I’m looking to build my very first Home Assistant setup from scratch. The goal is to get a feel for the ecosystem and learn the basics for when I move to a larger place where I’ll have more automation options and full control. Since I live in an apartment, I cannot modify the exterior, otherwise fo…

Since you're a software engineer, I'd say get a mini PC. More resources that will allow more tinkering. Do you want to use HAOS with apps (add-ons)? I personally (and I'm an E&E/software engineer myself) run HA Container, because I then still have access to the host OS. Be very careful with AQ sens…

I was thinking of just running it as a dedicated device and not containerizing it to save on overhead, and the extra resources is indeed the reason I am considering a mini pc.

I would also recommend a PC, as it has RAM and CPU upgrade possibilities that a Raspberry Pi lacks. Home Assistant is a surprisingly light application ... so it doesn't need to be new or particularly powerful. I bought a cheap used Optiplex SFF PC, added a 16GB RAM stick, installed Proxmox and HAO…

I live alone, so luckily no WAF nor what happens if something happens to me factor to consider (although I'll still document everything). And indeed, each journey will be different. I was just looking for people that might have used/looked into the devices I mentioned or started with the same requi…

[image] The Home Assistant Cookbook - Index Community Guides A collection of posts on how to perform common tasks and deal with common problems. This Guide is intended for those new to Home Assistant, those that are struggling for answers on some subjects, and …

First HA setup - feedback & advice is appreciated

Hardware

MaxK (Mark) June 28, 2026, 9:31am 6