Efficient Technology

Today's home automation solutions fall into four groups. On one side are the ecosystems of vendors such as Apple, Google, and Samsung. On the other are commercial systems such as Homey that integrate devices from different manufacturers. The third group includes open source systems that offer many standardized features, such as Home Assistant. The fourth group targets technology enthusiasts who are looking for a flexible, lightweight tool that is easy to customize and extend. Domoticz [1] belongs to this last group.

Domoticz is easy to install and easy to expand, supporting programming languages such as DzVents (Domoticz Easy Events, a Lua offshoot), Python, Ruby, and Blockly. This extensive support for programming means you can use Domoticz to code complete home automation systems (Figure 1), alarm systems, battery management systems, and more. Some of the supported languages are suitable for newcomers (Blockly, Lua), and others offer the power and versatility that advanced programmers demand (DzVents, Python).

Domoticz runs on a wide variety of hardware, including the Raspberry Pi, which is the ideal home control center. The Domoticz environment feels as much at home on virtually any Linux distribution as it does on Windows or macOS. And a number of commercial NAS storage devices can run Domoticz as a service. Last but not least, you will find a Docker image for Domoticz containers.

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