Summary of work carried out
Automation solution — main house, outbuilding, yard, pond and greenhouse in a single system
A turnkey solution where automation, electrical, security and the user interface work together. The system does not depend on any cloud service.
Automation
- Automation system logic and design
- Installation of local controllers and control systems
- Automation logic configuration and testing — demand-based control
- Installation and integration of sensors and actuators
- Building the user interface and visualisation — wall panel and remote control
- Functional testing and commissioning of the system
Electrical installation
- Design and preparation of the working drawings
- Cabling
- Electrical equipment installation
- Construction and installation of external cable routes
- Installation of column-mounted luminaires
- Luminaire installation — DALI, security and exterior lighting
- Lighting calculations in Dialux
- Inspection and documentation of the electrical installation
Security and surveillance systems
- Security and surveillance systems
- Camera-based monitoring and event detection
- Integration of alarm modes and zones with the automation
- Recording of detailed notifications and event logs, and forwarding them to the owner
- Auditing
- Preparation and handover of documentation
User interface
The property is divided into zones, all of which are accessible from the same interface — from the wall panel and from a phone. Different users have different access rights to different parts of the system
- Main house — room-by-room heating control and lighting
- Outbuilding — room-by-room heating control and lighting
- Yard — exterior lighting, cameras and alarm
- Pond — underwater lighting, floodlights, aerator control, and monitoring of water temperature and ice thickness
- Greenhouse — irrigation control, with settings adjustable per bed according to need
- Generator and backup power — status monitoring, notifications and starting
- Energy — consumption overview
Our own weather station, not a weather service API
Helmut Engineering OÜ installed its own weather station module on site, communicating with the system over MQTT. The data comes from the site itself rather than from the network — which means the automation keeps working even when a cloud service is down.
Outdoor temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed and direction, cloud cover, probability of precipitation, light level, sunrise and sunset times, and day length. Plus the device's own diagnostics — uptime, last connection and signal strength.
This data is not just for show: lighting, irrigation and ventilation all use it to optimise and to anticipate.
Open-source components
The system uses selected open-source components in its visualisation and internal data layers:
- Home Assistant Core (Apache License 2.0) — user interface and visualisation layer
- MQTT protocol — internal message-based data exchange between system components
- Eclipse Mosquitto — local MQTT message broker
The use of open-source components does not affect the system's autonomy, operational safety, or ownership of customer-specific automation logic. All critical control logic, safety functions and autonomous operation are implemented locally and function independently of external services and internet connectivity.
Open-Source Software (OSS) Acknowledgement
This system integrates selected open-source software components in its visualization and internal communication layers: Home Assistant Core (Apache License 2.0) as the visualization, monitoring and orchestration layer; the MQTT protocol for internal message-based communication between system components; and the Eclipse Mosquitto MQTT broker as the local message broker for internal data exchange. The use of these components does not affect system autonomy, operational safety, or ownership of customer-specific automation logic. All critical control logic, safety functions and autonomous operation are implemented locally and function independently of external services or internet connectivity.
