All about Home Assistant: Setup + Integration + Operation

Home Assistant is a simple platform for controlling a wide range of smart home devices thanks to numerous integration options. Home Assistant scores with a quick start-up and easy implementation of new ideas.

What is Home Assistant?

Home Assistant is an open source home automation solution for connecting, controlling and monitoring a wide variety of devices, systems or communication standards. It can be run on almost any hardware, such as a Raspberry PI, a NAS or a mini PC.

ioBroker >> Home Assistant (HA)

After a trip to other systems, I replaced my previously created setup, consisting of ioBroker, InfluxDB and Grafana, with Home Assistant. Compared to ioBroker the start with Home Assistant was much easier for me, see also: Smart Home Platform: Systems. While I was still searching for ioBroker, which frontend I could use for my dashboards, I had with Home-Assistant out of the box, I had a ready-made system. Home Assistant's Lovelance dashboards can be easily clicked together in the GUI and modified for special customizations in the Code Editor and with additional frontend packages to be adapted almost at will. I primarily use Home Assistant to control certain lights, my vacuum cleaner robot or the awning via smartphone. In addition, I use it to monitor the temperature and humidity of certain rooms, the water flow of my heating via ultrasonic sensors the electricity and water consumption the front door, a NAS and a web server. In addition, I have on the basis of an old smartphone something like a weather station on the wall. I can now use it as an example to check the temperature, the weather or other values in passing or start certain actions on it.

Operation: HAOS >> Docker Container

With Docker, Home Assistant can be tested on existing hardware without reinstalling the operating system, and if necessary, it can be easily moved to other hardware later. Backup can also be made uniform for Home Assistant and other services, see: Practice: Backup Docker Container Data: Volumes / Bind Mounts. Before setting up, here's another overview of the different installation options: HAOS vs. Home Assistant Docker installation.

Conbee 2: Phoscon >> Zigbee2MQTT >> Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA)

I originally implemented the integration of the Zigbee devices with Phoscon, then with Zigbee2MQTT and meanwhile I use ZHA.

Preview Hardware for home assistant? Variants: HAOS vs. Docker

What hardware can be used for Home Assistant? Overview of the different installation variants. HAOS vs. Home Assistant Docker Container

created: 2023-03-07 from Bernhard

Home Assistant can be run on its own dedicated hardware by using the Home Assistant Operating System (HAOS). In addition, those who want to run other services on the same hardware besides Home Assistant can either create HAOS virtually as a VM, or start it as a Docker container. The latter requires fewer system resources (CPU and RAM), but loses the ability to install Home Assistant add-ons. Using Docker means that the add-ons cannot be installed in Home Assistant, but must also be started and m... ... continue reading

Home Assistant: Docker startup + SSL Internet access

created: 2023-03-07 from Bernhard

Besides installing it on its own hardware, the second recommended installation option for Home Assistant is to use Docker, see also: HAOS vs. Home Assistant Docker Installation. To run Home Assistant in Docker, a Docker setup is of course required, see: Docker. Those who already have Docker setup can start Home-Assistant with the following command: ... continue reading

Home Assistant integrations

created: 2023-03-07 from Bernhard

Home Assistant uses so-called integrations to connect devices. The integrations allow direct communication to the devices, or the connection of other gateways. As an example, for ZigBee devices there are several possibilities how to integrate them: ... continue reading

Home Assistant interface, operation and notification

created: 2023-03-07 from Bernhard

After the first start,all integrated devices areautomatically displayed in the home dashboard. ... continue reading

Home-Assistant Display - Weather Station and more

created: 2022-12-14 from Bernhard

After integrating more and more switches, lights and temperature sensors into Home Assistant, I had the idea to replace my classic weather station with a display for Home Assistant. I used an old cell phone, the Home Assistant app and a frame from the 3D printer as the display. ... continue reading

