My Smart Home is Stupid - HVAC Update
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Promos
Visit squarespace.com and use offer code LTT for 10% off Create your build at buildredux.com My smart home has some interesting HVAC control systems, but unfortunately, we never got around to setting them up and with temperatures dropping into the negatives... it's time we finally set them up. Discuss on the forum: linustechtips.com Buy Tasmota Flashed Relay Boards on Aliexpress: lmg.gg Buy Ecobee Smart Thermostats on Amazon: geni.us Buy Cat S62 Pro Rugged Smart Phone on Amazon: geni.us Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group. ► GET MERCH: lttstore.com ► SUPPORT US ON FLOATPLANE: floatplane.com ► AFFILIATES, SPONSORS & REFERRALS: lmg.gg ► PODCAST GEAR: lmg.gg FOLLOW US --------------------------------------------------- Twitter: twitter.com Facebook: @LinusTech Instagram: @linustech TikTok: @linustech Twitch: twitch.tv MUSIC CREDIT --------------------------------------------------- Intro: Laszlo - Supernova Video Link: youtube.com iTunes Download Link: itunes.apple.com Artist Link: soundcloud.com Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High Video Link: youtube.com Listen on Spotify: spoti.fi Artist Link: youtube.com Intro animation by MBarek Abdelwassaa @mbarek_abdel Monitor And Keyboard by vadimmihalkevich / CC BY 4.0 geni.us Mechanical RGB Keyboard by BigBrotherECE / CC BY 4.0 geni.us Mouse Gamer free Model By Oscar Creativo / CC BY 4.0 geni.us CHAPTERS --------------------------------------------------- 0:00 Intro 1:25 How it going to work 3:16 How to setup Tasmota in Home Assistant 6:13 Testing the control boards 6:45 Thermal camera phone 7:52 Ecobee wiring & setup 11:58 American standard foiling our plans 12:30 Setting up a different one instead 13:55 Hacking the mainframe 15:45 Does it work?=
The video My Smart Home is Stupid - HVAC Update dives into the real world challenges of wiring and programming a complex home automation HVAC system. The hosts explain that a previously uninitialized in-floor heating setup is causing a cold upstairs and a warm downstairs, making the entire house temperature management unreliable. They walk through a low-level hardware approach, using relay boards with Tasmota firmware, MQTT, and a Home Assistant broker to gain local control without relying on cloud services. The segment emphasizes why a local, configurable solution can be powerful, but also reveals how quickly things can become brittle without careful planning and testing. Viewers are shown a practical workflow for integrating Ecobee thermostats with Home Assistant via HomeKit, aiming to keep cloud outages from breaking essential heating functions. The episode concludes with live testing of valve actuation, boiler integration, and a callout to a sponsor while teasing more documentation and optimizations to come.
Topics · home automation · hvac · diy · technology
Questions answered
- What is the main goal of wiring the HVAC system with Tasmota and MQTT in Home Assistant?
- The goal is to achieve local control of heating zones using relay boards, MQTT messaging, and Home Assistant without relying on cloud services, ensuring the system can operate during internet outages.
- How do Ecobee thermostats fit into the local control strategy?
- Ecobees are connected via HomeKit locally so Home Assistant can control them without cloud dependency, while still leveraging their sensors and data for decision making.
- What problem does the episode identify with in-floor heating in this setup?
- In-floor heating has slow response times and can overshoot or undershoot temperatures, so the team plans to manage run-up and run-down times with carefully calibrated thresholds and scripting.