Home Automation

Post date: Dec 7, 2012 12:46:22 AM

After moving back from the U.A.E., we have purchased a small little bungalo in Kitchener, Ontario. In an effort to make it mine and save energy, I have decided to invest in some DIY smart home technology.

First off, I have purchased a Radiostat thermostat. This thermostat is WiFi connected and has cloud based control (boo) and a local API (yeay!). I have begun using the local API through a Soekris net-4801 running Debian. I have written some PHP scripts that control the automation.

The first is the poller. It polls the thermostat (every minute) and the local weather station data at the University of Waterloo (every fifteen minutes) and places the data in a postgresql database only if the data has changed from last poll.

The second script is the event script. It will check for certain events (calendar events/presence indicators/weather data events/etc) and take appropriate actions (adjust thermostat/email alerts/control lighting/etc.).

Finally, there is a data export script that will reformat the data into standard minute intervals (averaging values from the irregular intervals stored in the database which I will then display using HighCharts. The results (below) in MS Excel already look promising.

I have investigated some other inputs:

DSC alarm panel - I am purchaing an IT-100 for integration with my DSC-1864 and existng sensors. This will help me determine presence and also control/give status for my garage doors.

Dallas Semiconductor 1-wire bus solution from HW-Group they call Poseidon, but it came to almost $2K CAD for only a hadful of temp/humidity sensors. I want to monitor my fridge as well as automate the bathroom exhaust fans (to prevent mould/mildew)

For outputs:

I am going to buy some insteon ceiling fan controllers and other insteon gear. I will make my outdoor lights run off a combination of moton sensors (data from DSC alarm panel), sun-times (dim after dark) and solar radiation data from the University of Waterloo weather station.