New HA New Home

Hello all,

I am new to home assistant and would love some guidance.

Here is my situation. Having just started i have very few automation components, and therefore i need to basically start from zero.

What i have ucrrently is:
Intergas HRE36 ECO boiler.
Ecobee Smarther Thermostat.

What i would like to achive in the long run is the following:

  1. Have a HA system that is not reliant on the cloud to make devices work.
  2. Be able to control Heating of room radiators independantly from other rooms (just received a huge gas bill, and i assume if i can only heat the rooms we occupy at a moment in time it should save on the heating bil?
    3, In the future i would also like to control lights with HA. The challenge as i see it is i do not want to replace the light switches itself as they are modelled to easthetically fit with door handles and window handles.
  3. In future get the status and control hydromponic systems that will be installed.
  4. In future we will install a pellet/wood burning stove to move away from Gas. Another assumption that it will be a more cost effective solution.

From what i have read it seems that one challenge is deciding on a protocol to be used for the devices. Suggestions of course will be welcomed.

It also seems that there are many different suppliers of different components within the home automation, but i guess starting from zero one can standardise on one supplier that have everything?

Cost of course is an issue and therefore i would prefer not to select the most expensive solution.

I am new to HA and have HA running on a Pi3.

You want to have bluetooth adapter if you don’t have BT with your pi model or other host device you migrate to later and you want at the very least a skyconnect to allow you to use zigbee and matter+thread based devices directly in your HA instance.

The latter type will allow you to use more local only based devices that don’t rely on the cloud and there is a z-wave option via other usb sticks that support it like the Zooz 800 Series Z-Wave Long Range S2 Stick (ZST39 LR) so you have some options there to mix and match to your needs for the best overall compatibility without the need for 3rd party hubs.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are Tuya based devices that are wifi that need one of the apps to show up in HA once setup through it and there are Tuya listed devices that are zigbee that are pure local only once you have the device and skyconnect in pairing mode.

For devices like those made by aqara that are matter based to add them to HA you just open the matter(beta) integration via the companion app on the phone and scan the qr code it comes with then it will pair up and show up for use.

Anything else would be your IR blaster setups for devices you only have that option to control with and LoRA devices for larger areas like say farms or where you need to setup a device not in range otherwise and anything that needs the 433 band.

For your listed devices:

Thank you for your response. Being new to HA and most of these things you just explained in oxford english! I need a thesaurus to understand all you just said. I will do some investigation to try to understand your post.

Having a look at the components you just mentioned, i have a question. If i do use TRV;s would the ecobee integration still be needed. I am wondering if the incomfort gateway and TRV’s are effectively replacing the smarther thermostat? Unless i am not understanding the system which is also the case. The house is quite large and what i think is that there are not enough radiators to heat the area where the thermostat is currently. Meaning that the boiler is working overtime to try to heat the entrance where the thermostat is located. The reast of the radiators have all been detuned due to those rooms heating up like crazy.

Someone with a similar setup to yours would be best to comment with more specifics.

I currently have a custom integration via the yaml files in my setup to add and control my AC unit via the FGLair API when it comes to climate devices since it has a built in wifi module.

I really do hope there are some members in this community that is willing to give some additional advice. Really need some help here everyone…