It’s been a busy couple of weeks behind the scenes here, so this is a short one just to catch you up rather than a deep dive.
The site now has five pillars, not four
Switched On Home started out organised around Smart Energy, EVs, Smart Home and Smart Spending. That’s changed. The site is now built around Energy, Networking, Home Assistant, Apple Home and EV ownership.
Smart Spending hasn’t disappeared entirely — the credit card and cashback content (BA Amex, Virgin Atlantic, Quidco) is still there, just folded into a smaller Rewards section on the Recommended page rather than standing as its own pillar. The honest reason for the change is that Networking and Apple Home are where a lot of my actual time and troubleshooting has gone lately, so it made sense for the site to reflect that.
New posts
A few things have gone up recently that are worth a look if you missed them:
- Six months with solar and a Tesla Powerwall 3: what the numbers actually look like — real generation, export and battery data from our first six months.
- Why I replaced Vodafone’s router with a UniFi Dream Router 7 — the start of a proper UniFi stack at home.
- Why we’re rethinking Eve for our second home in France — unreliable Eve sensors and plugs, and why we’re moving that property towards Apple Home, Aqara and UniFi instead.
Two small fixes
Nothing exciting, but worth flagging:
- The EDF referral offer mentioned in Why I moved from Octopus to EDF had drifted out of date. It now reflects the current £50/£50 offer rather than the old £75/£100 figure and expired date.
- An old post link that had started 404ing now redirects properly to the six-months Powerwall article above, which covers the same ground with more current numbers.
What’s coming next
Still on the list: a proper “why we actually use Apple Home day to day” post, something on Home Assistant Green now it’s confirmed as our hub, and a look at charging two EVs from one solar and battery setup. No promises on timing, but they’re written down so I can’t quietly forget about them.