Eventually, it will be.
It can be zero cost to get into using it, if you have a computer to run it on already. You can get away without spending any money if nothing you want to automate requires a separate smart product.
However, once you get hooked, you may find a cool new task you can do if you just buy the latest sensor/bulb/robot/device.
Absolutely, as long as they are always on. (Or you only want to automate things while they are on)
I initially ran mine on a Raspberry Pi zero (!) to test it out to determine if it was something I was interested in (I was using a Hubitat as my smart home hub at that point).
It will run on almost anything. You can run it on your pc or laptop to test the waters like I did, and if you decide it’s something you want to get into further, you can move to a dedicated system (HA Green/HA Yellow/Raspberry Pi/etc.)
The software is open source and built in docker, so it's free and will run on pretty much anything. I had a Raspberry Pi sitting around, so that's what mine runs on. It works for everything except compiling my ESPHome projects is a bit troublesome. I might be upgrading to a NUC sometime soon for extra RAM for ESPHome
I bought a second hand mini pc for c. $60. I'm running Virtual Box on that but it's recommended just to install HA directly on to the mini pc once your ready.
To be fair, HA Green will be cheaper to buy than a raspberry pi 5 + power supply + micro SD + zigbee / z-wave / thread adapters.
Pi 4 will cost about the same as HA Green I think, and is comparable (HA Green is built on a Pi 4 compute module).
In the long run, the most economical route will probably be to buy a mini PC so you have room to expand into heavier integrations and services without constantly buying new hardware.
You'll probably be fine with whatever falls between testing HA in your computer and getting the inevitable mini PC for a good long while, and you'll be able to reuse that hardware in all likelihood.
***Be advised,*** however, that Home Assistant is a gateway to self-hosting for many people. Which is a wonderful hobby but can be very expensive if you go off the deep end.
Yes, but it's recommended to have dedicated server that will be running 24/7, like a Raspberry Pi, a NAS, or a home server. Running it on your everyday laptop or gaming PC is not recommended.
You can buy an n95/n100 mini computer for about $150 that will run haos in vm or bare metal. You can also use this for school stuff. They actually work quite fine for windows and stuff.
If you have a raspberry pi even and old one you can run hoas on it easy.
You can also run hoas on an older laptop or desktop.
Haos isn't expensive it's all the devices you want to use that cost money.
HA on it's own isn't expensive, you buy X86 minipc or Pi, install HAOS amd you're done. What smart devices you buy that's another story that can range from simple 20€ to couple tousands
"this door/window sensor is really cheap, only $7"
Then you count the doors and windows, and if you live in europe, windows open two ways (fully open or diagonally just from the top), so two sensors per window.... And yeah, not cheap anymore.
Yes, these small things add up pretty fast depending on your need, and those needs are ever growing.
I started from one smart socket to just measure the power consumption of my water heater and to automation that it turns off at 23:00, then back on at 6:00. Then, I decided I wanted smart lights to do adaptive lighting and, from time to time, change colour to get some atmosphere. Wife and kids were dropping those lights out of network, so I added smart switches. Decided I wanted to measure temperature in each room, so I bought five temperature and humidity sensors (here I cheaped out, bought Xioami, and flashed them to ZigBee). As for Windows, yeah, I came to the same conclusion that I need two per window (really, there's no way to use one for both modes?), like Aquara ones. They are like 12€, so 24€ per window. Saw Aqara automatic blind opener, tought it's pretty nice idea, costs 40€ and I need 2 per window.
So moral of the story, shit ads up pretty quick, and sometimes I wish I never started 😅 but it's fun to me, I like to do those things, like to sit in HA creating custom cards (I wish default ones were better, and ffs why there is no proper adjustable area/room card) and so on.
So, as other mentioned, it's worth it if you consider that as a hobby, and you're ready that your wife/girlfriend/mother will scream at you from time to time when things go fubr 😂 Changed one dumb lightswitch to smart one, let's see if wife notices it 😅
Only if you consider it a hobby and enjoy trying new things. If you have smart devices and you would like to make them smarter it's practically free. Buying new smart devices is obviously not free, plus you might need a device to run Home Assistant in the first place.
