Service
Vessel-to-Villa Unified Dashboard, Gold Coast
For clients with both a home and a vessel running Victron. A site-to-site VPN connects the two networks privately. Both Cerbo GX systems feed into a single Home Assistant dashboard at home. One login, one view, alerts that span both systems, and remote oversight that doesn't depend on any third-party cloud staying in business. Built for owners who already run Victron on the boat, want the data to land somewhere useful at home, and don't want to manage two separate apps and two separate alert profiles.
Who this service is actually for
Vessel-to-Villa is the narrowest service Iron and Air offers. The technical and ownership prerequisites are specific, and if you don't tick all of them, this isn't the right next step. The five conditions:
- You own both a home and a vessel, with both kept on the Gold Coast or with the vessel typically stored at the home
- The vessel runs Victron with a Cerbo GX (or you're planning to add one as part of the project)
- The home either already runs Home Assistant or is going to as part of the integration work
- You spend significant time away from the boat and want oversight that's seamless rather than app-juggling
- You value private, local-first integration over cloud convenience: owning the VPN keys, the Home Assistant config, and the data on both ends matters to you
If any of those don't fit yet, the right starting point is usually one of the foundation services: Home Assistant Integration for the home side, Marine 24V/48V DC or Vessel Monitoring for the boat side. Vessel-to-Villa builds on top of those, not instead of them.
What the Combined Estate Audit covers for vessel-to-villa work
Vessel-to-Villa work is scoped from the Combined Estate Audit, $900, which covers home and vessel together. Three to four hours on the vessel, two to three hours at the home, written report covering both. Here's what we measure on the integration side:
1. Home Home Assistant install
If Home Assistant is already running at the home, we audit the existing controller (Green, Yellow, or x86), integration depth, dashboard structure, and add-on configuration. If Home Assistant isn't running yet, we scope the install of the home-side controller as part of the project. Either way, the home is the dashboard endpoint. That's where vessel data ends up displayed alongside home data.
2. Vessel Cerbo GX state
Cerbo make and generation, firmware, BMS comms, MultiPlus integration, MPPT visibility, and current VRM connection state. The Cerbo has to be properly commissioned and reporting locally before the vessel-to-villa link adds value. Feeding broken data over a VPN doesn't help anyone. If Cerbo commissioning needs work, we treat it as a prerequisite, not a side-job.
3. Internet path on both ends
The home needs reliable internet (NBN, ideally with failover; see Network Failover). The vessel needs continuous internet: marine 4G/5G router, Starlink Mini, or shore-side Wi-Fi if at the owner's home. The VPN runs over both connections, so both have to be reliable enough that the link doesn't constantly drop.
4. VPN topology decision
Three common approaches: WireGuard server on the home Home Assistant with the vessel as a client (simple, fast, secure, requires a static or dynamic-DNS-resolved home IP), OpenVPN with a similar topology (slower, more compatible, less efficient), or Tailscale-mesh (no port forwarding, easier to set up, requires a Tailscale account). Each has trade-offs. The audit picks the right one for your specific connectivity, technical comfort, and ownership preferences.
5. Cerbo data export method
Two paths from Cerbo to Home Assistant: Modbus TCP (clean, reliable, real-time) or MQTT (more flexible, supports custom data points, requires a broker). Modbus is the default for most installs because it works out of the box. MQTT is preferred when you want to log custom data points (bilge pump current, additional temperature sensors, custom alerts) that aren't in the standard Modbus register map.
6. Alert and dashboard scope
What the unified dashboard should actually show. Daily-driver view (the boat's state-of-charge alongside the home's solar production, AC consumption, battery if applicable). Alert profile (which events fire phone notifications, which only show in the dashboard). Cross-system rules (e.g. "only alert vessel offline after the home has confirmed shore power loss," useful for marine-cellular failures during weather events that affect both sites).
The audit produces a written design document covering both sites, integration topology, recommended hardware additions, and a fixed-price install quote. Fee credits 50 percent against installation when you proceed within 90 days.
What audits typically uncover
Vessel-to-Villa audits surface a small set of repeating findings. Three most common.
1. The home Home Assistant install needs work first
Most owners interested in vessel-to-villa already run Home Assistant at the home, but often it's a hobbyist install: running on a Raspberry Pi, with patchy network coverage, integrations added ad-hoc over years, and no real backup or recovery plan. Adding vessel data on top of a fragile foundation just creates a more fragile system. The audit usually identifies a Home Assistant migration to better hardware (Yellow, x86 mini-PC) and a cleanup of existing integrations as a prerequisite.
2. The vessel internet is barely working
Cerbos with cellular routers configured as "good enough": they connect when the boat is at the home with shore-side Wi-Fi, drop offline when the boat is moved, and recover unreliably. For a vessel-to-villa link to work, the vessel internet has to be properly engineered, not "mostly working." Fix is usually a proper marine cellular router or Starlink Mini with the right antenna placement and Cerbo network configuration.
