A Sensor Without a Sensor. Because Why Not.

Let me be clear from the start: this is not a story about KNX presence sensors being bad. They're great actually. They can detect actual presence, not just movement — you can sit still reading a book and they'll still know you're there. Technology has come a long way.

But here's the thing. Doctor Smart Home already has iPhones in the household. He already has HomePods. Apple Home already knows who's home and who isn't — it tracks iPhones via geofencing, WiFi, proximity to home hubs, and probably some other Apple magic that nobody fully understands.

And guess what. Apple already solved this problem — at least halfway. They have all the data. They have the infrastructure. They just haven't made it easy to get that information out of Apple Home and into something more useful. Like, say, a KNX system.

So the question became: can that presence information be pulled into KNXwithout buying another sensor?

Spoiler: yes. Kind of. With caveats. Let me explain.

The Core Problem: Apple Home Can't Update Sensors

Here's the issue. In Apple Home, you can set up an automation that says "when nobody is home, turn off this light." But you can't say "when nobody is home, set this sensor value to 0."

Apple Home automations can control devices — lights, plugs, switches. They can't write to sensors. Sensors are read-only from Apple's perspective.

So Doctor Smart Home did what any reasonable person would do: he created a fake socket and let Apple Home flip it.

Creating the Virtual Socket

In 1Home, a new device was created: "Presence Apple Home" with type Socket: On/Off. Two group addresses assigned:

• 12/1/1 — On/Off Set (DPT 1.001)
• 12/1/2 — On/Off Status (DPT 1.001)

This device doesn't exist in ETS — it's purely virtual. The group addresses are just sitting there on the bus, waiting for someone to write to them.

1Home device configuration showing the virtual presence socket

Using 1Home's Matter Bridge, the socket was exposed to Apple Home. After pairing, it appeared in the Home app like any other smart plug — which is exactly what we need, because Apple Home automations can control plugs.

Then, two automations in Apple Home:

1. When the first person arrives home → Turn "Presence Apple Home" ON
2. When the last person leaves → Turn "Presence Apple Home" OFF

These are the built-in presence triggers that Apple provides. Simple enough.

The Missing Piece: Why the Graph Stayed Flat

Here's where things got stuck for a while. When Apple Home sent the "turn on" command, the KNX bus monitor showed it arriving on group address 12/1/1. But 1Home didn't update the device state. The graph stayed flat. Nothing happened.

The reason? With a virtual device, there's no physical actuator to respond with a status update. The Set GA (12/1/1) gets written, but the Status GA (12/1/2) stays empty. 1Home is waiting for a response that never comes.

The fix: a simple 1Home automation that mirrors Set to Status.

• Trigger: When 12/1/1 changes
• Action: Write the same value to 12/1/2

Now every command from Apple Home gets properly reflected in 1Home's device state. The graph finally moves.

Making It a Proper Sensor (Because the Socket Felt Wrong)

At this point there was a working solution. But the socket device type was annoying. It doesn't show up in the sensor bar in the 1Home app or on 1Home Touch. It's a socket. It looks like a socket. It feels wrong.

So one step further: another virtual device — this time an Occupancy Sensor — with group address 12/1/3 for "Occupancy detected."

The mirror automation was updated to also write to 12/1/3 whenever 12/1/1 changes.

Now there are two devices:

• A socket (hidden away in "Utility" — the imaginary room for system devices, like the cooling mode switch from the HVAC setup)
• A proper occupancy sensor (sitting proudly in "Entrance" where it belongs)

The socket does the work. The sensor gets the credit. Just like in real life.

Does It Actually Work?

Honestly? At first, it didn't.

The whole family left the house. Walked far enough that Apple should definitely notice. Checked the graph. Nothing. The sensor stayed "home."

All the location settings were rechecked on both phones. Everything was already configured correctly. Doctor Smart Home was about to give up and write a strongly worded forum post about Apple geofencing being useless.

And then... it just started working.

Here's the graph from a recent hike:

Presence graph showing On until 12:05, Off until 13:35, then On again

You can clearly see:

• Home (On) until around 18:05 — everyone was home
• Away (Off) from 18:05 to 19:15 — out on a hike
• Home (On) again at 19:15 — back from the hike

So yes, it works. How well it works over the long term? We'll see. This article is about the hack itself, not about long-term reliability testing. Doctor Smart Home will probably try controlling some things based on this signal — A/C, lighting, media. Maybe there will be a follow-up article. Or maybe some other hack will come along and this one will be quietly forgotten. Everything is possible.

The Caveats (Read This Before Getting Too Excited)

Let's be real. Nobody should bet their salary on Apple detecting presence with 100% accuracy. Here's why:

People without iPhones don't exist (to this system). If the kid has an iPad but no phone, Apple thinks nobody's home when you leave them with a babysitter. Same for guests, parents visiting, anyone whose iPhone isn't paired with your Home.

What if everyone's phone is dead? Apple will think you left. The heating will turn off. You'll sit there in the cold wondering why you trusted a blog post.

Geofencing is... geofencing. It's not instant. It sometimes takes a few minutes. It might fail silently. The internet is full of people complaining about Apple Home presence detection being unreliable — and they're not all wrong.

Could this be done with WiFi detection instead? Probably. Some people track phone MAC addresses on their router. That would work even on mobile data... actually wait, no it wouldn't. Hmm. The hope was that Apple would detect you even on mobile data (via geofencing), but that hasn't been thoroughly tested yet. More research needed.

Bottom line: This is a cool hack. It's free if you already have Apple devices. It's fun to set up. But maybe don't use this as your only input for anything safety-critical. Trust, but verify.

Tips for Making It Work Better

If you're setting this up, here's the checklist:

On all iPhones in your household:

• Settings → Privacy → Location Services → Home → Always + Precise Location
• Settings → Privacy → Location Services → System Services → HomeKit enabled
• Settings → [Your Name] → Find My → Share My Location ON

In the Home app:

• Home Settings → People — verify everyone shows with location sharing enabled

On your home hubs (HomePod/Apple TV):

• Restart them after iOS updates (seriously, this fixes a lot of weird behavior)

Remember: Only iPhones and Apple Watches count as "people." iPads, MacBooks, Mac Minis — none of those matter. So if the kid is watching cartoons on the iPad while everyone else is out, Apple still reports "nobody home."

Have you tried something similar? WiFi-based presence? Router MAC tracking? Something even weirder? Let me know in the comments — or tell me why this is a terrible idea and I should stop immediately.

Dr. Smart Home out.

August brought plenty of movement in the smart home, starting with an important 1Home Touch update and a closer look at what it can do. We also cover smarter locks, voice control, presence detection, Apple’s plans for the home and battery-free IoT moving into large-scale retail. Let's get into it...

1Home Touch Update: New Features, Shipping

A wall panel only becomes useful when it fits the room around it. That is the idea behind 1Home Touch: an interface that adapts to the home, from the devices and layout to the colors and level of access.

Development of the 1Home Touch has also grown beyond its original plan, with several new features added along the way. Configurations can be reused across different rooms and installations, while shipping is now planned for the end of December.

Watch the latest 1Home Touch video

Dr. Smart Home Smart-Locks Himself In

There is a particular kind of confidence that makes you think you can replace a door lock after watching a few tutorials. Dr. Smart Home had that confidence. The result was a stuck anti-burglar door, a terrace exit, several very uncomfortable days, and a locksmith who eventually had to drill through the door.

The lesson is not that smart locks are a bad idea. Remote access, door-left-open alerts and leaving-home automations are genuinely useful. The lesson is that the door is not a light switch: when something goes wrong, the consequences are much more dramatic. For integrators, the cleanest approach may be to leave the physical fitting to the door specialist and take over once the hardware is correctly installed.

Read the full story

The Key May Be on Its Way Out

The Schlage Sense Pro review takes a look at the increasingly familiar idea of a smart lock that lets the key stay in the drawer. The interesting question is no longer whether a lock can open with a phone, code or another digital credential. It is whether the whole experience is dependable enough that people stop thinking about the lock at all.

That is the real standard for smart access: quick when you need it, clear when something goes wrong, and reliable when the phone is missing, the battery is low or the app decides to have a moment. Convenience is easy to demonstrate. Trust is what makes a smart lock worth living with.

Read the review

The USS 1Homior Is Now Operational

Dr. Smart Home was not satisfied with a simple Sonos chime. After a new beta firmware added support for Matter air-quality sensors, the goal became more ambitious: make the home speak when the air gets stale.

A failed attempt with a free text-to-speech API eventually led to a much simpler solution using Google Translate's text-to-speech endpoint. The result: a Sonos Beam announcing elevated CO2 levels in a calm, slightly synthetic voice. It is delightfully nerdy, but there is a serious idea underneath it - smart homes should not only listen to people. Sometimes they should tell people what is happening, too.

The trick, naturally, is restraint. There is a fine line between a starship computer and a house that nags.

Read how the USS 1Homior came to life

Tiny Tags Give Walmart a New View of the Supply Chain

Wiliot is bringing ambient IoT to a very large stage. Its postage-stamp-sized, battery-free IoT Pixels harvest energy from surrounding radio signals and can track location, temperature, humidity, light exposure and movement.

Through its partnership with Walmart, Wiliot expects around 90 million tags to be deployed on pallets by the end of 2026, covering thousands of stores and more than 40 distribution centres. For perishable goods, this is more than a location system: it can provide a continuous environmental history of a shipment and help identify problems before food reaches the shelf. The smart home may get most of the attention, but the same combination of sensors, connectivity and automated decision-making is quietly reshaping logistics too.

Find out more about Wiliot and Walmart

Apple’s Big Home Overhaul Is Still Taking Shape

Apple's smart home ambitions have been a long-running story, but the latest reports suggest the company is still working toward a broader home strategy rather than another isolated HomePod accessory. The direction appears to involve new hardware, a stronger software layer and a more central role for the home as a place where Apple's services and intelligence meet.

