Hi Everyone,
Recently moved oversea and currently in the process of buying a house. For this reason, I already bought a Raspberry Pi 4B, get Home Assistant installed with external access and MFA set up to get ahead of the game. And man oh man, things have changed in the past couple years (in a good way).
My goals is to fulfill (or attempt to) the below goals/needs:
- Automate my dumb motorized outdoor roller shutters (was thinking of getting shelly 2.5 devices)
- I´d like to get all switch lights replaced with smart switches and or dimmer. I want to be able to dim using the physical button as well
- Be able to controller the water heating when the solar panels are not providing enough hot water (For now I think a smart plug will be enough as long as it can support the load)
- Add Motion sensors so that certain lights can be turned on when entering a room, turn my coffee machine on, etc.
- Be able to monitor and turn off outlets or plug if a device is in standby for a long period of time
- Looking to get LG washers and dryers and so I would like to know and be notified if/when a load is done (I believe there is a custom integration for that)
- Control or monitor the pool PH and chlorine levels (will need to buy new equipment for that)
- I want to start using voice control as well and be able to turn on light in the room I am at by just asking. I use Android and my SO uses iOS. I was thinking layering Alexa on top of Home Assistant. Thoughts?
- Have a display used to control and show status of the house. I have built a 3D floorplan in Sweet Home 3D but that was the easy part.
My concerns:
- I don´t want to overcrowd my WiFi network/frequencies though there are working around
- Houses in Europe are made of concrete and I have a basement
- I am not looking to recharge batteries all the time and so I need low-powered or plugged in devices
- Going against 2, I want to have responsive feedback and not have delay when an action needs to be taken.
- While working in IT I am a dummy and only used HA in the past to control few devises (Lutron Caseta, Vizio SmartCast, Sonos, Wyze, TP-Link, etc.)
Now this is more of a general question:
- What protocol(s) would you recommend using for the devices (z-wave, Zigbee, WiFi, a mix of everything)
- What are the best brands easily accessible in Europe. I know I can´t stick to one brand but do like to standardize as much as possible.
- Price is obviously an important part of this. The Lutron Caseta switches were great but the cost adds up quickly.
- Anybody wants to help make my 3D floorplan works once Ive´got this set up?
Thank you all!