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The problem

Main heating system we use at home is a fireplace that is located on one side of the open space at ground floor. It has been there since we bought the house and with some minor fixes over time (this thing has at least 25 years) it is still rocking. The warmth it produces is simply incomparable to any other system, plus seeing embers and fire burning during winter is really nice. We light it up usually in the afternoon and let it run until we go to bed. At some point in the evening we just open the door of the stairs so that warm air goes upstairs and heats first floor as well. The fireplace has a fan that pushes out the hot air from two vents pointing in different directions in the open space in order to split warmth homogeneously. Unfortunately, for some reason well beyond my knowledge on fireplaces, the vent pointing towards the other side of the open space stopped to blow hot air even if the fan works regularly and the other vent is fine. Because of this you can feel that in the half part of the open space far from the fireplace the temperature is lower: in fact I have a temperature sensor (Switchbot Meter Plus) in the middle of ground floor and another one (integrated into a Daikin HVAC split) in the side opposite to the fireplace and readings differ easily by 1-2 degrees Celsius.

The solution

Lucky enough on the side of the open space opposite to the fireplace there is an HVAC split system air source heat pump that we use mainly for cooling/dehumidifying over summer of for quick heating when we get home and fire was not lit up. The cool thing is that it has one mode which is pure ventilation and just blows air within the room without heating/cooling. It moves air and that’s exactly what I need!

Since the split has its own temperature meter (even though tolerance does not seem to be super good) I can compare the two temperatures and use that difference to start the ventilation above a certain threshold value.

In Home Assistant I created then a simple binary sensor using a template helper defined in this way for the moment:

{% set switchbot = states('sensor.meter_plus_e488') | float %}
{% set daikin = states('sensor.ground_floor_inside_temperature') | float %}
{{ (switchbot - daikin) > 1.5 }}

The newly created binary sensor has value on when temperature difference is higher than 1.5 Celsius degrees and off in all the other cases. This is really useful since the status change from off to on can be used as a trigger for a new automation that will actually switch on the HVAC split system in ventilation mode!

First iteration of the automation is pretty basic and I am sure I will improve it over time based on the special cases I’ll experience using this. Trigger for the automation is the helper previously created so when the temperature difference between the two sensors is bigger than 1.5 Celsius the automation will start and execute the following actions:

• set the mode of the split to “Fan only“ (no heating/cooling)

• set the fan mode of the split to “4“

• turn on the split so it starts to blow air

• run for 10 minutes

• turn off the split

So far it looks good as the automation is triggered and moves the air that would otherwise not reach all the open space area. What I’ll do next is:

• try to find the sweet spot about temperature difference threshold and how long the fan should work

• use the same binary sensor to run another automation to stop the fan instead of using a fixed time delay

• compare graphs of the temperature to see how long it takes to have the open space not homogeneously warm

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Let me know if you’re interested in reading updates about this project!

Until next time!
Daniel

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The problem

I wanted to add some basic air quality monitoring to my place and have that integrated into Home Assistant so that I can collect data and if needed automate actions based on that. A fireplace is the main heating system we use for heating the house (it is in the open space at ground floor where we spend most of our time during the day) so monitoring CO₂ is not a bad idea in the end.

The solution

By the end of this newsletter the goal is to build a basic prototype of CO₂ sensor that can be connected to Home Assistant and provide information about air quality of the room where it will be placed. Later on the data generated (level of CO₂) could be used as a trigger for automations.

Main components for this DIY project are two:

• ESP32 development board: The ESP32 is a series of low-cost and low-power System on a Chip (SoC) microcontrollers developed by Espressif that include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless capabilities and dual-core processor

• SCD40 sensor: it’s a miniature CO₂ sensor that builds on the photoacoustic NDIR sensing principle and Sensirion’s technologies to offer high accuracy at an unmatched price and smallest form factor 

I decided to go with the SCD40 because of the small form factor and its accuracy in measurement thanks to the photoacoustic non-dispersive infra-red principle (NDIR) it uses. Before diving into the DIY part I think it is important to explain a bit more on the types of sensors available on the market for these projects and why some are better than the others. When looking to final products (like the fancy sensors with display you might have gotten into on social media lately) you will basically see them based on three types of sensors:

• TVOC sensors (Total Volatile Organic Compound) estimate CO₂ via organic components in the air. Problem is that other indoor sources (deodorizers for example) can add components to the air and and thus the estimations might be affected;

• Transmissive NDIR sensors typically feature an IR (infra-red) emitter and an optical detector, such as a photodiode, at opposite ends of a specially designed optical cavity. The optical detector measures the amount of IR light energy that is not absorbed by (i.e., transmitted through) the gas sample. As the CO₂ concentration in the optical cavity increases, the amount of light detected decreases. These sensors generally require a minimal optical path length (distance between the IR emitter and the photodiode) in the centimeter scale for enough IR absorption to occur to accurately measure lower CO₂ concentrations so they are bigger than the others and this; 

• Photoacoustic NDIR sensors detect the amount of energy that is absorbed by CO₂ molecules. When pulsing the IR emitter, CO₂ molecules absorb infra-red light periodically. This causes additional molecular vibration resulting in a pressure wave inside the measurement chamber. The higher the CO₂ concentration, the more light is absorbed, and thus the greater the amplitude of this acoustic wave becomes. A microphone inside the gas chamber measures this, from which the CO₂ concentration can then be calculated. The emitter and the microphone can stay much closer and allow for greater miniaturization of the measurement chamber which results in a smaller sensor.

Going back to the DIY part I started with flashing the ESP32 development board using the ESPHome add-on available in Home Assistant. First basic firmware is installed on the board and allows you to connect it to the wi-fi so it will automatically show up in Home Assistant’s UI. In this case the development board needs to be connected to a computer with a cable while all future updates can be installed wirelessly (so no need to move the device from where you’re going to place it).

At this point the ESP32 is connected to HA but does not play any relevant role just yet. So with the help of a breadboard and some jumper wires I connected the SCD40 sensor to the ESP32 development board. Keep reading to know how you can do it.

Thanks to the I²C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) bus only 2 wires are needed for the data transmission connecting SDA (serial data line) and SCL (serial clock line) pins of the sensor to the dedicated pins of the ESP32 respectively 21 (GPIO21) and 22 (GPIO22). For powering the connections needed are between VCC to 3V3 pins and GND to GND. For the moment just do a leap of faith about the pins used for the connection, if you want a more detailed description of the pins out of the ESP32 you can check this nice image from Espressif.

The resulting prototype is like this at the moment with red wire for VCC-3V3, black for GND-GND, blue for SDA-GPIO21 and orange for SCL-GPIO22.

At this point the sensor and the development board are wired properly so we only need to tell the ESP32 about that and explain where the SCD40 is connected. For doing that it is convenient to use again the ESPHome add-on since it allows to edit directly the configuration in a yaml file to add the following sections:

i2c:

 sda: 21

 scl: 22

 scan: True

sensor:

 - platform: scd4x

   co2:

     name: "CO2"

   temperature:

     name: "Temperature"

     id: scd40_temperature

   humidity:

     name: "Humidity"

     id: scd40_humidity

The i2c section defines the mapping of the wiring explained previously and the sensor section defines the type of sensor connected (see the platform) and the additional configuration variables for the CO₂, temperature and humidity included in the SCD40.

After saving the yaml file and clicking on the install button the ESPHome add-on will compile the firmware and transfer it over the air to the ESP32 that will finally start to send data to Home Assistant.

Considering that values between 400 and 600 ppm are excellent and anyway good until 800 ppm I can consider myself satisfied with the readings we get during the day. Increases correspond to the periods where everyone is home producing more CO₂ simply breathing.

Next steps will be improving the prototype and setting up some automations based on the data collected by the sensor so that air circulation is privileged in order to keep CO₂ levels low. Don’t miss future issues where I’ll send out updates on this project subscribe now!

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I am also active on X where I post smaller progress updates on these projects. If you want to follow me you can find me by the handle @dlondero.