The timing matters. Matter is making cross-platform control more realistic, while Google and Amazon continue to push conversational AI into the home. Apple has the devices, the user base and a strong privacy story. The open question is whether it can turn those ingredients into a home experience that feels genuinely useful rather than merely very Apple.

Continue reading

Apple Presence Finds Its Way onto the KNX Bus

Apple Home already knows which members of the household are home, but getting that information into KNX is not quite as straightforward. Dr. Smart Home's solution was to create a virtual socket in 1Home, expose it to Apple Home, and let Apple's presence automations switch it on or off.

A small mirror automation then copies that state to a virtual occupancy sensor on the KNX bus. It is a clever workaround that turns existing iPhones and HomePods into a presence input without adding another physical sensor. There are caveats, of course: guests without paired devices, dead phones and the usual unpredictability of geofencing mean this should not be the only input for anything safety-critical. Still, it is a neat example of how two ecosystems can cooperate when the official path is not quite there yet.

See the Apple Home and KNX setup

Can We Build a Universal Remote People Actually Want?

The universal remote has been trying to solve the same problem for decades: how do you control a collection of devices without turning the coffee table into a small electronics store? Logitech Harmony came close, but infrared commands could easily fall out of sync. Professional IP-based systems solved some of that problem, while also making control more expensive and, occasionally, more complicated than it needed to be.

The idea behind uControl Remote 2 is to bring the useful parts together without making the remote into a phone with buttons. Physical controls, local operation, no recurring subscription, and enough flexibility to handle a TV, amplifier, cinema, lighting or shades. It is planned for Kickstarter in September, with the team aiming to bring the price down significantly from the first version.

A good remote should not need a tutorial. That feels like a sensible place to start.

Read the case for a simpler universal remote

That's August done.

Thanks for reading along, see you next month!

How a free text-to-speech hack turned my Sonos Beam into the computer from the USS Enterprise

Dev Team Drops Another Unreleased FW

This story starts the way Dr. Smart Home stories often start: with a beta firmware release for my 1Home Server landing in my lap.

And it was a big one. Possibly the biggest update in a long while. New icons in the dashboard (personally I liked the old ones a little better — but I'll admit the new ones look soooooo good in the upcoming new 1Home app. Hint. Hint.), 1Home Touch support, SIP doorphone support, and — finally — Air Quality sensors over Matter.

That last one I have been waiting for since the day IKEA released the ALPSTUGA sensor and I discovered I couldn't pull it into 1Home. Which also meant my proper Sonos, Inc. integration testing kept getting postponed, because the automation I actually wanted to build was: play a sound when the CO2 in the room gets too high.

So that's exactly what I set out to do this time.

Why a Beep Wasn't Enough

There are all kinds of sounds in the 1Home Sonos library. I could have picked a chime, wired up the trigger, and called it an afternoon.

But sitting there thinking about the problem, I wanted more. I wanted my home to talk to me — like a Galaxy-class starship from Star Trek.

There's a serious point underneath the nerdery. I've genuinely believed for years — and pitched this inside 1Home more than once — that voice communication between a user and their smart home shouldn't be one-way. Right now it's almost always the user talking to the home. It should be bidirectional.

Because telling people things out loud is still the single best way to make sure they actually learn them. Especially people who aren't fluent in smart home apps, touchscreens, and push notifications. If the home just says it, everybody in the room knows what's going on and where to look.

Exactly like Star Trek.

Aljaž Raises the Stakes

My initial plan was modest: record a few warnings myself (or AI-generate them), drop them on GDrive, generate links, wire up the triggers, done.

Then I excitedly explained the plan to Aljaž (CPO at 1Home), who immediately wanted to take it further: find a free text-to-speech API and generate the audio files on the fly. No pre-recorded library. The home composes what it needs to say, when it needs to say it.

Naturally, I loved the idea and started playing with it immediately.

The FreeTTS Detour (Or: Where Dr. Smart Home Loses His Patience)

My research — and to be fair, Claude's — pointed to FreeTTS.org as the best candidate. A proper REST API, 400+ neural voices, free of charge, and best of all: no API key required. Exactly what I needed.

First job was to build the message. That part was easy: a simple if / else structure plus string.format inside the Lua block in 1Home Automations. Read the CO2 value from the sensor, decide which of three states we're in, assemble the sentence. Below 800 ppm, say nothing. Between 800 and 1200, a polite nudge. Above 1200, open a window, now.

Then I called the API.

403.

I tried again. 403. I changed the headers. 403. I added an explicit Content-Type. Still 403. I turned off SSL verification, which in hindsight was me flailing. 403.

Somewhere around this point there was some genuine tension between Dr. Smart Home and his assistant Claude, who kept confidently blaming the API while I kept insisting the problem was on our side. (For the record: sometimes it was on our side. %v works in log.info but not in string.format, which cost us one very silly runtime error. Lesson learned.)

I'm not going to pretend I know exactly what was happening on their end. What I do know is that I couldn't get the API to do what I wanted, the way I wanted, free of charge — and I wasn't about to start paying a monthly subscription to tell my own living room to open a window.

So I went and tried the service directly on their website instead, just to hear what the voices actually sounded like. They sounded great. Right up until the end of the clip, where a cheerful "Generated with FreeTTS" was stapled onto my message.

That was the moment I stopped. Imagine the USS Enterprise warning you about a hull breach and then reading out a sponsorship credit. Absolutely not.

The Solution Was Hiding in Plain Sight

Back to the drawing board, and this time I started from the constraint instead of from the feature list.

The 1Home Sonos action block needs an URL. A plain link that Sonos can go and fetch by itself. That's the whole requirement, and it's stricter than it sounds, because most TTS services I found are built around a different assumption: you send them text, they send the audio straight back to whoever asked. Great if you're a website or an app that wants to play it immediately. Not great if the thing that needs to hear it is a speaker on the other side of the room.

Which meant I didn't need a service that generates a file and then parks it somewhere for me. I needed one where the URL itself is the audio.

And that thing already exists, has existed for years, and is what Home Assistant users have quietly been using the whole time: Google Translate's text-to-speech.

You know the little speaker icon in Google Translate that reads your text out loud? That's a plain GET request. Feed it a URL shaped like this:

https://translate.google.com/translate_tts?ie=UTF-8&client=tw-ob&tl=en&q=Your+message+here

...and it hands back an MP3. No POST. No API key. No account. No signup. No watermark. Nothing to authenticate, nothing to rate-limit me out of, and also no HTTP call from my Lua script at all.

The script's entire job collapsed down to: read the sensor, pick the sentence, glue it onto the end of that URL, and hand the URL to Sonos. Everything else is delegated: Google generates the audio, Sonos plays it.

There was one small wrinkle. The message has to be URL-safe — spaces can't stay spaces, and punctuation needs escaping. The fix was almost embarrassingly simple: write the messages URL-safe in the first place. Spaces as +, no commas, nothing exotic. The only dynamic part of the sentence is the CO2 number, and digits are always safe.

So the string goes to Google Translate, Google Translate serves the MP3 at that URL, the Action block passes the URL to my Sonos Beam, aaaaaaannnnnddddd —

The USS 1Homior Is Now Operational

"Attention. CO2 levels are elevated at 900 parts per million. Consider ventilating the room."

My living room said that. Out loud. In a calm, slightly synthetic voice, from the Sonos Beam, because a Matter air quality sensor noticed the air was getting stale.

I am aware that to a neutral observer this is a mildly robotic voice reading a number off a sensor. To me it is a childhood dream with a firmware version number.

Next on the Mission Log

This is just the beginning. The pattern is fully generic now — any sensor state, any sentence, any speaker. The hard part is done; what's left is deciding what's actually worth saying out loud.

Already on the list:

• Front door left unlocked
• Humidity drifting out of the comfortable range
• Window open while the heating is running
• Somebody's at the gate (now that SIP doorphone support is in) - this would be especially interesting if it was possible to detect who is at the door then announce that person

The trick, I suspect, will be restraint. There's a very fine line between a starship computer and a house that nags. Nobody on the Enterprise ever had to listen to the ship announce that the humidity in Cargo Bay 3 was three percent below optimal. The ship spoke when it mattered, and the rest of the time it had the good manners to shut up.

So: sensors, sentences, and a firm hand on the volume of the thing.

The USS 1Homior has left dry dock. Warp two, and mind the CO2.

Dr. Smart Home out. If you want the whole script/automation - let me know. And stay tuned for more Lua script shenanigans.

A true story about smart locks, overconfidence, and a very long evening with a locksmith

There's a certain kind of person who, when faced with a lock that doesn't quite fit, thinks: I can figure this out. Doctor Smart Home is that kind of person. This is his confession.

The Upgrade Itch

If you've been following Doctor Smart Home for a while, you know that smart home door control has always been on the radar. Of course it has — it's one of those things that just makes sense. Think of it like a smart TV: most people still grab the remote out of habit, and that's completely fine. The point isn't to replace the remote — it's to also be able to say "turn off the TV" from the couch, or have it switch on automatically when you sit down. Same with a smart lock: you still use the key most of the time, but having the option to lock remotely, check if you left it open, or tie it into a "leaving home" routine is where the magic is. So over the years, Doctor Smart Home has tried a lock here, swapped one out there, lived with them, complained about them, and tried again.

So at some point, a new smart lock had to be tried. That's just how it goes — there's always a newer model, a shinier interface, something to tinker with. The old one worked fine, sure, but "works fine" has never been a good enough reason for Doctor Smart Home to stop exploring. And if the household aesthetic jury happened to deliver a verdict that the old lock was an eyesore? Well, that certainly didn't slow things down. When your wife and your inner geek agree on something, you don't ask questions. A new smart lock entered the picture.

(No brand names here. This story is entirely, completely, one hundred percent a human error — not a product failure. The lock did nothing wrong. The human, on the other hand…)

The Fitting Problem

Here's where it gets interesting. The old lock had been thoughtfully designed with adapters for different types of door handles — a small but important detail that mattered a lot in Doctor Smart Home's case.

