Hi guys, I am currently rehabbing a ‘76 Airstream Ambassador. It’s a complete gut rehab, so I have access to every nook and cranny of this 29’ trailer. Home automation is particularly relevant in a RV because conservation of resources is extremely important. Even when I have “shore power” (elec. hookup), propane is a finite resource that has to be refilled. Rough camping, or boondocking, makes electricity extremely precious, as there is no power connection at all. So I want to be able to control not only all the lights but also some appliances, and be able to put them on schedule.
So far, no different from many other projects here, but for me, since I have access to all the wiring, I want to hardwire into the devices I’m controlling. Most of them will be a simple switch. RPi takes a reading through GPIO (temp, humidity, gas, PIR, etc) and then either switches on or off a circuit. At home in a retrofit context, that’s easily done by something like Z Wave and a toggle switch that is controlled by the USB Z Wave stick. But I don’t necessarily want to spend $20+ per switch. All the lights in the RV will be a DC LED lights and surely there is a way to just complete the circuit on those lights.
I’m obviously very new to the home automation and fairly new to RPi and arduino scene as well so I’m not familiar with all the accessories to RPi that might do it. I looked into [Laika](http://www.project-laika.com/) and will keep trying to find things on my own, but a pointer in the right direction would be very much appreciated. Thanks!