Until next time!
Daniel

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The problem

I run my Home Assistant instance on a Raspberry Pi 4 using a MicroSD memory card as the only storage. I know: only the brave! Quite some time is gone by since I started using it and the amount of data collected from all the sensors grows every day. Additionally the number of automations created overtime starts to be interesting and it would require some time to re-create them all from scratch (if I could remember them). A failure of the MicroSD would be a disaster, or at lease a big PITA.

The solution

This is an easy one! So you should do it too if you’re not doing backups yet :)

After testing my luck for way too long I finally took the time to read more about an add-on I heard multiple times but never tested: Home Assistant Google Drive Backup.

As the name says clearly the add-on allows to create backups of your Home Assistant instance and upload them on Google Drive. Installation is very easy and the documentation is really well done. Without getting into much detail (you can do your own research on the repository) the main interesting points are:

• Creates backups on a configurable schedule

• Uploads backups to Drive, even the ones it didn't create

• Clean up old backups in Home Assistant and Google Drive, so you don't run out of space

• Lots of options for customisation

• Restore from a fresh install or recover quickly from disaster by uploading your backups directly from Google Drive

Personally I decided to go with the following settings:

• keep 2 backups on HA

• keep 5 backups on Google Drive

• backup daily at 11.30PM

As I am not planning to move the Raspberry Pi from MicroSD to SSD anytime soon I guess at some point I’ll need to test if the restore process works smoothly as expected :D

Do backups!

Until next time!
Daniel

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The problem

When you first install Home Assistant you get a default dashboard filled with a long list of all the devices and sensors available to the system already. Unfortunately this dashboard is not really usable since you need to scroll a lot before finding anything you’re looking for. Of course HA goal here is to give you a starting point so you can have an overview of whatever is available and then customise it as you go.

I wanted to create a dashboard that is easy to navigate and groups devices/sensors in a meaningful way so anyone can find them where they think they could be.

The solution

I built a custom dashboard with Mushroom Cards. It’s still a work in progress as I have a couple of pages that are just placeholders at the moment, but most important switches/sensors/information are already present and available where I need them to be.

Initial page is structured as follows:

• 2 chip cards at the top

  • first one is for the security system: shows its status and allows to control it with long press

  • second one is for weather forecast (no explanation needed here I guess)

• main section with 4 template cards contained in horizontal stack (so they display nicely in the same row) that when clicked open a linked page:

  • house: will include info on energy consumption and production (currently a placeholder)

  • lights: lists all the smart lights around the house that can be managed from Home Assistant

  • secure: allows to enable security system with different modes (arm away, arm home) and shows statuses of all motion detection sensors plus battery levels for all security connected devices

  • net: shows data about internet connection

• 2 person cards (me and wife) with tracking enabled that is used to trigger automations based on where we are

• rooms section with one template card per room showing current temperature and if light is switched on (where available) and linked to a dedicated page

Structure of the rooms’ cards is as follows:

• temperature and humidity sensor cards at the top

• devices section listing all devices available in that specific room (that can be managed from HA)

• sensors section listing all additional data available and batteries charge level

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I didn’t add all the devices yet but all in all the structure of the pages seem to cover all current needs and probably I’ll just finish adding devices as soon as I have some time to do so.

This kind of setup requires a bit of work upfront when compared to more automated dashboards (Mushroom Dashboard Strategy for example), however the great advantage is that you’re free to structure it as you prefer and you’re not bound to a predefined schema that is mainly based on zones where you assigned devices/entities.

Hope this gives you some inspiration to build your home dashboard in HA!

Until next time!
Daniel

Side projects are always a great way to learn new things. I always found that getting your hands dirty into something new is the best way to absorb all the knowledge you go through. Since starting my journey into smart home automation I got into multiple things that I didn’t know how they were working. Sometimes I also got into something I didn’t know existed. So learning something new combined to reuse things you already have (instead of replacing them with new stuff) is a big win even before evaluating the outcome of something you do.