Because his front door is an anti-burglar door. And on the inside, instead of a keyhole, it has a butterfly knob — that chunky rotating thumb-turn you twist to lock or unlock. No key slot. Just the knob. When you remove the butterfly knob, there's a cylinder with a metal rod sticking out of the door mechanism. The old lock had a fitting that gripped that rod cleanly. It was a good match.

The new lock? Different philosophy entirely. It came with a key, had a different mounting principle, and just… didn't fit. Not really. Not in the way that would make you feel confident.

But Doctor Smart Home really wanted to try it out. The aesthetics were better. His wife liked it. And surely, surely, this was just an engineering problem waiting to be solved.

The Tinkering Phase (Where Things Get Dicey)

So he started taking things apart. Off came the rosetta. Off came the cover plate. And there it was — the interior of the door mechanism, a view that most people never see and probably shouldn't see without proper training. A world of small screws, narrow channels, and a cylinder that would theoretically accept the new lock's system.

Doctor Smart Home had a plan: swap the cylinder. The new lock even came with one — so in theory, this was just a matter of fitting the pieces together. He consulted his AI chat companion of the moment. He called the manufacturer's helpline. He peered through the exposed hole in the door with the determination of someone who has watched too many YouTube tutorials.

He could see a few screws in there. He fiddled. He tried to release the cylinder. He really tried.

It didn't budge.

At some point, you have to know when to retreat. Doctor Smart Home retreated — but not all the way. He didn't reinstall the old smart lock. He just put the door back together manually. No smart lock. Just the bare mechanical setup, operating the old-fashioned way.

It seemed fine. The door worked. Crisis averted, he told himself.

The Morning Everything Stopped Working

A day passes. Maybe two. Life goes on — kids to kindergarten, work, the usual rhythm.

Then one morning, Doctor Smart Home reaches for the door handle to start the day, and… nothing. The handle doesn't move. The lock is completely, utterly, stubbornly stuck. The door will not open.

He is locked inside his own home.

Now, here is where Doctor Smart Home gets to feel very, very grateful for one thing: he has a terrace exit. A secondary way out. So while the front door had essentially turned into a decorative wall panel, he could at least leave the apartment through the terrace like some kind of suburban adventurer. He operated this way for a day or two. It was functional. It was also deeply humbling.

The alternative — calling the fire department to break down a door that he himself had meddled with — was not a mental image he wanted to sit with for long.

The Professional Arrives

Eventually, the professional locksmith showed up. Late afternoon, maybe 5 or 6 PM. He was a calm, experienced-looking man who had presumably seen everything.

He had not seen this door.

Three to four hours later, he was still there. The interior lock mechanism, it turned out, was extraordinarily complex — a large board packed with what Doctor Smart Home can only describe as an impressive collection of dingamabobs, gizmos, knobs, and little mechanical personalities, all interacting with each other in ways that were not immediately obvious to anyone. The locksmith — a professional, to be clear — had to call his boss three or four times during the process.

In the end, they drilled the door.

And here's the painful punchline: afterwards, looking at the schematic of the lock mechanism together, they realized that if they'd read it correctly from the start, they might have avoided the drill entirely. The actual solution was almost elegant — there was a small switch, deep inside the mechanism, that when pulled down with the right tool would release the lock. Reach in, find the switch, pull it down, done.

It was the kind of solution that makes you laugh and wince at the same time.

The Aftermath

That was almost a year ago now. And Doctor Smart Home — the man who has always had a smart lock, who considers door control a fundamental part of smart home living — has been using a plain, manual, old-school lock ever since.

No automations. No remote access. No "door left open" notifications. Just a key. Like it's 2003.

And you know what? The door works perfectly.

So… Should He Try Again?

This is the question. And it's genuinely interesting, because it comes in two parts.

For Doctor Smart Home specifically: Yes, probably. But differently. The lesson here isn't that smart locks are bad or unreliable — it's that tinkering with what you don't fully understand, on a mechanism that sits between you and the outside world, is a risk that deserves more respect. The door is not a light switch. It is not a thermostat. Mess it up and you're either locked in or locked out, and both situations are unpleasant in their own special ways.

For smart home integrators more broadly: This is actually a really important professional boundary. When talking with installers — and this came up in a conversation with Vikas Gowrisetty of Awicon Technologies LLP — the approach many professionals take is to never touch the door hardware at all. The door, the lock cylinder, the mechanical fitting — that's the territory of the door subcontractor. They specify and approve the smart lock model, they handle the physical installation, they make sure it fits the door correctly. Then, and only then, does the smart home integrator step in to handle the programming — connecting the lock to the wider system, automations, access control, whatever the client needs.

It's a clean division of responsibility. And after this experience, Doctor Smart Home has a deep personal appreciation for why that boundary exists.

The Moral of the Story

Smart locks are great. Door control is a legitimate and valuable part of a smart home. But the door is also the one thing in your home where getting it wrong doesn't just mean an inconvenience — it means calling the fire department or climbing out through the terrace in your morning clothes.

Respect the mechanism. Know your limits. And if you're not a locksmith, maybe don't try to become one at 10 PM with a YouTube tutorial and a spare cylinder you found in a drawer.

Doctor Smart Home will be back with smart locks. Just… with professional help this time.

Have a smart lock story of your own? A near-lockout? A successful install? Tell us below. And integrators — do you touch the door, or is that sacred territory for the door subcontractors?

July was about smart home technology becoming a little less fragmented and a lot more capable. Matter is moving beyond simply getting devices to talk to each other, AI is starting to assist with the engineering work behind KNX projects, and energy management is becoming its own intelligent layer. Thread is also quietly appearing in more places - from Shelly devices to professional networking equipment. Let's get into it...

Matter 1.6 Wants Ecosystems to Work Together

Matter 1.6 is less about adding another long list of device types and more about making the smart home feel coherent. The update introduces features such as NFC-based commissioning, context-aware thermostat controls and, most notably, Joint Fabric - allowing different platforms to co-manage the same Matter network.

In theory, that means a home using Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung devices should no longer feel like four separate homes stitched together. The bigger shift is strategic: as interoperability improves, platform owners may have to compete less through ecosystem lock-in and more through intelligence, privacy and user experience. A promising direction - provided manufacturers actually implement it properly.

Read the full analysis

AI Steps Into the ETS Project

AI has arrived in the KNX engineering workflow - not as another chatbot floating beside the project, but as an ETS6 AddIn with access to the project context and tools. ETSpilot, developed by Splendid Minds, can answer questions, analyse projects and carry out concrete steps inside ETS under the supervision of the engineer.

That includes the repetitive work that fills plenty of project days: creating group addresses, connecting communication objects, parameterising devices, checking structures and applying changes. The professional remains in control, with actions requiring confirmation and the option to store project standards and naming conventions. Less clicking, more engineering - a fairly compelling pitch.

Learn more about ETSpilot

Tesla Home Puts AI in Charge of the Energy Budget

Tesla has launched Tesla Home, a home energy management platform built around its Opticaster AI engine. The system forecasts solar production and household demand, then makes decisions about when to store or use electricity in order to reduce energy costs.

It brings together Tesla’s Powerwall, solar panels, Solar Roof, Wall Connector and compatible smart breakers under one energy-management layer. The interesting part is not that the system uses AI - that has been the direction of travel for a while - but that energy management is increasingly becoming an active, automated service rather than a dashboard people check occasionally.

Continue reading

KNX Checks Into the Hotel Business

Smart home ideas scale surprisingly well into hospitality. KNX-based Guest Room Management Systems bring lighting, HVAC, curtains, access control and service requests together under one standardised system, giving guests simple room controls while giving hotel operators more visibility and control.

The real value is in the link between comfort and operations. Occupancy can trigger energy-saving modes, check-in can pre-condition a room, and room status can flow back to housekeeping and building-management systems. A good hotel room should feel effortless to the guest - even when a lot is happening behind the scenes.

See how KNX GRMS works in hotels

Shelly Is Rethinking Matter Over Thread

Shelly is considering whether its fourth-generation devices should support Matter over Thread. The hardware is already capable of it, but the available flash memory creates a trade-off: adding Thread support while keeping all existing features - including scripting - may not be possible in a single firmware version.

The options under discussion include a multi-step setup process or a standard firmware with Thread support that drops built-in scripting, allowing advanced users to switch to a different firmware when needed. It is not a product announcement yet, but it shows how Thread is moving from an enthusiast feature toward a decision that mainstream device makers can no longer ignore.

Read more about Shelly’s plans

UniFi Adds Thread to the Network Closet

Ubiquiti is bringing a Thread Border Router to its UniFi platform through the upcoming SuperLink Gateway HA. The gateway is primarily designed for UniFi’s security ecosystem, but it will also include a built-in Thread Border Router supporting up to 128 connected devices, alongside battery backup and LTE failover.

There is an important caveat: Ubiquiti has not announced native Matter support, so it is not suddenly becoming another Matter controller. Still, putting Thread into networking equipment used by professional installers and advanced users could make the protocol easier to deploy - especially in places where the network infrastructure is already centralised and carefully managed.

Find out what this means for Thread

That's July done.

Thanks for reading along, see you next month!

June was a month of AI everywhere, a big protocol upgrade on the horizon, and some moves in the industry that are worth keeping an eye on. Oh, and we shipped something useful. Let's get into it...

1Home Lua Variables: Your Scripts Now Have Memory

Our v5.4.0 release landed on June 12th with a feature Lua scripters have been waiting for: in-memory and persisted variables. That means your Lua scripts can now store data and recall it between runs - and even between reboots. Whether you want to count how many times a door opened today or remember the last known state of a device after a restart, it's now possible. A small but genuinely powerful unlock for automation logic.

