Has anyone started a business around home automation using Home Assistant as the primary hub? If so, let us know:
- where you are located
- biggest challenge
Hi
Not started but continued my business of installating high-end automation systems for residential market from proprietary obsolete systems such as Crestron and AMX to Home-Assistant since few years now 
Vincèn
Thanks @vincen . I’m curious how you manage support. Do you remotely login to their systems? Do you manage updates? How often do you come back on-site?
Well we work only with high-end customers so far so all systems are under contract for maintenance and updates.
With Nabu Casa we have access at systems all the time for monitoring (we use HA both for home-automation but also monitor all systems, send alerts if needed). Out of hw failure, we get full control of all devices installed at customer through HA (Alarm, AC, lights, AV, cameras,network,…) and most of devices are installed on power relays so we can even hard reboot them remotely if needed.
The crucial point here is to choose properly devices used as it removes 95% of problems when used and during their lifecycle
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@vincen How big is your company?
We are a team of individual workers to be the most flexible possible
Which devices do you avoid? I guess you do not like to use anything battery powered, right?
Sorry for late answer, I missed the nodification !
We avoid any device that is cloud dependant or known bullshit manufacturers like Sonos, Samsung, Legrand, Somfy among others and also manufacturers known to have no follow-up on products released !
We have no problem with battery devices so long they report their battery status and so can be monitored in HA (We use a lot of LoRa devices for remote monitoring or control and most of there work on batteries).
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Just wanted to say - great work, Vincen.
I’m planning on using HA too for my business and it’s good to see people who’re already providing HA related services.
Thanks and what sort of business you want to do ? AV design/installation ?
I’m thinking more along the lines of energy management/ energy saving automations. I want to be careful in that I want to depend on as few a number of integrations and add-ons as I possibly can. So for now I’m using sensors and relays over MQTT (LoraWAN based mostly) without having to rely on native product (Sonoff, Philips, etc.) integrations.
Why ? so long it’s some integrations or add-ons that communicate locally without using Internet it’s all good !
That still involves risk, right? What if a HA core update 2-3 years down the road renders for eg. a local Shelly integration null and void. I’m relatively new to HA (a couple months in) so stories involving sweeping changes/updates scare the living daylights out of me. If I use 3rd party local integrations, I’d probably keep the SLA term down to 1-2 years just to be safe.
That being said, you’re def. more in the game than I am to know what’ll work and what won’t.
Well there is always a risk but basically systems we install/manage for our customers we update them on average every 6 months and so far it works quite well. Of course you can get an integration that breaks but to be honest problem is as much present with an official integration than a non official one
A rigorous choice of products at begin helps a lot to reduce that risk at minimum !
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