Supercharging a Net Zero Home - Ultimate Smart Home Tour
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- Опубликовано: 14 май 2024
- Supercharging a Net Zero Home - Ultimate Smart Home Tour. The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/undecided For my new smart home I’ve gone all out, and that includes making it smarter than I am. From windows that automatically shade themselves to reduce unwanted heat gain into the house, to ensuring my air tight house doesn’t suffocate me in my sleep, I’ve been going a little overboard on adding smarts to pretty much everything I can … and I’m still not done. While I recognize that going nuts with smart home tech isn’t for everyone, at the heart of what I’m doing is about saving energy and ultimately money, which is a pretty universal desire. So, with that in mind, let me take you on a journey into my Mensa-Level home to hopefully inspire some ideas for smart tech additions to your own home.
Product links (some are Amazon affiliate links)
Air quality sensors: geni.us/air-quality-monitor
Open source air quality alternative: www.airgradient.com/
Tempest Weather Station: geni.us/tempest-weather
Lutron Smart Dimmer: geni.us/lutron-diva
Lutron Pico Remote: geni.us/lutron-pico
Lutron Serena Shades: www.serenashades.com/
Eve Motion & Light Sensor: geni.us/eve-motion
Shelly Plus 1 Relay: geni.us/shelly-plus-1
Air Versa Air Filter: geni.us/air-versa
Span Panel: link.undecidedmf.com/span2
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Do you have any smart home ideas or gear I should try out? The first 100 people to use code UNDECIDED at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/undecided
If you liked this, check out Is a Geothermal Heat Pump Worth It? My Net Zero Home ruclips.net/video/onmLrUh2cHU/видео.html
Have you seen any of the MyEnergi products from the UK? They have a range of products that help redirect excess solar energy into your hot water or your car. Not sure if they are available in the US yet.
Wish you included configuration and how you actually set stuff up and not just talking about it
How about trying to synchronize your window shades with bird migration season.
Hey Matt, what are those CO2 sensors you're using?
Gonna need a smart home deep dive or at least a full product and protocols list..
1. Where and why: zigbee/zwave/WiFi/thread..? Wired Ethernet? (Protocols).
2. How many hubs, which, and how it's all connected etc? Like integration and avoiding locked in apps/services + fees.
3. Sensor/device types (lights, switches etc), battery/wired, how many (like the spread or distances for mesh network but no interference)
4. Odds and ends - the things like your hot water heater and water main monitoring (and shut off?).. never heard of some brands you said; what's proprietary to EACH vs a 'retrofit' for when certain smart things die so the expense of replacing isn't extra for the whole thing being smart. What's proprietary or not worth the expense?
You get the idea but like, an actual deep dive of everything and why.. could break it down into a small series focusing on a category for each; like 'future /smart home networking' for all your networking/hubs/software and placements.. another one is small devices, another one is large devices like appliances and utility things.
Really want to see all of what you got but understand why you went with one thing over another; like why lutron switches since they're super expensive?
@ 8:39 - "I won't get into the details..." That's why I'm here man. I'd like to see a very extensive 40+ min video on the in's and outs on this whole place. Get technical with it as I'm sure others would agree!
My experience after gong overboard with automation and "savings" is that apart from heat pump and solar/battery, most other tech cost orders of magnitudes more than they save. So to be more honest, let's just admit it's not for saving money, but because it's cool with tech. :)
Especially with stuff like the shades, those things are pretty damn pricey and I can't see them ever paying themselves off, especially when your heating and cooling costs are already minimized so much with his geothermal heatpump, thick insulation and air sealing.
@@williamlancto3655 Yes. For me, I've had a long term goal of becoming net-positive on energy. This year I might actually achieve that for our house (EV excluded).
But, the single most important thing to achieve this (part from solar panels) was a better heat pump and really learning how to tune it. Our house has water based heating and the heat pump also heats our water.
Air source heat pumps are great. Geothermal is a mistake in my eyes…
@@dakota4766 does geothermal heating equipment take a lot of maintenance? I genuinely don’t know.
@@GearForTheYear Not really. The ground loop typically has a 50 year warrantee but is basically buried plastic or copper pipe, so it should last almost forever. The rest of the system is standard HVAC stuff so no more than standard systems. The main expense is just burying the loop in the first place.
