Presence detection is a cornerstone of home automation. Whether you want lights that automatically switch on when someone walks into a room, or smarter security alerts, presence sensors give your automations real-world context.
While PIR (motion) sensors are common, another interesting option is the photoelectric sensor. These sensors detect when an object breaks a light beam, making them great for detecting someone passing through a doorway, entering a hallway, or triggering an event when someAutomating irrigation is one of those home automation projects that’s both practical and fun.
Instead of manually turning sprinklers or valves on and off, you can control watering schedules through your smart home — or even trigger watering based on weather or soil moisture sensors.
In this series, I’ll walk through building a 4-zone irrigation controller using ESPHome, some off-the-shelf components, and Home Assistant integration.
Series Overview
As I publish parts of this series I will upOne of the most rewarding parts of home automation is getting insights into how your home uses energy — and how much it’s costing you. If you’ve ever wondered what your washing machine, PC, or server rack really costs to run, you can easily find out using Shelly smart devices and Home Assistant.
In this post, we’ll look at how to set up Shelly devices to monitor power usage, track daily totals with Home Assistant’s Utility Meter, and calculate energy costs automatically.
Tutorial parts breakdOne of the best parts of home automation is getting real data about how your home works — not just controlling things, but understanding them. If you’ve ever wondered how much energy your appliances are actually using, or wanted to see your daily consumption trends, you can do that easily with Shelly smart devices and Home Assistant.
In this post, I’ll walk through how to integrate Shelly devices with Home Assistant and use them to track and visualise your daily power usage.
Tutorial parts br 