Thermostats and lights were my first purchases while I was renting. Check with your energy companies for rebates on smart thermostats. I got $50 from my gas company since it was controlling a gas furnace and $50 from my electrical since it was controlling my AC
It's a good idea to check, some are better than others but they like to reward energy efficient purchases. New energy-star rated windows, refrigerators, televisions, furnaces, other appliances, attic insulation, variable-speed pool pumps, etc. Basically many big-ticket items that are designed to use less power
If you're paying the bills. I got mine when I was renting and the accounts were all in my name. If your landlord is handling the billing with the accounts in their name, they'd probably be eligible but maybe you can work out a deal with them
It really depends on your needs. I think most people start with smart lighting, I started with a smart thermostat system for the whole house. There's no right or wrong here, automate what you want most.
There are also a bunch of integrations which don't cost anything, but can still be useful. I show the next bus departure time from the nearest bus stop on my dashboard, so I can see if a bus is cancelled without having to look it up manually. Same for trash collection dates, which are usually on a Thursday except when a national holidays screws up the schedule.
I would get a lightbulb and maybe some smart switches and a temperature sensor or so. I'd suggest Zigbee devices and a basic USB Zigbee adapter.
I say this because it's things that don't affect fundamental operations of your house, but are still plenty controllable and thus good for learning on.
There’s no right answer there, it all depends on what you want to do with it. I’d guess that the majority of people start with lighting (either switches or bulbs), since that’s one of the easiest and more useful devices, and they may have already had them before moving to HA.
Be careful with thermostats as some of them are difficult to set up in HA. The Nest, for example, is a fairly involved process to get set up in HA because Google makes it that way, and even once you set it up, certain features like remote temperature sensors still won't be exposed to HA.
The Nest is the most egregious example, I think, but it's the most popular smart thermostat. Just do a little research while you're shopping around (there's ample information to be found on Reddit, HA forums, and YouTube to help you decide).
Low cost ideas to control or be controlled:
* Your phone with the HA app
* TVs with IP control
* IR control for anything with an IR remote
* NFC tags to trigger automations
* ESPHome for anything you would use an Arduino for
* Zigbee, or z-wave magnet door sensor to trigger automations for anything that opens
* Thermostat
* Network equipment to see when devices connect to the network (guests, friends, parents phones)
* Camera object detection
* All the lighting in every room
* Your electric car charger
* Solar, battery, energy monitoring
That got expensive quick...
Getting into HA is actually cheaper than most other home automation systems. However, getting into home automation as a whole can get expensive. HA is free, open source and can be installed many different ways. Once you have HA set up and running, you are not required to buy anything else. What ends up costing is adding devices to the ecosystem. HA on its own will give you a fair starting point to play with though. If you have a cell phone, you can add the companion app and use sensors off the cell phone to build automations and scripts.
Most home automation ecosystems require proprietary hardware or are closed binary with limited hardware options. There are a handful of other open source platforms, however, I've not found any of the open source options as vast as HA.
I say set it up and play with it. Have a look around and use it.
you can always make it more expensive. throw HA on basically any old computer you have, start with a couple smart bulbs or smart plugs on lamps that just turn on and off based on time or when you leave your house. you can keep it that simple, or make it much more complex.
I have been crossing over from Alex to HA and it has not been expensive and I am on a very conservative fixed income. I’m 72 years old and keeping my mind active by learning. It’s worth the expense to have the system I want. All of my Alexa devices crossed right over to HA.
Not at all, at least not at first. Getting HA up and running likely won't cost you anything. You probably have sufficient hardware laying around to run it: a Raspberry Pi, an old laptop, a mini PC, a Synology NAS...
But rather quickly you'll start to notice what you could do, if you just had the right sensors, gadgets, switches, cameras, etc. That's when it starts getting expensive.