Full release notes here

Thread Direct: Setup Without a Border Router

One of Thread's most persistent pain points - buying a Thread device only to discover you need a border router you don't have - is finally getting a proper fix. The Thread Group announced Thread Direct, a feature expected in Thread 2.0 that lets iPhones and Pixel phones commission Thread devices directly, no border router required during setup. One will still be needed for full functionality (remote access, automations), but this removes the biggest first-run frustration in the ecosystem. A quiet but meaningful step forward.

Continue reading

Google Doubles Down on Gemini for Home

Google had a busy June on the home AI front. First, Gemini for Home picked up the ability to trigger automations from what your cameras actually see - describe an event in plain language ("raccoons near the trash bins", "white Honda in the driveway"), pick a camera, and let it fire a routine. It's currently US-only, English-only, and requires a $20/month Premium Advanced plan - but the direction is clear. Second, Google published 100 example voice commands for Gemini for Home on Nest speakers, which doubles as a useful snapshot of just how far conversational home control has come.

Gemini + cameras · Voice tips

Samsung SmartThings Grows Up - and Then Puts Up a Paywall

SmartThings continued its push to become the most ambitious Matter platform around, adding Matter 1.5 support for window coverings, soil sensors, and irrigation systems, plus a new KNX integration through Schneider Electric's SpaceLogic range - notable because it takes SmartThings properly into commercial building automation territory. The less welcome news: Samsung announced it will start charging $5/month for SmartThings API access starting in October, affecting anyone using third-party tools like Home Assistant to control their Samsung devices. The open-source community was not impressed.

SmartThings ambitions · API paywall

SwitchBot Acquires Nanoleaf for $40 Million

Two of the scrappier names in smart home just joined forces. OneRobotics, the parent of SwitchBot, acquired Nanoleaf outright for approximately $40 million - with both brands staying separate and Nanoleaf's founding team staying in place. The logic: SwitchBot brings manufacturing scale and supply chain; Nanoleaf brings retail presence, Matter/Thread expertise, and a track record of launching new categories. Both are also eyeing AI and robotics, which is increasingly where the smart home conversation is heading.

Read more

Your Old Washing Machine Can Be Smarter Than a New One

A compelling read on using Home Assistant and a power-monitoring smart plug to turn a "dumb" appliance into something genuinely smart - without any cloud subscriptions, without spending $1,200, and without replacing hardware that still works perfectly. The key insight: a washing machine's power draw tells a remarkably detailed story about where it is in its cycle. Pair that with open-source pattern-matching tools, and a $15 plug starts outperforming the native app on most branded smart appliances.

Read more

Google Wants a Little Bit of Your Home's Electricity

Google signed a three-year deal with Voltus to access up to 100 MW of distributed energy by aggregating tiny slivers of power from thousands of US households - smart thermostats, small batteries, and similar devices. When grid demand spikes, Voltus's software briefly reduces each device's load or discharges a small amount of stored power. No individual home should notice the difference. It's a drop in Google's actual data center energy bucket, but it's an interesting signal of where the smart home and grid infrastructure are starting to converge.

Continue reading

One Camera, Two Views: The Botslab W101

An interesting product that solves a real problem: the Botslab W101 is a window-mounted camera with two lenses - one facing out, one facing in - covering both sides of your home simultaneously. No drilling, no permanent installation, and it sticks to any glass with an adhesive mount. Useful for renters, for apartment residents, or anyone who's been putting off home security because installation felt like too much. 2.5K resolution on both lenses, f/1.0 color night vision, and a hybrid local/cloud storage model with no mandatory subscription.

Find out more

That's June done.

Thanks for reading along, see you next month!

May was a big one for us. Two things we've been quietly working toward finally came to life: our first hands-on with 1Home Touch, and the long-awaited Sonos integration landing in 1Home. That alone would make the month - but there's plenty more bubbling underneath too: fresh hardware, big names making moves, and the rules starting to catch up with the tech. Let's get into...

First Touch At 1Home Touch

Last week Marcel received a message from engineering: ''Come upstairs and bring a camera''. There it was 1Home Touch, waiting to be touched and tested for the first time.

Of course Marcel couldn't hold back, I mean who could have, right? He tried different themes, light configurations, Sonos integration and more...

Watch the full video

It's Here: 1Home Sonos Integration

The wait is over. After plenty of anticipation, Sonos officially landed in 1Home. Marcel gives us a detailed tour of everything the new integration can do, and shows how to make a home not just smart, but genuinely fun and also satisfying.

Watch how fun Sonos in 1Home can be here

The Tiny Connector Behind IKEA's ÅSKVÄDER Strikes Out on Its Own

Every so often a supplier decides it no longer wants to live behind someone else's logo. Sweden's Moduel engineered the palm-sized 16A connector at the heart of IKEA's ÅSKVÄDER power strips - a system that reached 100,000-plus Nordic households on next to no marketing. Now, armed with twelve patents across seven countries, it's stepping out under its own name with Matter connectivity and energy monitoring, selling direct across Europe.

Read more

A Visit to the World's First "Smart Home" - and a Lesson in How Little Has Changed

Long before Matter or Thread, there was Cragside - the Northumberland mansion wired for hydroelectric light and Victorian gadgetry that earned it the title of world's first smart home. A worthwhile reminder that the dream of the automated house is nearly 150 years in the making.

Lidl Now Sells a Balcony Solar Battery

The discount-retailer playbook reaches energy storage: Lidl Germany is selling a 2.24 kWh lithium iron phosphate balcony battery under its Tronic brand. With 1,000 W input, 800 W output, and compatibility with 99% of microinverters, it lets balcony-solar owners bank daytime power for the evening - a clear sign that home energy storage is going mainstream.

Find out more

Apple's Long-Delayed Smart Home Push Finally Has a Launch Window

After more than a year in warehouses, Apple's home ambitions are reportedly moving. Leaked ahead of WWDC 2026 are three devices that matter to our world: a HomeKit hub with a display, an Apple-designed security camera, and a Face ID video doorbell. The hold-up has always been Siri - and Apple is betting its rebuilt, conversational version finally makes the hardware worth shipping.

Continue reading

The EU's New Building Efficiency Rules Take Effect

With buildings driving ~40% of EU energy use and 36% of emissions, the directive targets worst-performing stock, phases out fossil-fuel boilers, and pushes new builds to zero-emission. Key for the industry: automation and control systems now mandatory in non-residential buildings, plus solar integration and smart EV charging.

Discover more

That's all for this month's digest.

Thanks for reading with us, see you soon!

April was quietly busy. No mega trade show, but the industry kept pushing, new devices, new industry secotrs and the smart home getting a little more connected. Here's what stood out...

Apple TV 4K Is Getting Its Biggest Upgrade in Years

Leaks are pointing to a significant overhaul of the Apple TV 4K - and it's shaping up to be more than just a streaming box. The new model is expected to pack a serious chipset upgrade (think A17 Pro or newer), AAA gaming support with ray tracing, Wi-Fi 7, and - most relevant for us, built-in Thread and Matter support. There's also talk of a FaceTime camera and a redesigned remote with the U2 chip for Find My. Two versions are expected: one budget-friendly, one premium. Launch window is somewhere between now and the fall.

Read more

Private Equity Thinks Garage Doors Are the Next Big Roll-Up Play

After HVAC, investors are setting their sights on an unlikely sector: garage door installation and repair. The logic holds up, fragmented market (90% independent businesses), recession-resistant demand, and customers who definitely won't fix it themselves. Oak Hill Capital's $800M acquisition of Guild Garage Group at a 16x EBITDA multiple set a new benchmark, and deal volume has been climbing fast. Worth keeping an eye on as more capital flows into residential services.

Continue reading

IKEA Launches Plug-In Solar Panels - No Roof Required

IKEA Belgium, in partnership with Svea Solar, has launched a line of plug-in solar panels designed for balconies, gardens, and terraces. A complete starter set begins at €349, with the full range running up to €1,500. No electrician needed, just plug in and start generating. Portable and foldable options are also available for camping use. Belgium is the second market after Germany, and the timing makes sense: balcony solar installations have been legal in Belgium since April 2025.

Discover more

Samsung SmartThings Now Plays Nicely With IKEA's Matter Devices

Samsung has announced integration of 25 IKEA Matter-over-Thread devices into SmartThings, including smart bulbs, plugs, motion sensors, door sensors, air quality sensors, and more. The big change: no IKEA hub required anymore. Devices connect directly to the SmartThings hub. Samsung also claims to be the first platform to adopt Thread 1.4, enabling cross-brand Thread networks to operate as a single unified system. A practical step forward for anyone mixing IKEA hardware into a broader smart home setup.

Read more

That's April wrapped up!

Thanks for reading along, catch you next month!

March was a big one. Light + Building came and went, and the industry showed up with plenty to talk about. Here's what stood out...

1Home at Light + Building 2026

This year's Light + Building was our best yet - and the booth traffic reflected it. Throughout the week, visitors came to explore the 1Home App and Dashboard, but the real draw was 1Home Touch, making its first ever public appearance. The reception spoke for itself.

It's worth remembering that two years ago at L+B 2024, we had one product to show. The ground covered since then was on full display in Frankfurt, and of course there's more to come. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, shared their thoughts, and made this year's L+B one to remember. See you in 2027.

Get a real picture of what the Light + Building '26 at 1Home booth really looked like:

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, 1Home Server Family, 1Home Touch

Matter 1.5.1 Is Out - and Cameras Are the Focus

The CSA released Matter 1.5.1 at the end of March, building on the camera support introduced in 1.5. The key addition is multi-stream video delivery - cameras can now serve different quality streams simultaneously for recording, mobile viewing, and AI processing. Also included: HEIC snapshot support, better pan-tilt-zoom handling, and more flexibility for doorbell chimes.

Read more

Our Friend Torben Stopped by the Booth at L+B

Always great to see a familiar face on the show floor! Torben swung by our booth during his Light + Building tour and got a closer look at the System Manager and the new features coming to the 1Home Server Pro. He walked through the built-in bus monitor, the diagram function for visualising measurements in the dashboard, and the Lua scripting in the automation editor - including a fun example of pulling live weather data and pushing it into KNX. Worth a watch.

