this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Home Automation

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Home automation is the residential extension of building automation.

It is automation of the home, housework or household activity.

Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.

Warning: Working with electricity can result in injury, property damage, or even death if it is not done properly. Please keep this in mind while assisting others. If you are not sure about what you are doing, hire a licensed professional.

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I have an outbuilding with power outlets. There's a local circuit breaker within the outbuilding so power in there can go down independently of the house. I want to set something up to monitor for this and notify me if/when it happens. The building does not have ethernet and is out of range of my home WiFi. I have a spare powerline adapter that I'm not using, so my first thought is to use powerline to get an ethernet socket in the outbuilding and run a simple script on a server in my house to ping a networked attached device that I place in the outbuilding. If there's no response it will send me a phone notification (via a service like Pushbullet) prompting me to check on the power in the outbuilding. This leads me to my main question: I need something to ping which can connect to network via ethernet (my powerline adapter does not have WiFi so I can't use a WiFi smart plug for example). Given its sole purpose will be to act as a target for my ping, I'm wondering what's the cheapest thing I can buy for this purpose?

Also, another question: I'm wondering what alternative approach I could take which does not involve ethernet, powerline or WiFi. I'm thinking I could put a microcontroller in the outbuiling and periodically send a non-WiFi wireless transmission to the house. If it fails to arrive, the power is probably out. The outbuilding is about 15-20 metres from the house. It's a wooden building and the house is brick. Would LoRA be the best choice for wireless transmission here? Given I already have a powerline adapter, I expect this wouldn't be as cheap as the powerline option but using a wireless protocol other than WiFi would be a learning exercise that might also be handy for future projects.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why couldn't you use a relay connected to an outlet in the outbuilding for a simple notification? Connect a light, siren or other signaling device to the relay so that it's activated when the relay loses power.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Definitely wouldn't want to use a siren. A light might work but a chance I wouldn't notice it for a while. I'd rather have a notification on my phone.