Home Assistant is open source home automation software that can be run on Linux, Windows, and Mac. Home Assistant is written in Python and has a large, active community. Home Assistant is meant to make automation in your home easier and is compatible with a large range of different devices. It provides a web interface for accessing the application, for viewing dashboards and configuring Home Assistant to work for you and your home. There is also a mobile app, which works fine whilst on the same network (e.g. at home), but if you want it to work away from home, you have to link your account to their cloud system, but that come at a cost. Personally, I don’t bother with that, as I’ve linked to it via the HomeKit module, so that works wherever I am.
Although Home Assistant can run on a variety of different operating systems, this article will focus on the OS version, because that’s the only way to get the Supervisor version. If you don’t have a spare Raspberry Pi, or another machine, to run the OS version, don’t worry, you can just install it as an appication on Linux, Windows and Mac, but you will need to keep that machine on permanently, if you want to fully utilise it, all of the time.
There are a few different versions of Home Assistant, but the one I recommend, is the Supervisor version, which allows you access to HACS (Home Assistant Community Store), with a litte configuration, which allows you to install many more integrations, meaning you can integrate even more of your smart home tech, EV’s, EV chargers, solar systems etc. Unfortunately though, the Supervisor version can only be installed as part of Home Assistant OS, which is why I’m focusing on it for this article.
What is Home Assistant?
Home Assistant is a Linux based smart home operating system, which then has the Home Assistant application installed on top of it. It is open-source and allows users to control a variety of smart devices and automate many tasks on the home computer. Home Assistant is a great tool for people who are looking to automate various tasks around the home. Some ideas of how you can use it are:
- Customised automations
- Control your home via one central system
- Display dashboards on tablets
- See graphs of when your smart devices were used
- Integrate your solar systems
- Integrate your electric vehicle (EV)
Some of the most appealing features of Home Assistant are:
- It’s completely free
- It’s highly customisable
- Integrates with a large number of smart devices
- Can act as HomeKit bridge, making non-HomeKit devices, HomeKit compatible
- Constant updates and with a strong community
Home Assistant is also an open-source project, meaning that there are many people who contribute to the software to make it better and more efficient. I’ve not paid close attention to the frequency of the updates, but I’d say they are at least monthly, but often more frequent than that. One of the best things about this software is that it is very customisable and can be used to automate a large variety of tasks.
For example, on top of the highly customisable automations, you can make nice dashboards which you can view on your computer, tablet or mobile phone. You could even mound a tablet on the wall to display a customised dashboard. Here are two of my dashboards, to show you what you can do.
How does it work?
Home Assistant is an open source, self-hosted home automation platform which allows users to control their entire home from one account. Users can use the platform to control lights, locks, temperature, and various other things. Home Assistant is a great platform for those who are looking for a smart home operating system. It is also a great way to save money on your energy bill. Home Assistant is compatible with a wide range of devices, including Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
How can it help you?
Home Assistant is a smart home operating system for automation. It works on the Raspberry Pi and can be installed on any other computer. It is a great option for controlling your home from your phone, tablet, or computer. It is compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit and much more. It’s a great option for those who want to control their home with their voice.
Home Assistant also has many great integrations that make it a great option for those who want to control their home with their voice. It is also a great option for those who want to control their home with their voice. Home Assistant works on the Raspberry Pi and can be installed on any other computer. It is a great option for controlling your home from your phone, tablet, or computer.
I use Home Assistant for automating lights to be turned off at cetain times, because the family tend to just leave them on, so it gives me peace of mind that we aren’t wasting energy. But one of the main reasons I like it is because I can integrate things like Sky Q, Smart Life and Nest devices with HomeKit, which just isn’t possible otherwise.
Anothe useful thing I find, is that it graphs when your devices were on, what the temparature was, or when there was motion, as you can see in the below screenshots.
Conclusion
Home assistant is a smart home operating system that allows you to automate your house. You can use it to automate your heating, cooling, lighting and security. It also has a number of other useful features that allow you to monitor your home. All of these features make it easy to create a smart home that is more efficient and convenient. If you are interested in automating your house, then home assistant is a great choice for you.
I’ll produce some further articles about how to install Home Assistant and HACS in the coming days.