you're, like, Germany in Europe. [SPEAKER_02]: That was my, my question about it because I know you guys have some fancy door locks there. [SPEAKER_02]: And, and your key is a bigger pain brand. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it works well, and you kind of feel that they were really keeping in mind the locks of the European locks.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, because you got to turn it like three times or something like that, right? [SPEAKER_03]: It's everywhere you're saying. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, and actually this is not the most annoying part. [SPEAKER_00]: The most annoying part that basically the door out of locks.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you go outside and you just lock the door, it locks and you need to turn it like at an [SPEAKER_00]: So basically what the smart log does, it turns it 90 degrees, weighs for like an 12 second 30 seconds and then releases it so that it can log back. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh interesting. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's crazy. [SPEAKER_03]: It's so funny right how something like a lock can just vary so much from a standard perspective between continents or Europe versus the US Canada.

[SPEAKER_03]: I feel I'm guessing Australia, you guys use a similar standard to North America or do you guys have the full look you got to keep doing it? [SPEAKER_02]: No, we just have that as no. [SPEAKER_02]: I think like, all depends on the house, but no, I haven't experienced a house in Australia that has the triple turn lock.

[SPEAKER_02]: We have a general there's a handle that could have a look on it and then you could also get an optional deadbolt as well or a deadlock as well, which way you genuinely have you smart stuff on that. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Just adding something down in Australia though, so it's just- Exactly. [SPEAKER_02]: You said before that you have your wishlist for your next house.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you have a wishlist for this house that you're hoping to get you like, I know we're recording at the end of 2025. [SPEAKER_02]: So time the episode's out. [SPEAKER_02]: It's the start of 2026 everyone's doing their new year's resolutions. [SPEAKER_02]: Have you got something that you're hoping to achieve in in 2026 for your smart house? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't keep a list for this because it's a little bit too long.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: It is, I, I, I, you should believe it by, by mine I have, but actually it's, it's mostly, it's not that I have too much money. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just, I don't have enough time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, and it's like, every time, for instance, it's sometimes go to the business trips and like, there is new version of homocyst, and then like, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, not going to update it, because if I do it, I don't need to spend like two hours fixing everything. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, come on, live on the edge a little bit. [SPEAKER_02]: Mmm. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's fancy and shiny new features, right? [SPEAKER_02]: That's true.

[SPEAKER_03]: No. [SPEAKER_03]: I still always do it. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, even if I'm traveling for work, whatever, I'm like, I see an update. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Why not? [SPEAKER_03]: And I'll do it. [SPEAKER_03]: It's risky for sure. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'll break. [SPEAKER_03]: Keep life exciting, man. [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I remember the, my windows times when it was, like, everyone was waking for the service back one.

[SPEAKER_00]: before updating sites, it's the same. [SPEAKER_00]: And again, the time-wise, I do want to do a lot of things. [SPEAKER_00]: It's the smart home and there's a lot of opportunities, but then again, you need to dedicate some time, but then you need to dedicate some time to fix it and make it work. [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm still figuring out this whole solar panel things, because it's still like it's already, I don't know, half a year, but it's a lot of improvements I can do.

[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't had it for half a year, then you haven't really experienced all the seasons too, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Like, as you go to winter, you'll need to then make some more of the firements and make sure they're compatible with some of the time, and yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, uh, but I think like what I would do and to really want to do, first of all, I have the last, the temporary light bulb hanging from my living room, which is embarrassing because this is the room we use the most, uh,

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I really hope to get the Philipps here there and it's hell of a project because I have like four switches for this single light bulb in each corner of the room and I really need to do something about that because like basically you need the the fuel lamp on this power it right and then you control it using some other smart feature the phoneer. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a bit more complicated than just putting the lamp on the floor. [SPEAKER_00]: So how fully I will get to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really want to put my hands on the millimeter wave sensors, because it's the the shutter that's still on the wind can't I think with this sensors, I will be able to fit them. [SPEAKER_00]: This is a good one too.