Home Assistant Automation - Possibilities & Basics

created: 2023-04-26 from Bernhard

From controlling the pool pump to the heating to the robotic mower, automations in Home Assistant offer a way to make things around your home really smart. ... continue reading

Read out smart meter of the network operator KAIFA MA309M

created: 2023-03-27 from Bernhard

Knowledge of current consumption data helps to optimize electricity consumption in a meaningful way. For this purpose, an additional smart meter can be installed or, even better, the smart meter of the network operator can be read out. As an example, the smart meter of my network operator, Salzburg AG, can be queried via the M-Bus customer interface and the data can thus be used in other systems. The values read out include the energy consumption and, if a PV system is used, the feed-in power, a... ... continue reading

PV balcony power plant commissioning and HA integration

changed: 2023-04-24 from Bernhard (Initial Release: 2023-03-21)

The hype about PV systems has not passed me by without a trace, so I have - to gain some experience - put together an 800Watt balcony power plant: Cost in total about 600$. Balcony power plants are often offered as a set, which usually consists of an inverter and two PV modules including cables. The power of the inverter limits the maximum generation power of the plant. In Austria, balcony power plants with a generation capacity of up to a maximum of 800 watts are currently allowed, Germany sho... ... continue reading

ZigBee2MQTT vs. ZHA: Commissioning and relocation

created: 2023-03-13 from Bernhard

First Phoscon, then Zigbee2MQTT (Z2M) and most recently Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA): I have extensively tested all three ZigBee gateway software solutions with Home Assistant and am now using ZHA, which is also the primary topic of this article. Switching from one gateway solution to another can be a bit of a pain, depending on the number of connected devices. As an example, when I switched from Phoscon to ZigBee2MQTT, I had to reconnect all the devices, which is not really fun especially with... ... continue reading

Home Assistant SQlite - Change statistics data

created: 2023-02-27 from Bernhard

Originally, I had wrong values in the database every now and then when reading out the smart meter. I was able to correct the cause, but the wrong values do not look so good in the statistics. Only after I spent some time correcting the statistic data directly in the database, I discovered that wrong statistic values can be easily changed in Home-Assistant. ... continue reading

Home Assistant + DIY Microcontroller + ESP Home (Docker)

created: 2023-01-10 from Bernhard

With ESPHome it is very easy to program your own microcontroller for use in HomeAssistant. My first use for a self-programmed microcontroller was to record the water flow and temperature values of my heater, see: www.script-example.com/topic/arduino. Although I was able to program the microcontroller relatively quickly, not least thanks to numerous examples in Arduino, the implementation with ESPHome is even easier. The program code with similar functionality in ESPHome has, compared to my Ardu... ... continue reading

Home Assistant Database MySQL vs. SQLite

created: 2022-05-09 from Bernhard

Home Assistant uses SQLite as a database. In SQLite all data is stored in a simple file: home-assistant_v2.db. I had no problems with the database so far and I am very satisfied with the performance of Home Assistant. Nevertheless I wanted to try a MySQL database, because at least theoretically MySQL could achieve a better performance. In practice, however, I could not notice any difference. According to the manufacturer's page, SQLite is even recommended: ... continue reading

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Updated: 2023-03-07 von Bernhard | Übersetzung Deutsch |🔔

➨ Smart-Home-Plattform - ioBroker vs. Home-Assistant | ➦ Smart Home | ioBroker install - Docker ➨

Questions / Comments

(sorted by rating / date) [all comments(newest first)]

✍Rodrigo

2022-06-05 02:57

I want to congratulate you for the blog. I found it very interesting.
I am introducing home automation as a hobby, I come from software development and this is just what I was looking for.
It has really been useful to me. Thanks.

Table of Contents

What is Home Assistant?
ioBroker >> Home Assistant (HA)
Operation: HAOS >> Docker Container
Conbee 2: Phoscon >> Zigbee2MQTT >> Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA)

Comments:1

➦ Smart Home ➨ ioBroker install - Docker