
Show Notes
Roland joins Phil and Rohan to share how a simple attempt to measure an old fridge's energy use led to a deeply data-driven Home Assistant smart home. Energy monitoring, solar forecasting, home batteries, EV charging, ESPHome, weather data and templates are all used to make his home smarter.
Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA251
Support the Podcast Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon. https://homeassistant.fm/patreon
Share your story We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.
Chapters 00:00:00 Welcome 00:02:01 An accidental Home Assistant install 00:06:04 Scaling devices and automations 00:08:04 Solar forecasts and battery control 00:16:46 ESPHome windows and storm protection 00:21:03 Home Assistant at the university 00:26:16 Starting with energy data 00:29:08 Cooling buckets and digital grass 00:34:52 Turning data into automations 00:37:19 Summer-winter heating and cooling 00:43:52 Measuring a new home 00:47:21 Whole-home energy and smart PC 00:52:16 Pool monitoring and house insights 00:59:07 Future projects and stable automation 01:04:26 Updates, reliability and farewell
This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors Zooz If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers. For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com
Apollo Automation Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.
Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Sign up for your free trial in your Home Assistant system: https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/cloud/ or visit https://nabucasa.com
Want Phil to help with your smart home? You’ve heard him troubleshoot Home Assistant on the podcast. Now you can book him to troubleshoot yours. From broken automations and confusing YAML to dashboards, devices, and complete smart home setups: https://smarthomecto.com
Products Discussed Navimow robotic lawn mower: https://amzn.to/4d7phni Apollo Automation ESPHome Starter Kit: https://esphome.io/starter-kit/ Apollo Automation Cast 1: https://apolloautomation.com/products/cast-1-audio-casting-device Shelly smart relays/switches: https://amzn.to/4tfoHdE Shelly One relay: https://amzn.to/4wUFxj6 Products we Recommend
Hosts Phil Hawthorne Website Twitter: @philhawthorne Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com Buy Phil a Coffee
Rohan Karamandi Website Twitter: @rohank9 Buy Rohan a Coffee
This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
More from Home Assistant Podcast
Phil and Rohan tour Patreon supporter Jason’s Home Assistant setup. Discover how he uses UniFi cameras as motion sensors, automatically aims a PTZ camera, and identifies backyard birds with BirdNet. Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA255
A temperature sensor, a smart plug and a baby who wouldn’t sleep started Mayan’s Home Assistant journey. Phil and Rohan explore how that first nursery automation grew into Zigbee heating controls, local white noise, custom lighting and a whole-house dashboard.
Phil and Rohan unpack Home Assistant 2026.10, from redesigned maps and easier trigger-based automations to AI setup, Matter devices and Z-Wave network maps. They also discuss reports about LG TV privacy and Shelly’s planned acquisition.
Phil and Rohan are joined by Trey from Tallahassee, Florida, to explore his local-first Home Assistant setup. From an X10 beginning and a MyQ API shutdown to Zigbee migrations, Trey has seen a lot!
How do you make Home Assistant resilient when an update fails or your primary server goes offline? Phil and Rohan talk with Adrian from Western Australia about his dual Home Assistant setup, webhook heartbeat failover, Git-based YAML configuration, and a 12V battery-backed home network. Adrian has shared some notes on his setup here: https://docs.na.id.au/