When people ask me about my Smart Home, they often expect something high-tech. Instead, they find an ordinary house that just happens to be observable, controllable, and a little more convenient. The trick? A hidden layer that I can build, break, and rebuild however I want.

What’s the smart home

I don’t really like the term “Smart Home”. I’m not sure the official definition even exists, but most of the ones I’ve found mention “remote control”, “internet connection”, and “automation”. Too broad, too vague.

I prefer to think of the smart home as a home that is:

  • Observable – I know what’s going on.
  • Controllable – I can influence it.

But focusing on those two factors makes almost every home “smart”, as long as there’s a human in the loop. People can manually control things when needed.

What if we replace the human by automation, an algorithm, or AI? Then we need another way to access the data and control things – remotely. And that doesn’t necessarily mean via the Internet.

No vendor lock-in

Technology lets us do impressive things, but it has one characteristic I personally can’t ignore – it gets old faster than almost anything else.

That’s why I avoid relying on a single vendor promising to build an entire Smart Home ecosystem. I believe it works for some people and in some cases is the best choice for those who want a controllable home. But I know it won’t work for me. I like tinkering much more than such systems allow, and I want the freedom to use whatever I want – like I did with my heat recovery system.

I set up my entire home using Home Assistant, the open-source smart home platform. I mostly use devices that are cheap, easily upgradeable, and fun to play with. Most of them communicate via Zigbee and Wi-Fi.

A hidden layer

Some modern houses look “smart” from the first glance: ubiquitous displays, touch panels, dimmable lights controlled by quietly listening Google Home speaker in the corner of the living room.

My goal was quite the opposite. I wanted to make a standard-looking house, where the “smart” components are carefully hidden. It’s just a regular home – at the first, second, and even third glance.

I like to think of it as a layer. Something that exists on top of (or under) the things I already have. I can add things to this layer, I can remove them, but most importantly – I can drop everything without leaving visual changes.

Dumb devices are fine

Not everything needs to be connected to the Internet. A smart oven is useless when there’s nothing inside. Also, I don’t leave such appliances running without supervision or at least one person at home.

Smart fridge? I don’t buy it. Smart dishwasher that counts tabs? I always keep a spare pack in the laundry.

Whenever a device asks me for my Wi-Fi password, the first question I ask myself is: what’s the point? Most of the time it brings no real benefit.

It’s sometimes hard to buy appliances without “smart” features (try to buy a non-smart TV). But you don’t need to enable them or, at least, connect them to the Internet.

Exit strategy

Because I’ve chosen the “no vendor lock-in” approach, I lost the possibility of buying any kind of official support. I’m the only maintainer of my smart home layer.

But being the only maintainer doesn’t mean that I’m the only user. My family uses it as well.

There’s nothing more annoying that things that sometimes work. That’s why I design and build critical parts of the home in a specific way. Even if Home Assistant goes down, everything remains operational. Lights and blinds are still controlled using switches, the alarm is unaffected, and smart plugs can be turned on and off using the button on the cover.

What gets lost is only

  • observability – unless some components are decentralised,
  • controllability – the remote part.

So turning everything off just degrades the Smart Home to regular Home. And at the end of the day, it even looks like one.

This approach guarantees that even if I’m no longer here to update or fix things, my wife will continue living in the same cozy space – maybe just without a few handy automations.

Hobby, not project

I treat what I built as a hobby. I like tinkering, adding components, removing old ones, testing automations, creating scenes, analysing the data, and so on. Some experiments stay as useful automation, others get disabled after a few tries – but that’s how I like it.

I couldn’t predict every potential use case, but I can easily extend and adjust when needed.

Automation is best when you don’t even notice it. We sometimes do notice – especially when it fails to trigger. That’s the moment when I smile to myself, thinking that there’s always room to improve.