Ruma

This project started as an exploration into what SVG is actually capable of. A talk by Sarah Drasner sparked the idea, specifically her take on how SVG can meaningfully improve application performance beyond just being a format for icons and illustrations. Most smart home dashboards stop at letting you flip switches and adjust thermostats. I wanted to go a step further and build something focused on resource management, giving you a clearer picture of what your home is consuming and where. The concept scales naturally too, from a single house all the way up to managing an entire building.

The app gives you a live view of your household's utility usage across every room. Each room is equipped with a temperature and humidity sensor, an electric meter, a water flow meter, and a motion sensor.

Building Heat Management

Temperature and humidity sensors in every room might seem like overkill at first, but the idea goes beyond just knowing how hot it is. When you can see that the living room has already warmed up naturally, you can simply open the door and let that heat spread rather than firing up another heating or cooling system. It also gives you a practical way to measure how well air circulates through your home over time.

Water Usage

This goes further than tracking how much water the house uses overall. By monitoring each room individually, you can compare the readings against the main incoming flow and catch discrepancies that might point to a hidden leak before it becomes a real problem.

Motion Detection and Security

Coming home to unexpected movement alerts when everyone is away is unsettling, but it can also be genuinely useful. The motion sensors give you live visibility into where activity is being detected during a break-in, so you are not left completely in the dark while waiting for help to arrive.

Electrical Efficiency

Proper per-room electrical monitoring lets you see exactly how much power each appliance is drawing. That question of whether swapping your old washing machine for a more energy-efficient model actually moves the needle on your monthly bill is something you can finally answer with real data.

From 2D Flat View to 3D Layout

The house layout started as a simple 2D floor plan. I took it further in Inkscape, adding perspective and depth to give it a 3D feel without reaching for an actual 3D library. Going that route made more sense than pulling in something like Three.js, which would have offloaded rendering work to the user's GPU and added unnecessary overhead for what is ultimately a UI element rather than an interactive 3D scene.