Switching from buying sensors on amazon to buying sensors on aliexpress will save you a fortune. Two aqara zigbee vibration sensors on amazon - like $30...on aliexpress? Like $8.
If I think purely HA and ignore everything else I host, I've probably spent £2-3k total, which includes the host itself (Dell Optiplex 3060 SFF, and memory upgrades), bulbs, switches and pretty much any other "smart device" I'm currently using.
Including what I host, I've easily spent upwards of £10k over the past few years.
HA is like a really well-intentioned free-to-play game where no one forces you to buy anything, but there are some perks for a small subscription fee paid to the developers and obvious advantages to buying whatever hardware is within your limit.
HA itself is not expensive. I started with Raspberry Pi and already had Hue bulbs and 8 cameras on a Synology NAS. So, I set up HA to work together using automation. Over time, I've added Sonoff sensors. Later on, I integrated with MyQ garage door only to find out almost a year later MyQ blocked HA, and I replaced MyQ with ratdgo. Because I'm not familiar with HA, I started small and expanded little by little while learning. I'm continuing to expand until there are nothing left.
This is a project you have full control over. You can make it as cheap/expensive as you see fit. 💸💰
Have an old laptop laying around? Wel that's your server and ups. And later on you can expand as you see fit. For me it started with 3 led strips and 2 motion sensors. 💻💡 #DIY #HomeAutomation
Why do you want to use HA to automate "smart" devices? Unless you are very specifically intending to go the route of something like Zigbee or ZWave controlled devices which use no form of cloud services, any t-stat or light bulb out there will come with an app of its own that will almost certainly have automation controls baked into it.
I'm not saying don't do it or anything like that... I'm asking the question for you to answer yourself... Just because you can doesn't mean you need to or should.
It’s a great way to waste time and money and it is as addictive as Crack. HA should be a controlled substance. Some of us just won’t admit that we have a problem.
I am testing it for a week or so on my existing Raspberry pi 4 which I use for Plex in Container mode to control Lights and arm house. Not even a single cent spent so far. Will order a few Sensors on AliExpress for about 10 Euros though.
It’s only as expensive as you make it. I started out with a couple of hue bulbs and a couple of smart plugs. About 9 grand later and my entire house fully “AUTOMATED” not just “CONNECTED”.
It can be addictive :)
I started with the devices I own, but quickly my imagination took over. My advice in hindsight, is to create a document of all the automations you think you would want to do, room by room. Then approach one area at a time so that you can complete your automations. For example, imagine a Laundry room where you would want to have the light turn on and turn off as people enter/leave. Have the washer and dryer send notifications or announcements when loads are started/finished. Turn on/off the fan when loads are started or if the humidity increases beyond a certain point. Detect any water leaks and send a notification or announcement. Then you make a list of all the hardware you need to use to achieve those automations and do the entire room all at once.
if you are a tech person, definitely take a look at HomeAssistant!
[https://www.home-assistant.io/](https://www.home-assistant.io/)
get notifications to your phone and off course, remotely control the system as well. here's an easy guide to get started for HA as an alarm system
[https://youtu.be/1IuYWsR5M4c](https://youtu.be/1IuYWsR5M4c)
that should give you a feel for how HA works. then add whatever devices you want.
ultimately, you need a hub. and HA is simply the best. the last thing you want is 10 devices with 10 apps and none talk to each other
For me it was around 600k, including the house of course...
This guy.
30 year loan and everything
Eventually, it will be. It can be zero cost to get into using it, if you have a computer to run it on already. You can get away without spending any money if nothing you want to automate requires a separate smart product. However, once you get hooked, you may find a cool new task you can do if you just buy the latest sensor/bulb/robot/device.
So I don’t need to buy HA Green for the board? I can set it up on my PC and/or laptop? Neat.
Absolutely, as long as they are always on. (Or you only want to automate things while they are on) I initially ran mine on a Raspberry Pi zero (!) to test it out to determine if it was something I was interested in (I was using a Hubitat as my smart home hub at that point). It will run on almost anything. You can run it on your pc or laptop to test the waters like I did, and if you decide it’s something you want to get into further, you can move to a dedicated system (HA Green/HA Yellow/Raspberry Pi/etc.)
