I’ve been wanting to automate my home for awhile and was originally going to start in smartthings but have decided to take the leap and start out on HA. I don’t have any devices yet because to be honest I don’t know where to start. There’s so many brands and so many different products.
I’m also setting up my own home network at this time. And looking into storage and other stuff that would work well with HA. If there’s any recommendations. Im no expert in technology but I know enough about the basics of stuff that I feel I can understand what most people are talking about but you may have to explain like I’m 5 and I’m apologize lol. I’m trying to stay local which is the main reason for choosing HA over something like SmartThings so with that brief explanation I guess first should I get HA yellow or green if one of these what other devices do I need to get full functionality? I’ve seen people use mini PCs as well is.that a better route? Any recommendations like starting products to mess around with and practice with HA and learn. Any starter bundles you’d recommend if there are any? A good tablet or something that I can use as a dashboard or display. I’m willing to learn whatever I’m a stay at home dad with tons of free time to do stuff so I have all the time in the world lol. Any help at all other than recommended is much appreciated what would you have done if you were to start over? Good Resources to help learn for someone who knows very little? I’m excited to finally step in and I apologize ahead of time if I say something stupid lol
There are others out there who are much more experienced than I am, but here my 2 cents. Of course it also depends on your budget.
I got the HA Yelow Box because it was made by HA and already has the software and the zigbee/matter dongle.
Because I came from a different environment I already had many Zwave devices and therefore added a Zwave dongle (Zooz 800 series).
The advantage of HA is that it is compatible with Zigbee, Zwave and Wifi, and I use all three technologies. Personally I prefer Zwave, though I know that others do not.
Insteon and Lutron seem to be the “better” technologies, but the their variety of devices is limited. I also think that Insteon will be the home automation’s Betamax; the better product but disappearing because of bad marketing/management.
If you want to start slowly and cheaply, then get some Tuya and/or Kasa/TP Link Wifi devices. Start with a few and get yourself comfortable with HA, how to add inregrations and create automations. After a while you may want to expand to Zigbee and/or Zwave.
One of the things I wish I had started earlier was documentation. I did things and then 3 years later I couldn’t remember what I had done or why I had done it that way. I use notes - Linux and some text and tex documents now for documentation. If your system is not documented you can never have someone just take it over. Since I use unify some of my network has the topology done.
Too many things to remember. I would also recommend staying with a brand or few brands. You will need spares because something will fail.
One excellent suggestion on another similar thread here in these forums is start by defining a project or two that you’d like. In other words, figure out something you want to do then get the stuff that will enable that, not buy a bunch of stuff and then try to figure out what to use it for.
Expect that things will evolve - that’s a good thing! You may start on a Green or Yellow, and then upgrade to an old laptop or a new mini PC if/when you start to hit limits. Or not - you may never find those limits.
Another strong recommendation is to read these forums for a while. Just browse and learn. There is so much excellent information here.
Oh - and let us know what country you’re in. It matters for some of the hardware recommendations
I appreciate it. I’m excited to start my wife has finally given the green light on doing it lol. I think something I’d like to start on is id like to add some simple motion detections for lights. We have a bad habit of not turning things off in other rooms when we leave them and especially when we leave the house we forget. And I’m from the USA.
I will definitely look into the Kasa was one I had considered as I enjoy my TpLink products like my mesh routers. I do want to work towards z wave and zigbee as well. I really appreciate your info.
You can run Home Assistant on any PC that can run Linux, and has an EUFI BIOS. If it’s less than ten years old, then it probably has the EUFI BIOS.
There are four different ways to install Home Assistant. My extremely strong recommendation is to use the native binary for your computer (PC or RaspberryPi).
I am running Home Assistant native X-86 on an Intel NUC i3 that I bought on eBay for less than $100. It just runs and runs… It’s never crashed. At least not without help from me doing experiments with automations or configurations.
There are three primary topologies for devices. The least expensive is WiFi. I have 76 WiFi devices on my home network and only recently discovered that my router can’t handle that many simultaneous connections. I will be installing a new router and WiFi access points next week. But, if you are really into DIY, you can build your own WiFi devices and connect to Home Assistant with ESPHome or MQTT. (Don’t worry about the details yet). To continue- the next popular topology is Z-Wave. Expensive, but reliable. Last, at least on my list is Zigbee. For me, Zigbee has been reliable - after I added Zigbee routers (some call them repeaters) in virtually every room of my house. Zigbee has the shortest range of all three topologies I mentioned here. Due to regulations, the power output of Zigbee devices is lower than WiFi or Z-Wave. If you install a lot of powered Zigbee devices (not battery powered), you may not need Zigbee routers as the powered devices are usually also routers.
You will eventually wind up using all three topologies.
Devices. Ask ten people here what to buy and you will get eleven answers. All of them correct. Don’t hesitate to ask for opinions anyway.
There is no such thing as a stupid question. Even if the reply makes you feel stupid, there may be a few others with the same question.
Great questions! I started off in the Switch-bot (bluetooth) universe because they have lots of solar-powered devices, and I live off grid so am very sensitive to anything that will drain my batteries. Living on DC power limits my options for smart switches/lights, but I’ll likely get some DC Shelly switches when I’m ready to make that step.
