An Integrated Energy and Environmental Monitoring System for Community-Scale Cricket Farming via Home Assistant

Abstract

Cricket farming in semi-closed systems requires maintaining an optimal temperature range, which typically demands high electricity consumption and increases production costs. Moreover, low-cost monitoring sensors used in agriculture have rarely been calibrated against standard instruments, and the integration of renewable energy with intelligent control systems for insect farming remains limited. This study presents a temperature monitoring and control system for cricket farms powered by a 4.4 kW_p solar photovoltaic–thermal hybrid system (Solar PVT) and 10.8 kW_th heat pump, designed to maintain the temperature of 20 rearing bins within 28 - 30 ^oC. The control system was developed on the Home Assistant platform with a Tuya IoT module, which effectively regulates the temperature according to predefined conditions, ensuring stable operation throughout the rearing process. Experimental results demonstrated that the Tuya IoT sensors achieved high accuracy (R² > 0.99,
RMSE 0.496 ^oC, 0.0295 kW, and MAPE <2%), confirming the system’s reliability. Furthermore, the system reduced grid electricity consumption by 41.5 %. Additional analysis indicated an annual electricity generation of 7,570.63 kWh, a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 3,784.56 kgCO₂eq/year, and a payback period of 5.5 years. These findings highlight the system’s technical, economic, and environmental feasibility for adoption in community-scale cricket farms.