About SilentHome

Making Home Automation Private, Seamless, and Accessible

I believe your smart home should work for you—not against your privacy, technical capabilities, or wallet. I'm building open-source-first hardware that integrates seamlessly with platforms like Home Assistant, giving you control over your data while eliminating the complexity that keeps great automation ideas stuck on the breadboard.

Why SilentHome Exists

The smart home industry has a problem. Mainstream products spy on users, die when companies pivot, and treat customers like babies who can't make their own decisions. Meanwhile, the open-source home automation community creates incredible software like Home Assistant, but leave the hardware development to companies targeting Big Tech protocols first and HA users second. Thus, products often require getting an app and making an account, defeating the purpose of locally hosting. Small businesses, like SilentHome, have to navigate complicated and expensive certification protocols to give users what they want and deserve. Alternatively, users can make their own hardware - a great approach and something I have often enjoyed, but I found that getting past the final 10% of polish on these projects is the hardest part, leaving me with a mostly functional but ugly final product with rough edges. 

I see a growing hunger for self-hosted, privacy-respecting alternatives as more people wake up to the creepy data collection and condescending nature of Big Tech products. SilentHome exists to bridge that gap: creating hardware that respects your intelligence, your privacy, and your time. Products that can be easily set up once and then forgotten about, or endlessly customized for techy people like me. 

Our Approach

Privacy First: Everything we build integrates with self-hosted platforms. Your data stays in your home, period.

Open-Source: Software is always open-source since we build on the work of others. Hardware designs include detailed specifications, expansion headers, and encouragement for custom modifications.

Quality That Lasts: No more prototypes held together with prayers. Our products go through the engineering rigor needed to earn that coveted "Wife Approval Factor"—they just work, and they belong in your living room.

Honest Communication: We treat customers as capable human beings. Transparent pricing, detailed technical specs, and realistic timelines

Setup Resources: The Home Assistant community has created so many resources to help people do what they want, but it can be overwhelming to find exactly the knowledge you need. SilentHome will gather relevant resources and create our own to make setup of our products seamless.

The Story Behind SilentHome

SilentHome started from personal frustration. I'd built plenty of functional home automation projects in my free time, but they always lived in that gray area between working prototype and something I'd actually want to use daily. The gap between breadboard success and polished product was eating weekends and creating a pile of "90% done" projects.

My background in mechanical engineering naturally expanded into electrical as I tackled these challenges. Each project taught me something new about circuit design, component sourcing, and software development. But I kept running into the same problem: by the time I'd solved the technical challenges, I was burned out on the aesthetics, user experience, and final polish that transforms a working device into something you actually want in your home.

That's when I realized this wasn't just my problem—it was the community's problem. Home Assistant forums are full of brilliant technical minds building incredible automations, but many of the physical interfaces still look like engineering experiments. Not because people can't build better, but because the last 10% of development work takes 90% of the time, and most of us have day jobs.

Our First Product: Scene Controller

The scene controller for Home Assistant tackles a real problem: physical scene control that looks like it belongs in an interior designer's house. Yes, you could absolutely build this yourself—and we encourage you to! But if you want the functionality without spending months on component sourcing, CAD work, and iteration cycles, I've done that work for you.

The Scene Controller will allow for expansion with any communication protocol: I picked a board specifically so that it can support I2C, UART, Analog, SPI, along with as many buttons as necessary. The package will ship without any extra sensors, but users are encouraged to add any they want and let me know what they liked so that I can offer sensors in the package in the future! 

The Scene Controller will feature a custom PCB, allowing for smaller form factor and more reliable responses to button presses. A printed case can be configured in during checkout for different color combinations or left out entirely for a small discount.

For our first version, we're starting with USB-C wired rather than wireless. ESPHome's deep sleep would not provide the premium experience the Scene Controller is targeting, and wouldn't last long enough. Matter/Thread certification costs $7,500 annually—unrealistic for a startup. Mains wiring requires UL certification that costs even more. If this initial launch is successful, I plan to move to Matter/Thread so that this Scene Controller can last over a year with a coin cell. 

What's Next

I have some ideas for improvements on the Scene Controller - moving to Matter/Thread and battery powered, different configurations for number of buttons, and customizable key-caps that have custom colored text, and there's probably more I haven't thought of yet!

If the scene controller succeeds, I have loose plans for more Home Assistant-focused hardware. Binary switches that are easily set up and reliable. Motion sensors that respect privacy. Environmental monitors that keep data local. Interface devices that make complex automations feel simple. Who knows, I have even thought of software specifically aimed at HA to make deployment easier. The possibilities are nearly endless as our tech landscape has left a lot to be desired when it comes to respecting their customers. 

The goal isn't just to build products—it's to accelerate the transition toward self-sufficient, privacy-respecting smart homes. Every product I ship should make it easier for someone to choose open-source solutions over corporate surveillance.

My Promise

I will never compromise on privacy, treat customers as incapable, or abandon products when the market shifts. I'll document everything thoroughly, provide expansion options for tinkerers, and always be honest about what we can and cannot deliver.

Building a sustainable business while staying true to open-source principles isn't easy, but I think it's possible. More importantly, I think it's necessary.

Questions about our approach or upcoming products? Reach out—we believe in actual conversations, not contact forms that disappear into corporate black holes.