3. The Cerbo isn't reporting what the owner thinks it is
Common pattern. Owner believes the Cerbo is reporting full battery telemetry, MultiPlus state, and shore power status. Audit reveals the BMS isn't talking to the Cerbo (so SOC is voltage-estimated, not measured), the MultiPlus is in standalone mode rather than VE.Bus integrated, or some MPPTs are missing from the device list entirely. Fix is Cerbo recommissioning before the vessel-to-villa work starts.
What the install actually involves
Vessel-to-Villa installs typically run three to five days across both sites, depending on whether home Home Assistant work and Cerbo recommissioning are part of scope. Two common shapes:
Software-only integration
Both sites already have working foundations: Home Assistant solid at home, Cerbo properly commissioned on the vessel, internet reliable on both ends. We install the VPN (WireGuard typically), configure the Cerbo data export (Modbus TCP), build the unified dashboard, set up cross-site alerts, and commission the link. Two to three days across both sites. Indicative cost $4,500 to $8,500.
Foundation work plus integration
One or both foundations need work: Home Assistant migration to better hardware, Cerbo recommissioning, marine internet upgrade, or all three. We do the foundation work first, then the integration. Three to five days across both sites. Indicative cost $8,000 to $18,000 depending on scope.
Every install ends with a documented handover covering both sites: VPN credentials and config, Home Assistant configuration export, Cerbo configuration backup, alert profile in writing, and a guide explaining how to add or remove devices on either end yourself. The system is yours. Exportable, portable, and not locked to us. If you ever want to migrate either end, the documentation supports a clean handover to another installer.
Available packages
Combined Estate Audit, from $900 (Zone 1)
Three to four hours on the vessel, two to three hours at the home, single combined report covering both sites with vessel-to-villa integration design. Fee credits 50 percent against installation when you proceed within 90 days.
Final scope and pricing for installation work land after the audit. See /pricing/ for the full pricing structure.
What private site-to-site integration actually means
Vessel-to-villa as a concept is straightforward, but the implementation matters. Here's the technical reasoning behind the way we build it.
Site-to-site VPN beats third-party cloud bridges
Some smart-home platforms offer cross-site bridges that route data through the vendor's cloud. Convenient, until the vendor changes pricing, deprecates the bridge, or goes out of business. A direct site-to-site VPN bypasses all of that. The home and the vessel form a private network that doesn't depend on any third party staying in business or honouring any specific pricing tier. The VPN keys are yours, the topology is yours, and the data flow is yours.
WireGuard is the right default for residential and marine
Compared to OpenVPN, WireGuard is faster, more efficient, easier to configure, and uses dramatically less battery on mobile clients. The codebase is small enough to be auditable, the cryptography is modern, and the configuration is simple text files you can version-control. For most vessel-to-villa installs, WireGuard is the right answer. Tailscale (which uses WireGuard underneath) is the right answer when you don't have a static IP at the home and don't want to manage dynamic DNS. It adds a managed coordination layer at the cost of depending on the Tailscale service for connection bootstrapping.
Modbus TCP is the right default for Cerbo data export
The Cerbo GX exposes its data over Modbus TCP, a standard industrial protocol with predictable register maps, well-supported in Home Assistant, and reliable. Set up once, runs forever. MQTT is the alternative when you want flexibility (custom data points, custom alarms, integration with non-Cerbo vessel sensors). For most installs, Modbus is enough and simpler. We default to Modbus and only escalate to MQTT when scope requires it.
Local-first integration means the link going down isn't catastrophic
When the vessel-to-villa VPN drops (storm, cellular outage, ISP problem at the home), both ends keep working independently. The vessel Cerbo continues monitoring locally and logging data. The home Home Assistant continues running everything home-side. The unified dashboard at home shows the vessel as offline. When the link recovers, the data syncs and the dashboard updates. Nothing on either end depends on the link being live to function. Only the cross-site visibility does.
The audit asks the question most installers don't
The "do you actually need this" question. Some owners discover during the audit that they don't actually want unified vessel-to-villa visibility. They want better individual visibility on each system, separately. That's a different scope, and a cheaper one. We're honest when the audit findings point that way. Vessel-to-villa is the right answer for owners who genuinely benefit from a single unified view. It's overkill for owners who just want better marine monitoring.
For deeper reading, see our guides on Smart Home Without the Cloud and Marine System Design, and the related Home Assistant Integration, Vessel Monitoring, and Network Failover service pages.
Frequently asked
▸ What does Vessel-to-Villa mean in practice?
▸ Do I need cellular at the boat all the time?
▸ What if the boat's internet drops?
▸ Is the data secure?
▸ What happens if the home Home Assistant fails?
▸ Can my partner or family see the dashboard too?
▸ Will it work with non-Victron components on the vessel?
▸ What's the bandwidth requirement?
▸ Can I add a third site (holiday house, second vessel) later?
Book the audit
Vessel-to-Villa starts with the Combined Estate Audit. Three to four hours on the vessel, two to three hours at the home, integration design within two weeks. Most enquiries get a response within four business hours. If both sites already have working Home Assistant and Cerbo installs, sharing access to either before the visit lets us pre-assess the integration topology.