[SPEAKER_00]: What else? [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, like, every time something doesn't work to my wish, I just like, yeah, I need to do that, but I don't keep the research. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Otherwise you'll look at it and yeah, it's too much work. [SPEAKER_02]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: No, um, you've got like smart speakers or anything around the house. [SPEAKER_02]: We're doing anything with entertainment wise.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like I know, around an eye is black, so I use so-and-os. [SPEAKER_02]: Are you doing anything audio-visual with the smart hand? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm big on the Google ecosystem, so you have quite a few hominies, mostly because at some point they were just given them away for free for whatever reason. [SPEAKER_00]: You write it into the application here as a hominie. [SPEAKER_00]: That's something like that. [SPEAKER_00]: But they are very good to play music.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not really listening to the music all the time, so I don't care that much about the sound quality, [SPEAKER_00]: I have one in the laundry room, so when I fault laundry, laundry, I can just put some music there. [SPEAKER_00]: I have Google [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's called Homecast Music. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure if they produced them anymore. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I don't think that is the one I stopped making the Homecast audio. [SPEAKER_03]: It's like a circle, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Like, yeah, yeah, I had one somewhere. [SPEAKER_03]: It's from installing the basement somewhere. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but it works the same like home minimously. [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't have the voice control features, but it's just connected to the speaker so it can play music. [SPEAKER_00]: I [SPEAKER_00]: To be honest, I don't use them a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing I'm using is that we have this constant fight, which is my son about not doing chores, because we kind of try to split the workload in all of the family members. [SPEAKER_00]: and like every time I'm asking him actually just yesterday had a conversation like why did you not like you know unload the dryer and he's like I didn't know that it finished.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every time any home appliance finishes there is the voice notification on all of the devices in actually different languages because my son is better with German and they use English and my wife is just annoyed that [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, basically when there is this synthetic voice from the Google Translate, which is like saying that the washing machine is right at me unload. [SPEAKER_00]: That's something like that.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: But I think, yeah, this is the extent of it. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not saying so. [SPEAKER_02]: Cool. [SPEAKER_02]: All right, so we've talked about your wish list. [SPEAKER_02]: Is there any like, I know we're just changing seasons now, it's but it cold when we're recording this. [SPEAKER_02]: If you got any like climate, automations or anything that you can, you've got going? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, actually, I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, as I mentioned before, I started to use the shatters and

[SPEAKER_00]: This was one of probably the best purchases of whole time because first of all, [SPEAKER_00]: Again, I think in the, in the brewery episode, you discuss the data and that's, it's not that much important to do something, but it's very important to get the data and understand what's going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I totally second that, because like even if I don't want to do anything, I try to put everything into how much distance so that at least they have the track of things that going on, I have all of the sensors, I can see the history. [SPEAKER_00]: And it helped me to save a lot of money. [SPEAKER_00]: These are the thermostats, because when I replaced the mechanical ones with the smart ones, I realized that temperature in one room. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it was high, it was okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I knew it already, but then I realized that it does not correspond to the heating schedule, because with the smart thermostat you can set the [SPEAKER_00]: And all of the rooms, they behave the same way, but one didn't, and it was a kitchen wand. [SPEAKER_00]: And I noticed before that the floor indication is always warm, but you never know why, because it could be just the basement heating in it for some reason or something else.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I was a little bit annoyed, because it was a bit out of place. [SPEAKER_00]: So I started figuring out what's going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, [SPEAKER_00]: like I have the floor heating and there are the valves that are connected to the pipes basically that you know spread the warm water inside the floor and I looked at them and I realized that they were actually not fixed right so the system works in the way that there is the valves they have to push on the it's like a router something so that it closes the valve

[SPEAKER_00]: So, it works in the way that when the electricity comes to the valve, it pushes the rod and then the valve is closed. [SPEAKER_00]: When like the switch turns off, it disconnects and it works the same way for mechanical and smart ones. [SPEAKER_00]: When it disconnects, the rod has not been pushed, it opens the valve and the circle all the works. [SPEAKER_00]: So, basically it's kicking the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the wealth they were not installed properly, so they were not fixed, which means that they were not pushing enough on the on the on the road. [SPEAKER_00]: So it was open like all the time, so the kitchen, it was heating, no matter the temperature, no matter what, basically all the heat was going there and basically it was like using money all the time because the heating pump had to work, had to warm this water. [SPEAKER_00]: So I fixed that.

