Good morning. I’m brand new to the group and looked around for a “start here” thread so i don’t ask repeat questions but I’m not seeing one.
I have a home built by dr horton. I have the iqpanel2, a kwikset door lock, and honeywell thermostat, and some kind of video doorbell. After 3 years, alarm.com now wants to charge $50/mo for me to be able to control the thermostat remotely and lock/unlock my door.
I don’t have an alarm and don’t really want one. I just want a free way to assist my thermostat remotely as well as lock and unlock my front door remotely. I factory reset the iqpanel but it seems that doesn’t grant you the ability to use it free.
From what i gather, home assistant is a software you can load on your phone to control your home devices for free. But id like to keep using zwave for my devices to conserve battery life. Can someone just give me a quick down and dirty of what i need to do? I have wifi through att at home. I have Amazon echo dots in a box somewhere. Willing to spend a little money if necessary!
Hi, welcome. Home Assistant can automate your home and control z-wave. But while Home Assistant has a phone app, that is not where the automation happens. It is just a way to control Home Assistant in your home.
Home Assistant requires a host computer in your home that runs 24/7. It can be a Raspberry Pi or NUC. Laptops or PC’s will work too, but they are more power hungry running 24/7. Nabu Casa also sells devices capable of running HA with the software preinstalled. For z-wave you need an usb dongle to use as the coordinator.
To control Home Assistant from outside your home, or to connect it to Alexa or Google Home, you need to expose Home Assistant to the internet. You can do that for free yourself. There are guides how to do that. Or you can go the easy route and get a Nabu Casa cloud subscription. Less hassle, but not free.
You’ll need some time to get everything set up and learn how to get things done. But possibilities are seemingly endless, and it can be fun to take control of automating your home. Many of us are hooked on it.