The Smartest Home in Town (Maker Monday Insight)

If you're an IT professional, chances are you've already taken steps towards making your home smart, or you've at least given it some thought. Maybe you have a smart power socket here and there, or maybe a temperature logger sending data to a home automation tool. Or maybe you have a full-blown automated solution. Whatever the status of your smart home, it's always interesting to get some inspiration from how others have done it. Which is why, for the latest episode of our Maker Monday YouTube show, we visited the (smart)home of one of our colleagues, Chris.

Chris has implemented home automation using ioBroker as his central hub. His set-up brings in elements such as door locks, window sensors, thermostats, data about his solar power usage, and more. Plus, there's integration between devices too: when a window is opened, the smart thermostat immediately turns down the heating in the room, for example.

In our discussion, we also cover the question of network stability: when you have so many smart devices connecting to the wireless network, you will very soon overrun your network's capacity. Chris explains how he solved this problem in his home. Oh, and you need to see the half-height server rack in his basement :)

Take the tour with us, and get some ideas for your own smart home! 

Do you have a smart home? What issues have you run into with home automation? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!