[SPEAKER_00]: First, we noticed almost immediately that the temperature dropped, which is okay because now we can control it. [SPEAKER_00]: But it did not is that the bill dropped because it's like, you know, the accumulation and delay and everything, but at least I... [SPEAKER_00]: tend to believe that it had to draw up because it stopped using the electricity to hit you. [SPEAKER_03]: Sure, it's not constantly going. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what helped me to realize the problem is data. [SPEAKER_00]: So there were signs that something wrong, but I didn't start investigating before I actually saw that there is a difference between different terms.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now like I have all bunch of automations around it, [SPEAKER_00]: We have a relatively new and order house, so it is very good at keeping the temperature, so you don't have to hit it like all the time, and then I use the presence sensor, like location-based, to start or stop the pump, so basically I change the way how the pump tweets the system, so when there is no on-home it just works in the water heating mode,

[SPEAKER_00]: because I want to get back home and have the warm water but I don't have to hit the house so because it will keep the temperature. [SPEAKER_00]: But then when you go home, it first changes the pump but then it's also changes the profile for the thermostats.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like I have three different profiles for each season so there are three for summer, three for winter and then winter basically it's like [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I don't know, like extreme one, when I have the excess of the solar power, so that it heats home a little bit more, so basically again it's another accumulator, then it can use to store the energy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there is the sort one which is sort of standby when no one's home and just put the temperature down a little bit. [SPEAKER_00]: The same for summer because the heat pump, it's like, well, it's a heat pump. [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't care like in which direction to work, so it can work as the I see unit as well. [SPEAKER_00]: It's this little bit slow because it's not cooling the air, it's cooling the floor. [SPEAKER_00]: So it really, it's it's really slow.

[SPEAKER_00]: It takes some time to cool it, but then it's a little help and it's not that expensive in terms [SPEAKER_00]: And there is the ventilation on top of that, which is a separate unit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, and again, a lot of homosystems, because I have all of these devices. [SPEAKER_00]: They don't know about each other. [SPEAKER_00]: So I have like three different vendors for the Chermostat, the heat pump and the ventilation. [SPEAKER_00]: Still I can connect them, so they react to them. [SPEAKER_00]: Do they have what happens inside the house?

[SPEAKER_02]: Have you seen there is a custom component on hacks called a versatile thermostat, I think it's called, and it's essentially designed to enable home assistant to be like a nest like learning thermostat but control all the different moving parts so it can take. [SPEAKER_02]: your own door sensors or your own present sensors from home.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then like turn on an unrelated climate device that home assistant can see so that the idea being, I think one of the list, the next features is that as you get close to home, you know, it will turn on [SPEAKER_02]: Um, the hay track system for you, um, as you move away, it'll turn it off, whatever. [SPEAKER_02]: Um, this versatile thermostat has the ability to do that. [SPEAKER_02]: And it's got a whole bunch of other, um, features that you can plug in as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it sounds like, um, if you've got like a whole bunch of unrelated entities, you could then use this component to make like a smart learning thermostat from this, um, hacks component. [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, no, I never heard about it. [SPEAKER_00]: The same sounds were cool. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I've installed it. [SPEAKER_02]: I haven't got too far deep into it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I then got my own, like we've read it out, hitting and calling and I just haven't had a chance to. [SPEAKER_02]: update it because I just had split systems. [SPEAKER_02]: Why am I thinking was, I will use this component to instead of using the gas, natural gas heating system. [SPEAKER_02]: I will use the split systems and have this run through it. [SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, we eventually moved over to a electric and I just haven't had a chance to move everything over.

[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, it's, you can use your own temperature sensors like your own room. [SPEAKER_02]: So you could go off and get some cheap ZGB, temperature sensors, there's chucking in the bedrooms. [SPEAKER_02]: At that as a zone into a versatile, [SPEAKER_02]: the festival of home is the thermosaccomponent and where you go, you've got your own zone controllers and all that. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, that's very cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, yeah, the, like, the, the long-to-things that, uh, that I were there and were done by someone in the community to just crazy. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, yeah, I don't have such, like, its own thing, right? [SPEAKER_02]: Like, you've got, yeah, all those, what 10,000 integrations with home is a core that you ship with and then you add hacks onto the mix, like, yeah, there is just, uh, amazing, amazing community out there. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, pound per cent.

[SPEAKER_02]: I love it. [SPEAKER_02]: Cool. [SPEAKER_02]: Adam, thank you so much for sharing us all today. [SPEAKER_02]: And thank you for listening to the podcast of course. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we really appreciate you coming on and talking to us today. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. [SPEAKER_00]: I love it. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: Cheers.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you want to share your home assistant journey or come on as a guest, reach out to us at feedback at haspodcast.io. [SPEAKER_02]: That's HAS podcast.io. [SPEAKER_03]: podcast is hosted by Phil Hawthorne and myself, Rohan Kermandy. [SPEAKER_03]: For links to topics we discussed today, check out our show notes on haspodcast.io.