No automation system in our modern world can be set and forget, no more true since 20 years !
Of course it’s part of the whole process for a reliable system: products have to be carefully selected and use reliable technology (lots are not going to be happy me telling that but it implies no Zigbee, ZWave, Matter and other mesh systems), not dependant with a cloud system, automatic updates deactivated, same for HA that is only usually updated one time per year when doing the maintenance.
HA itself runs on a dedicated NUC with daily full backup and spare NUC on site to be able to restore on an other system in less than an hour in case of major failure of the NUC.
You don’t want also to be dependant of one manufacturer so you have to use “generic” devices at maximum so maintenance in case of failure is easier. An other example: you don’t use smartbulbs as the day they’ll die manufacturer won’t exist anymore or will have changed specs so you use smart dimmers of good quality and standard bulbs
Don’t forget that a home automation designed with poor choice of products is worse than none automation at all !!
It’s part of our contract with the customer when we sell a system, we also do the maintenance of the system. Of course you have access at everything but like always when you work with an home automation system but our customers trusts us because we are professional in business since more than 30 years and working only with rich clients which implies total respect of confidentiality all the time !
Trust… oh, well…
But, it all depends on whether you have access to “all” 24/7, (so from remote location, too) or it’s just internally when you visit specific flat? Like i said above, and Nathan also: there”s no way that i allow anyone to remote access my smart home, let it be a total stranger, a contractor or anyone similar.
I’ll link this to alarm systems: installer has access to all things in alarm system, but ONLY if master allows that (with his master code).
I wouldn’t do it. Stick with Google/Amazon or such. Although HA has been significantly more reliable than our Google Homes, I spend more time than I sometimes think is reasonable keeping HA running. With Google almost nothing was within our control, the lights either worked today or they didn’t. We could ask it again, wait till tomorrow or give up, but no matter what we had little to no troubleshooting to do. We found our Google homes to be so unreliable we stopped using them for all but adding things to the grocery list and playing music. Asking Google to turn a TP Link Kasa bulb on/off was 50/50 depending on the day. It either would say that device isn’t setup, hold on something went wrong or would say it turned the light on but didn’t. HA on the other hand works 99.1% of the time, the first time we ask it to do something. Our TP Link Kasa bulbs are dead reliable and to be honest it’s transformed our home. BUT, I spend a few hours per month just reading release notes, updating software, and troubleshooting the 0.9% of errors we receive.
I’m a registered nurse by trade and worked with quadriplegics (spinal cord injuries) early in my career. They relied heavily on Amazon/Google and routines to live as independently as possible. Home Assistant could TRANSFORM their lives in meaningful ways IF you had a dedicated IT person onsite. I personally would offer all residents a tutorial on how to setup and use Alexa devices/routines and teach them how it all works. If you need to mandate a solution I would look into a 3rd party home automation vendor who sells whole home solutions.
Well in that case, you won’t be able to do much for your project and no need to talk more about it if you are not able to trust a contractor (so long the contractor is not a random guy found on Internet !).
well, there were so many frauds in past years (and still rising) that i trust no contractor with accessing my house alone without me or member of my family, no matter where it’s found. I guess only exception would be a contractor from my (closer) family…
Ok, it partly depends on what HA does in specific building. If only controls lights, covers etc…ok, that’s… kinda acceptable. But if you can unlock doors or garage from HA, or even disable alarm, then my “trust” ends right here and now.
Of course and sorry if I didn’t indicate it in my previous post, but there is always someone of customer staff when we are on site (most of them have at least a housekeeper on site 24/24