I am also very new to this world, and I was eyeing the HA Yellow or Green, but I have this old Intel Macbook Air hanging around that I wanted to use as a file server, so I figured I’d take a stab at also using it for HA. I’m in very early stages (like I can’t even add devices to my HA yet because of what I think is a Linux issue that prevents it from communicating with certain bluetooth drivers – like mine!), and being a tech savvy end user but not a developer has proven challenging. I get cocky about my abilities and end up having to figure out how to dig myself out of some holes, but for me that is all part of the tinkering process.
All that to say that the green/yellow could be better choices for a more (though certainly not 100%) plug-and-play solution. I don’t know because I haven’t tried them, and I’m sure they come with their own challenges. In addition, I learned that I would need to buy some additional parts to make them work with bluetooth. I had gotten the impression that the green was an all-in-one system, but I don’t think any of this is that simple.
I’ll be following this thread to see what others have to say, since I have all the same questions. Good luck!
as far as hardware go bigger/faster than you think you need. It’s always better to have too much machine than not enough. If you want easy then I suppose you could just go with a Nabu Casa offered machine but I don’t use one so I can’t say that for sure. If you already have an old PC/NUC/Laptop laying around then just use that instead of buying a purpose-built device. Especially starting out and dipping your toes in the water.
Get some basic training on Linux based OS. All of the (better) HA installs use Linux in some form or other. You won’t need it often (if ever) but if you do it’s better to have at least a bit of a clue. And on that note don’t try to install HA on anything Windows based. It might work but I’ve heard things aren’t nearly as stable on Windows.
As recommended, start out with one project (automation) that you want to accomplish and buy the stuff you need for that one thing. Figure out how to do it, complete it and move on to the next thing. If you try to do too much you WILL get overwhelmed.
I( recommend never using smart light bulbs except for in VERY limited circumstances. Always use smart switches. There is nothing more irritating that a smart bulb that turns dumb because the switch feeding it gets turned off. The goal is to make your devices be as transparent to the end user (especially guests) as possible. For example my wife had to dog sit for my daughter recently. Her husband has been trying to smarten their house but isn’t doing it right. My wife had no way to turn the lights on and off as needed because they were all smart bulbs and without the app she was stuck with trying to sleep with all the lights in the house on. Major fail. You may think that you can always automate lighting but a lot of times lighting is very organic and isn’t easily amenable to being totally automated.
and that brings up the next point. Always have a way to operate stuff without access to HA or automations. Nothing will spell doom as much as waking up in the morning and realizing that your whole house is dark because your HA server went belly up for some reason. It almost never happens but it’s possible. It’s more likely that your system quits because you were tinkering around with something and mildly broke your automations until you figure out how to fix it. Either way it’s a huge hit to the WAF.
Any hardware you use will need USB ports available for a Zwave and/or Zigbee dongle. Don’t limit yourself to just one. But don’t jump in to both right away. Only buy what you need when you need it. Wifi stuff might be more available but not all of it will be compatible with HA. Even if it purports to be. Before you buy anything other than zigbee oir zwave devices check on here to make sure other users have confirmed it works with HA. It will save you much consternation. I don’t use much wifi stuff other than DIY stuff but anything brand named “Shelly” should be fine. I use it myself and I’ve never really anything bad about them.
as far as a display, HA works on a webserver so you don’t need a dedicated display for it. Just use any device that can run a web browser
And (this might be controversial for some) LEARN YAML. You likely won’t need it right away to get started but you WILL need it at some point so you might as well learn it now by starting off slowly and simply.
Yes, if you are ‘computer language’ friendly. Personally I “hate” YAML and try not to use it unless absolutely necessary. Of course smarter / technology friendly HA users enjoy YAML, but a lot can be achieved without it.
Of course, but I am trying not to scare him. I have over a hundred devices on HA, Zwave, Zigbee and Wifi, well over one hundred automations, some twenty integrations, but I have zero knowledge of Linux.
I am sure that I could make much better use of HA, knowing Linux, YAML etc etc, but even without those, HA automates all my lights at home, 4 ceiling fans, music throughout my home and a lot more.
If our friend understands Linux, is smart enough (and willing) to learn YAML, then great for him, but he should not understand that these are an absolute requirement.
I think with the homeassistant yellow and green, you can get by a little more without needing linux. These devices really seem to be bringing in more users, which is definitely a good thing.
However, I agree with finity, homeassistant is still a complex system. As it moves away from yaml it might get simpler for the end user, but “under the hood”, there is still a lot going on.
Not trying to scare away anyone, but any new user should have all the information before jumping in. I was a Smartthings user and would highly recommend home assistant for local control if you are willing to learn. Not knowing linux, yaml, and docker is fine for most day to day use, but if something breaks it can prove very valuable to learn how that all works. Otherwise, you are relying on the developers to fix it, filing a github issue, or asking the community for help. Good news is it’s “open source” so anyone can learn how it works if they take the time.
I genuinely appreciate all this info. I do like to DIY and have seen people use the Intel NUC which I actually why I was curious if getting something like that to run it on would be worth it.
Thank you for the very informed response! Especially the things to get familiar with. I never wouldve known about Linux being the better option. All my current devices run Windows. So thats good to know and look into it.