Is Home Assistant the next step?

Robertr · 02-01-2025 08:47PM #1

So I have been using Alexa (devices) for a long time. Must be on in every room and I have loads of lights, plugs etc.. and many routines to control everything but not really happy with it.

THe other day I had a power surge and it blew my Programmer (which was a good EPH unit installed last year with a new boiler but was not very "Smart"). I am not thinking that instead of just getting a new Smart heating controller, I will move to home assistant and just move everything over there. No worries about the tech side, I can manage that, but just wanted to know is that the obvious choice or what other options are there. I want to have a system that can:

Control most of my existing devices
have more flexibility on schedules etc..
Have a central tablet to control everything
Ability to use other non Wifi devices if necessary

It seems that home assistant ticks the boxes, but I have no experience with it so not sure if thats all marketing or if its actually a good system. I have a good network setup (Ubiquiti UDM Pro with plenty of access points) so its just about getting the right central controller for the lot.

Also, is there a "known" Irish based store/website for buying home automation kit? Seems to be plenty in Europe and would probably just get a Home Assistant Yellow kit to make it simple.

WildCardDoW · 02-01-2025 08:53PM

Homey might be more user friendly.

Hive and Tado both cover the smart aspect for heating and I you can double check if they integrate with Alexa to keep things in there as well as their own apps.

Tree · 02-01-2025 09:53PM

Home assistant is great, you'll find a lot of fans around here. Works well with a tablet. Automations are handy to set up. lots of official addons and unofficial community addons that come via HACS. I usually check if there's an addon before buying new kit these days.

You could check out openHAB as an alternative.

There's a huge thread on heating automation, best check there for what people like at the moment. I'm a fan of the wiser kit, as it can be run w/o the internet as a local addon to home assistant. Home assistant doesn't expose itself to the internet out of the box, but there's ways to do that if you like to talk to your house when you're not at home (I don't, I let the home automation run the house when I'm not there).

Robertr · 03-01-2025 01:22PM

thanks for replies, any recommendations on websites for ordering kit?

WildCardDoW · 04-01-2025 01:27AM

For Home Assistant a Raspberry Pi is your best bet.

Lots of places to pick them up so do a bit of online shopping. I've linked to Farnell below but not saying it's the best price.

https://ie.farnell.com/c/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-kits?kit-type=raspberry-pi-starter-kit

You want either a 4 or 5, not sure on the RAM - I'm sure 4GB is fine but 8GB might be the safe bet.

Then there are instructions on setting up HA on the Pi.

If you plan on using Zigbee devices you will need a Zigbee controller. For Thread, then Home Assistant itself will act as a Thread Border Router.

Robertr · 04-01-2025 02:15PM

So was looking at the following two options:

Home Assistant Yellow - About €375 total

Yellow with POE (includes Case, POE Cable, M2. Support, Zigbee & Thread)
Raspberry Pi CM5 Compute Module 5 - 8GB
32 GB Micro Sd
Pinedrive - NVMe M.2 2280 SSD - 256GB - for HatDrive! Pineboards
Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition

Custom Pi Build - About €330 total

Raspberry Pi 5 8GB
Raspberry Pi Active Cooler - heatsink + fan for Raspberry Pi 5
Pineboards HatDrive! PoE+ - PoE power overlay with NVMe adapter for Raspberry Pi 50 GB M.2 SSD
Raspberry Pi 5 Case black-gray
Pinedrive - NVMe M.2 2280 SSD - 256GB - for HatDrive! Pineboards
32 GB Micro Sd
Home Assistant Connect ZBT - compatible with ZigBee/Matter/Thread
Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition

Thinking the custom PI build is a much better option as will have more flexibility down the road and its actually cheaper for now. Any reasons not to go that route?

niallb · 04-01-2025 10:34PM

Have you any device turned on 24/7 already?

A NAS maybe or a server performing some other purpose? Even a computer on all the time can run HA in a virtual machine, though something physical is easier.

Even an old laptop you don't use anymore would run Home Assistant as well as a raspberry pi, but a small form factor dell or hp micro pc costing €80 could really outperform it - as well as having more ports.

For your heating controller, if you use WiFi type switches, you mightn't need zigbee to start with.

Can you list what brands and devices you already have and whatever collection of hubs you want to replace?

It's worth a bit of experimentation before pouring the guts of €400 into it.

_ptashek_ · 05-01-2025 08:24PM

I've started with HA on an RPi 4 8GB + external USB disk. It ran fine, but nothing to write home about.
Should run great on RPi 5 with SSD though. If you don't mind the maintenance aspect of it, Home Assistant is a solid choice.

Re-using an old laptop, if you have one lying around, is a viable route. And to experiment, it'll cost you nothing but time. The only real advantage of the RPi 4/5 is much low power consumption. Performance wise, even a 10y old Intel i3/i5 is likely to match/outperform it. And you get a built-in UPS for free. I went the old laptop route a couple months back, no regrets.

WildCardDoW · 06-01-2025 04:53AM

I don't have external memory at all for mine. Just run it all from the SD.

Robertr · 07-01-2025 11:34AM

Thanks for all the advice. I decided to go with the custom PI build, more of an excuse to explore the world of PI than anything else. 🧐

Robertr · 17-01-2025 05:41PM

Got the PI with a POE+ NVME hat, so have HA running on the NVME drive now. Working great and have all my devices, just need to get to grips with all the various integrations etc..

WildCardDoW · 17-01-2025 07:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123067008#Comment_123067008

I found setting up a dashboard the biggest thing.

I suggest bubble card as there's lots of guides and it looks very professional once done.

Robertr · 18-01-2025 03:33PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123067309#Comment_123067309

Cool, will try that, yeah its all a bit imtimidating but I know I'll get there. An andriod tablet seems to be the best option to put in some wall screens?

WildCardDoW · 18-01-2025 06:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123069628#Comment_123069628

Yeah, I've not done that yet but I'd be looking at a tablet that I know has a half decent wall mount.

Let me know what you find ha.

Tree · 18-01-2025 08:54PM

I've some old (secondhand to me) 7" tablet held up with command strips (the velcro kind). Does the job

Is Home Assistant the next step?

Comments