How Will Automates His Parents' Pool from 2,000 Miles Away and a Period UK Home
Home Assistant Podcast
Strawtenna fridge sensor hack
Will explains his fridge temperature sensor in the Canaries and a paper-straw antenna hack to extend range.
Will joins Phil and Rohan to share how he tamed a period UK home and a remote Canary Islands vacation property with Home Assistant, ESPHome, and Zigbee. We dive into DIY pool chemistry control, fridge monitoring with a ‘strawtenna’, tactile dashboards, AI‑assisted heating, and why Shelly is everywhere
Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA222
Special Thanks to Today's Guest
Will Osborne-Kennedy
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Chapters
00:00:00 Welcome
00:03:30 Will’s origin story and tinkering
00:08:30 Finding Home Assistant and ESPHome
00:12:00 Hot tub and pool control projects
00:17:00 Remote Canary Islands setup
00:22:00 Zigbee vs Wi‑Fi in old homes
00:27:00 Antennas and fridge sensor hacks
00:32:00 Dashboards and tactile panels
00:37:00 AI and heating optimizations
00:42:00 Remote access: fiber and TailScale
00:46:00 Multi‑site management and ideas
00:50:00 Favorite automations and LLM Vision
00:56:00 Home lab, IPTV, and Channels DVR
01:00:00 2026 goals: energy, irrigation, WLED
01:05:00 Shelly scripts and local‑first
01:07:00 Community vendors
This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
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Products Discussed
Shelly Bluetooth button/tile: https://amzn.to/4bJcvvy
Orbit B‑Hyve irrigation controller: https://amzn.to/4bJcvvy
HDHomeRun TV tuner: https://amzn.to/4klnoFU
Philips Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor: https://amzn.to/4cf3r1p
Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Rohan Karamandi
Twitter: @rohank9
This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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