Is there a video planned about your home server, I know it’s not exactly what your channel is known for. But it would be really interesting to see what someone ,who’s not a content creator in the home server space, uses just because they think it’s the best. I love your content. You’re probably doing more for the environment than any of the environmental activists by actually motivating people to make these changes and showing you don’t have to suffer to be environmentally friendly.
Would love for you to do a Home Assistant video explaining how you set it up, what you have learned, and what you would do differently.
Great ideas, I'd love to see a Home Assistant and server video.
I may do something on a second channel. Still figuring that out.
That would be awesome! Please let us know so we can subscribe to that channel too
I would also be very interested in seeing more about your home network/server and home assistant setup. I’ve been eyeing a UniFi system and haven’t taken the plunge yet. And home assistant seems intimidating, but looks awesome at the same time.
Blinds on the outside for keeping the heat out!
I wanted to say exactly the same. The house we bought had inside shades. We installed rolling screens on the outside to block the sun better. The difference was huge.
Thanks for sharing!
In Florida we installed Cat 5 windows with Level 3 heat resistance. The inside surface of the glass went from 112 degrees to 78 degrees. The blinds went from 95 degrees to room temperature. And that's in the winter when outside temps were in the low 70's. After 8 years, we made back in dollars the premium paid for the Level 3 Heat Resistance in energy savings. (I keep spreadsheets on this stuff).
@@jerrycomo2736 make videos of your spread sheets!
For your bathroom, you should try using a derivative of the humidity rather than a raw humidity value threshold. I've had much better success using that to detect when the shower is on since it's less dependent on the ambient humidity of the house. Maybe it's irrelevant since you've got your central dehumidifier, but I've found it to be super helpful
Hi Matt. Love the videos and I am geeking out over all this home automation. Have you managed to avoid being trapped in any “subscription fee” systems? I recently was given a heat pump monitor by my power company. Their theory being that we could improve how smart we were with heat pump usage and save energy… But to do anything with it there is a $55 per year subscription - which would wipe out any savings. It seems this nonsense is hard to avoid these days.
The one thing I would probably do differently would be external shades instead of internal. Especially in the high summer heats they help much more to keep the heat outside. And they can be another layer of protection for the windows in case of really bad storms...
But this depends on the specifics of your house, location, local climate, etc...
I would worry that a really bad storm would trash them. In this case, a Boston noreaster with a foot of heavy wet snow followed by a drop in temperature to minus 20. And shades burning out their motor while trying to move when frozen solid. This is probably a legitimate concern in Boston.
@@dennisenright9347 You don’t want to put down the shades during the winter anyway, so you’d be fine. You could just set it to not function outside of the recommended temperature zone or during certain times of the year.
There are some windows that have the shade integrated in between the glass
I guess he meant the European style "blast shields" like those small segment garage doors instead of those rope attached relective rectangular shades where you can still look through
Interestingly external shades have a much better shading effect than Inside shades.
Congrats, Matt. I know many of us are wishing you and the family the best on the new home.
Thanks for sharing the journey.
Thanks so much!
What product are you using to monitor the CO2 levels/air quality in each room?
Adding a reply to bump this up! Also interested to know as I'm in the process of a similar build
Also would love to know!
Me too, and do they have a real NDIR or equivalent sensor?
Me too!
I'm using an assortment of air quality monitors: Qingping Air Monitor Lite, Awair, and sensors built into the Mila Air Purifiers. After testing a bunch of air quality sensors, those were the best I've come across (all on par with each other). Everything is linked into my Home Assistant setup and logging the data. All three also work directly with Apple Homekit too.
Matt, I love what you’re doing, and the detail that you put in your videos. Keep up the good work! 🎉
You have given me quite a few ideas to implement in my design for my clients in the Caribbean. Thank you and continue to do great work.
It would be pretty cool to have a model of your entire system documented up. You've got it all pretty dialed. So a list of equipment, apps, etc would go a long ways for a person to be able to work on a subset of the model to bring into there home.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. It's really inspiring and I look forward to every new episode. At first I was amazed at how big the differences were between houses in Sweden and the USA, but the more I learn, the more I realize that the differences are mostly due to differences in climate and history. Many small choices that have made big differences later on. Regarding the climate, I live at the same latitude as parts of Alaska and when I compare with those buildings there are actually more similarities than differences. 😊
Matt, I loved the shots of you walking to sit down at the studio, it's great to see your setup and how much more elaborate it is than what it looks on camera.
