How Mike is making heating smarter with Home Assistant
How Mike is making heating smarter with Home Assistant  
Podcast: Home Assistant Podcast
Published On: Tue Apr 14 2026
Description: Industrial data pro Mike joins Phil and Rohan to unpack his Home Assistant setup. We dive deep into Node‑RED flows, mmWave presence, actionable dashboards, and AI‑assisted automations—including recognizing his own cat and verifying the right bin is curbside.Watch this episode on YouTubeShow notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA230Support the PodcastGet early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.https://homeassistant.fm/patreonShare your storyWe wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.Chapters00:00:00 - Intro00:01:28 - Mike’s background and location00:03:43 - From OpenHAB to Home Assistant00:06:11 - Cloud vs local pragmatism00:09:40 - Zigbee, Thread and Matter lessons00:12:17 - Distributed hardware and Docker setup00:16:08 - Family UX and presence ethos00:20:26 - PIR, mmWave and context signals00:24:41 - Automations with Node‑RED00:29:50 - AI‑assisted automation building00:34:44 - Dashboards and notifications00:43:42 - Cameras, AI and the cat00:50:59 - Smarter heating and preheating01:03:33 - Actionable notifications philosophy01:05:40 - Evangelizing at work and wrap‑upThis episode was made possible thanks to our sponsorsHome Assistant Cloud by Nabu CasaEasily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.ZoozIf you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.comApollo AutomationApollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.Clean My MacGet Tidy Today! Get 7 days free and use our code ASSISTANT for 20% offProducts DiscussedAqara Cube: https://amzn.to/47C7YImIntel N100 Mini PC: https://amzn.to/4v13dC8Oral‑B Electric Toothbrush: https://amzn.to/4tfVoGVProducts we RecommendHostsPhil HawthorneWebsiteTwitter: @philhawthorneBluesky: @philhawthorne.comBuy Phil a CoffeeRohan KaramandiWebsiteTwitter: @rohank9Buy Rohan a CoffeePrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy