Home Assistant beginners

valve90210 · 16 Nov 2022 at 13:47

I'm very tempted to have a look into HA as I have various zigbee bulbs from various manufacturers, a Hue Hub, a broadcom RM4 Pro, a Lifl Zigbee Gateway, Tuya switches and some other bits and pieces and while most of it plays reasonable nicely with Google Assistant (I have home minis in most rooms), it's lacking some useful features like being able to trigger routines using devices and/or sensors (apparently it's coming to google home but who knows when).

Can most of this stuff be setup in HA alongside the existing setups with the Hue hub etc etc? That would be great as it'll allow me to keep using what I have while I tinker with HA. Also, does HA play nicely with Google Assistant for voice control and such like?

My ideal setup would be on a Pi 4 I think, so I'm hoping that by the time I have the spare time to tinker (currently studying in my spare time), they will be more widely available again.

dlockers · 16 Nov 2022 at 14:21

valve90210 said:
I'm very tempted to have a look into HA as I have various zigbee bulbs from various manufacturers, a Hue Hub, a broadcom RM4 Pro, a Lifl Zigbee Gateway, Tuya switches and some other bits and pieces and while most of it plays reasonable nicely with Google Assistant (I have home minis in most rooms), it's lacking some useful features like being able to trigger routines using devices and/or sensors (apparently it's coming to google home but who knows when).

Can most of this stuff be setup in HA alongside the existing setups with the Hue hub etc etc? That would be great as it'll allow me to keep using what I have while I tinker with HA. Also, does HA play nicely with Google Assistant for voice control and such like?

My ideal setup would be on a Pi 4 I think, so I'm hoping that by the time I have the spare time to tinker (currently studying in my spare time), they will be more widely available again.

So I had been totally turned off by HA at the thought of mega setup and lots of issues getting going. Check my posts above... it literally auto detected and connected to basically everything I care about. 5 mins of effort to get Bright working (syncs with smart meter data centrally) and 5 mins to get my Mercedes data on there.

I did have some issues but that was due to a cooked SD card. I'm on a Pi3B+ (I think), works fantastically.

And yes, it works alongside Alexa/Phillips Hue, so nothing "structurally" changed.

Also connected my Dishwasher but thats giving me a tiny bit of grief.

valve90210 · 16 Nov 2022 at 14:34

Right now I'm up to eyes in coursework and getting client hours etc etc but when I finish studying next year I think I'll give it a look, it certainly seems like an amazing way to get things setup but at the moment, I'm lacking in free time and with Pis being hard to get hold of for sensible money I'm gonna wait and do plenty of reading etc to get my head round it all.

Freefaller · 16 Nov 2022 at 15:06

@katie279 do you have a guide for connecting your solar to HA?

katie279 · 16 Nov 2022 at 16:16

Freefaller said:
@katie279 do you have a guide for connecting your solar to HA?

Not a guide, but can point you to relevant integrations with instructions?

Were you Givenergy again?

katie279 · 16 Nov 2022 at 16:17

valve90210 said:
I'm very tempted to have a look into HA as I have various zigbee bulbs from various manufacturers, a Hue Hub, a broadcom RM4 Pro, a Lifl Zigbee Gateway, Tuya switches and some other bits and pieces and while most of it plays reasonable nicely with Google Assistant (I have home minis in most rooms), it's lacking some useful features like being able to trigger routines using devices and/or sensors (apparently it's coming to google home but who knows when).

Can most of this stuff be setup in HA alongside the existing setups with the Hue hub etc etc? That would be great as it'll allow me to keep using what I have while I tinker with HA. Also, does HA play nicely with Google Assistant for voice control and such like?

My ideal setup would be on a Pi 4 I think, so I'm hoping that by the time I have the spare time to tinker (currently studying in my spare time), they will be more widely available again.

Absolutely - doesn't interfere at all!

Semple · 16 Nov 2022 at 17:01

dLockers said:
So I had been totally turned off by HA at the thought of mega setup and lots of issues getting going. Check my posts above... it literally auto detected and connected to basically everything I care about. 5 mins of effort to get Bright working (syncs with smart meter data centrally) and 5 mins to get my Mercedes data on there.

I did have some issues but that was due to a cooked SD card. I'm on a Pi3B+ (I think), works fantastically.

And yes, it works alongside Alexa/Phillips Hue, so nothing "structurally" changed.

Also connected my Dishwasher but thats giving me a tiny bit of grief.

Tbh most of the time is actually spent on making dashboards rather than integrating stuff.

For anyone who's interested in tracking energy monitoring, have a look at powercalc in hacs.

dlockers · 16 Nov 2022 at 17:13

Semple said:
Tbh most of the time is actually spent on making dashboards rather than integrating stuff.

For anyone who's interested in tracking energy monitoring, have a look at powercalc in hacs.

Will have a play later on next week - am I right in thinking I install the add-on and it'll automatically find the data? Or is it a bit of messing around?

