Private AI Home Assistant Setup in Austin

Two kinds of trouble: long heat and the rare hard freeze

Austin summers are long. Highs reach 90°F on about 123 days a year, and about 29 of those reach 100°F. Winter is usually mild, but the city sees an ice storm roughly every two years, and February 2021 showed how bad a real freeze can get. Winter Storm Uri left more than 4.5 million Texas homes and businesses without power, some for days. Austin lost more than 325 million gallons of water to burst pipes by February 18, according to the director of Austin Water.

A smart home can't fix the grid. It can make sure you find out about a problem in minutes rather than when you walk in the door, and it can act on its own when it should.

What we set up for an Austin house

• Heat routines. Pre-cooling before you get home, smarter setbacks while you're out, and an alert if the indoor temperature climbs past a limit you choose. That's often the first sign an air conditioner is struggling.
• Freeze and leak protection. Temperature sensors near exposed or exterior-wall pipes, leak sensors under sinks and by the water heater, and an automatic shutoff valve that closes the main when a leak is detected. The hub in your house runs that rule locally, so it still works if the internet goes down.
• Outage awareness. When power drops and comes back, the assistant texts you a short summary: how long it was out, the indoor temperature now, and whether any sensor tripped.
• The family side. Shared calendars, school and activity reminders, an inbox summary each morning, and lights and locks you can control by text.

How remote setup works in Austin

We don't have a team in Austin, so Private Cloud is set up remotely. After a video walk-through, we configure your hub here and ship it to you. You plug it into your router, and then we spend a video call together connecting your accounts and the compatible devices you already have: thermostats, smart switches, locks and cameras that work locally.

If you want new devices, such as a water shutoff valve or freeze sensors, we give you an exact list and placement plan. Your own plumber or electrician can install them to our spec, or we can quote a travel install. Private Home, with a dedicated AI computer in your house, is always a travel install, since we set up that hardware in person.

Privacy, the Texas way

With Private Cloud, your assistant runs an open-source AI model on a private server we operate for you in a U.S. data center, never OpenAI, Google or Amazon, with no conversation logs kept. With Private Home, nothing leaves the house at all. Either way, your home's routines run on the hub in your house. More detail is in our guide to local and cloud assistants.

What we'll ask on your walk-through

Every Austin house is different, so the video walk-through is where the plan comes together. We'll ask where your water main and shutoff are, whether any pipes run through an unheated garage or attic, how your air conditioning is zoned and how old the system is, and whether you have a generator or solar with batteries. We'll look at your router's location and Wi-Fi coverage, since a strong network is the foundation for everything else. We'll also ask how your household actually runs: who drives which kids where, which emails matter, and what you'd like a text about versus what can wait for the morning summary. From that, you get a written plan with what we'll connect, anything worth adding, and a fixed price.

Prices for Austin

Private Cloud starts at $4,995, set up remotely, plus a $199-a-month care plan that includes your private AI server. Private Home starts at $24,995 with care at $399 a month, and travel for the install is quoted with your project at cost. Estate projects are quoted individually. A detailed breakdown is in what a private AI home assistant costs.

To start, book a free video walk-through or email hello@kotohhome.com.