Glad you liked that. I thought it might be fun to sneak in some BTS.
Great content. I love all the nerdy info you have control over. Our goal is to build our own net zero home in 5 or so years. Currently we have 21 LG panels w IQ7+ micro inverters (no battery storage at this point).
I recently got an ID.4 and amazingly Enphase just released a smart EV charger. I just set it up last week and it has a self consumption mode. So on its own it will charge my car when it has excess (2.4 kWh) solar - pretty cool!
I look forward to more great content!
I friggin LOVE the commit to big data (I'm at the 3:45 mark). There comes a point where you just gotta quit being afraid, and engage the system completely to get the full benefits.
Kinda goes back to a comment I made months ago... if one has the ability to throw a lot of solar panels on the house, optimizing electricity consumption hits diminishing returns very quickly. Ultimately you wind up only caring about the big loads.
One thing you should try doing is disconnect your internet for a few hours and see how much of the home automation system actually still works. It's amazing how many gadgets wind up depending on DNS (domain name lookups) and NTP (internet time service). Even Home Assistant needs them... well, the Linux operating system running under it, though in that case it should still function if the application software is written properly.
I've found that some things stop working properly after a while. I firewalled-off my wall-mounted Amazon Fire tablets once and they stopped working after a week or two of not being able to phone home. And the security cameras couldn't boot up because they couldn't do an initial time sync (but operated fine if the internet was lost after booting was complete).
-Matt
That's an interesting point about things which still need Internet access even for local usage. If it's just things like DNS and NTP you should be able to spoof the proper responses. I would definitely firewall off any smart home devices if you have the skills and equipment to do so.
You are so cool...I could never setup a house so smart as you. Respect.
Very impressive Matt! Thx for sharing 😮
Planning something very similar for my own future net zero house too, you're definitely doing many things right. I'm also planning on having granular per room temperature control and zoning (within reason), which is an interesting challenge.
Some ideas, depending on your ac type (might be less relevant in new hoses built from scratch) but Sensibo for smart management of split AC units. Gives you tons of data, automation, scheduling, and other capabilities.
More questions about your HA installation... What is your hardware? How long have you been running it? Stability? Issues? What made to decide to go with HA? What were your other considerations for home automation platforms? Please do a follow up video!
Nebraska hotline for disabilities? @@UndecidedMF__
I have been using HA virtualized on Proxmox. I have found it extremely stable until I did something that messed it up. If you do good backups or you know exactly what you did to break it you can relatively easily revert it.
There is also the option in the Developer Tools that will allow you to check your configuration for errors that will prevent HA from launching.
That continuity on the intro, was well executed.
Loved the brief tour of your home and hilarious seeing all the CO2 monitors. Amazing that you got your wife to agree to all your "toys."
I'd love to see a video detailing how you set up your bluetooth presence sensing!
I'm super into home automation stuff as well. Nice to see how other people do it. I've also tried to keep things as "off web" as I can. So much so I programmed my own voice and vision system because I wanted things like Alexa and Ring without the privacy intrusion. All running on a server I built for free from scrap computer parts. The only "on web" stuff I have is my Cafe appliances which use a webservice from GE. My system does presence detection through cameras hooked up to the vison system I programmed which can tell when someone is in the room. It's not able to recognize individual people like your system yet, but I prefer to avoid people having to have beacons or phone apps to alert the system of their presence.
Just got an 8Kw solar system installed (Hobart Australia 42'c South) and battery storage. Already have a great Heat Pump but next for me is a heat pump hot water to reduce energy usage plus saving more/export to grid. Have a few smart plugs but man your setup is amazing. We use about 30-35kw of energy a day*
Love the house videos for planning my own build out using the same or similar solutions!
Wow! Your house is a dream! 😍 Please make setup videos with details on how to do all the things you’ve set up I will gobble up every minute.
Super nerd, You the Dude. Great job on you new home, You Are the Future.
