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.

In my home, I have a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery powered by Stiebel Eltron V-400. Basically, it’s a large fan with air inflows and outflows ducts. Besides some built-in automation, it’s a pretty dumb device. Without a dedicated gateway (which costs extra money), I can only control it or see its current parameters on the controller, either on the unit or in the hall.

I thought it would be nice to collect some data from this device, both for some kind of analysis and out of curiosity. I run Home Assistant, which can display dedicated graphs and dashboards for such purpose. And, because I recently played with ESP boards, the idea was born pretty quickly.