Written by Dino K.
Ronald Peters moved from the Netherlands to rural New South Wales, where he discovered a passion for growing his own food. In his backyard, he built two greenhouses for lettuce, beans, and other crops for his family. But in an Australian summer, a greenhouse can turn brutal fast.
In Ronald’s part of New South Wales, temperatures regularly climb high enough to wipe out a crop in a single afternoon. A basic watering timer could handle routine irrigation, but not the kind of sudden heat that pushes a greenhouse past its limit. So Ronald built a smarter system around Homey Pro.
Gardening in extreme heat
Ronald lives in Junee, where summer heat can turn his greenhouses into ovens. Temperatures often reach 40°C, putting delicate crops under pressure within hours. Since he grows a mix of produce, including bok choy and several varieties of beans, keeping conditions stable matters.
A fixed watering schedule was too blunt for that kind of environment. Ronald needed something that could respond to changing conditions as they happened and help keep the greenhouse closer to his target temperature of 28°C. Using Homey and Advanced Flow, he built a setup that reacts to heat in real time.
One system, different hardware
Ronald has used Homey since the early Kickstarter days, so he already knew the value of combining products from different brands in one system. That mattered here because his greenhouse setup depended on it.
For temperature monitoring, he uses Aqara wireless Zigbee sensors. They provide the live readings that drive the rest of the automation. For irrigation, he chose a Tuya-based smart water controller using Wi-Fi and 433 MHz. It manages multiple zones, so drip irrigation and misting can be controlled separately.
Although the devices use different protocols and vendor platforms, Homey brings them together into a single system built around flows. That gave Ronald the freedom to build around the hardware he wanted, instead of settling for the limits of a single ecosystem.
Cooling the greenhouse with Homey
Ronald designed his Flows around the greenhouse’s daily rhythm. In the morning, a drip irrigation cycle gives the roots a longer soak. Depending on the crop, it runs for about 10 to 15 minutes, with lettuce receiving more water than beans. After that, a short misting cycle cools the plants and helps reduce heat stress before the day builds.
The more important logic kicks in later. Once the temperature rises above 31°C, Homey activates the misting system for one minute. Then it waits 30 minutes before checking again, avoiding unnecessary watering if the temperature has already dropped.
If the greenhouse hits 36°C, that waiting period is skipped and misting starts immediately. Ronald is not treating every hot day the same. His setup responds differently when conditions become critical.
Building in fail-safes
Automation only works if it keeps working when something goes wrong. Ronald used Advanced Flow to build that into the system, too.
If a temperature sensor runs out of battery or gets stuck and keeps reporting the same value for too long, Homey can detect the problem. It then switches to the sensor in the second greenhouse, allowing the cooling logic to continue running.
He also planned for power outages. If the power cuts while irrigation is running and Homey reboots, there is a risk that a valve could stay open. To prevent that, one of his flows resets every water control to off after a restart.
There is even a safeguard for manual use. If Ronald turns on the watering system himself and forgets to switch it off, Homey automatically shuts it down after 10 minutes.
From the greenhouse to the rest of the home
The greenhouse is the most complex part of Ronald’s setup, but not the only one. Over the years, he has used Homey to automate all kinds of household and garden routines.
When he drives home from work, the driveway lights switch on once he is within 150 meters of the property. On workday mornings, a coffee machine connected to a smart plug starts brewing automatically.
And some Flows are simply there to make the house feel more personal. During the holidays, Ronald’s wife especially loves that the Christmas tree has its own soundtrack, playing a festive tune when it turns on and a soft rendition of Silent Night when it powers down.
For Ronald, that is the point of a smart home: not just remote control, but a system that quietly takes care of the routine and responds when it matters.
