Home Automation

Today I'm going to show you some of the ways I'm using Home Assistant and Grocy to automate our shopping list. Using Home Assistant with Grocy allows our smart home to tell us when we need to purchase something, as opposed to adding things to a shopping list when it's already too late.

Plugs that can automate your appliances have been around for years. From simple timers, to digital ones that can even account for what day of week it is. Now with home automation getting more ground, the next generation of smart plugs allow more control and functions than ever before.

When it comes to Home Automation, your home needs to be smart enough to know if the home is occupied or not. This falls under the term of "Presence Detection", and there are many options available when it comes to detecting presence.

Automating lights can be one of the best ways to make your home smarter, even when you're a renter. Coloured lights are a great way to give your home a different feel based on your mood.

I love walking around the house and having music playing. However, most of the time when I'm home alone, or if the internal doors are closed, I don't need the music to be in every room.

Being a developer, I love the flexibility and power Docker brings to Home Automation. Docker makes it easy to run multiple services which can play a big role in your smart home.

A smart home captures a lot of data. Visualizing that data can help you see long term trends in how your smart home is used.

In Home Assistant and many other home automation controllers, your home status is either Home or Away. There's no in-between.

The Amazon Echo created a new category of speakers, the smart speaker. With the Alexa voice assistant, the speaker found a new market in the smart home. Being first to market can be a big advantage. Everyone knows this. However being first to market doesn't automatically make you