As you know Matt, we have a housing crisis today (when has it not been so?) and the idea that small homes that are energy neutral needs to be sown and grown. I know it is possible because I can envision it, but with smarter brains and resources tackling the problem(s) I'm sure we can speed up the arrival date of that better future. I am presently renovating an RV trailer from gas to electric in anticipation of eventually building a small extremely energy efficient cabin/casita that can be totally off grid without sacrificing any of today's conveniences. If am close enough to a grid hookup I will do that in order to share my energy "crop" with others. The learning curve is steep but it is coming together because of people like you who although in much larger houses, are still leading the way with these technology advancements. Thanks for your contributions in this field.
Superb video. I used to watch such things with Linus and Frugal, but this is next level. Kudos.
This is a great idea for those who don't know how to fix anything, creating a functional disaster. I long for the days of simplicity. I remember the day when I could fix my own car.
Most (if not all) of the stuff he has shown is an overlay. My house is setup similar. The light switches for example still work perfectly fine even if all the smart stuff fails.
The only things I’ve run into are automations that I like, which don’t match use case of others in the house. The biggest one was that I had everything shutting off when nobody was home… which worked great until we had people dog-sit who didn’t have devices. Adding a ‘Visitor’ toggle button that disables all the noticeable automation fixed that.
This was great. Thanks for all you do.
Love your nerd home! Great job! 😉
Great video, I’ve added it to my smart home tour playlist
Well done. Good level of smarts at your home
Matt - very cool and sure you will get things tweaked to work very well especially if you have 17.2 kW of solar (Wow I could use that much power, I have only 8kW). You will need to keep those tilt and turn windows closed if your automatic shades are active. I thought your CO2 looked a bit high, maybe you need to increase your base load air flow. I had a commissioner set my air flows for a Zender HRV and I see maybe 650 ppm CO2 normally. I use the Sense app which has great tending and very useful to adjust EV charge rate to avoid exporting PV power. Thought SPAN handledEV charging automatically. My EV can charge from 5 to 48 amps in 1 amp increments and I have issues on partly sunny days to regulate that charge rate. Something I would like to automate.
@UndecidedMF Matt, pleeeeeeaase write A:a book /guide to home automation covering everything to help an individual get their home to a level of automation they want and B: a paper that shows all the data from anything you considered, whether or not that data was immediately useful, and how the useful data helped you make decisions. Please! I need this!
I love my Lutron shades and light switches. I need to make more use of the fan control.
We live in a house in town built in 1915. It’s not smart in any way. We built our previous home and had geothermal heat/cooling. We loved it! We had not installed but had the stubbing for solar panels on the roof. I look forward to building another house that has geothermal, but also some of the smart features that you have in your house. I expect that kitting out a house with all these smart features is not an inexpensive endeavor. For someone on a more modest budget, in what order of preference/ importance/ worth would you recommend installing some of these systems?
I don't know if this is too "into the details" for your channel, but a video covering the need to knows and good to knows about the Home Assistant server side stuff would help me decide if that's a route I want to try going down in my current position. If it's unlikely to be the type of thing you'd be confident covering, I'd love a reference to any content creators got you up and running.
The biggest concern I have about smart homes is what happens when the company you go with for your product either go under, get bought out or decide to discontinue a service. Far too many products require a registration or an always on connection to a remote server to phone home meaning if any of the above scenarios occur you are left with e-waste. Even if something is functioning now, is the driver support open source or based on open source offering meaning when a security exploit is discovered you will still get patches from somewhere an aren't at the mercy of a company that could and most likely will pull the plug at some point
Just don't buy products that requires internet.
The simplest is to go for RF, ZigBee or Zwave.
But even some WIFI devices are local or can be flashed to be local.
It's not very hard to flash a new firmware in a ESP-based product.
And the same answer applies to the security question you have.
Home Assistant is completely Open Source, under current active development and as far as I understand the group of devs don't have any plans on abandoning the project.
If you buy products that are Zigbee, Z-Wave or Matter based or have local API control then HA can manage it even if the hardware provider goes under.
@@TheHellis assuming they are available in my market. The ones that are are been sold out for well over a year
@@Javadamutt so you're trying to say that all RF, ZigBee and Zwave products are sold out in your country.
And your country is not on the list (I estimate that to about 100 countries) that Shelly ships to?
Hahaha, Matt! We are such geeks! 😉 Brilliant design, brother! No not overboard, just lots o fun! 😊
QUESTION: Did you consider Luton RA3?
