This is a bit of a re-do from my original project that was kicked off during COVID. key goals that have been on the current focus have been to keep it simple and finish what I start.
This is moderately successful as this was a clean-up of a live project that has been chopped and changed from VirtualPC, Raspberry Pi 3, 4, ESXi and now finally Proxmox.
Use case:
Typical family with 2 kids and a wife with a low tolerance for change or things not working. Expensive power bills and a busy life. The general goals of this project are;
Automate as much as that's practical
Allow for dumb/manual overrides wherever possible
Try not to overcomplicate things, with simple logic
Leave useful notes for future changes and to be able to diagnose issues
76 automations down from an original ~90. I got brutal removing over-engineered conditions, duplications
4 scenes as a regrettable initial part of the implementation paired with automations. was originally 12. aiming to completely remove
0 Scripts Have used automations in parallel or with delays
2 Blueprint What to add existing and stable blueprints from the community. Feel like what i need isn't unique and most likely some other nerd has already done the hard work to make an automation I can leverage.
Central management from CT Clamps on the 3-Phase meter board using Shelly EM3. This is expressed as net consumption/generation.
Solar PV generation is effectively ignored. Due to the redundancy of relying on any generation.
Device monitoring is done with an array of TUYA energy monitoring smart switches using the PowerCalc app to enrich raw data into meaningful per-device energy monitoring.
Car/EV monitoring is done using the HACS Tesla app, relying on source data from the Telstra API.
The host “Server”
Old-ass PC from Facebook Marketplace. i7-Gen7 32GB memory running Proxmox. You can pretty much use anything here. I used a Docker container from tteck.
I originally planned to do a lot more with this than I did. This will most likely get replaced with something smaller and more efficient in late 2026
The standard stuff is using a design combination of mushroom cards, mushroom themes and card mods. Which are all from the HACS store using some very customer CSS from Anas Box.
Here' his YouTube video, this contains all the reference material you will need to get started.
Lights are typically Philips Hue E27 bulbs. While I am not a fan of Hue as I find they are rather dim as an actual light. Saying that I have installed and removed Tuya equivalent Wi-Fi bulbs and Shelly 1L relays, due to the stability of Hue's bulbs and locally controlled ZigBee bridge.
Original 1-page:
Simplified single page to copy Google Home Layout. While this worked, I found the page was a bit too busy, trying to do too many functions.
Header using Markdown card + grouped badges (not 100% in love with the badges)
{% set time = now().hour %}
{% if time >= 5 and time < 12 %}
{% set greeting = 'Good morning' %}
{% elif time >= 12 and time < 17 %}
{% set greeting = 'Good afternoon' %}
{% elif time >= 17 and time < 24 %}
{% set greeting = 'Good evening' %}
{% elif time >= 0 and time < 5 %}
{% set greeting = 'You should be sleeping' %}
{% endif %}
{% if state_attr('calendar.family', 'start_time') == None %}
{% set cal_message = "you have no upcoming events, enjoy 🥳"%}
{% else %}
{% set start_time = state_attr('calendar.family', 'start_time') | as_timestamp | timestamp_custom("%H:%M", false) %}
{% set cal_message = "your next event is at " + start_time %}
{% endif %}
# {{greeting}}, {{user}}!
It's {{now().hour}}:{{now().minute}} and {{cal_message}}.
# Robo Vacumm (aka Robo Rob)
Robo rob, is currently **{{ states('vacuum.robo_rob') }}**, {% if is_state('sensor.laundry_vac_robo_rob_battery', 'unavailable') %}
>_< Oh no im lost can you find me?
{% else %} The battery is **{{ states('sensor.laundry_vac_robo_rob_battery') }}%** charged.
{% endif %}
# Hello {{ user }}
Tesla Long-range Model 3 **xxx xxx** is currently **{{ states('device_tracker.tesla_model_3_location_tracker') }}**.
Current drive range of **{{ states('sensor.tesla_model_3_range')|float|round(1) }} km**, or **{{ states('sensor.tesla_model_3_battery')|float|round(1) }}%**.
