For my new house I\u2019ve gone all out, and that includes making it smarter than I am. Not exactly a hard feat. From windows that automatically shade themselves to reduce unwanted heat gain into the house, to ensuring my air tight house doesn\u2019t suffocate me in my sleep, I\u2019ve been going a little overboard on adding smarts to pretty much everything I can \u2026 and I\u2019m still not done. While I recognize that going nuts with smart home tech isn\u2019t for everyone, at the heart of what I\u2019m doing is about saving energy and ultimately money, which is a pretty universal desire. So, with that in mind, let me take you on a journey into my Mensa-Level home to hopefully inspire some ideas for smart tech additions to your own home.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s not waste any time here \u2026 first one up, and the thing I planned on from the very beginning phases of the project, was smart shades<\/a> on every window of the house. I\u2019m not going to lie and say I did this purely for the energy gains. They\u2019re insanely cool. Even my wife has said it feels like we\u2019re living in some kind of sci-fi future house when all the windows in a room open or close in sync. But the real power of smart home technology is in the automations. The house can take care of itself even if nobody is around. I\u2019ve got some light sensors<\/a> in various rooms in the house (even outside the house). A good example is my office. The sun is blinding in the mid morning hours of the day, but how the sun tracks in the sky changes throughout the year. And on overcast days it\u2019s not a problem at all. Well, I\u2019ve got an automation that will automatically close the side\/sun-facing window if the light level coming into the room is over 2,000 lux. Then another automation raises the blind automatically around midday when the sun is out of direct view of that window.<\/p>\n I also have a Tempest weather station<\/a> outside, which takes its own light level readings. I just recently set up an automation that takes its lux level reading to help determine if it\u2019s an overcast day or not at my house’s exact location. If it\u2019s overcast, windows will stay open during the day. If it\u2019s super sunny, certain windows will drop at certain times to help shield the worst of the sun coming in. It\u2019s going to take some tweaking over the coming months to make sure it\u2019s adaptable enough to change with the seasons. In the winter, getting a little extra heat from the sun into the house can be a benefit, so I\u2019d want to keep all the sun-facing windows open. But in the summer I\u2019d want to keep them closed to keep the house cool.<\/p>\n The ultimate goal for my house is to achieve net zero energy production over the course of the year (I have solar and home batteries) \u2026 and implementing smart home tech like this can help with that goal.<\/p>\n Is this excessive, yeah. Necessary, no \u2026 but shading windows at various times of the day and year can have a big impact on energy efficiency. One study from the Illinois Institute of Technology found a 25% reduction in heating and cooling energy consumption with automated motorized shades. The actual amount will vary based on type of coverying. For instance a honeycomb shade will provide more insulating punch than a roller shade. In my case, we already have triple paned, tilt turn style windows that are extremely energy efficient. Because of that I didn\u2019t think there\u2019d be a sizable difference between the two, so we opted for roller shades around the house.<\/p>\n For full transparency, Lutron did help me out with some of these shades and switches, but the reason I wanted to go with Lutron was my personal experience with them over the past five or so years. In my old house my Lutron Caseta light switches and remotes were the most reliable smart home tech in my house \u2026 period. And so far it\u2019s exactly the same thing this time around.<\/p>\n Speaking of controlling light into the house \u2026 there\u2019s the lights inside the house combined with presence detection. Actually, this is much more than just lights, but automating lights and devices turning on and off depending on what\u2019s happening in the house. I have motion sensors<\/a>, millimeter wave presence sensors, and bluetooth beacon tracking working with our Apple Watches throughout the house. Yes, my house knows what room I\u2019m in. The person specific presence tracking is all in Home Assistant and locally controlled. That powers some automations that turn on key devices in my office when I walk into the room for the first time during the day, like my computer\u2019s speakers and lights (if it\u2019s dark). But with person level presence tracking, if my wife comes into my empty office, it\u2019s not going to flip on my computer\u2019s speakers since she never uses this computer. You can really dial it in. And yes, it\u2019s a major convenience factor, but it can also be a nice energy saver too. Whatever is controlled by a smart light switch, I\u2019ve got Lutron Caseta switches<\/a> all around the house, or smart outlets, they can help cut the phantom drain of electricity when nobody is around to use those devices. This is extra true in my home studio, which is really only used when I\u2019m recording videos. When that\u2019s not happening every device in this room gets switched off completely (with the exception of the handful of smart outlets themselves).<\/p>\n A side benefit of smart switches is being able to easily reconfigure your house too. I\u2019ve already bought a bunch of extra Lutron Pico remotes<\/a> and added them to areas where my wife and I found that we missed not having a physical light switch. You can\u2019t nail light switch locations 100% of the time before actually living in a house. For instance, an island light dimmer next to one of the kitchen entrances. Or in my home office next to one of the doors. It\u2019s kind of the \u201cdesire path\u201d principle. You can think you\u2019ve got all of the pathways figured out in a new public park, but inevitably you\u2019ll find worn down pathways forming through areas of the park you didn\u2019t anticipate.<\/p>\n An often overlooked area of our homes is air quality, but not in my house. I may have gone a little overboard. I\u2019ve got air quality sensors in all the major rooms of the house that track temperature, humidity, particulate matter, and CO2 levels. It\u2019s that last one I was really interested in tracking because this is a very airtight house.<\/p>\n I was trying to figure out how to turn my house\u2019s dumb energy recovery ventilator (ERV) smart, when fate intervened. Someone from Shelly reached out to me on my Discord server with a solution that fit the bill. This isn\u2019t a sponsorship, but they did send me this Shelly Plus 1 relay<\/a> that I hooked up to my ERV. I was blown away by the versatility of this thing.Lights and Presence Detection<\/h2>\n
\n<\/p>\nAir quality<\/h2>\n
\nIf the CO2 levels get too high in any room, I\u2019ve automated the system to put my ERV into boost mode for 20 minutes. Or to boost things if the humidity level in the bathroom gets above 80%, which is handy when taking a shower. The lungs of my house are now fully automated.<\/p>\n