If so, I'd love to understand your thoughts on not selecting it vice the Casita... yup, cost is a factor.
The last home I built also had Casita, and we LOVED IT.
The home I am designing now will reduce copper wiring by only including ONE light switch per area (No 2-way or 3-way switches).. I will use only Casita and Pico Remotes to create 2 & 3 way functions & to drive down wire and wiring costs.
I, too, have serious allergies so SUPER tight, ERV's, and Dehumidification was key. I monitor manually using AirThings!
Brother, definitely the SPAN panels! So cool!
Cheers and Blessings to you,
Eric
Cool. Thanks Matt.
I got to work on a lead lined smart house in 2004. They started in 2000. They called it the Star Trek house but there were no references to the franchise in the design or day to day work at all. What there was, was a space shuttle's worth of wiring. And the project went on Soooo long technology kept outpacing what had already been installed. So we did a lot of upgrading. They had most of the sheetrock up when I started, only 4 years into the project- a narrow 4,500 sq ft loft on a busy San Francisco tech gulch street. It was a Lutron house, and they had smart blinds on the smart skylights... Which the contractor left open one night- before the smart rain sensor had been integrated into the system...But that is another long story.
Another High quality video
honestly, the main reason i avoided Home Automation all this time was because the vast majority of "Smartified" products demand the use of Propiatary Servers & Apps instead of working entirely locally, glad the trend seem to be changing for the better
My ultimate smart home feature is our master bathroom: There's one switch called "theme" and when you push it (surprise!) switches on the light (8xphilips hue stuff) but in the color-theme as defined for the certain time of day - and not only this it switches on the Sonos speaker aswell and with a certain playlist or channel in a certain volume also depending on the time of day. I't a bit nerdy but even my wife loves it and that's a challenge I tell you. Besides we are pretty well equipped with a similar solar size (17.8 kwp) and two electric cars, heat-pump and everything runs via solarmanager which also allows us solar-only charging of the evs - when there is solar power. But since i'm in switzerland and we are in the middle of winter there is by far not enough solar power right now... that's one of the things I can't change ;-) Thanks for the great channel! Chris
One idea I had in mind was to create a model of my house and predict temperature gain and temperature using forecast, thermal inertia and advance control engineering to get the house to the best temperature possible. I have electric heating in my house and often the temperature overshot above the targeted temperature.
Two way of doing that is record a first set of external temperature, sun lux trough the day, internal temperature of each rooms for a whole year. With that you can get inertia of the house and have a proper smart heating system and not "hey too cold here turn on heater" more like "I need to be at a good temperature in 3h, with the current sun and people in the house, I need to heat up now (3h before) and turn of for the rest of the day"
There are already a number of programs that can estimate loads throughout the year. The big problem is your heating method - electric heat. Typically it comes with very simple on/off controls. If you get one with two stages, that helps but the best is what's called SCR control which modulates the output better. What's also good is making sure that your system is balanced properly if you have an air circulation system that's heated by the electric heat. You want the right amount of warmed air and 90+% of homes with a central furnace/heat pump/electric heater don't have the air delivery balanced properly.
Is it just me or did you improve on your delivery? Since you‘re mostly finished with your new house project you seem to have found new energy for producing video content. Your tone of voice and inflections seem much more varied, enthusiastic and terse. I really enjoyed this tour, the pacing kept me hooked throughout the video. Thanks, Matt!
Great video! Love the thought and hard work that went into designing your home. I’m very intrigued by the ERV control. We have an ERV as well. The only way I can control the unit is by going in the basement and manually changing the settings. i’m assuming the Shelly relay is agnostic as far as unit is concerned. Was it fairly easy to Pete?
So very Star Trek Tech. Love it.
Brr, it's cold today. HOUSE, turn the heat to 70.
"I'm sorry, Matt. I'm afraid I can't let you do that"
I welcome our robot overlords.
I'll give you a tip on something that might be of interest. If your hot water line has a recirculation pump try putting it with a Shelly plug or smart switch and use a Shelly button in each of your point of use. You program the button to send a signal to activate the pump via the Shelly plug or switch for 5 minutes. Just remember to press button at least 1 minute before you get in the shower. Result: electricity use for pump AND heat pump dramatically reduced. If you do not have a pump and just throw water away major water savings. It works extremely well.
