Tasmota & Energy Monitoring
Power monitoring across the flat runs on a mix of Tasmota-flashed smart plugs, tracking accumulated kWh per device and feeding daily usage figures into the home dashboard. The setup uses 8 Tasmota-enabled devices covering kitchen appliances, office equipment, entertainment systems, and LED matrix displays.
What's metered
| Device type | Typical use | Rough daily usage |
|---|---|---|
| Fridge plug | Kitchen appliance monitoring | ~0.8 kWh/day (very stable) |
| Dishwasher plug | Appliance monitoring | ~1.2 kWh/day (varies with use) |
| Office/desk plug | Workstation + peripherals | ~1.2-1.7 kWh/day |
| Entertainment plugs (TV, Apple TV) | Media devices | Very low, Apple TV especially so |
| LED matrix displays | Ambient info displays | ~0.04 kWh/day each |
Multi-socket power strips
Several rooms use multi-outlet smart power strips (each socket individually switchable and metered) rather than single smart plugs — this keeps things like "washing machine + dryer" or "office desk cluster" on one strip while still tracking each socket's consumption separately.
Flashing process
New devices go through a standard conversion flow (from the manufacturer's original cloud-dependent firmware to Tasmota) using a well-documented community process. It occasionally fails on the first attempt due to a transient Wi-Fi handshake issue — retrying resolves it without any special handling.
How the data flows
Each Tasmota plug publishes its power readings to MQTT via the Mosquitto broker running on the Docker host. A small subscription service picks up the per-device topics and writes the values into InfluxDB 2.x, tagged by device name, room, and measurement type (power, energy, voltage). The home dashboard then queries InfluxDB via Flux to display real-time and historical usage charts.
What this data is used for
- Spotting appliances with unexpectedly high standby draw.
- Sanity-checking that "turned off" devices are actually drawing near-zero power.
- Feeding the home dashboard's live power figures alongside the climate sensors.
- Tracking long-term energy trends to identify efficiency improvements.
- Alerting when a device draws significantly more than its baseline (e.g., a failing appliance).
Air quality and climate data
The same InfluxDB instance also stores temperature and humidity readings from HomematicIP room sensors and ESP32 DHT22 devices. These feed the air quality dashboard, which visualizes 24-hour climate history across 10 rooms. The energy and climate data share the MQTT-to-InfluxDB pipeline but live in separate measurement categories, keeping power monitoring and environmental sensing cleanly separated.
Why Tasmota over alternatives
Tasmota was chosen over alternatives like ESPHome or Tuya firmware for several reasons. The local-only control means no cloud dependency — the plugs work even if the internet is down. The MQTT integration is mature and well-documented. The energy monitoring sensors are accurate enough for home use (typically within 5% of a dedicated energy meter). And the firmware supports a wide range of hardware, making it easy to find compatible plugs at reasonable prices.