An update from our smart HUF HAUS

It’s been a while since I gave an update on my smart HUF HAUS project – high time to change that.

Before we get to my current topics and challenges, I’d like to give you a quick list of what has kept me busy over the past few months:

1. Setting up the database for storing all historical time series data
2. Installing and setting up the central (vendor-independent) visualization of all house-related data
3. Setting up my own VPN server for external communication with “the HUF HAUS”
4. Setting up ioBroker for communication with different protocols and services
5. Installing Home Assistant
6. Expanding the central uptime monitoring of all important hardware and software services
7. First adjustments made regarding cyber security in the areas of
   • Network segmentation
   • Traffic monitoring
   • Device naming
   • Rights management
   • Setting up regular backups

Once we have worked through the topics above, I’d like to give you a short outlook on my current topics and, above all, the problems I’m struggling with. These include:

• Setting up the Modbus TCP/IP server to enable PV-controlled charging
• Installing my smart garden irrigation and the “intelligent” robotic mower

While setting out the topics, I’m realizing that it is quite a few points after all, so let’s get started right away.

We’ll start with the current topics and then jump into a short outlook at the end.

As you may know from the other blog posts, I use the Gira X1. It handles communication with all devices connected via KNX. However, because of its limited performance and storage, the X1 is not suitable for storing and managing large amounts of data. That’s why a separate database is needed. I chose InfluxDB. It is easy to set up, easy to administer and particularly well suited for time series data. It runs as its own Docker container on my NAS.

Via the Gira X1, I write all the data I want from the building services into an InfluxDB bucket. To make this work, I installed the free extension from the Smart Home App Store on the X1.

Data from other devices I usually pull via ioBroker and then write into InfluxDB.

What honestly always annoys me is that every manufacturer comes with its own visualization. If I want to have everything centrally in one place, it takes some tinkering. That’s why I chose the free Grafana to set up my visualizations and dashboards. I took inspiration from the various manufacturer apps and rebuilt a few things. I can also recommend Pinterest if you’re looking for more ideas for cool dashboards. Starting from templates and then adapting things to your own needs.

To be able to access my NAS and various other systems, I set up my own VPN server on the Dream Machine. For this, I used the open source WireGuard VPN tunnel.

With the matching WireGuard app on my smartphone, I now have access to all systems on my home network.

Tip for all owners of Gira products: With the Gira S1, you can access the Gira app and your home installation from outside your home network. But the S1 costs a pretty penny. With your own VPN server, you can use the Gira app without the S1, too. It is a bit less convenient, though, since you first have to open the VPN tunnel before the Gira app works.

In short: ioBroker is brilliant! I had never come across it before the house project, but now I wouldn’t want to be without it. Thanks to the open source community, there is a matching digital adapter for almost every device.

So far, I have connected the following things via ioBroker:

• SMA inverter
• SMA Sunny Smart Home Manager
• InfluxDB
• My Shellys
• Modbus (in progress)
• BYD HVS battery

ioBroker then forwards the data it pulls directly from the devices to InfluxDB. There, Grafana visualizes it. Like many other things, ioBroker runs in a Docker container on my NAS.

So far, I control the building services via the Gira app. However, I can’t bring everything together there. So unfortunately I’m still forced to use countless individual manufacturer apps. That’s why I plan to switch to Home Assistant in the medium term. There, I can link many more services. Due to lack of time, though, I haven’t gotten beyond the installation and initial setup yet.

By now I have linked so many different services and devices that I started thinking about how I can monitor all of it. Because of a mistake of my own in assigning IP addresses, all my services were suddenly down. But I couldn’t “see” that anywhere, so I installed Uptime Kuma.

Since I was already setting up alerts, I added my various websites as well. So the following are now monitored:

• Physical devices like the inverter, battery or heat pump
• Digital services like Docker containers
• Online websites

To make the whole thing even cooler, I set up a Signal API on the NAS. Now I get messages via my own Signal chat as soon as a service stops responding. That lets me react quickly and also track down malfunctions more precisely.

When everything is so heavily interconnected, cyber security becomes more and more important. That’s why I started putting all devices into different networks and IP ranges. Using various firewall rules on the Dream Machine, I then separate the network traffic. At this point I have to praise the excellent network management of the Dream Machine once again.

As for backups, I have now started to “back up” individual local services into a separately protected cloud environment. That allows me to restore from the cloud should this no longer be possible locally.

Right now I’m still installing a few Shellys to track various devices more precisely (e.g. the cistern pump). Most recently, I got annoyed with the robotic lawn mower from Worx that supposedly works without a wire and relies only on visual image recognition. That totally did not work, so I exchanged it after a week. Now I have laid boundary wire after all, and a Gardena Smart Sileno City is doing its job.

Where I unfortunately am not making progress is setting up the Modbus TCP/IP environment. I need it to be able to charge depending on PV output, but strangely the ABB wallbox can’t be connected to the Sunny Smart Home Manager with it. I’ll need some more online research here to get everything running.

Next, I also want to build a dedicated water dashboard in Grafana, so I can track my consumption there better as well.