For winter/summer shade settings, just take the daily outside high temperature and set if above 20 degrees celcius. That way you don't need a calender for different settings.
Well done!🇨🇦
AMAZING!
I was watching watch Jr go on his channel install a similar smart home water usage Meter shut off valve. he was able to determine in what room his water was leaking. very cool tech
Very ambitious and cool!
Awesome video. I've been making my own ESP based motion sensors. $50 for a battery operated PIR is a bit too steep. Homebridge running on Rpi as a hub is awesome.
Definitely just go with an Aqara for $15 if you just need a simple PIR sensor.
I would be very interested in hearing more about the “charge on sunshine” feature and how it could be utilised for other appliances e.g. pool heating.
are really internal shades improving energy efficiency, it makes sense if you have external one to help prevent heating/cooling your windows (weakest spot in everyone's home in terms of R value)
That’s crazy. I like it.
Another great video! Thank you! I'm really curious about your ROI, financially, mentally, emotionally and most important your time vested in this fantastic undertaking?
"You don't have to go as nuts as I did" my man, I WANT to go even further because this looks so cool! Savings are just a nice bonus 😂
Yeah...
The biggest value is being able to measure outcomes and adjust strategy/setting accordingly...
And also being able to adjust settings day to day or according to the season...
Having it offline is also a big plus...
Maybe also a "off grid" mode will also be nice...
So you can go off grid and see how things go and prepare for the possibility of that happening...
Do you have all this written out? Like all the cool stuff you did between specific models of ERVs to the little add on relay? From software to specific switches and sensors? Looking to build my home in the next couple of years and have been following you for inspiration and ideas but theres so much going through this setup.
Get bed sensors!
They are great automation platforms.
For example lights off, "are you still in bed?".
And if you have Android then you can send a new wake up alarm to the phone in case you are still in bed after the alarm has rung.
If you have your work schedule in Home Assistant then it can remind you to or just set alarms automatic in case you forget when you go to bed.
A better system for windows in an outdoor system like an awning that blocks the sun. It is much more effective than indoor shades which touches the air inside the house. Also allows you to look outside.
Love the tech, also that is some serious audio equipment you got there👀
It's funny how many people picked up on my Arya headphones.
I particularly like the safety enhancement to the ERV. Detect too high CO2 or CO, maybe even basement Radon? Turn on fan boost, but also maybe restrict some areas and open others to divert even more airflow, if the danger quotient is high enough. But make sure it shuts down completely in a fire, as you don't want things burning faster.
hey! Loving the content so far. loved all the nerding out you're doing on your new home - amazing!
Have you considered just hanging up your clothes to dry on a line or rack? It's cheaper, uses 0 electricity and you just can't beat the perfume on sun dried clothes.
Matt: Noticing the shades and remembering the Hotel video. Do U have straight DC wiring for some of your appliances? If so what are you saving on conversion 7%? And how did U integrate it with your inverter. Best Holiday Wishes and keep up the work
Would love to hear more about V2H and your experiences putting excess energy into car
I’d like to hear more about why you went with Phyn as opposed to Moen Flo for water usage, and how you’re using it.
I'd love to see a video about your Home Assistant set up and configuration. it doesn't need to be a "how to" but an overview of what you have connected and and how the different systems communicate with different automations.
Great job on using the Unifi it’s Definitely a game changer. I use Unifi in my old 1940’s house we are renovating, cameras, sensors and floodlights. We are in process of setting up for tempest weather station, LoRaWan Iot, smart string/light bulbs, smart light switches/outlets and more doing the Same trying to cut costs. We are even looking into using redundancy built into some Unifi equipment to help us keep key parts of our house security and safety systems running.
I use Unifi Sensors to listen for Smoke and CO alarms going off as a redundancy until I get smart alarms. I am looking for air quality sensors have a family of four with allergies furthermore the smart air purifiers look like a better idea than a really expensive brand I looked IQ Aire. We are actually working on an emergency lighting system that runs on its own smart system lights light up hallway, stairs and walkway to basement storm shelter.
I’d like to see a series of you touring more smart houses
Absolutely amazing. My concern is the $ cost for the high tech when things start to break. A very expensive repair / replacement could negate a significant chuck of prior savings.
