How I automated my home: from a single outlet to Home Assistant and ESPHome

If briefly: I didn't plan a "smart home." I just planned to finish the renovation and live normally. But reality quickly made adjustments — and over time, automation transformed from a "cool toy" into something that really saves nerves, money, and time.

Below is my journey through several eras. Without fanaticism, but with technical details where they matter.

It all started in 2021. The house was being completed, the renovation was almost finished, but the city power grid was never connected — bureaucracy, approvals...

And when the renovation is at the finish line, another risk appears: things can "disappear" in a semi-empty house. Including what is attached to the walls. So we decided not to wait and set up a basic autonomous system: solar panels, a battery, an inverter — and try to survive.

The configuration was quite modest but functional: 5 kW panels / 5 kW batteries / 5 kW inverter.

And it was the autonomy that became the trigger for the first automation — because you start counting every kilowatt.

The first "insight" was simple: the boiler(s) cannot run 24/7 when you live on batteries. Control and scheduling are needed.

A friend advised me to try a smart socket — and I bought TP-Link Tapo P100 almost randomly. The socket immediately provided:

It worked so well that the very first socket is still alive: since the summer of 2021, it has been running the boiler through itself for about 2 kW daily.

Then everything went by the classics: "I'll buy one more — and that's it." And then another one. And another...

In the summer of 2022, the city grid was connected. At that time, we installed an electric boiler — as simple as possible, essentially a "kettle" with three heating elements.

And here came the second important thought: I don't feel "50°C in the pipe." I feel the air temperature. Plus, the rooms are different, heat up differently, and "one temperature for everything" — doesn't work.

I looked towards Tuya, as there are many inexpensive devices and simple "if/then" scenarios. I bought:

I switched the boiler to constant on mode, and started controlling its power through a contactor: the socket simply closes the control contact, while the power part is pulled by the contactor.

I placed the thermometer in the bedroom on the second floor — it was colder there. But… it became too hot on the first floor.

The solution was logical: divide heating by floors. In the boiler room, we added electric valves for the water. You supply power — the valve opens, water flows. You don't supply — it closes.

A nuance that is important to consider: valves can be normally closed or normally open. And here you need to choose according to your logic and how you want the system to behave when the power is turned off.

I added a separate thermometer to the first floor — and the scenarios became more adequate.

Over time, I additionally localized room by room with "dumb" electric heads and smart sockets that operate on the same principle as electric valves.

At the same time, we built a garage for two cars.

It immediately became clear that opening the shutters manually was inconvenient, so I decided to automate it. I installed sockets there and took a simple motor for the shutters: three wires — open / close / neutral. The end positions are set with screws.

To make it smart — I installed a two-pole contactor: one pole "open," the other "close." You supply power to the coil — the contactor switches and the motor works in the desired direction.

And another "useful little thing": during power outages, the smart socket turned into a detector of city network presence. It is plugged into the city line: if there is a network — the socket is online; if not — offline. Simple, cheap, effective.

Next, I matured to the obvious: a bunch of apps, a bunch of ecosystems, a bunch of disparate scenarios — this is not a "smart home." This is a "zoo."

Thus, I came to Home Assistant. It is a powerful system that you install on a home server, and it:

After that, I:

And most importantly — a normal logic of automations appeared. For example — a "charging window" for the boiler:

The boiler gets, conditionally, 5 hours a day. If during this time there is a city network — it turns on. If the network disappears — it turns off. Outside the "window" — it doesn't turn on at all (or remains forcibly off).

With constant power outages, the benefit is very noticeable.

Another nice feature: integration with CarPlay. I literally connected buttons for opening the garage to the car stereo in just a few minutes — and this is one of those "little" automations that you then use constantly.

In 2025, the outages became stricter. And I ran into a problem: the battery charge is insufficient, and there is no proper monitoring of the inverter and batteries.

I tried to monitor:

But it quickly became clear that many protocols are closed, and community support is weak. And then I discovered ESPHome.

ESPHome is a firmware + configuration system for ESP8266/ESP32, which allows you to quickly turn a board into a "smart device" and connect it to Home Assistant.

It actually looks like this:

To monitor the inverter, I had to combine ESP32-C6 and TTL↔UART converter.

We also have a solid fuel long-burning boiler with quite primitive automation. To sleep more peacefully, I set up temperature control via ESP32-C6 + DS18B20 (it was sold as a set with a small resistor board). Now the temperature of the boiler lives in Home Assistant, and I can make alerts, graphs.

I started with one socket "so that the boiler doesn't consume everything." And I ended up with a full-fledged system where:

Automation is not about "hype." It's about comfort and control. Especially when you live in a reality where electricity may or may not be available.