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The problem

Way before starting my journey into home automation I bought 4 SwitchBot Meters in order to monitor temperature and humidity throughout the home. Since we were doing quite a big renovation of the house including external wall insulation I wanted to have some data to compare before and after to understand the improvements. These meters come with an app that is responsible for collecting the measurements from each meter and show you graphs of the data over time. Connection between each meter and mobile device happens via bluetooth.

Little did I know back then that I would have needed at some point to connect all the meters to a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant on the opposite side of the house. So here’s the problem: once I started using Home Assistant with the SwitchBot Bluetooth integration only one of the meters was reachable (the closest one). What to do? Of course I didn’t want to replace them (they work great and trashing/putting them aside would be a crime) so I found another solution.

The solution

Initially I started searching for a bluetooth range extender. I thought there could be a usb dongle that I could plug somewhere in order to relay the signal to the Raspberry Pi. Luckily I got into the ESPHome bluetooth proxy ready-made project quite soon.

ESPHome is a tool which aims to make managing ESP boards as simple as possible. It reads in a YAML configuration file and creates custom firmware which it installs on an ESP device. Devices or sensors added in ESPHome’s configuration will automatically show up in Home Assistant’s UI.

So I bought a generic ESP32 development board (a low cost board with wi-fi and bluetooth chips integrated) for a few bucks in order to install the ready-made firmware and have a fully working bluetooth proxy. What you need to know about the board is that it has wi-fi and bluetooth modules. Firmware is flashed on the board directly from the browser just connecting the micro-usb cable and starting the installation from the site of the project. Once the process is done you’ll be able to connect the ESP32 to your wifi network and at that point the proxy will be visible from Home Assistant through the ESPHome integration.

With the bluetooth proxy up and running the bluetooth devices will connect to it and data will be relayed to HA using the wi-fi connection previously set up. In fact almost instantly the 3 meters on the first floor became available in HA (while before they were unreachable).

In my case a single proxy is enough to reach all the devices that would not be reachable from HA otherwise. However if you need to cover a much bigger area you could easily deploy multiple bluetooth proxies at the same time.

Bonus points earned by creating a home for the ESP32 board with Lego-like building blocks so it’s more protected and easier to move if needed. This alone received quite good feedback on the r/homeassistant subreddit.

Until next time!
Daniel

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The problem

Even if you’re not too much into Christmas lights you still might have a Christmas tree and some outdoor lights on your balcony. This, at least, is where I find myself year after year. Nothing too fancy or complex: after hanging some cords of lights one just needs to plug them to a power outlet to light up the darkness with some Christmas magic. But here comes the problem: who remembers to plug them every day in the evening? Especially if you need to go upstairs or stretch yourself behind the couch to reach the power outlet.

The solution

I can say that so far this has been the easiest problem to solve with home automation. And you can apply the same solution to many other similar cases where there’s a dumb system/device that needs to be controlled by an automation.

The light strips we have on the Christmas tree and on the balcony just need to be plugged into a power outlet to start working. Simulating the process of plugging/unplugging them is what the automation should do in this case.

When buying some different types of smart devices in order to create a basic “home automator” kit at the beginning of my journey into home automation I luckily got a couple of Zigbee smart plugs (Tuya EU model ones from AliExpress, but if you’re more comfortable with Amazon there are plenty of options there as well). A smart plug is designed to give users remote control over plugged-in electronics directly via smartphone and/or home automation systems. In this case the remote access happens through the Zigbee network protocol: you can ignore it for the moment, I’ll dive deep into it in a future issue of the newsletter.

First of all I had to add the smart plugs to my Home Assistant (HA). This is a one time procedure similar to a bluetooth pairing process: you plug the smart plug to a power outlet and reset it by pressing the power or reset button (depends on manufacturer) for a few seconds to make it discoverable and start the discovery process on HA (in my case through the Phoscon App but this depends on the Zigbee adapter one is using). Once the pairing is done the device will be visible from HA in the list of available devices: I suggest to name it in a convenient way directly at this point so it will be easy to find in automations and in the future when you might have many devices connected.

