Complete renovation & home automation of a mobile home

Sector: Renovation / Home automation / Energy efficiency

Period: 2018 (3 intensive months) + roof upgrade in 2022

Context: Personal project — residential use

Location: Switzerland

Context

In 2018, I fully renovated an old mobile home to turn it into a comfortable, thermally efficient and fully automated home — while working within a strict electrical constraint: 220V single-phase 16A (3.5 kW max).

Approach: Keep only the load-bearing structure, rebuild everything from scratch, and design home automation in from the start.

Problem

Renovation challenge:

• Old mobile home: no insulation to speak of, outdated plumbing and wiring
• Load-bearing structure sound, but the entire interior needed redoing
• Tight budget: do as much as possible myself

Critical energy challenge:

• Severe electrical constraint: 220V single-phase 16A (i.e. 3.5 kW max)
• Appliances to power: washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, fridge, electronics, TV, heating
• The concrete problem: washing machine + dishwasher at the same time = tripped breaker
• No way to increase the available power (a limitation of the mobile home's grid connection)

Thermal challenge:

• Virtually no original insulation
• Ageing roof (watertightness compromised)
• Need to heat efficiently with limited electrical power

Solution

Phase 1: Complete renovation (2018 — 3 intensive months)

Demolition and structure:

• Load-bearing structure kept, nothing else
• Complete strip-out of the interior (partitions, finishes, installations)

Thermal insulation (walls and roof):

• Jackoboard technical panels (high-density compressed foam + composite cement layers)
• Insulation of walls, roof and floor
• Goal: maximum thermal performance within the available space

Complete plumbing:

• Redone from scratch from the outdoor water supply
• Kitchen, bathroom, toilets
• All done by myself

Complete electrical system:

• Redone from scratch: distribution board, circuits, sockets, lighting
• Ready for home automation: structured cabling, switched sockets, power consumption sensors
• All done by myself

Heating:

• Pellet stove (main heating)
• Electric infrared radiant panels (top-up heating for specific areas)

Phase 2: Home automation & energy management (Jeedom)

Home automation system: Jeedom

Main goal: Manage the 3.5 kW max electrical constraint by intelligently automating power consumption.

1. Automating the pellet stove

Technical approach:

• Reused the stove's WiFi module
• Reverse engineering of the HTTP GET commands sent by the official app
• Integration into Jeedom: full control of the stove (on/off, temperature, modes)

Automations:

• Presence / away modes: heating adjusted to occupancy
• Scheduled comfort levels (eco, comfort, boost)
• Pellet consumption monitoring

2. Smart power consumption management

The real challenge: 220V 16A = 3.5 kW max for EVERYTHING (appliances + electronics + heating).

The solution developed:

• Power consumption sensors on every critical socket (washing machine, dishwasher, dryer, fridge)

• Automatic prioritisation rules in Jeedom:

  • Detection when a power-hungry appliance starts
  • Automatic blocking of another appliance from starting if there is a risk of overload
  • Smart queuing
• A concrete example: If the washing machine is running, the dishwasher cannot start → it waits automatically until the cycle ends

Result: No more tripped breakers, and management that is completely transparent for the user.

3. General automations

• Automatic lighting (presence, time of day)
• Adaptive heating (outdoor temperature, occupancy, schedule)
• Complete energy monitoring (overall and per-appliance consumption)

Phase 3: Roof and exterior cladding upgrade (2022)

4 years after the initial renovation:

Roof:

• Complete replacement with industrial sandwich panels
• Thermal gain + long-lasting watertightness
• Installed by myself

Exterior metal cladding:

• Full exterior lining in metal cladding
• Ventilated air gap between the cladding and the original walls
• Goal: protection against wood rot, durability with no maintenance

Result: A virtually indestructible mobile home, with no exterior maintenance required.

Result

Deliverables:

• Fully renovated and insulated mobile home (3 months of intensive work)
• Plumbing and electrics completely redone (by hand)
• Complete home automation system (Jeedom)
• Smart power consumption management (16A problem solved)
• Automated pellet stove (reverse engineering of the WiFi protocol)
• Roof and metal cladding (2022): optimised protection and insulation

Impact:

• Electrical constraint under control: never a tripped breaker despite intensive use
• Optimal thermal comfort: high-performance insulation + smart heating
• Maximum energy autonomy: consumption monitored and optimised
• Durability: metal cladding + sandwich roof = zero exterior maintenance

What this project demonstrates:

• Ability to solve a severe technical constraint (16A) through smart automation
• Complete versatility: plumbing, electrics, insulation, home automation, roofing, cladding — all done by hand
• Systems approach: thinking of the project as one overall system (thermal + electrical + home automation)
• Technical innovation: reverse engineering the WiFi stove for home automation integration

Photos/Visuals

Tags: projects, home automation, renovation, Jeedom, energy efficiency, DIY, Switzerland, 2018-2022