Freefaller · 16 Nov 2022 at 18:05

katie279 said:
Not a guide, but can point you to relevant integrations with instructions?

Were you Givenergy again?

Yep givenergy and I have a solcast account which has been integrated into the givenergy portal. Furthermore I've also added the API from Octopus into givenergy app

katie279 · 16 Nov 2022 at 19:28

Freefaller said:
Yep givenergy and I have a solcast account which has been integrated into the givenergy portal. Furthermore I've also added the API from Octopus into givenergy app

Here you go, follow instructions and you should be away!

GivEnergy Solar Inverter

I wanted to announce a new custom integration for GivEnergy inverters, now available as a custom repository via HACS. Last week I had a GivEnergy Hybrid inverter installed on my property. I’d already clocked the other thread on here, and while there seems to have been some success, I didn’t...

community.home-assistant.io

katie279 · 16 Nov 2022 at 19:30

katie279 said:
Here you go, follow instructions and you should be away!

GivEnergy Solar Inverter

I wanted to announce a new custom integration for GivEnergy inverters, now available as a custom repository via HACS. Last week I had a GivEnergy Hybrid inverter installed on my property. I’d already clocked the other thread on here, and while there seems to have been some success, I didn’t...

community.home-assistant.io

This is quite handy too:

Understanding Home Energy Management

How to get started using home energy management in Home Assistant.

www.home-assistant.io

And this!

Energy cards

An overview of the energy cards that are available.

www.home-assistant.io

R.O.S.S.I · 16 Nov 2022 at 20:28

So the idea of this has always intrigued and been appealing to me, being able to have one centralised app where i can control and monitor all of my "smart" equipment.

What advice would you give to anyone who is starting their journey with this kind of automation and monitoring? I don't really know where to start or what to begin with.

At the moment the only "smart" or network connected equipment I have is a Sonos speaker, Sky box, TV and a Smart Plug (controlling a lamp via wifi through our phone). I like the idea of having more lighting that is centrally controlled and managed. Is it just a case of replacing a lot of my bulbs in the house with Hue or some of the Ikea bulbs? I'm thinking of getting motorised blinds for our kitchen and dining room, could something like that be controlled with HA? How do you know what can and can't be controlled?

In my head the most common uses for this are:

managing lighting
managing speakers
monitoring and managing power usage and heating
monitoring network stats
monitoring and managing cctv/security
im sure there are more but is there a list of all the most common use cases for this kind of thing?

I've read through most of this thread but still trying to figure out the best way to approach something like this as I don't want to just start buying things for the sake of it. I also have a slight concern about how much electricity setting up something like this will consume, if i'm buying tonnes of wifi enabled bulbs, switches, extra bits of kits.

I'm also

katie279 · 16 Nov 2022 at 20:39

R.O.S.S.I said:
So the idea of this has always intrigued and been appealing to me, being able to have one centralised app where i can control and monitor all of my "smart" equipment.

What advice would you give to anyone who is starting their journey with this kind of automation and monitoring? I don't really know where to start or what to begin with.

At the moment the only "smart" or network connected equipment I have is a Sonos speaker, Sky box, TV and a Smart Plug (controlling a lamp via wifi through our phone). I like the idea of having more lighting that is centrally controlled and managed. Is it just a case of replacing a lot of my bulbs in the house with Hue or some of the Ikea bulbs? I'm thinking of getting motorised blinds for our kitchen and dining room, could something like that be controlled with HA? How do you know what can and can't be controlled?

In my head the most common uses for this are:

managing lighting

managing speakers

monitoring and managing power usage and heating

monitoring network stats

monitoring and managing cctv/security

im sure there are more but is there a list of all the most common use cases for this kind of thing?

I've read through most of this thread but still trying to figure out the best way to approach something like this as I don't want to just start buying things for the sake of it. I also have a slight concern about how much electricity setting up something like this will consume, if i'm buying tonnes of wifi enabled bulbs, switches, extra bits of kits.

I'm also

In terms of energy use, you're talking a raspberry pi and that's it, so tiny energy footprint. But I can say, very conservatively, it's saved me £600-700 a year. The ability to easily see what's using electricity, automatically switch on/off devices totally changes the game - ours for example does stuff that I could theoretically do, but never would - eg every night turn off all the devices on standby in the lounge, the gym, the study etc etc.

Pretty much everything can be controlled, it really is an enormous ecosystem - good tip is to simple search for it, eg 'my device home assistant '

I'd also start with simply getting home assistant set up, like most people, you'll be surprised at how many smart devices you actually have - eg your pc, your phone, your TV, etc

Then you can look at cheap options like IKEA Tradfri lights, buttons, switches etc to start your journey....!

R.O.S.S.I · 16 Nov 2022 at 20:44

katie279 said:
In terms of energy use, you're talking a raspberry pi and that's it, so tiny energy footprint. But I can say, very conservatively, it's saved me £600-700 a year. The ability to easily see what's using electricity, automatically switch on/off devices totally changes the game - ours for example does stuff that I could theoretically do, but never would - eg every night turn off all the devices on standby in the lounge, the gym, the study etc etc.

Pretty much everything can be controlled, it really is an enormous ecosystem - good tip is to simple search for it, eg 'my device home assistant '

But surely for those devices to be controllable through wifi or whatever they all need to be consuming some level of energy and "online" so to speak, so it isn't a Raspberry Pi can it?

Or are you saying it is more a case of the extra cost being negligible for someone who already has a lot of these devices controlled through different hubs/apps/systems and therefore to unify the control through HA it is only the addition of an RPi which is the added energy cost?

What makes you say it has saved you £600-700 per year? Purely from switching things on and off?

katie279 · 16 Nov 2022 at 20:58

R.O.S.S.I said:
But surely for those devices to be controllable through wifi or whatever they all need to be consuming some level of energy and "online" so to speak, so it isn't a Raspberry Pi can it?

Or are you saying it is more a case of the extra cost being negligible for someone who already has a lot of these devices controlled through different hubs/apps/systems and therefore to unify the control through HA it is only the addition of an RPi which is the added energy cost?

What makes you say it has saved you £600-700 per year? Purely from switching things on and off?

Yes exactly, it is negligible - eg if you look how much it costs you to run, say your phone, each year they're super efficient devices. Adding Bluetooth, WiFi, zigbee to a device really doesn't add a huge amount of cost, so your washing machine before it was smart and after really doesn't change, the actual use is enormous.

Energy saving:
- smart lighting - eg turning off lights that the kids constantly leave on all day (eg bathroom etc)
- knowledge - spotting lights, heaters, pcs etc have been left on - we've got two high end pcs with triple monitors in our study (thank you overclockers!), so again simply being aware of when they aren't hibernating and being able to press a button to do so, saves loads
- schedules - again smart lighting, dimming lights in evening etc all saves a bit
- off peaking - I have octopus go, so washing machines, cars etc all turn on in middle of night to charge
- likewise, even switching off my NAS at night and restarting in the morning, they use around 250w on average, so saving six hours a day - if you do the maths, eg 20-30p per kW x six hours X 365 days (then divide by four to get KW), you're talking about 20 smart devices per year in terms of even buying them in the first place, let alone their relatively tiny running cost!

The list goes on and on, but hopefully a flavour?

Semple · 16 Nov 2022 at 20:59

dLockers said:
Will have a play later on next week - am I right in thinking I install the add-on and it'll automatically find the data? Or is it a bit of messing around?

It will do now they've released v1.0.

Any lights that already have an energy profile will appear. You can then enable utility meter so it tracks usage by day/week/month/year.

Freefaller · 17 Nov 2022 at 09:35

Another random question. Can you ask Google to do something on HA? I.e. turn something on that's controlled by HA? I.e. I've got HA to send a WOL to one of my machines, can I link that back to Google to trigger it?

Semple · 17 Nov 2022 at 10:08

Freefaller said:
Another random question. Can you ask Google to do something on HA? I.e. turn something on that's controlled by HA? I.e. I've got HA to send a WOL to one of my machines, can I link that back to Google to trigger it?

I believe this is only possible if you subscribe to nabu casa.

katie279 · 17 Nov 2022 at 12:15

Freefaller said:
Another random question. Can you ask Google to do something on HA? I.e. turn something on that's controlled by HA? I.e. I've got HA to send a WOL to one of my machines, can I link that back to Google to trigger it?

Lots of ways to achieve this - indeed you can even remove yourself from the cloud dependency entirely if you wanted, check out this:

Home Assistant Is Getting Local Voice Control!?

The State of the Open Home event was held a few days ago, which contained some really interesting news for Home Assistant users, including a preview of a new...

www.youtube.com

Nabu casa makes it simple if you want to use GA for the voice processing as Semple says - there's a few other approaches:

Google Assistant

Setup for Google Assistant integration

www.home-assistant.io

Use Google home with HA without paying for cloud?

Are there any ways to get Google home support for my HA devices without paying for home assistant cloud? Thanks Gershy13

community.home-assistant.io

Introducing Home Intent - the simple local voice assistant for Home Assistant!

This looks very cool, can it replace any of the functionality from here GitHub - maykar/plex_assistant: ❱ Plex Assistant is a Home Assistant integration for casting Plex media to Google devices, Sonos devices, and Plex clients with Google Assistant, HA's conversation integration, and more. ...

community.home-assistant.io

And many more - really depends on how you use, so more one to browse and pick what suits you best!

The1nonly1 · 17 Nov 2022 at 12:22

Freefaller said:
Another random question. Can you ask Google to do something on HA? I.e. turn something on that's controlled by HA? I.e. I've got HA to send a WOL to one of my machines, can I link that back to Google to trigger it?

Semple said:
I believe this is only possible if you subscribe to nabu casa.

You can yes with some things. I can ask google assitant to turn on lights, set the alarm, turn on and boost heating etc - https://youtu.be/RqGi_GI0ltU