I then plugged the smart plug directly to a power outlet and the lights to the smart plugs. At this point an achievement has been unlocked already: from my smartphone using the HA companion app I can switch on and off the smart plugs and so control the Christmas tree and balcony lights from any place (even remotely). Nice! There is still a problem though: manual intervention. One needs to remember about it and execute a defined number of steps every day. Automation is needed!

An automation in HA is usually defined by three parts:

• trigger: event starting the automation

• (optional) condition: can halt the automation based on observation of the system

• action: what is being executed by the automation

So I created an automation that is triggered at dusk (based on the Sun integration), checks that the smart plug is off as condition and eventually switches on the smart plug (and lights) as action.

Similarly I also created an automation to switch off the lights at some point in the night in an effort to save some energy. In this case the trigger is time, the condition to check is if the smart plug is on and the action it to switch off the plug.

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As you can imagine smart plugs come in handy every time you need to control a dumb device that would be operational just powering it without the need of replacing appliances that might still work perfectly even if not smart. I am sure you already have some ideas on how to use smart plugs in your home, just hit reply or leave a comment if you want to share any of your plans!

Until next time!
Daniel

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The problem

Some years ago when renovating the entrance of our home we built a beautiful stone wall and put some lights on the floor to light it up from the bottom. The view in the evening is amazing, there’s only one problem: someone needs to switch on the lights at some point. So most of the times we left it switched off. But recently I found a solution…

The solution

Since starting this journey into home automation I had the entrance stone wall lighting in my todo list. I wanted to have it working alone. In the backyard entrance we already have a light driven by a twilight/motion sensor. Since I needed to bypass the physical switch, I had to wire the sensor back to the switch, doubling the work (when not directly integrated into the light).

For the main entrance I wanted something easier to set up (especially considering there were no conduits available for the wiring!).

This time though I had a new ally in Home Assistant (HA) and the Zigbee mesh network of smart devices connected to it. Initially I wanted to couple the physical switch of the outdoor light to a Sonoff ZBMINI Extreme that I already had available but unfortunately it didn’t fit into the jam packed small wall box. I then adjusted the plan and got a Vimar 2-way switch IoT connected mechanism that basically combines in a single module a physical and a smart switch. I chose Vimar because it is compatible with the in wall box as we use that brand for all the other switches we have in our home. I replaced the old dumb physical switch with the smart new one. Easy.

Then the fun part: creating the automations in HA to switch on the light at dusk and off at dawn (or at a fixed time in the night). Dusk sensor is virtual and provided by the sun integration that uses the location of the home (as configured in HA) to track if the sun is above or below the horizon and give access to multiple useful other sensors (next rising, next setting, next dawn, next dusk, etc…). 

Now that the physical infrastructure was set up, all I had to do was create three automations:

• first for switching on the light every day at dusk (uses next dusk time) toggling the state of the Vimar smart switch;

• second for switching off the light and that is triggered by time at midnight;

• third for switching on the light when coming back home late at night (if the light is off). This is triggered based on people count in the home’s zone (leverages device tracking through HA companion application).

Lesson learned: Vimar IoT devices can be configured to work with Bluetooth or Zigbee networks and one needs to do it upfront via the Vimar app. Spent a few minutes yelling to the device before reading the full instructions…always true “RTFM”!

I’d love to read your questions and answer them in a future issue. Just hit reply and drop me an email or leave a comment.

Leave a comment

Until next time!
Daniel

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The problem

Since the first renovation of the house our laundry room always had only a one way light switch to control lights. Fine you’d say. Problem is that the laundry has 2 doors: one opens to the dining room (where the light switch is), the other one opens to my home office (where there’s no light switch to control laundry lights when going through it).

Adding in wall wiring was never an option considering the hassle of having to free the room for that before drilling walls and producing a ton of dust: concrete walls here, no drywall. I also always procrastinate with adding external conduits (PVC ones) because of laziness plus a difficult route for the conduits from one door to the other (there’s a mezzanine in the middle, just to complicate things).

Then at night going from the dining room to the home office is easy, coming back not that much if lights got switched off at some point. And leaving the lights always on didn’t sound like the right solution…

The solution

Long story short the problem was solved with less than $20 of smart devices. In fact I had available the following devices that I got from AliExpress (you can find them on Amazon as well if you prefer, they will be a bit more expensive though):

• a smart switch: Sonoff ZBMINI Extreme (no neutral required!)

• a smart button: Aqara wireless mini switch

• a smart motion sensor: Sonoff SNZB-03

Important to note that all these devices are connected to the Home Assistant instance using Zigbee protocol: this means they are locally connected and managed directly by the Raspberry Pi I have in my home rack without going through any external cloud service (security first!).

First of all, I connected the Sonoff ZBMINI Extreme smart switch replacing the physical switch: live wire into ZBMINI, live wire out to the lights. Then to preserve the user experience I wired the physical switch on S1-S2 contacts for the ZBMINI: this way nothing changes for the user switching on/off the lights from the dining room as the physical switch is still there and working as always. After discovering the device in Home Assistant it was already possible to switch on/off the lights from there without even touching the real switch! How amazing!

As a second step I started the Aqara wireless mini switch button (battery powered) so that Home Assistant could recognise it. This button has 3 functions: single press, double press, long press. Tested all three and double checked to see them in the logbook for the integration. Check. Eventually I stuck the button on to the frame of the home office door.

But pressing the button does nothing yet. What’s missing? Well, the button is just a button and does not know about the lights nor about the smart switch. I needed to put all the pieces together. Here comes the automation! In fact the button press needs to be used as a trigger in a new automation that as action will toggle the Sonoff smart switch previously wired. And BOOM! Lights go on and off just pressing the wireless button! Can you imagine how big my smile was at this point?

Okay but what about the motion sensor then? That is optional here but nice to have. And since I had one spare bought only for testing I decided to use it for something useful. Then I added another automation that is a bit more sophisticated: motion detected is the trigger but then a couple of conditions are checked before actually switching on the light as action. First condition is to check that the light is off, if not there’s nothing to do. Second condition is to check that we are in a moment after sunset and before sunrise (there is a “sun” api integration providing a lot of information day by day). Doing so when outside is dark already, anyone can go into the laundry and have light even if no switch was touched. And this is especially helpful for my kids as they always forget to switch on that light!

Just as my kids always forget to switch on the light when entering they also forget when leaving the laundry. For energy saving and being a bit more friendly to the planet I added a final automation. It is triggered after five minutes of lights on, checks if there’s no motion detected for one minute and eventually switches off the lights.

All in all it was a success: problem was solved, convenience was added, energy saving put in place. I love it!

Until next time!
Daniel

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The problem

I initially bought a couple of Blink cameras a few years ago. My wife and I were starting to go out again for a date night from time to time leaving our children home with the babysitter. We wanted a way to peek home quickly and make sure everything was fine. Blink cameras from Amazon seemed the best solution at that time: cheap, wireless, and came with an app to use them.

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I then added a third camera, the outdoor version, in the backyard after finding my car with a broken window. You know, maybe next time we’ll have some great footage to share with the police…

It turns out we used the cameras just for occasional live streaming for a long time, only rarely did we arm the system when leaving for some trip or long day out all together. Why? Because it requires action when you’re already totally busy: have you tried leaving home with 2 kids?

Here’s what you are supposed to do:

• remember about the system

• open the app to arm it

• arm the system (don’t get caught by the cameras!)

• enable motion detection if it was previously disabled

• optionally: disable the system and repeat everything if you need to get in again because someone forgot something

How should it work instead? You should not even have to think about it. And that’s what I achieved creating my first home automation with Home Assistant (HA). Here’s how I did it.

The automation

I actually created 2 different automation to take full advantage of the system and use it at nights and when we leave. All working seamlessly without even having to think about it.

The night automation uses the clock as a trigger. When we’re about to go to bed the automation starts and arms the system. This will enable all the cameras, but since we still want to be able to move during the night (loo pit stops) w/o receiving alerts the automation also disables motion detection for internal cameras. All the external ones will track any suspect movement instead. Then, again using the clock as a trigger, in the morning the system gets disarmed when we get out of bed right before I get out to walk the dog.

The leave automation is more sophisticated and is based on the count of people (tracking mobile devices connected to HA) in our house zone. When the count goes down to 0 it means that both my wife and I left so the automation is triggered: the system is armed and motion detection is activated on all cameras. When coming back in the zone HA will see the count of people changing from 0 to 1 (or 2) and proceed to disarm the system way before we reach the external gate.

No one needs to remember to arm/disarm the system, it just works on its own now. We’re also using it way more than when we had to do it manually and this is priceless because it improves security for your family.

Until next time!

Daniel

I can definitely say that the only limit is your imagination when thinking about what automations you can setup for your home. Of course initially what could be limiting you is the amount/type of devices/sensors you have but with just a few you’re already on a good path.

Some of my current automations I like the most:

• enable/disable cameras and security system when leaving/coming home

• start air conditioning when batteries are full and PV system is returning power to the grid

• switching on outdoor lighting at dusk or when coming home during the night (after lighting has been switched off)

Some ideas I will work in the future instead:

• lawn watering system with soil temperature/humidity sensors

• advanced security involving door/window sensors

• doorbell notifications through light alerts in the studio (for when I wear noise cancelling headset)

Think about it for a minute, you'll come up with at least 3 different needs you wished to find a solution in the past. Go!

If you start from zero, you’re excited by this new adventure about home automation but you’re scared by having to do manual work to assemble the hardware needed and install all the software then Home Assistant Green is perfect for you. Let’s see why:

• it’s affordable: at $99 recommended price you have a good starting point and a minor loss if you find yourself not using it after some time (at that point you’ll easily find someone looking for one and sell it);

• it’s plug-and-play as it comes ready to use;

• comes with Home Assistant already installed, you really just need to power it and connect it to your home network.

If you're more tech-savvy and want to have more control on the hardware you use then I’d suggest you to go with a Raspberry Pi 4 (or 5 by the time you read this) with 8GB of RAM. Why?

• it’s affordable: ~$90 new but you can find used ones for less (there are tons of RPi unused, ask some friends);

• very low power device: and that’s great considering it will stay on 24/7;

• reusable: even if you’ll discontinue your home automation journey you could still use it for other projects (Network-wide Ad Blocking with Pi-hole maybe?).

Then with Raspberry Pi Imager you’ll easily write the Home Assistant Operating System (HAOS) image to an SD card to use on the Raspberry and will be ready to start.

Want more resources because you want to have Docker on this machine and run other services along the home automation? Well I guess you know already enough and are able to find the solution alone :)

• entities: are the building blocks of your smart home automation system and most of the time represent a sensor to monitor physical properties or an actor/function of the system. They have one or more statuses the will be used to do “things”;

• devices: usually you’ll see them a real physical devices grouping one or more entities. An example could be a motion sensor that provides motion detection, temperature, and light levels as entities;

• integrations: are pieces of software that allow the home automation system to connect to other software and platforms (cloud included) so that devices connected to the external platform can appear inside your home system;

• automations: sets of repeatable actions set up to run automatically at specific times and/or triggered by state change of one or more entities;

• scenes: allow you to create predefined settings for your devices so that they change an environment to suit you. For example, your watching films scene
  may dim the lighting, switch on the TV and increase its volume.

• improved security: make your home a safer and securer place for you and your family automating alarm and surveillance systems, water/gas/smoke leaks (and any other tool that comes to your mind) so that no one has to think about arming them;

• higher convenience: control (almost) everything from a single device you always have with you (your mobile!) and receive alerts for things that need your attention, even remotely;

• better comfort: adapt lighting colour temperature throughout the day, start heating/cooling when coming home, use scenes for specific moments;

• highest efficiency: save energy optimising usage of resources (especially electricity) with optimal scheduling of appliances and taking full advantage of any renewable source system you may have.

Additionally all the above mentioned could be achieved with systems like Home Assistant that put local control and privacy first, allowing also to integrate thousands of different devices you could already have.