You've Been Placing Your Motion Sensors Wrong This Whole Time

Turns out the instinct to point a PIR sensor straight at the room is exactly backwards. These sensors are far more responsive when movement crosses their field of view rather than approaches head-on - a small placement tweak that can make your automations feel noticeably snappier. Worth a read before your next install.

Read more

Shelly Goes Big at Light + Building

Shelly arrived in Frankfurt with a serious lineup - new smart switches, dimmers, wall displays, energy monitors, circuit breakers, and more. A strong showing that signals they mean business in both residential and professional building automation.

Discover more

WAGO Steps Into the Smart Home Arena with Matter

One of the most unexpected announcements of the month: WAGO - yes, the terminal block company - launched a full family of eight Matter-certified actuators under the WAGO Home Automation brand. Relays, a blind controller, a dimmer, available in both Matter over Wi-Fi and Thread. Aimed squarely at professionals, launching in May across German-speaking markets.

Continue reading

A Serious Security Warning for UniFi Users

A maximum-severity vulnerability (CVSS 10.0) was found in the Ubiquiti UniFi Network Application, allowing unauthenticated attackers with network access to take over user accounts. Patches are out - if you haven't updated to version 10.1.89 or later yet, stop reading this and do it now.

Read more

IKEA Quietly Fixes What Was Quietly Broken

A new Dirigera Hub firmware update (v2.934.0) rolled out this month, addressing connection issues that had been quietly plaguing a number of IKEA's newer Matter devices. Not a flashy announcement - but for anyone who's been scratching their head over dropped connections, a welcome one.

Discover more

Aqara Reinvents the Contact Sensor

The new P100 Multi-State Sensor throws out the classic two-piece magnet-and-body design and replaces it with a single unit packing a full nine-axis sensor inside. It handles door and window monitoring, but also switches into a "Valuables Protection" mode - tracking vibration, tilting, and movement. Matter over Thread and Zigbee supported, two-year battery life claimed.

Find out more

The First Matter-Certified Camera Is Here - And It's From Aqara

The G350 is a notable milestone: Aqara claims it's the first camera to achieve Matter certification. Beyond the headline, it's a genuinely impressive device - 4K wide-angle, 2.5K telephoto, 9x hybrid zoom, full 360° pan-tilt, AI tracking, and it doubles as a Zigbee and Matter hub. Available now at $140.

Read more

Hager Merges Berker Into Its Brand and Launches a Matter Switch Range

Hager unveiled a new modular switch and socket system at L+B - launching in May across Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Austria - with native Matter connectivity built in. Four design lines, compatibility with existing KNX setups, and the notable side note that the long-standing Berker brand is being folded into Hager as part of the rebrand.

Continue reading

And that's a wrap on a very eventful March.

Thanks for reading along, more coming soon!

Preparations for Light + Building 2026 are in full swing, but of course we took a moment to quickly share some of last month’s news with you...

Secure your free L+B '26 ticket here: https://www.1home.io/light-and-building

Aqara U400 review: UWB home key will be hard to beat

Let's start things off with Aqara's new launch of  U400 smart lock, which is the first smart lock to support Ultra‑Wideband Home Key for automatic unlocking with compatible Apple devices. It also includes fingerprint, passcode, and key access, and integrates with Apple Home and Matter.

Find out more

Tedee Enables Matter on Its Smart Locks

Tedee has started rolling out Matter support for its GO series smart locks, enabling local integration with Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, and SmartThings. The update is gradually reaching users and requires the latest firmware and a Thread Border Router.

Discover more

IKEA’s latest Matter-compatible smart home gadget has been leaked - here's all you need to know

IKEA’s next Matter‑compatible smart home device, the Dubbelkisel Driver, has been leaked. It’s intended to control built‑in lighting like LED strips, though the company has not yet shared any official release information.

Read more

Symcon: New Matter Controller From Germany

Symcon is adding a Matter Controller in its upcoming 9.0 release, allowing users to manage Matter devices like lights and sensors directly within its platform.

Continue reading

That's all for this month's digest.

Thanks for reading with us, we're excited to see you at L+B in Frankfurt!

With so much going on lately, December’s digest slipped by us. To make up for it, this month’s edition is packed with even more updates, combining the highlights from both December and January. Enjoy the read!

Let's tackle December first:

Torben Ledermann covers the launch of 1Home Touch

In the latest edition of KNX News, a YouTube series from Torben Ledermann, he discussed insights into the new 1Home Touch, followed by more KNX news. The coverage wraps up with highlights from the KNX community and other notable news in home automation.

Learn more about 1Home Touch

Sweden’s Super-Small Hi-Res Streamer: Bring Sonos-like Power to Any Speaker

The Atonemo Streamplayer, a new compact device from Sweden, is about to revolutionize how you experience your music at home. Announced in early 2025 and set to launch in December, this tiny Hi-Res streamer adds wireless streaming and multi-room audio features to nearly any powered speaker or Hi-Fi system.

Read more here

“The local-first rebellion”: How Home Assistant became the most important project in your house

Home Assistant’s journey is the story of a modern rebellion: fed up with smart home devices tied to unreliable clouds, privacy concerns, and forced obsolescence, an open-source project set out to put control back in the hands of users. Rather than relying on external servers, Home Assistant runs locally, meaning your smart home keeps working even when the internet doesn’t.

Discover more

Having said that, Home Assistant doesn't come perfect...

4 Uncomfortable Truths About Home Assistant

Platform for smart home enthusiasts who love tinkering, but the journey isn’t without its bumps. This article highlights four hard truths that every Home Assistant fan faces. Devices may misbehave for no apparent reason, with once-working automations breaking overnight. Hours can vanish troubleshooting cryptic integration failures, obscure firmware bugs, or “ghost” sensor problems.

Discover more

Samsung SmartThings Gets Matter 1.5 Update - Great News for Security Cameras

Samsung SmartThings has rolled out the latest Matter 1.5 update, bringing an exciting upgrade for smart home security. With this update, SmartThings now supports a wider range of security cameras, making it easier to connect different brands and models via the universal Matter standard. Homeowners can benefit from improved compatibility, streamlined automations, and a more secure smart home experience.

Get the details

January was also full of releases!

Aqara Unveils Five New Products at CES 2026

Aqara made a splash at CES 2026 by introducing five innovative new smart home products. Among the highlights are upgraded sensors, advanced controllers, and fresh solutions for home automation enthusiasts. The lineup includes devices designed to work across popular ecosystems, offering improved integration with platforms like Apple HomeKit and Matter.

Discover more

What stood out the most to us was the release of of the FP400 mmWave sensor

This device not only tracks motion but also keeps tabs on air quality, humidity, and temperature. It’s built to work seamlessly with popular smart home ecosystems, helping you automate routines and receive alerts when something’s amiss.

Keep reading

At CES 2026, Govee Rethinks What Smart Lighting Should Actually Do

At CES 2026, Govee unveiled a bold new vision for smart lighting, moving beyond simple color changes and automations. The latest products emphasize interaction, adapting dynamically to activities, moods, and the environment. Govee’s new lineup includes lighting solutions that react to music, shift with weather changes, and even integrate with fitness routines or home security setups.

Read more

SwitchBot Launches Its AI-Centric Matter Home Hub

SwitchBot has just announced its latest smart home innovation: an AI-powered Matter Home Hub. Designed to streamline device management and automations, this hub leverages artificial intelligence to learn your habits and optimize your smart home experience. With support for the Matter standard, it works seamlessly with a wide variety of devices across different ecosystems.

Discover more

Marshall’s New Heddon Hub Adds Multi-Room Audio with Auracast

Marshall has introduced the Heddon Hub, a powerful new device designed to bring multi-room audio to its speakers using the Auracast standard. With this hub, Marshall owners can easily stream music throughout their home - syncing sound across different rooms and managing playback through one central system.

Continue reading

That’s a wrap for this edition.

Thanks for joining us. Check back soon for more smart home highlights.

As you might have read but probably didn't, I have been super satisfied with my LUA-made virtual weather station (you can catch up here part1, part2) and I have been itching about what to do next. After not a lot of consideration, I got an idea - what if I was able to bring current electricity price into 1Home and consequentially into my KNX & Matter based smart home. It could be super useful to have this information in the system - firstly for the satisfaction of having cracked this nut, secondly because it's cool to be able to see the current and past electricity prices but most importantly because it can help you make your home more energy efficient - or to be precise - more energy cost efficient.

How?

Well if you turn things on when electricity price is low and turn them off when the price is high - it makes sense that you will pay less then if you did it the other way around.

Finding API

Before we can actually start any money saving, we need to make everything work i.e. the current electricity price has to be available in the smart home system. The first step on the way to achieving this is to find if there is an online source (preferably free of charge) that can be scraped or a web API that returns the desired values. After a bit of research, I first found a public scrapable website - euenergy.live - with daily update energy prices for all EU member states. I wrote a short script that could fetch the page and parse the price from the text.

This was so easy I thought it's too good to be true. And of course, as it turns out in most such cases - it wasn't true. Or at least not in the way I wanted it to be. While I did get the energy price for my location into the system - this was only the average daily price of electricity, which is really not useful for any energy cost saving scenarios I had envisioned.

So I ditched euenrgy and after a bit more AI scanning I found another solution - a web api from Zyla API Hub. It looked very promising until the moment I found out I can do exactly nothing with it before I purchase the subscription. Not ideal for personal use and I was fairly sure that a free api has to exist so the hunt went on.

And sure enough, after some more digging I finally found something that looked like ENTSO-E, a transparency platform for electricity generation, transportation and consumption for the European market. It offered a free of charge web api, that returns the electricity price for a selected location.

