Smart Home Archives

HomeLab Power Monitoring with Home Assistant, Tasmota, and InfluxDB: Track Electricity Costs and Optimize Your Servers

May 22, 2026

Learn how to build a fully local power monitoring system for your HomeLab using Tasmota smart plugs, Home Assistant, and InfluxDB. Track per-device electricity costs, catch abnormal power draw with automated alerts, and finally understand what your home server setup actually costs to run.

HomeLab

Connect Zigbee Devices to Home Assistant via Zigbee2MQTT: A Cloud-Free Local Setup

April 10, 2026

Ditch proprietary hubs and build a fully local, vendor-agnostic smart home. This guide shows you how to set up Zigbee2MQTT with Home Assistant using Docker for maximum stability.

HomeLab

Home Assistant: Build Your Own Smart Home on Raspberry Pi or Old Hardware

March 22, 2026

After months of stable production use, I'm sharing my practical guide to building an efficient smart home with Home Assistant. Learn to leverage Raspberry Pi or old hardware for seamless automation and regain control over your home's intelligence.