THE COTSWOLD AUTOMATION JOURNAL
Make sense of
your smart home.
Practical explanations to help you ask better questions, avoid unnecessary purchases and decide what is worth changing.
Smart homes
Smart homes · 2 MIN READ
Too many smart-home apps? Start with the jobs you want your home to do.
A practical way to turn separate lighting, heating and security apps into simpler everyday controls.
Read the guide
Smart homes · 2 MIN READ
A smart-home dashboard the whole household can actually use.
Choose useful controls, clear room names and sensible defaults instead of showing every sensor.
Read the guideHome Assistant
Home Assistant · 2 MIN READ
What is Home Assistant, and would it help your home?
A homeowner’s introduction to Home Assistant, its role alongside existing apps and the work needed to make it useful.
Read the guideHome Assistant · 2 MIN READ
Will your smart home still work when the internet goes down?
Ask about dependencies, manual controls and recovery before relying on an automation.
Read the guideHome energy
Home energy · 2 MIN READ
Solar, battery and EV charging: are your schedules working together?
How to spot conflicting schedules and prepare the information needed for a useful solar and battery review.
Read the guideHome energy · 2 MIN READ
Before changing your battery schedule, ask these five questions.
A simple decision checklist for battery schedules, tariff changes and household energy priorities.
Read the guideHome energy · 2 MIN READ
Understand your energy before automating it.
A useful energy dashboard starts with trustworthy measurements and a question worth answering.
Read the guideHeating
Heating · 2 MIN READ
Heat pump not feeling right? What a controls review can—and cannot—tell you.
Separate comfort and scheduling questions from faults that need your heating installer.
Read the guideRenovations
Renovations · 2 MIN READ
Renovating? Seven smart-home decisions to make before the walls close.
Plan everyday controls, networking and future access before finishes make changes harder.
Read the guidePlanning & ownership
Planning & ownership · 2 MIN READ
What should you receive at the end of a smart-home installation?
The ownership, documentation and recovery questions to settle before your integration project starts.
Read the guideFROM MY OWN HOME · COMING SOON
The real-world story, next.
These two personal stories are being prepared. The photographs used here are illustrative, not photographs of Miles’s home.
Inside my own smart home
A personal tour of the systems, everyday routines and decisions behind Cotswold Automation.
View the story outlineHow I use Home Assistant at home
A closer look at my dashboards, automations and the lessons from maintaining my own installation.
View the story outlineGuide imagery is illustrative. These articles explain our approach and are separate from completed-project evidence.