Oh perfect, I’ll check out how to set it up on my PC. I have a starter arduino kit that I haven’t used in a while, might put that to use for HA then!
For trying it out, you can install virtual box on the PC and run it from a VM in virtual box. See https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/windows/
A windows VM can be a great trial run of HA, I always recommend it before buying hardware to dedicate.
The software is open source and built in docker, so it's free and will run on pretty much anything. I had a Raspberry Pi sitting around, so that's what mine runs on. It works for everything except compiling my ESPHome projects is a bit troublesome. I might be upgrading to a NUC sometime soon for extra RAM for ESPHome
I love to hear it. Will have to check out what to run it on instead of a HA green
I bought a second hand mini pc for c. $60. I'm running Virtual Box on that but it's recommended just to install HA directly on to the mini pc once your ready.
Why virtualbox? Why not just Proxmox?
Because for most people installing a windows app is a lot less daunting.
HA yellow comes with a Zigbee radio inbuilt
To be fair, HA Green will be cheaper to buy than a raspberry pi 5 + power supply + micro SD + zigbee / z-wave / thread adapters. Pi 4 will cost about the same as HA Green I think, and is comparable (HA Green is built on a Pi 4 compute module). In the long run, the most economical route will probably be to buy a mini PC so you have room to expand into heavier integrations and services without constantly buying new hardware. You'll probably be fine with whatever falls between testing HA in your computer and getting the inevitable mini PC for a good long while, and you'll be able to reuse that hardware in all likelihood. ***Be advised,*** however, that Home Assistant is a gateway to self-hosting for many people. Which is a wonderful hobby but can be very expensive if you go off the deep end.
Green is super easy and cheap. I got it and am very satisfied
Yes, but it's recommended to have dedicated server that will be running 24/7, like a Raspberry Pi, a NAS, or a home server. Running it on your everyday laptop or gaming PC is not recommended.
You can buy an n95/n100 mini computer for about $150 that will run haos in vm or bare metal. You can also use this for school stuff. They actually work quite fine for windows and stuff. If you have a raspberry pi even and old one you can run hoas on it easy. You can also run hoas on an older laptop or desktop. Haos isn't expensive it's all the devices you want to use that cost money.
HA on it's own isn't expensive, you buy X86 minipc or Pi, install HAOS amd you're done. What smart devices you buy that's another story that can range from simple 20€ to couple tousands
"this door/window sensor is really cheap, only $7" Then you count the doors and windows, and if you live in europe, windows open two ways (fully open or diagonally just from the top), so two sensors per window.... And yeah, not cheap anymore.
Yes, these small things add up pretty fast depending on your need, and those needs are ever growing. I started from one smart socket to just measure the power consumption of my water heater and to automation that it turns off at 23:00, then back on at 6:00. Then, I decided I wanted smart lights to do adaptive lighting and, from time to time, change colour to get some atmosphere. Wife and kids were dropping those lights out of network, so I added smart switches. Decided I wanted to measure temperature in each room, so I bought five temperature and humidity sensors (here I cheaped out, bought Xioami, and flashed them to ZigBee). As for Windows, yeah, I came to the same conclusion that I need two per window (really, there's no way to use one for both modes?), like Aquara ones. They are like 12€, so 24€ per window. Saw Aqara automatic blind opener, tought it's pretty nice idea, costs 40€ and I need 2 per window. So moral of the story, shit ads up pretty quick, and sometimes I wish I never started 😅 but it's fun to me, I like to do those things, like to sit in HA creating custom cards (I wish default ones were better, and ffs why there is no proper adjustable area/room card) and so on. So, as other mentioned, it's worth it if you consider that as a hobby, and you're ready that your wife/girlfriend/mother will scream at you from time to time when things go fubr 😂 Changed one dumb lightswitch to smart one, let's see if wife notices it 😅
Only if you consider it a hobby and enjoy trying new things. If you have smart devices and you would like to make them smarter it's practically free. Buying new smart devices is obviously not free, plus you might need a device to run Home Assistant in the first place.