AI can't help

After finding the API and getting the security token I got down to business with my verified method of LUA coding which is basically pasting the console output into a currently selected AI model until there are no errors. And while this recipe has always born results in the past, this time AI fell into a strange loop and couldn't get out of it, despite lot's of trying and switching between various LLM models. In the end I had to go about it the old school way. Open the API documentation, find the section with electricity pricing, copy the specified API call, paste it to my LUA, log the response, check the response - and then return to AI but with some basic understanding of how the call should be structured and what you actually want to get from the response. - now I didn't need the LLM to understand the ENTSO-E API but just to write all the lines of code based on my understanding of it. That worked and I have to say that going out of AI at first felt uncomfortable (because I had to turn on my brain) but after the job was done it brought additional satisfaction - compared to just leaning back and letting the computer do all the hard work.

After the basic script was working I just had to polish it a little bit, to account for the overflow at the end of the day (ENTSO-E returns values for one day from 00:01 to 24:00) and also for the daylight saving (and if anyone with any leverage on this is reading - please please, let's just cancel daylight saving.).

And voila, I had a script that gave me the current electricity price and the electricity price after next hour.

That's it! Is it?

And for a moment or two I thought that's it!! But suspiciously low prices made me think - is it really? And after checking with the computer i thought - of course it isn't! Turns out ENTSO-E returns the current electricity price - but it's not a household electricity price - it's a wholesale electricity price. This price can be vaguely related to the household equivalent and AI suggested I could just use that for shifting loads but I was not too happy about that. While I understood that when wholesale price is the lowest there is a strong chance that also the household kWh price is the lowest - I still felt like I failed in getting the actual (and at least approximately accurate) price to my smart home system.

After coming this far, I could not stop - but further research showed that getting the household electricity current price is MUCH more difficult and it heavily depends on where you live and who is your electricity supplier.

La cavo nostra

So let me break down what my research turned up for my location and my energy supplier. Firstly, I live in Ljubljana Slovenia and I pay my electricity in a single bill to a Slovenian electricity distribution company. This company takes a part of this (based on consumed energy) then pays a part of this to another company, who owns the infrastructure.

So the first part of the payment is based on the package I have - there is a "dynamic package" which apparently I am not using and there is a standard package that uses two tariffs - the high one and the low one.

The second part of the payment is called the "network fee" but it's not fully constant. To the best of my understanding this part of the payment is composed of two parts again - one constant based on the connected power & peaks in energy usage. Not 100 % how this is calcualted. The second part of this second part of the payment is again based on my usage but this time the actual price is defined by a 5 tariff system.

Complicated ha? I am PhD in electrical science and have been dealing with related areas all my professional life and I find it difficult to understand. Not turning this into a political topic or a conspiracy theory but let it be clear that in my very strong opinion this unnecessarily complicated system is purposely built so that a regular person does not fully understand it. La cavo nostra.

Sure enough there are no API'S to be found anywhere. Instead there is a PDF document on each of the company pages. By uploading this document and a photo of my electricity bill to AI - I was able to determine all tariffs for both companies and the periods of day they are active in. I also managed to find out this changes rarely (for example for one of the companies the current price list is valid from 1.1. 2024) and usually not by a lot. So I decided to "hard-code" the values and the time periods into my existing code and have it return the pricing for this and for next hour.

So the final solution is a bit hacked together, probably not 100 % accurate and it has to be updated manually probably at least once per year - but it does it job. I think the energy billing & distribution system in Slovenia is among the worst in Europe from the perspective of grid flexibility. So if you are living elsewhere you might not have to endure the same pains I did. In Latvia for example (correct me if I'm wrong Zandis Zvirbulis ), you have a 15 minute change in electricity price and you get that as one set of information - forecasted for 24 hours in advance.

Here is the entire code:

-- ===============================================================
-- Fetch ENTSO-E Day-Ahead Prices (A44)
-- ===============================================================
-- API Documentation: https://transparency.entsoe.eu/
-- Requires a valid API token (inserted below)
-- ===============================================================

-- Define ENTSO-E API endpoint and parameters

local now = time.now()
log.info(now)

-- ===============================================================
-- Generate yesterday/today ENTSO-E periodStart / periodEnd
-- using only supported time functions
-- ===============================================================

local now = time.now()
log.info(now)

-- current date parts
local y, m, d = now.Year, now.Month, now.Day

-- helper function: get previous/next day safely
local function shiftDay(y, m, d, diff)
    local daysInMonth = {31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31}
    local isLeap = (y % 400 == 0) or (y % 4 == 0 and y % 100 ~= 0)
    if isLeap then daysInMonth[2] = 29 end
    d = d + diff
    if d < 1 then
        m = m - 1
        if m < 1 then m = 12; y = y - 1 end
        d = daysInMonth[m]
    elseif d > daysInMonth[m] then
        d = 1
        m = m + 1
        if m > 12 then m = 1; y = y + 1 end
    end
    return y, m, d
end

-- yesterday and today dates
local y1, m1, d1 = shiftDay(y, m, d, -1)
local y2, m2, d2 = y, m, d

-- build ENTSO-E format (UTC 22:00)
local periodStart = string.format("%04d%02d%02d2200", y1, m1, d1)
local periodEnd   = string.format("%04d%02d%02d2200", y2, m2, d2)

log.info("periodStart = %s", periodStart)
log.info("periodEnd   = %s", periodEnd)

local baseUrl = "https://web-api.tp.entsoe.eu/api"
local parameters = {
    documentType = "A44",                      -- Day-ahead prices
    in_Domain = "10YSI-ELES-----O",            -- Austria (APG)
    out_Domain = "10YSI-ELES-----O",
    periodStart = periodStart,              -- Start UTC (YYYYMMDDHHMM)
    periodEnd = periodEnd,                -- End UTC (YYYYMMDDHHMM)
    securityToken = "YOUR TOKEN HERE"  -- Your ENTSO-E token
}

-- Build the query string
local query = ""
for key, value in pairs(parameters) do
    if query == "" then
        query = "?" .. key .. "=" .. value
    else
        query = query .. "&" .. key .. "=" .. value
    end
end

local url = baseUrl .. query
log.info("Requesting ENTSO-E data from: %v", url)

-- Send the HTTP request
local response, statusCode, error = http.get(url, {
    responseBodyType = http.bodyType.STRING,   -- Keep XML as plain text
})

-- Handle errors and responses
if error then
    log.error("HTTP error: %v", error)
    return
end

log.info("HTTP status: %v", statusCode)
log.info("Response body: %v", response)


-- ===============================================================
-- Extract current and next hour electricity price (€/kWh, UTC-corrected)
-- and set outputs
-- ===============================================================

-- Parse all <price.amount> values manually using string.find
local prices = {}
local startPos = 1
while true do
    local startTag, endTag = string.find(response, "<price.amount>", startPos)
    if not startTag then break end
    local closeTag = string.find(response, "</price.amount>", endTag + 1)
    if not closeTag then break end

    local value = string.sub(response, endTag + 1, closeTag - 1)
    table.insert(prices, tonumber(value))
    startPos = closeTag + 1
end

log.info("Parsed %v price values", #prices)

-- -------------------------------------------
-- Determine UTC offset (DST correction)
-- -------------------------------------------
local month = now.Month
local tz_offset = 1      -- default wintertime (UTC+1)
if month >= 4 and month <= 10 then
    tz_offset = 2        -- summertime (UTC+2)
end

-- Convert local hour to UTC
local utc_hour = now.Hour - tz_offset
if utc_hour < 0 then utc_hour = utc_hour + 24 end
if utc_hour >= 24 then utc_hour = utc_hour - 24 end

local utc_next = utc_hour + 1
if utc_next >= 24 then utc_next = 0 end

-- Position numbers (ENTSO-E uses 1-based, 1 = 00:00-01:00)
local position_current = utc_hour + 1
local position_next = utc_next + 1

-- Ensure within bounds
if position_next > #prices then position_next = #prices end

-- Get prices in €/MWh
local Ecurrent = prices[position_current]
local Enext = prices[position_next]

if Ecurrent == nil or Enext == nil then
    log.error("Missing price data for positions %v / %v", position_current, position_next)
    return
end

-- Convert to €/kWh
local Ecurrent_kWh = Ecurrent / 1000
local Enext_kWh = Enext / 1000

log.info("Local hour %v | UTC hour %v", now.Hour, utc_hour)
log.info("Current (local %v:00, UTC %v:00): %.2f €/MWh | %.5f €/kWh",
    now.Hour, utc_hour, Ecurrent, Ecurrent_kWh)
log.info("Next    (local %v:00, UTC %v:00): %.2f €/MWh | %.5f €/kWh",
    now.Hour + 1, utc_next, Enext, Enext_kWh)

-- Set outputs (€/kWh)
local err = OUTPUTS.Ecurrent.set(Ecurrent_kWh)
if err then log.error(err) end

err = OUTPUTS.Enext.set(Enext_kWh)
if err then log.error(err) end

-- ===============================================================
-- Compute current household electricity price (GEN-I + network)
-- incl. 22% VAT, based on local time
-- ===============================================================

local now = time.now()
log.info("Time for price calculation: %v", now)

-- Define combined prices with VAT (€/kWh)
local priceTable = {
  {startH=0,  endH=6,  price=0.18942}, -- NT + OB1
  {startH=6,  endH=8,  price=0.21532}, -- VT + OB2
  {startH=8,  endH=14, price=0.22081}, -- VT + OB3
  {startH=14, endH=18, price=0.22580}, -- VT + OB4
  {startH=18, endH=22, price=0.23280}, -- VT + OB5
  {startH=22, endH=24, price=0.19336}  -- NT + OB2
}

-- Helper: find current price slot
local function findPrice(hour)
  for i, p in ipairs(priceTable) do
    if hour >= p.startH and hour < p.endH then
      return p.price, i
    end
  end
  -- default safeguard
  return priceTable[#priceTable].price, #priceTable
end

-- Current and next interval
local currentPrice, idx = findPrice(now.Hour)
local nextIdx = idx + 1
if nextIdx > #priceTable then nextIdx = 1 end
local nextPrice = priceTable[nextIdx].price

log.info("Current hour block: %02d.00–%02d.00, Price: %.5f €/kWh",
          priceTable[idx].startH, priceTable[idx].endH, currentPrice)
log.info("Next block: %02d.00–%02d.00, Price: %.5f €/kWh",
          priceTable[nextIdx].startH, priceTable[nextIdx].endH, nextPrice)

-- Write outputs
local err = OUTPUTS.EHcurrent.set(currentPrice)
if err then log.error(err) end
err = OUTPUTS.EHnext.set(nextPrice)
if err then log.error(err) end

log.info("EHcurrent=%.5f €/kWh ; EHnext=%.5f €/kWh", currentPrice, nextPrice) 

Wrapping up

What was left was the classical procedure of writing the newly acquired values to KNX group addresses then creating virtual Generic devices for each of these values (current_price_wholesale, next_price_wholesale, current_price_household, next_price_household), which I did with a an action block in the 1Home automations.

