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 what I posted on Facebook: New plan. I’ve been considering pumping my solar channel by doing better videos. But that means less getting stuff done and more screwing with videos. So no. Instead I’m going to do short posts to...
so my newest EMS/Detection/Fire Resilience experiment is implementing the system at my home and my shop in Hood River. I previously stated that once I had the prototype of the project files to dump into Claude, that it only took four hours to...
I’ve been telling people for years that changing tires is all about technique, not equipment, and you can change tires easily with just two small aluminum tire irons, and good tire lube. A bead holder is handy but not critical. I’m not...
What a Smart Energy Management System Actually Saves a Two-Income Household There’s a specific kind of household that’s perfectly positioned to get the most out of a solar-plus-battery energy management system, and almost nobody is talking...
Who Cares? This post is really for geeky folks who want to know what this thing is going to be who appreciate technical detail. If that’s NOT you, then maybe just read the next four paragraphs. It’s also useful for those folks who wonder...
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...