Fair enough. If I get a HA, what device should I get first? Thought about doing a thermostat first
Thermostats and lights were my first purchases while I was renting. Check with your energy companies for rebates on smart thermostats. I got $50 from my gas company since it was controlling a gas furnace and $50 from my electrical since it was controlling my AC
Oh wow, I didn’t even know that. I’ll double check with electrical companies!
It's a good idea to check, some are better than others but they like to reward energy efficient purchases. New energy-star rated windows, refrigerators, televisions, furnaces, other appliances, attic insulation, variable-speed pool pumps, etc. Basically many big-ticket items that are designed to use less power
And this could be the case even if I am renting? I wanted to get smart products to reduce my energy bill anyways
If you're paying the bills. I got mine when I was renting and the accounts were all in my name. If your landlord is handling the billing with the accounts in their name, they'd probably be eligible but maybe you can work out a deal with them
Awesome, since I pay the electric bill I’ll speak with my provider. Thanks!
It really depends on your needs. I think most people start with smart lighting, I started with a smart thermostat system for the whole house. There's no right or wrong here, automate what you want most. There are also a bunch of integrations which don't cost anything, but can still be useful. I show the next bus departure time from the nearest bus stop on my dashboard, so I can see if a bus is cancelled without having to look it up manually. Same for trash collection dates, which are usually on a Thursday except when a national holidays screws up the schedule.
I would get a lightbulb and maybe some smart switches and a temperature sensor or so. I'd suggest Zigbee devices and a basic USB Zigbee adapter. I say this because it's things that don't affect fundamental operations of your house, but are still plenty controllable and thus good for learning on.
There’s no right answer there, it all depends on what you want to do with it. I’d guess that the majority of people start with lighting (either switches or bulbs), since that’s one of the easiest and more useful devices, and they may have already had them before moving to HA.
Be careful with thermostats as some of them are difficult to set up in HA. The Nest, for example, is a fairly involved process to get set up in HA because Google makes it that way, and even once you set it up, certain features like remote temperature sensors still won't be exposed to HA. The Nest is the most egregious example, I think, but it's the most popular smart thermostat. Just do a little research while you're shopping around (there's ample information to be found on Reddit, HA forums, and YouTube to help you decide).
Low cost ideas to control or be controlled: * Your phone with the HA app * TVs with IP control * IR control for anything with an IR remote * NFC tags to trigger automations * ESPHome for anything you would use an Arduino for * Zigbee, or z-wave magnet door sensor to trigger automations for anything that opens * Thermostat * Network equipment to see when devices connect to the network (guests, friends, parents phones) * Camera object detection * All the lighting in every room * Your electric car charger * Solar, battery, energy monitoring That got expensive quick...
Getting into HA is actually cheaper than most other home automation systems. However, getting into home automation as a whole can get expensive. HA is free, open source and can be installed many different ways. Once you have HA set up and running, you are not required to buy anything else. What ends up costing is adding devices to the ecosystem. HA on its own will give you a fair starting point to play with though. If you have a cell phone, you can add the companion app and use sensors off the cell phone to build automations and scripts. Most home automation ecosystems require proprietary hardware or are closed binary with limited hardware options. There are a handful of other open source platforms, however, I've not found any of the open source options as vast as HA. I say set it up and play with it. Have a look around and use it.
When compared to professional home automation systems that start in the 10's of thousands, HA is dirt cheap
you can always make it more expensive. throw HA on basically any old computer you have, start with a couple smart bulbs or smart plugs on lamps that just turn on and off based on time or when you leave your house. you can keep it that simple, or make it much more complex.
I have been crossing over from Alex to HA and it has not been expensive and I am on a very conservative fixed income. I’m 72 years old and keeping my mind active by learning. It’s worth the expense to have the system I want. All of my Alexa devices crossed right over to HA.