In the "Graphs" section I have created a chart displaying the current wholesale and the current household electricity price:

And last but not least - I put those 4 devices in "Utility" and now I can always check the current and next electricity prices in my 1Home App.

And going forward having electricity prices in your smart home is a nice thing but to actually cut the electricity we now have to act on it. Schedule big loads into lower price periods and voila. Not a part of this article though...

Dr. SmartHome signing out! May your circuits be smart and your energy bills be ever so light.

As 2025 is wrapping up let's revisit some of the best moments from each month of the past year:

January

We started the year off with Light + Intelligent Building Middle East and the launch of 1Home Server CH.

Revisit the launch moment of 1Home Server CH:

February

ISE Barcelona

At the beginning of February, Tim, Martin and Matej took 1Home Server CH for a trip to the ISE show in Barcelona.

1Home Server Loxone update

Our engineers made the lives of Loxone users easier with Matter controller - enabling control of Matter devices directly in the Loxone Mobile App.

Learn more about the update:

March

One of the highlights of the month was getting Server KNX Pro into the hands of one of the top KNX YouTubers - Poseidwn Tech, who took it under his microscope and showed its powerful capabilities.

Watch the review:

April

Like spring brings flowers, 1Home delivers new product. In April, we welcomed IoT Gateway into our 1Home family, allowing you to configure and control Matter IoT devices directly in ETS with group addresses.

Meet IoT Gateway:

May

Smart Home Expo, India

Rok went on a solo trip to India and represented 1Home with our partners Morion Automation at Smart Home Expo 2025...

Yatun Days, Czech Republic

... while Satja and Tim joined our official distributor YATUN, s.r.o. in Czech Republic for Yatun Days.

1Home Server KNX Pro V4 update

The V4 was a major upgrade which introduced 1Home Scenes, as well as IoT Gateway functionality and completely revamped 1Home Automations to Server KNX Pro.

Learn more about the update

June

For the 1Home Voice & Visu launch, our marketing team decided that the best way to showcase cutting-edge KNX was through an elaborate coffee-making montage. We hope you enjoyed both the product and the barista!

July

We provided a close look into the IoT Shading with KNX testing. Marcel tested out different Matter shading systems like Ikea, EVE and Somfy with KNX and revealed an answer to the question: Can IoT shading solutions provide the same benefits - at a fraction of the price?

Find the answer👇

August

While a lot was happening in the present we took some time to look back on the (r)evolution of our 1Home Server KNX Pro.

Even we were surprised at how far we've come...

September

System Manager launch

To the excitement of KNX integrators worldwide, we welcomed a new member to the 1Home family - 1Home System Manager.

All we can say is: we've redefined setting up and maintaining KNX projects.

CEDIA Expo, Denver

While we only got pictures of them climbing mountains, we're sure Tim and Rok also did a good job at discovering innovations and showcasing how KNX is shaping the future of smart living at the CEDIA Expo in Denver.

October

L+B preparations

Yes, if you weren't aware, we are joining L+B 2026 as an exhibitor - again! This means preparations are in full swing. Here is a sneak peek 😉 See you in Hall 11.1, Stand D24!

November

1Home Server KNX V5 update

With November V5 update was here and all the functionalities such as Lua Scripting, Traffic Monitor, Graphs, and System Manager features.

Explore the update

1Home Lab - Shelly / KNX edition

1Home Lab treated us well with a new episode showcasing Shelly Matter-enabled relays integrated into 1Home, which at first looked like there is another part of Matrix dynasty coming.

December

We kept the best for last. In December it was time for a new era of 1Home. We always wanted to design a product that wasnt hidden in dark electrical cabinets. A product with an innovative user experience and design that can fit into any interior style. On December 5th we realized that dream with the launch of 1Home Touch.

Relive the launch moment:

Heads up: you can pre-order 1Home Touch at launch pricing here

And now... time for 2026

2025 has been quite the year - many wins, and some lessons learned the hard way, but honestly? We're even more stoked for where we're headed in 2026. We truly believe it will be our best year yet - and were taking you along for the ride!

Thank you for your support.

- 1Home Team

Dear 1Home Community,
Two and a half years ago, we launched what became one of the biggest milestones in our company’s history: the 1Home Server. Many of you believed in us before the product even existed in your homes. You pre-ordered it on faith - trusting us to deliver something meaningful.

And when the Server arrived, we didn’t stop there.

Over time, we built and released the 1Home App, IoT integrations to KNX, LUA scripting, Graphs, and KNX history and live monitoring - all for free, all delivered long after your purchase. That became our promise:

Those who believe in us early, always get more than expected.

Today, with over 20,000 Servers in homes across the world, we’re ready for our next chapter.

How we decided on our next step

For years, we heard the same message from the market:

“KNX is the best standard there is, but the UI controls and daily user experience feel outdated. 1Home should change that.”

You were right.

Most KNX innovation has lived inside panels and cabinets - powerful, but invisible. Meanwhile, homeowners want something modern, intuitive, and beautiful in the spaces they actually live in.

We’ve always been shaped by Apple Home, and that gave us a clear understanding of what “gold-standard” smart home experience really means. And we’ve always felt we’re the right team to bring that level of simplicity and elegance into the KNX world.

When we looked at our strengths—
creating software experiences that feel ahead of their time, and designing interfaces that make complex systems feel simple - the direction became obvious.

It was time to bring the 1Home experience out into your home.

That idea became 1Home Touch.

Check the launch video below.

Shaped together with the community

From the very beginning, 1Home has always been about control interfaces that feel effortless.

We started with voice control.
Then came deep Apple Home integration.
Then our 1Home App.

Touch is the physical embodiment of everything we’ve learned:
simple, elegant, intuitive, powerful - made for everyone.

To make sure we weren’t building just another screen on the wall, we did what has always guided us best - we listened.

We conducted 50 one-on-one interviews with homeowners and integrators across 10 countries, each bringing unique setups, expectations, and ways of living with smart homes.

And beyond that, more than 1,000 people responded to our public survey, giving us unprecedented insight into what matters most in a daily-use control device.

We shared early designs.
We tested real interactions.
We redesigned, retested, and refined continuously.
We validated both the on-device experience and the configuration interface with real homes, real users, and real workflows.

Touch isn’t just a product we envisioned - it’s a product shaped directly by the 1Home community, both homeowners and integrators.

Project status

The development for the 1Home Touch is well under way.

• The hardware platform is ready and it is powerful enough that you could comfortably watch movies on it. And the viewing angle is also great no matter if you look at it from the front, side or the top. The touch responsiveness feels instant, smooth, and premium. To make sure the device delivers not just great performance but true long-term reliability, we put it through extensive hardware stress tests - like running the unit periodically between -10°C to +40 °C in an oven for three days straight and pushing it until we find exactly how much it can endure. These tests help us understand real-world longevity and ensure the final product is built to last.
• The designs and user experience of both controls and configuration was heavily tested with homeowners and integrators from the 1Home community, and we are happy to report most can't wait to get the 1Home Touch in their hands.

• The last remaining milestone is to finish the software development. Our engineers are hard at work to make it happen.

All this considered, we are estimating the 1Home Touch will be ready to ship in the Summer 2026.

For those who support us early

When people pre-ordered the first 1Home Server for 299€, they essentially paid more than 70% below the current list price - and still received years of new features at no additional cost.

We’ve always believed that early believers should benefit the most.

Touch will follow the same philosophy. When you support 1Home early, you end up receiving far more than you expected.

👉 Learn more about 1Home Touch
https://1home.io/touch

A Heartfelt thank you to the community 🙏

There is no 1Home without this community.
Your ideas, your patience, your criticism, your excitement, and your trust are the reasons we’re able to build products like this.

Thank you - for every message, every piece of feedback, every suggestion, and every belief you've placed in us.

Welcome to the next era of 1Home.

With gratitude,
The 1Home Team

In my last blogpost of Dr. Smart Home Hacks, I showed how my 1Home Server KNX PRO learned to master my apartment’s “Night Scene” like a seasoned butler. Well, Dr. Smart Home didn’t stop there. Oh no. After conquering the evening routine, I set my sights on something a bit more… meteorological.

I live in a multi-apartment building which usually means no KNX (or any) weather station. To be completely honest - there is something on the roof which is controlling the roof window in common spaces but I it's impossible to access those readings. And if you’ve ever tried to run a halfway smart home without one, you know exactly how blind—pun absolutely intended—you feel. Temperature? Nada. Wind? Guesswork. Sun intensity? I stick my hand out the window and estimate. Not ideal.

Fortunately, as Aljaž Švigelj explains here, a decent virtual weather station can now be creating using the LUA block in the 1Home Automations editor. The entire ready-to-run example is already available inside the Lua editor’s Helper section.

One click and boom—you suddenly have the following variables flowing into your 1Home system (and one "write to KNX" command away from having it in KNX as well):

• outsideTemperature
• windSpeed
• windDirection
• isSunny
• isDay

For someone like me, who does not own a KNX weather station, this felt like cheating. I now had outside temperature available everywhere in the system—from heating logic to presence simulations to energy dashboards. Amazing.