Q - any thoughts on water and sewage? Did you consider capturing and storing grey water for lawn and garden watering during dry spells? Any cisterns for rain water collection? If you have a septic system and not city sewer lines, did you consider a high end composting toilet system?
Saving/repurposing grey water can be against town/state codes in the USA. I have a well and septic system and the only tech I want for it is a water meter on the well with a remote display so I can maintain the filters based on usage instead of the calendar. A bidet toilet seat is the best way to prevent septic issues other than maintenance like vinegar & baking soda treatments. The design of my septic is uncommon. There is an upstream septic tank of 2500 gallon capacity that feeds into another before it is delivered to the distribution box for the leach field. I don't expect any problems with a design like this one.
The key part is, the fear of high tech going south! We all need to eliminate any technology in our homes that require the "Cloud" for it to operate. In the last 40 years I have encountered a lot of Cloud companies that went under or decided to to no longer support their legacy products. Example, the latest was Insteon, but they were purchased and are trying to make a comeback. I have now eliminated Insteon from my home and replaced everything with Aqara and Sonof Zigbee devices controlled with Home Assistant. Love it! My entire home is now all "Local" with only 1 technology that relies on the Cloud and I am almost in the final stage of eliminating that one. Once that is gone, my home will be 100% local. Solar... Net ZERO will follow and maybe StarLink for Internet. Believe it or not, I still have a few X10 devices from the 70's that are still working perfectly, (do not fix something that is not broken) not to mention a full box of retired X10 modules and controllers in the attic. I think that I can get rid of them now.
@@donaldhoudek2889 We definitely think very similarly. Good luck
I would love an episode on water harvesting, storage and gray water systems like Hydraloop. But maybe it’s not as relevant in
Massachusetts
@@gregormartynus6178 Just remember that things freeze that far north, so you might end up with a lot of broken pipes and a big mess.
Thank you and good morning!
Good morning!
Overall great and very interesting setup! But as an architekt I have to add, that shades INSIDE the thermal hull of a building doesn't add almost any noticable heatprotektion. That's because when the energy of sunrays get absorbed by the shades, the energy (heat) is already INSIDE the house. They would need to be on the outside of the thermal hull of the building to be able to change somthing.
US Department of Energy disagrees: "During summer days, you should close draperies on windows receiving direct sunlight to prevent heat gain. Studies demonstrate that medium-colored draperies with white-plastic backings can reduce heat gains by 33%." Certainly awnings are better, but white shades in particular bounce plenty of energy back out of the window. Edit: Although it dawns on me that given his thicker triple pane windows, significantly less energy will be coming through anyway. Perhaps you were already thinking about that.
Hi Matt, great show. Just a question: why did you not use roll shutters for the outside of your windows? It's pretty much standard equipment on German homes. As my bedrooms all face south, they help immensely during the summer and at night if you enjoy a dark room.
I've been fiddling around using my solar production to trigger EV charging. I am just charging my Prius Prime with a level 1 charger so I found a Zooz ZEN15 smart switch to be sufficient. I'd really like to use my excess solar production for more dynamic loads like heating and cooling. Glad to see home automation getting more mainstream!
Hi Taylor, if you use home assistant as I am, there is a really helpfully plugin from a german company called ‘evcc’. It can automatically charge your car only with excessive solar power you are not yet using in your house, but has other modes as well. You can also set a fixed SOC you need at a specific time that it can fast charge to if solar production was not sufficient. Been using it daily for three months without any issue now.
Matt, any chance you can do a detailed video on how you setup your ERV with the Shelly relay? I am building a new house and am thinking about doing this as well.
Great overview!
Where can I find those Air Quality sensors?
you have a very nice machine/home... I am too build my home but I am using knx and home assistant. put more videos and information about your automations on the house to reduce cost energy.
Most people will not be able to get into this level of complexity. This will not scale, for mass deployment. So, I tend to focus on "big ticket" items, in terms of energy use. (This is assuming the home is relatively well insulated.)
E.g., I recently added a timer to my hot water heater. I only need hot water in the morning, when I shower, after my workout. (Less than scowling hot is fine, throughout the day.). My solar+storage system now generates more than I consume, most days of the year. Some people complain about excess solar, curtailment. But it seems like the water heater can also be a battery for excess generation storage. There should be a water heater product that can integrate this.
