I’m looking to set-up Home Assistant to automate all my smart devices. At first I was considering a Raspberry Pi 4, but it’s been sold out for a long period of time and since I have been adviced to get a Intel MiniPC (INT_NUC_C7JY) with Zigbee and Z-wave protocols. It has Home Assistant pre-installed, 8Gb of RAM, 128Gb of storage with an 2.0 Ghz Dual Core Intel Celeron processor.
Our home is fairly large if that matters for connectivity: 3 stories high and around 155m2.
Currently we have a variety of devices and systems at home.
Philips Hue: Two bridges to control the house and the lights outside, with lights (36+10), wall switch modules and regular switches (22+1). So a total of 71 devices, but planning to add a few more.
Tahoma Somfy: New Tahoma bridge, 4 roller shutters, 6 curtains.
Fibaro Roller Shutter: To control a (dumb) sunscreen with a Somfy Orea 50 WT 50/12 motor
Jablotron: Alarm system with a variety of magnet-contacts, sensors and 2 control panels
Ring system: Doorbell camera, security camera with 3 chimes. A second camera will be added in the future.
UniFi: Switch with 4 WiFi POE access points
I use Apple (iPhone, MacBook, iPad)
My partner uses Android/Windows (Android, Windows PC).
Our heating is controlled by a Uponor smatrix pulse system with T-166 thermostats, which don’t have a smart home control.
One room (sunroom)'s heating is controlled by a Magnum heating system.
Our solar panels have a SolarEdge app
I don’t know if HA can do anything with the devices mentioned above or even if such a connection is even remotely adding benefits at all, but I thought it better to just list all.
Our goals
In the future I want to add sensors to check if it’s raining or going to, what the temperature is etc to, for example, have the roller shutters close when the weather report is saying it’ll get warm and the temperature in the room reaches a certain number, or have the sunscreen close when it’s sunny and warm outside but it’s not predicted to rain. That kind of things. In addition to normal automation (lights on and everything closes when it’s getting dark, lights off and everything open when morning comes) which we have already, through the Hue, Tahoma, Luxaflex and Google Home automation options.
Ideally I want everything controlled by the Home Assistant in order to automate all to my liking, but I understand some systems may not be suitable for this, so I want to get as far as I’m able to in this.
Which computer is the best choice for my situation, which’ll have Home Assistant installed? Do I need additional chips or modules in order to connect everything?
Thanks in advance!
PS: While easier is always better, a higher difficulty level is not a problem per se. We’re both fairly technical and my partner is a developer, so with a bit of documentation we’ll come far in connecting and installing everything.
I’m not going to attempt to size your system but it doesn’t look that large, or need many USB ports for hardware interfaces. Z-Wave, Zigbee, UniFi, and extras like HACS and AdGuard all run fine on a RPi4.
Bear in mind that HASSOS is designed to be an appliance so has low hardware needs, and the Nabu Casa Yellow pre-installed hardware appliance is a RPi4 in a box. RPi4 are at full production so stock should be almost back to normal.
Only pay extra for a 3rd party Intel pre-install if you really don’t want DIY, and want to run lots of other VMs on the same tin.
The Fibaro shutter suggests you already have a Z-Wave coordinator, so re-use it (e.g. Home Centre can act as a hub for HASS).
If you want to run multiple services (like specialist firewalls, etc), then there’s plenty of small form factor options (this is being typed on a 2nd hand ThinkCentre):
If you work with VMs or have the skills to self-admin, then Proxmox might be a good choice:
Personally - if you’re not an IT professional, find your feet using a RPi4 and upgrade as needed when you know what you need. Switch from a uSD to SSD when you want more media; switch to a VM when measured capacity metrics show you need to. Re-use the RPi4 as a theatre device using Kodi.
I’d put more effort into ESP hardware tinkering for heating control using ESPhome or Tasmota first (Sonoff or Shelly mean you don’t need to make the hardware yourself).
Thanks! Why would you recommend replacing the Hue Brudges with the Zigbee dongle?
I would prefer still having the app to control lights whenever I need it (to create and control custom scenes for parties for example), but I’m unsure how far the HAOS can go in this. And how it’s usability is with this specific setting, if it exists.
Thanks! I don’t actually have a Z-wave coordinator yet. We just installed the Fibaro shutter yesterday, but the store we bought it from thought it could be connected to our Tahoma bridge. However, since ours is newer and doesn’t have the Z-wave protocol anymore, we need an additional coordinator. Instead of buying all kinds of connectors we don’t need anymore in the (near) future, I thought it best to just go ahead and look into the HA-installation and what we might need for that.
Thanks for the recommendations and videos! I’ll look into those tonight. The shop told us that the Raspberry Pi was not as stable as this device. We don’t know much about the differences between the systems when it comes to HAOS, so that prompted my question. I just want a good, reliable system suitable for upgrading whenever I want and/or need it.
Do you know that there is a HA companion app?
For all the devices that have an integration with HA, you can control them with HA, manually or with automations.
One of the biggest advantages of HA is the ability to make your home smart so you don’t have to control things manually.
I didn’t! If it gives the same functionality as the current Philips Hue app, then great. Like I said, automations are great and it’s the main reason I want the system, but sometimes you want to set te lights to something custom (whenever I run my D&D game and need custom colored lights, for example). I’m just unsure if I lose any functionality in the HUE app if I get rid of the bridges (can’t they exist simultaneously?)
An architectural thought for you - home automation should be just that - automation!
Cheap motion detectors (PIRs, although mmWave radar is also now accessible) work well to trigger simple automations so that lights work without the need to use an app, even the HASS app which can control everything in one place.
HASS allows many different devices to appear as equals in one place, allowing (say) a Sonoff Zigbee PIR to turn on Hue lights automatically. Lighting control is often the place new users start (which is why HASS asks for your location in the setup process - so it can calculate sunset).
Once you’ve experimented, there’s a lot more to try - UniFi can detect a car’s WiFi connecting as it parks at home and set heating temperatures , or use SolarEdge to turn on appliances when there is high energy production.
I just checked the power consumption: 13,92W (24h average). And there is another VM that is running on that host.
Backups are done and pushed to my NAS.
For me this is the best setup for my scenario. There are easier ways to get Home Assistant running. Cost-affective because the hardware was free – I had it already. The power consumption is surprisingly low. Because it was a laptop it has an integrated UPS (uninterruptible power supply).
You will have more functionality from your hue lights if you retain the hue bridge. There is no need to start by changing them over to a different coordinator. If down the road you have another zigbee network and have interference or want to use the Hue lights to support a mesh network then maybe getting them off the Hue bridge would have benefits.
Thanks for all the advice! We’ll be comparing all the pros and cons and will make a decision from there. @FloatingBoater: I didn’t even know those automations would be options as well. That sounds really great!
this post!