Observing our current lifestyle - and thinking about ideas and solutions for a more sustainable one.
Here is a report about a first attempt at observing:
Homemade 2025 is the 2025 edition of the summer camp of the Swiss Mechatronic Art Society (SGMK), which this year took place at Wartburg in Mannenbach-Salenstein by Lake Constance.
To measure electrical power consumption (maybe even production?) of all projects at Homemade 2025 and visualise in real time. We can learn many things from this, e.g. how much power do appliances consume, Smart Home concepts, networking with WiFi and with Zigbee, data visualisation, etc.
Power monitors will be integrated at every power outlet in the main house and in the forest house. It is expected that WiFi coverage is flaky, with many different SSIDs. Zigbee offers mesh networking, which means that the network extends from one device to the next as far as we need to reach. Both Zigbee and WiFi are connected to a Home Assistant instance running on a server.
Contact Oli W (oliver dot walkhoff at mechatronicart dot ch)
We will run an instance of Home Assistant as a Docker container on an Ubuntu Server. Home Assistant will receive data from the sensors, record it, and later display in a dashboard. The sensors are "smart switches" which come in two flavours: either WiFi or Zigbee connectivity. WiFi is trivial, the device simply connects to the local network. Zigbee requires a "coordinator", as a gateway to the IP network. In the case of Zigbee, each smart switch is also a "router" that extends the (mesh) network. The switches provide voltage, current and power readings. (They can also be turned on or off from Home Assistant.)
What's challenging is that we will be working not only in and around the main house, but also the forest house ("Waldhaus") which is located about 100 metres down a steep slope, and with no connection to the router in the main house. Internet connectivity in the forest house will be provided from various hotspots - which all makes creating the desired topology very difficult...
There must be one coordinator in a Zigbee network.
Brand: Sonoff
Model: ZB Dongle E
Chipset: Silicon Labs EFR32MG21
Type: Zigbee 3.0 to USB
Source: Bastelgarage.ch, 07.07.2025, 1 x CHF 25.90
Brand SMLIGHT
Model: SLZB-06M
Chipset: Silicon Labs EFR32MG21
Type: Zigbee 3.0 to Ethernet, USB, and WiFi
Source: Aliexpress, 17.07.2025, 1 x CHF 32.40Both models are good, we picked the SLZB-06M because it can be placed anywhere on the IP network, whereas the ZB Dongle E can only be connected to the machine that's running Home Assistant.
These are the sensor devices that provide energy measurements.
Brand: ebelles
Manufacturer:
Model:
Rated current: 10 A
Power monitoring: Yes
Connector: Screw terminals
Source: Aliexpress, 05.07.2025, 9 x EUR 5.69 / 17.07.2025, 6 x EUR 5.69
Name in HA: Smart switch 001 (_TZ3000_kqvb5akv TS0001)
Brand: Moes
Manufacturer:
Model: ZM-104-M-16AM
Rated max. current: 16 A
Power monitoring: Yes
Connector: Screw terminals
Source: Aliexpress, 01.07.2025, 2 x EUR 10.29
Name in HA: Smart switch 002 (_TZ3000_x8mbwtsz TS0001)These work with current sensors, no need to interrupt the power line.
(Didn't find any Zigbee smart plug with Swiss connector, only European Schuko, US, Brazil and others)
Brand: IoTorero
Manufacturer: Athom, www.athom.tech
Model: RS01
Rated current: 10 A
Power monitoring: Yes
Connector: Screw terminals
Source: Aliexpress, 29.06.2025, 1 x EUR 14.49Brand: IoTorero
Manufacturer: Athom, www.athom.tech
Model: PG05
Rated current: 16 A
Power monitoring: Yes
Connector: CH Type J / Type 13
Source: Aliexpress, 29.06.2025, 2 x EUR 13.29The first measurement was on Wed 2025-08-06 14:00.
The last measurement was on Sat 2025-08-09 18:00.
The time axis of the following graphs ranges from Wed 2025-08-06 00:00 to Sun 2025-08-10 00:00.
2025-08-06
Total consumed: 4.6 kWh
Switch 002: 2.81 kWh
Switch 001: 1.24 kWh
Switch 003: 0.55 kWh
2025-08-07
Total consumed: 3.89 kWh
Switch 002: 1.87 kWh
Switch 001: 0.22 kWh
Switch 003: 1.13 kWh
Switch 004: 0.35 kWh
Switch 006: 0.21 kWh
Switch 007: 0.11 kWh
2025-08-08
Total consumed: 5.19 kWh
Switch 002: 1.45 kWh
Switch 005: 1.40 kWh
Switch 001: 0.12 kWh
Switch 003: 1.25 kWh
Switch 004: 0.19 kWh
Switch 006: 0.78 kWh
2025-08-09
Total consumed: 5.31 kWh
Switch 002: 0.78 kWh
Switch 005: 3.11 kWh
Switch 001: 0.15 kWh
Switch 003: 1.19 kWh
Switch 006: 0.08 kWh
Total: 18.99 kWh
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Other projects by me.
HA screenshots: Firefox window.innerWidth: 1264, innerHeight: 460