Perhaps this is too off-topic but I was just looking into home automation and perhaps someone might have good advice: I have an old (~25-30 years) radiant ceiling heating system with 15 thermostats that are starting to malfunction and I need to replace. I don't want to break the bank just doing this, but I'd love to have the ability to read temperature and command on/off on each of one.
I'm going through ESPHome right now, but in any case, any recommendations on very low-key but reliable thermostats that are amenable to hacking with them would be super welcome!
If you need to control mains AC loads, I highly recommend something like the Sonoff Wifi switches. They're similar to the wifi "Smart plugs" you can get these days but are aimed at fixed wiring installations and they're safety tested. You can also get versions with built in temp\humidity sensors in the switch, then re-flash the Sonoff firmware with esphome and control all 15 from a single raspberry pi running home assistant. This would allow you to set temperatures for individual rooms over the internet.
I'm going through ESPHome right now, but in any case, any recommendations on very low-key but reliable thermostats that are amenable to hacking with them would be super welcome!