But of course I wouldn't be writing this article now if this wasn't just the intro to the real tinkering I did with the goal to be able to use the virtual weather station to control my blinds intelligently. For that I will have to modify my virtual weather station to give me more juice. With the current code I can protect my blinds against strong wind but I can't control my blinds to passively heat or prevent overheating of the apartment.

When You Have Three South-Facing Blinds and Zero Sun Data

I have three blinds facing south. In summer they should slam shut to prevent my apartment from turning into a convection oven or more accurately - to minimize the operation of our A/C unit. In winter they should politely open and let the sun warm the apartment for free—less heating, less energy, more smugness.

But the data I got from the basic example wasn’t enough. I needed something the KNX world calls lux.

Lux = light intensity

Lux = the thing that every weather station gives you

Lux = the thing that Open-Meteo absolutely does not give you.

So I did what any reasonable modern adult does when they’re stuck: I politely begged ChatGPT to help me. (As explained many times, I did some coding in the university but after that zero, thats why I need help from AI like many of you readers).

First, I gave it the pre-made example code and asked a simple question:

shortwave_radiation_sum

After a bit of thinking the machine produced a copy-pastable code, which I input in the LUA editor within the 1Home Automations, I pressed run aaaaaaaand .... it ran without errors and I got shortwave_radiation_sum as an output of the block. Step one done but how do I control shades with this now?

The Quest for a “Heat Index” (a.k.a. How to Teach Blinds Thermodynamics)

Next I asked ChatGPT the real question:

“OK now I need a variable which will tell me how much heat is coming in through my south windows—based on which I can lower the shades or lift them. Normally in KNX you have a weather station that gives you lux values. Maybe we do it the same way here?”

This gave the robot a pause for thought ... And then this pause seemed to stretch forever... When it finally responded, it delivered a surprisingly elegant idea:

Use hourly shortwave radiation → normalize to 0–1 → treat this as a “South Window Heat Index”.

• 0 = no heat coming through windows
• 1 = full hot summer sun blasting your living room
• Anything in between = useful for automations
• Add thresholds → lower or raise blinds
• Add outdoor temperature → behave differently in summer vs. winter

This was actually better than relying on lux. Shortwave radiation is basically the actual heat from the sun that makes your apartment warm. Exactly what I needed.

So the robot spit out a nice tidy block of Lua code. I pasted it into the 1Home Lua editor. Aaaaaaaaaand… 💥 error.

A Dance of Errors, Screenshots, and Fixes

So I took a screenshot of the error message, sent it back to ChatGPT, and it gave me a revised code block. New paste → new error. Different screenshot → revised code. Another paste → another error. Screenshot → revised code.

We repeated this three or four times. (It almost felt like debugging with a very patient junior developer who neither eats nor sleeps.)

For example:

• First error: I used a variable named error. Lua really didn’t like that.
• Second error: Apparently the system didn’t enjoy anyone using os.date. (It protested like a toddler denied a cookie.)
• Third error: Open-Meteo’s timestamps didn’t match until we indexed them properly.

Eventually the robot produced a final version that ran without a single error.

Add a log here, a threshold there, and—voilà!

I now had:

• current shortwave radiation
• daily radiation sum
• a normalized 0–1 heat index
• simple time-of-day correction
• winter/summer behavior
• shade down threshold
• shade up threshold
• a virtual weather station that actually understands heat flow

Not bad for an afternoon hacking session with a robot.

Dr. Smart Home’s New Trick: The Virtual Weather Station

So here we are.

My 1Home Server KNX PRO is now officially running a Virtual Weather Station powered by:

• Lua
• Open-Meteo
• 1Home Automations
• and a robot that wrote 90% of the code for me

The Code

If anyone would find a virtual weather station useful for themselves and doesn't want to do coding sessions with artificial smartyfullness - here is my code, anyone can use it, just copy paste and voila.

-- NOTE: This example uses Open-Meteo’s free API for personal, non-commercial use. 
-- If you use it commercially, please obtain a commercial API plan.

-- Fetch the Open-Meteo.com weather data for your location.
local url = string.format(
    "https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=%f&longitude=%f&current_weather=true&hourly=shortwave_radiation&daily=shortwave_radiation_sum&timezone=auto",
    location.latitude(), location.longitude()
)

-- Only use first two return values to avoid 'error' issues.
local response, statusCode = http.get(url, {
    responseBodyType = http.bodyType.JSON,
})

if statusCode ~= 200 then
    log.error("HTTP request failed, status code=%v", statusCode or -1)
    return
end

log.info("Weather response: %v", response)

----------------------------------------------------
-- Current weather
----------------------------------------------------
local outsideTemperature = response.current_weather.temperature
local windSpeed = response.current_weather.windspeed
local windDirectionDegrees = response.current_weather.winddirection
local isDay = response.current_weather.is_day == 1
local weatherCode = response.current_weather.weathercode
local isSunny = weatherCode < 3  -- 0,1,2 = clear / mainly clear / partly cloudy

----------------------------------------------------
-- Daily shortwave radiation sum (for info/logging)
----------------------------------------------------
local dailyShortwave = 0
if response.daily and response.daily.shortwave_radiation_sum then
    dailyShortwave = response.daily.shortwave_radiation_sum[1] or 0
end

----------------------------------------------------
-- Find current index in hourly data using time string
----------------------------------------------------
local currentRadiation = 0
local currentHour = 12   -- default / fallback
local currentTime = response.current_weather.time  -- e.g. "2025-11-17T16:45"

if currentTime then
    -- Parse hour from ISO time string ("YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM")
    local hourStr = string.sub(currentTime, 12, 13)
    local parsedHour = tonumber(hourStr)
    if parsedHour ~= nil then
        currentHour = parsedHour
    end

    -- Find matching index in hourly.time array
    if response.hourly and response.hourly.shortwave_radiation and response.hourly.time then
        local idx = nil
        for i, t in ipairs(response.hourly.time) do
            if t == currentTime then
                idx = i
                break
            end
        end

        -- Fallback: if not found, use last value
        if not idx then
            idx = #response.hourly.shortwave_radiation
        end

        currentRadiation = response.hourly.shortwave_radiation[idx] or 0
    end
end

----------------------------------------------------
-- Compute "south window heat index"
-- 0.0 = no sun heat, 1.0 = strong sun (~>= 800 W/m²)
----------------------------------------------------
local MAX_REF_RADIATION = 800  -- typical strong sun value, tweak if needed
local sunIntensity = currentRadiation / MAX_REF_RADIATION
if sunIntensity > 1 then sunIntensity = 1 end
if sunIntensity < 0 then sunIntensity = 0 end

-- Only consider during day & when relatively sunny
if not isDay or not isSunny then
    sunIntensity = 0
end

-- Very simple approximation for south-facing using local hour
local orientationFactor = 1.0
if currentHour < 8 or currentHour > 18 then
    orientationFactor = 0.3
end

local southWindowHeatIndex = sunIntensity * orientationFactor

----------------------------------------------------
-- Logs
----------------------------------------------------
log.info("Outside temperature: %v", outsideTemperature)
log.info("Wind speed: %v", windSpeed)
log.info("Wind direction: %v", windDirectionDegrees)
log.info("Is sunny: %v", isSunny)
log.info("Is day: %v", isDay)
log.info("Daily shortwave sum (Wh/m²): %v", dailyShortwave)
log.info("Current shortwave radiation (W/m²): %v", currentRadiation)
log.info("South window heat index (0-1): %v", southWindowHeatIndex)

----------------------------------------------------
-- Example: write values to outputs
----------------------------------------------------
local err = OUTPUTS.Tout.set(outsideTemperature)
if err then log.error(err) end

if OUTPUTS.Radiation then
    local err2 = OUTPUTS.Radiation.set(currentRadiation)
    if err2 then log.error(err2) end
end

if OUTPUTS.SouthHeatIndex then
    local err3 = OUTPUTS.SouthHeatIndex.set(southWindowHeatIndex)
    if err3 then log.error(err3) end
end

----------------------------------------------------
-- Shade control logic (example)
-- Adjust thresholds to taste / test on site.
----------------------------------------------------
-- 0 = fully up, 1 = fully down (adapt to your real outputs)
local SHADE_DOWN_THRESHOLD  = 0.7  -- strong sun
local SHADE_UP_THRESHOLD    = 0.4  -- weak sun
local HOT_OUTSIDE_TEMP      = 22   -- above this we want to protect from heat
local COLD_OUTSIDE_TEMP     = 18   -- below this we may WANT heat gains

local shadeCommand = nil

if southWindowHeatIndex > SHADE_DOWN_THRESHOLD and outsideTemperature > HOT_OUTSIDE_TEMP then
    -- Too much heat coming in -> lower shades
    shadeCommand = 1
elseif southWindowHeatIndex < SHADE_UP_THRESHOLD or outsideTemperature < COLD_OUTSIDE_TEMP then
    -- Not much heat / it’s cold outside -> raise shades
    shadeCommand = 0
end

if shadeCommand ~= nil and OUTPUTS.SouthShade then
    local err4 = OUTPUTS.SouthShade.set(shadeCommand)
    if err4 then log.error(err4) end
    log.info("South shades command: %v", shadeCommand)
end 

What’s Next?

Right now, I’ve been running the entire thing in simulation mode within 1Home Automations. The final step is wiring the logic (by writing the resulting outputs to various group addresses with a "Write to KNX" action block) to the actual blinds and then fine tune the algorithm until it works perfectly in different weather scenarios. Not a small task and also not one where my best AI friend can help a lot. I'll just have to wait for different conditions and then tune the algorithm so it works great. I'll probably write more blogposts about my virtual weather station, when I actually see some results.

The official release of the FW containing (among other things) LUA is this week so also looking forward to what hacks and tricks the 1Home users pull out from their sleeves. I'll be super happy if you let me know about your own pains and how you solved them with LUA.

Dr. Smart Home, signing off — stay tuned for the next front of innovations sweeping through your smart home.