Integrating HomeMatic or not? Newbie looking for advice

Installation
1

Hi, absolute HA newbie here, please have some patience.

I have an existing Homematic IP Cloud setup, just a few heating thermostats that are grouped in two rooms and one separate Thermometer. The thingy ran well for some time, even though it sometimes developed a life of its own by changing some settings. It runs through HmIP-HAP access point on firmware 3.0.16

Now I am looking to set up my new HA and use much smarter automations, hence want to integrate the HomeMatic (might also replace it with Zigbee based Thermostats if that proves easier).

My HA is local, no cloud, and I intend to keep it like that. I have installed the HomeMatic IP Cloud integration and it looks fine, all the Homematic devices are showing in HA. But I am aware of the risk that HomeMatic may block calls to the API, so understand this is no stable solution.

I have looked at the Homematic Integration, which appears to be what I really want to go for. But for this, I need a CCU or RaspberryMatic instead of my existing HomeMatic cloud access point. My question here is, is there a way of avoiding having to buy a CCU if the only reason is to integrate it into HA and never use its proprietary UI? Can I use my access point as a radio without using the HomeMatic cloud? Else, I could set up a RaspberryMatic - but this requires hardware of its own. Hmm, not enthusiastic about it. Another alternative would be to buy a used CCU via eBay, am I going to regret buying a CCU2 for the purpose (considering it will be strictly operating in my local network)? I have no intention of buying more HomeMatic endpoints, this is more a way of being able to continue using the old hardware. Or should I just sell my HomeMatic package via eBay and buy new Zigbee Thermostats and Thermometers (which I have already done for the rooms where I didnt use HomeMatic in the past)?

A lot of questions, suppose there is no right or wrong but would like to have some advice from experienced users before I buy additional hardware that I might regret.

2

Just realised that I can install the HomeMatic Addon and then use a USB radio stick, which sounds like a reasonably lean integration.

The question remains: will I regret have my thermostats on two systems (two rooms HomeMatic, two rooms Zigbee)? The second hand prices for HomeMatic hardware are pretty high on eBay, I could almost sell the old hardware for the same price as new Zigbee hardware costs - and I save on some system complexity.

3

This one combined with the free Raspberrymatic addon is all you need.

Remember to use an UDb extension cable of st least 0.5M to get the radio avoid from USB3 ports, which are known to cause problems due to interference with radios.

1 Like
4

Thank you.

But won’t I end up with two different ways of managing my climate, as it is recommended to design the HomeMatic automations in the RasperryMatic addon? Sorry, very newby here.

5

Automations can be made in RaspberryMatic, but they can also be made in Home Assistant.
HAs goal is to move (or copy) those vendor functions into HA, so you control devices from different vendors in a similar way.
So as long as you do your automations in HA, then you will hardly feel a difference between Zigbee and Homematic devices, and automations in HA is so much more powerful, because you can interact with and react to all the types of devices you have in your HA setup in much more advanced ways than any vendor specific platform can.

1 Like
6

Thanks again, very helpful.