Potential new user questions

Howdy all,

I’ve in the smarthome space for a while now. I was running SmartThings from the very beginning and love it until it just stopped working consistently and regularly for me. Not too long ago I got a Hubitat Hub and that’s been okay, but I’m starting to run into some inconsistent operation from that as well, and I find the interface a little lacking. I’m looking at Home Assistant, but before I jump in too deep, I have some questions:

First, I’m looking at running this on an old dell desktop top. Poking around it looks like the recommendation for install is to setup a linux virtual machine. I do have an linux server running some home media stuff… would it make more sense to run Home Assistant on that vs. the Windows desktop? I know enough linux to get around but I’m by no means a linux expert. My biggest concern would opening up a security hole with my server/network.

Second, I have a number of zigbee and zwave devices in my house, along with some wifi. If I switch to HA I’m assuming that I’ll need zigbee/zwave dongles, right? Are there recommended ones that are known to work?

Third, I have google home devices in my house that I’d like to continue to use to turn on/off devices. It looks like there is an integration with Google Assistant. I also would like to be able to use my phone when away from the home to control things. Obviously both of these things would require some level of HA having internet connection. As I mentioned above, I want to make sure I’m not opening security risks here. How safe is this? How knowledgable do I need to be here to make sure I’m not leaving something open for possible attack?

Fourth, does HA have built in support for security cameras? I’m looking for recording and notification type functions. My cameras are IP cameras.

Finally: How reliable is HA? As I said above I’ve gotten frustrated with severe lag and automation failure from SmartThings and to a lesser extent Hubitat. Poking around and it looks like there are LOT of fun stuff I can do with HA, which is great. But I also need the core functionality to just work reliable for the Wife Approval Factor. If she says: “Hey Google, turn on the Den Light” that needs to happen quickly and reliably. If turns on a Z-wave switch where I’ve set up an automation that it turns on a different Z-wave switch, that has to happen quickly and reliably. Can HA do that for me?

  • I’m not an expert on these things but my understanding is that most people now recommended to run in a docker container on a linux machine (I don’t think it will work properly on a windows machine in docker).
  • I can’t speak to Z-Wave, but the Sonoff Zigbee 3 dongle came higly recommended, and with the firmware upgrade to it it has been working great for me.
  • Can’t help with google home, never used it before.
  • I think that will depend on the camera, I have Blink at my house and there is an integration for that which offers some functionality, YMMV, best to just look it up.
  • I think this is another of those “it depends” questions. My build is running on a raspberry pi, and from what I understand as my system grows I might begin to see lag and latency, especially in tasks like restarts. As is, if I use my HA app on my phone to control a light, it happens faster than I can comprehend (all zigbee devices in my setup).
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First…I would run it on the Linux server either as HAOS in a VM or run it as HA Container on Docker.

HAOS is “easier”. But if you have some Linux experience and understand Docker (or can learn it - fairly easy) then I would go with HA Container instead of HAOS. The only thing you really lose is a built-in backup/restore system and Add-Ons. But the Add-On functionality can be duplicated as stand alone Docker containers and anyone thast knows L:inux can backup things easily.

Second…I use an Aeotec Gen 5 zwave stick and a HUSZBZ-1 for zigbee but there are newer more recommended zigbee controllers out now (tho I’ve never had an issue with that controller in my setup). A fairly popular one is the Sonoff Zigbee controller.

Third…I never use GH but I do use Alexa and if you want to spend the $6.50 a month for Nabu Casa then set up should be dead simple. There are free options but they are a bit more complicated to set up.

And HA offers a (free) mobile app to interface with your local HA instance. But it requires access from the outside to work. Again Nabu Casa offers that access included in the same fee as voice assistants mentioned above. Or you can do it for free based on opening router ports/VPN/whatever.

Any way you go HA isn’t any less secure than any other app you expose to the internet. As long as your Network is secure and as long as you otherwise use good security practices (for whatever level of risk you are willing to accept) then HA should be just as secure as anything else.

Fourth…Many camera’s have integrations you can use to get the cameras into HA (depends on the camera but most mainstream cameras should work) but there is no built-in DVR functionality. You can take snapshots and send them to your phone etc or trigger recordings thru automations but it’s definitely not a DVR system.

Finally but related to first…I run mine on Debian 11 in as HA Container on a NUC PC. The only latency I ever see is anything having to do with the cloud (Alexa voice controls) but even that isn’t much at all. Anything local is pretty much instantaneous.

Reliability has never been an issue with my set up. Others have had (fairly rare) issues with Supervisor or OS updates breaking things that I’ve never had running a HA Container installation type.

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