First timer: What should I do from the start to make using Home Assistant better and easier?

Configuration
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Hello everybody,

I’m a newb and my quick and dirty methods have caught up to me. It’s become spaghetti, so I’m doing a clean install with the goal of organization.

Also, as I’ve gone along, I’ve discovered that there are much easier ways to do things. But you have to know they’re there!

  • For example: editing YAML sucks. Make it easier with Visual Studio.

  • Making template sensors in config.yaml gets messy fast. Split your configuration into directories and then merge, and/or use Node Red to make template sensors rather than crying over indentation errors.

  • HACS has many utilities that one shouldn’t live without. For example, Scheduler will save your sanity.

So, what advice about best practices do you all have? How about making using Home Assistant easier? Thank you all!

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Pick a good naming scheme for your entities, like domain.location_use (e.g light.bedroom_left side_table_lamp), rename your entities as soon as you add them and before you start using them in dashboards and automations.

Using similar object ids can simplify automation with templates. e.g. if you have a lot of movement sensors that control lights it helps if they are named like this:

light.bedroom
binary_sensor.bedroom_pir
light.hallway
binary_sensor.hallway_pir
light.dining_room
binary_sensor.dining_room_pir

Then you can do things like this:

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - binary_sensor.bedroom_pir
      - binary_sensor.hallway_pir
      - binary_sensor.dining_room_pir
    to: 'on'
    id: 'on'
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - binary_sensor.bedroom_pir
      - binary_sensor.hallway_pir
      - binary_sensor.dining_room_pir
    to: 'off'
    for:
      minutes: 5
    id: 'off'
action:
  - service: "light.turn_{{ trigger.id }}"
    target:
      entity_id: "light.{{ trigger.to_state.object_id|replace('_pir','') }}"
mode: parallel
1 Like
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look at how others run their system?