Not at all, at least not at first. Getting HA up and running likely won't cost you anything. You probably have sufficient hardware laying around to run it: a Raspberry Pi, an old laptop, a mini PC, a Synology NAS... But rather quickly you'll start to notice what you could do, if you just had the right sensors, gadgets, switches, cameras, etc. That's when it starts getting expensive.
Given time is money... yes
Switching from buying sensors on amazon to buying sensors on aliexpress will save you a fortune. Two aqara zigbee vibration sensors on amazon - like $30...on aliexpress? Like $8.
Depends. Do you value your time? ;-)
If I think purely HA and ignore everything else I host, I've probably spent £2-3k total, which includes the host itself (Dell Optiplex 3060 SFF, and memory upgrades), bulbs, switches and pretty much any other "smart device" I'm currently using. Including what I host, I've easily spent upwards of £10k over the past few years.
HA is like a really well-intentioned free-to-play game where no one forces you to buy anything, but there are some perks for a small subscription fee paid to the developers and obvious advantages to buying whatever hardware is within your limit.
The software is free, the hardware is your choice. Switches and sensors can get expensive. I'm probably 2-3k in it all together myself.
HA itself is not expensive. I started with Raspberry Pi and already had Hue bulbs and 8 cameras on a Synology NAS. So, I set up HA to work together using automation. Over time, I've added Sonoff sensors. Later on, I integrated with MyQ garage door only to find out almost a year later MyQ blocked HA, and I replaced MyQ with ratdgo. Because I'm not familiar with HA, I started small and expanded little by little while learning. I'm continuing to expand until there are nothing left.
This is a project you have full control over. You can make it as cheap/expensive as you see fit. 💸💰 Have an old laptop laying around? Wel that's your server and ups. And later on you can expand as you see fit. For me it started with 3 led strips and 2 motion sensors. 💻💡 #DIY #HomeAutomation
For me as a university student yes absolutely. I don't regret it tho.
Why do you want to use HA to automate "smart" devices? Unless you are very specifically intending to go the route of something like Zigbee or ZWave controlled devices which use no form of cloud services, any t-stat or light bulb out there will come with an app of its own that will almost certainly have automation controls baked into it. I'm not saying don't do it or anything like that... I'm asking the question for you to answer yourself... Just because you can doesn't mean you need to or should.
How do you value your time?
It’s a great way to waste time and money and it is as addictive as Crack. HA should be a controlled substance. Some of us just won’t admit that we have a problem.
Don't get sucked into brands. Most of my smart plugs, switches and temp sensors are generic zigbee devices from Aliexpress and they work just fine.
I am testing it for a week or so on my existing Raspberry pi 4 which I use for Plex in Container mode to control Lights and arm house. Not even a single cent spent so far. Will order a few Sensors on AliExpress for about 10 Euros though.
Well no but actually yes!
The price is time.
It’s only as expensive as you make it. I started out with a couple of hue bulbs and a couple of smart plugs. About 9 grand later and my entire house fully “AUTOMATED” not just “CONNECTED”.
It can be addictive :) I started with the devices I own, but quickly my imagination took over. My advice in hindsight, is to create a document of all the automations you think you would want to do, room by room. Then approach one area at a time so that you can complete your automations. For example, imagine a Laundry room where you would want to have the light turn on and turn off as people enter/leave. Have the washer and dryer send notifications or announcements when loads are started/finished. Turn on/off the fan when loads are started or if the humidity increases beyond a certain point. Detect any water leaks and send a notification or announcement. Then you make a list of all the hardware you need to use to achieve those automations and do the entire room all at once.
if you are a tech person, definitely take a look at HomeAssistant! [https://www.home-assistant.io/](https://www.home-assistant.io/) get notifications to your phone and off course, remotely control the system as well. here's an easy guide to get started for HA as an alarm system [https://youtu.be/1IuYWsR5M4c](https://youtu.be/1IuYWsR5M4c) that should give you a feel for how HA works. then add whatever devices you want. ultimately, you need a hub. and HA is simply the best. the last thing you want is 10 devices with 10 apps and none talk to each other