Passionfruit DesignPortsmouth and the South Coast

Home automation in my own house

The system I live with. Lights, heating and sensors from different makers run from a small computer in my house, with more than 60 automations. When something goes wrong, it goes wrong for me first.

Why this is here

I do not have a business installation to show you yet. I do have a house that has run this way, every day, and it is where I learned what breaks.

What it does

Lights follow whether anyone is in the room, and take account of how bright the room already is. Radiator valves follow the wall thermostats. Away and holiday settings take over when nobody is in.

The doorbell has a backup chime for when the internet is down. Dashboards show what is on, what is off and which rooms are in use.

Keeping it running

The system watches itself. If the radio, a sensor or the database stops working, I get an alert.

Its settings are backed up every night, and a check catches mistakes before they cause trouble.

What is still not local

Some devices in my house still depend on their makers' services. That is how I know which ones to steer you away from, and why I tell you before you buy.

What I did here

  • Home and business automation

    Home Assistant home and business automation in Portsmouth and the South Coast. Local control, hardware you own, installed and supported by me.

For IT people

Home Assistant in production at home, in Docker on one small server. More than 60 automations and more than 60 scripts.

  • Home Assistant, Mosquitto and rtl_433 in Docker on one small home server.
  • A Zigbee network of bulbs, buttons, switches, radiator valves and presence sensors.
  • More than 60 automations and more than 60 scripts.
  • Lighting from radar and PIR presence, gated on each room's light level.
  • Watchdogs for the radio, the sensors and the database, with alerts.
  • Configuration pushed to a private Git repository nightly, with a regression check for YAML errors, duplicate ids and calls to undefined scripts.

  • Home Assistant

    Home Assistant setup and automation in Docker: Zigbee, MQTT and 433 MHz radio, presence lighting, heating, watchdogs and a nightly config backup.

All the work, with the tools named

Let’s talk it through

Tell me what you would like to make easier. It is fine if you are still working out what you need. We can start with a conversation, in person around Portsmouth and the South Coast, or by video call anywhere in the UK.

Have a conversation

Or email hello@passionfruit.design, or call or WhatsApp 07385 509278.