“Don’t take your work home” is usually sound advice, but sometimes, as a technologist, you just have an itch to scratch.
The motivation is to sharpen data and systems skills and see how these tools support outcomes similar to those in corporate environments, such as automating processes, monitoring costs, and managing an often indifferent user base.
Using an old micro PC and the brilliant open-source platform Home Assistant, our technologist began collecting data, monitoring systems, and introducing automation. The first experiment targeted an electric laundry dryer, controlled using temperature, humidity, and energy tariff data. On paper, it was efficient and environmentally friendly. In practice, it revealed crucial lessons about risk, reliability, and integration that mirror those faced in managing data for utilities.
The first insight is the cost of automated control. When equipment carries financial or safety implications such as a heater, pump, or EV charger, automated decisions must be handled with care. A faulty data feed, a misconfigured rule, or a network outage can result in wasted energy, equipment damage, or even safety hazards. Home projects make it clear how essential safeguards are, including manual overrides, threshold limits, and audit trails. These design principles translate directly to the commercial world, where the automated control of assets across power networks carries both operational and reputational risk.
The second insight lies in integrating disparate technologies. A home setup might use sensors from several suppliers, a smart switch from another, data feeds from utilities, and a dashboard built on an open-source platform. Making them communicate reliably demands understanding APIs, data formats, and middleware. These skills are directly applicable to utilities that must connect legacy SCADA systems, IoT sensors, cloud services, and analytics tools. The ability to create a coherent platform from fragmented technologies defines much of today’s digital transformation challenge.
By experimenting at home, a technologist gains hands-on experience in data acquisition, automation, interoperability, and governance. More importantly, they develop a mindset that balances innovation with caution. Automation boosts efficiency, but it also requires discipline, safety awareness, and robust design. There is nothing like the thought of a huge electricity bill or a partner cold and cross with no home heating to sharpen focus before deploying a clever but fragile automation!
For utilities, this underlines the importance of technology design and deployment, alongside user-centered service design that understands the needs and tolerances of different user groups – designing elegant solutions that balance experience, value, risk and technical feasibility. For instance, this may include deliberately introducing some friction into an experience so users are given the opportunity to validate activities e.g. confirming an EV fully charged at off-peak tariffs or better still, building-in AI validation checks so billing errors are automatically identified and resolved rather than relying on customers and contact centres to do the heavy lifting.
Sometimes, the smartest way to understand critical infrastructure is to start with the heating system in your own living room.