Professional at Being an Amateur: Expert Amateur is a website and video channel for people who do serious things without being paid to do them. We document open-source projects in solar energy, home automation, fire resilience, and anything else worth building — with enough detail that you can build it too.
Serious projects. No credentials required.
Popular Videos and Posts
This is a demonstration of how you can work with the EMS system to have it precisely suit your needs. We’re getting closer to a release for the system. If you can’t wait for the tested and proven version and want to start playing around let...
This is just a way to get people up-to-date on what I’m working on. Your House Is Wasting Energy Right Now How a smart energy management system pays for itself — and how you and AI can build one fitted exactly to your home Here’s a question...
March 2026 • 10 min read • Beginner-friendlyIf you’ve been watching your electricity bill climb every month and thinking “I wish I could do something about this” — this post is for you. You don’t need a rooftop. You don’t...
So I’ve been building this wildfire defense system for my place on Maui. Cameras, sprinklers, automated response — the whole deal. And if you’ve watched any of the earlier videos you know I was pretty deep into the fire detection side of...
After the 2023 Lahaina fires, I decided I wasn’t going to wait for someone else to protect my property. I was going to build a system myself. Over the past 18 months, that system has evolved into something I think could protect a lot more than...
Some viewers have commented that the fire resilience system I’m building will be expensive–that’s just not true. I’m designing the core system to be less than $3000. It might make your home insurable, or if not, greatly reduce...
It lives! a not very brief (sorry) walkthrough of the fire mitigation system as it is currently. It’s quite far along, and after lots of struggles it’s working very well except some of the physical stuff still isn’t done. It’s...
Project: Save Your Home From Wildfires With Solar Power Episode 1: Introduction Can Solar Power Help Protect Your Home From Wildfire? Yes it can, and this project will show you how. There is a long list of preparations you can undertake to make your...
The first thing I want to do is recommend that you watch some of Fire Safe Marin’s excellent videos. If you want to create a defensible space around your home you need to understand what that means, and these videos do a great job of that...