Home automation & self-hosting (Raspberry Pi)
Started: October 2024Written on April 12, 2026
Context
Shortly after starting my work-study program, I acquired a Raspberry Pi to experiment with network and system technologies in a personal environment. This project served as my sandbox for mastering containerization with Podman and securing self-hosted applications.
A key part of this project involves automating my Tado heating system. To avoid a paid subscription for automation features (geofencing, open window detection), I implemented an automation script leveraging the official Tado API. Instead of using a third-party Docker image, I designed my own custom image based on Python Alpine to ensure maximum security and a minimal memory footprint.
Initially, this Raspberry Pi also hosted the first version of my portfolio (developed in HTML/CSS/PHP) via a hardened Nginx server. This experience allowed me to resolve complex issues regarding volume management and user permissions (UID/GID) specific to Podman.
Today, with my website's migration to Nuxt.js and more suitable cloud hosting, the Raspberry Pi is now exclusively dedicated to home automation and lightweight infrastructure testing, serving as a permanent lab for my future experiments.