I love my mesh Bluetooth, LED lights and plugs. In my case I'm using Alexa-enabled units, but that's just because I had one already. The important thing is, my smart bulbs no longer have to phone home to China in order to adjust the lights. With that change, my smart devices no longer lose their settings every 3-4 months, or become entirely unreachable because the producer on the other side of the Pacific Rim changed their corporate identity. They turn on and off, brighten and dim automatically in response to time or sunrise/sunset, according to routines I set.
It will be interesting to see if your solar can meet your needs in January and February. Mine can out produce my needs every month except those two. Also, I put a heat recovery exchanger on my air to air heat pump to capture waste heat to heat my water. It not only makes free hot water, but also makes the heat pump more efficient in air conditioning mode, thereby saving electricity. To me it makes more sense than dumping that energy into the ground through geothermal, plus it’s low tech, and a fraction of the cost of geothermal. I can’t understand why it’s not done more often.
How did you do that?
The heat exchanger is put in series between the compressor and the switching valve. This is the hottest point(can be as high as 180F) of the refrigerant and the water side of the exchanger is circulating water to a buffer tank which supplies hot water. I got the exchanger unit from Hotspot Energy and their website gives greater detail. Old tech really, we have been doing this on the farm to cool milk and make hot water for 40 years.
I have been following the progress of this house with fascination, as it covers many of my personal goals with a future home. One thing that I am very curious about is the network structure. I've been dipping my toes with after-market additions to my own home - wifi enabled lightbulbs and light sensors, etc - but run into the frequent issue of a bulb or sensor losing wifi connection for one reason or another.
I have a passing familiar with Lutron (I interned there for a summer over a decade ago) and, if I recall, their switches (or some of them) come with their own proprietary physical wire network that gets run through the walls, correct? Are you utilizing a heavily physical network? (that brief shot of a well-organized ethernet switch filled me with joy) What do you think the wireless-to-wired ratio of smart devices is in your house? Have you encountered issues with smart wireless devices needing to be reconnected to the wifi or reset to establish connection?
So first off if you can wire something you should. This will help to not bog down your wifi. A lot of smart devices will either use 2.4ghz or z wave or equivalent to it.
Z wave does not interfere with the 2.4ghz band which is great because it won't slow it down. I can't really speak on disconnect because there's so many factors like signal strength, amount of devices, physical barriers and a few others. The bottom line of that is if you can hard wire something you should.
Thanks for watching! I've always tried to avoid wifi connected smart home devices for two reasons: 1) security and 2) reliability. Most consumer routers can't handle a lot of wifi devices, so as you add more and more you'll find they start randomly dropping off. I try to keep my smart home gear either hard wired (ethernet) or using their own dedicated wireless protocols like thread, zigbee, or zwave. I can count on a two hands the number of devices that are wifi enabled in my house. Lutron has its own wireless technology, which is fantastic and doesn't interfere with anything else.
Would love a video of what heat settings work for you. Have you tried an Aquanta HWH controller or does Econet do that?
Hi Matt. Another great video! Thank you! A question I have please: How is your cooker hood working? Presumably it doesn’t vent to outside as that would be disastrous for your air tightness? I assumed you would just use your MVHR extract from the kitchen to take away the cooking vapours but it looks like you have a cooker hood and an extract inlet separate in the kitchen? I ask because we’re going to be retrofitting a MVHR to our 1841 house soon (major challenge making that more airtight! ) and the kitchen ventilation is something we’re planning right now!
Thanks again for the videos (and very enjoyable podcast, your brother is a hoot!)
Bw
John.
You are the wind beneath my Windmill.
Amazing work, but i have two questions...
1. How often do you deal with any problems/bugs with that whole system? With all that tech i will expect every day. This will really scares me, im already going crazy sometimes just using pc.
2. Why did you used window shading inside? Why not have them outside? Isnt whole idea of them to block sun to not overheating room? This way there is still space between shading and window that is getting overheated.
I couldn’t help but notice your Hifiman Arya and the Fiio R7. Nice to see someone showing it in their video outside of a reviewer.
I love those headphones!
Thanks
Dang, you are living my tech dream! Smart AND energy efficient??! 😎
Very Cool!