I just bought my first apartment and I would like to make as much as possible smart and connectable to Home Assistant. I have to redo the whole apartment (electricity, walls, etc) so drilling some extra holes is not a problem ;)
I just have a few questions where I can’t really find a good answer to it. I hope you guys can help me :)
First of all, I have a few criteria:
Everything should be local only (so no 3rd party cloud or accounts)
Selfhosting is possible (I have a Proxmox server running Home Assistant in a VM)
It doesn’t have to be of the shelf hardware (DIY is fine, if it works as expected).
I prefer FOSS over proprietary software/hardware (I know that FOSS hardware is difficult to find). If proprietary see point 1 & 2.
Zigbee/Zwave > ethernet > wifi
Available in Europe
What I’m struggling with:
Lighting: What is the best solution for smart lighting? I already have a few Philips Hue bulbs and switches, now with the account restrictions they have I was thinking of buying a Sonoff Zigbee USB dongle off AliExpress instead of using the Hue Hub. Are there any better solutions like Shelly maybe or something else? For LED Strips I was thinking of using WLED on an ESP32
Smart blinds, I already found some smart blinds (Like the one from Ikea) but they all work on batteries. As I have to redo the whole apartment I would like to have something that I don’t have to charge every few months.
Smart plugs: Maybe any in-wall/out-wall outlet that has the capability to see electricity usage that you recommend?
Audio: I would like to have some multi-room audio as I really like to listen to music. I have 4 rooms that I want to control the music in. I was thinking to buy 4 old Sonos Connect AMPs Gen 1 from eBay, than I saw that they are not compatible with streaming music from my Navidrome (subsonic server) using HA. Is this true? Also I found a promising project called Snapcast, is it good?
Sorry for the long post, thank you so much for your time!
If you have some tips and tricks you want to share that will be kind of you :)
I’m not sure how many boxes it ticks off for you, but I’ve been trying to get away from Tuya gear and a friend put me on to “Athom”. Most (all?) of their stuff seems to come pre-flashed with Tasmota and with what I’ve had, it integrates nicely with home assistant (mqtt + tasmota plugin, config the globe and you’re good to go).
I’ve just gotten two of their 15W led globes plus a WS2812 addressable LED controller a few weeks ago, and so far so good with all of the above.
From what I’ve seen I’m pretty sure they have plugs/sockets for a few different countries available, they have in-wall stuff, smart light switches, relays, and pretty sure they do some zigbee or similar as well.
I picked mine up from Ali Express but I’ve seen them on Amazon and they’re probably available on other places as well (eBay, etc).
I also have a handful of athom smart plugs but I went the ESPHome firmware route directly from their shop. Just connected to WiFi and HA picked them up immediately.
Use IKEA Tradfri bulbs and get a Zigbee coordinator stick that’ll work with HA (Sonoff Dongle-E ZigBee 3.0). Some of their bulbs are CRI 90+ which is great. They’ll also act as Zigbee bridges.
If you can, add Shelly 1’s to all light switches so you have manual control over them (via HA).
You can also just put shellies only and use normal light bulbs.
If you’re redoing the whole place (including windows), add standard electric covers and then use Shelly Plus 2PM which will allow you to set the precise position as well. It’ll be hidden in the wall behind the switch and allow manual control as you would if there wasn’t anything smart behind it.
Shelly 1PM if you need power measurement, but if you don’t want to fiddle with power sockets and mounting stuff behind them, you can also use any Zigbee/Z-Wave plugs.
HomePods could do the job if you’re in that ecosystem. Snapcast has matured so it might be a viable option as well, albeit less clean. If you wish to go the Sonos route, check IKEA’s sonos speakers as they’re cheaper and perform excellent.
Bonus: Spin up OpenWRT + managed switch + a dedicated AP if you want to have a killer network that can handle insane amount of devices and throughput. Also make sure to route Ethernet cables to every room (use CAT6A for future proofing) and add an additional one in the room you wish to put your WiFi AP in so you don’t have to use a switch there if you wish to have a Ethernet connected device in there as well. Depending on the apartment size, you can get 2 U6 Lite APs, flash them with OpenWRT and enable fast roaming or just get a U6 LR, but make sure you test the coverage thoroughly before drilling and installing. Either way, go with OpenWRT wherever you can, it’s an amazing piece of software.
Hi, thanks for your comment :) I just looked at the Ikea bulbs and they seem to be cheaper than Philips Hue. I’ll look into it more later today.
As for the blinds, that Shelly Plus 2PM looks interesting I have to look into it how it exactly works (I’m not an electrician, it’s all new for me ;) )
I’m not into the Apple ecosystem (for privacy reasons) You know any way to connect my Navidrome server to HA so I can stream to those Ikea Sonos speakers?
I already have a router flashed with OpenWRT and I really like it. I just bought Unifi Enterprise 24 PoE switch and a barebone router of AliExpress (4x 2.5G ports, intel celeron cpu) so I can experiment with OPNSense. For APs I already have some U6 LR, didn’t knew you can flash those with OpenWRT, will look into that :)
I’m a very much beginner on this and I’m just upgrading an old(ish, latest big remodel is from 90-91) house, so for me it’s important to have an solution which can extend on the existing wiring. I have couple of HeatIt Z-DIM2 dimmers and couple switches from TechniSat (altough these are pretty much impossible to get from Finland which would be nice for warranty and such). The best part for me is that you’ll still have the actual light switch, and on my case even the same rockers and covers from old ones, so you can either rely on automations with movement and light sensors and you still have the option to interact with lights by physically pushing buttons and turning knobs.
I also recently switched one of our floor heating thermostats to z-wave one (HeatIt Z-TRM3) with the same principle. It functions just the same than old one, so you can interact with it physically and then there’s the option to run as complex automations as you wish on the background. Personally I don’t like to rely only on (local) server and interface on my phone/tablet, since it’s often more convenient just to push a switch on a wall than open my phone and find an app on it (but the option to control stuff via app is nice).
Z-Wave has european store (shop.zwave.eu) and I’m pretty happy doing business with them. Couple of B-stock (customer returns and things like that) got RMA’d but beyond that they’ve been pretty reliable and warranties seem to work. Zigbee is something I’m planning to add, but for me they’re not a priority as there’s a lot to do for optimizing electricity consumption with existing hardware.
For DIY side of things I have couple of ESP32 based chinese knockoffs I’m planning to use with DHT22 sensors and potentially some LED strips, but that’s somewhere in the future. I also tinkered a bit with MySensors (mysensors.org) but NRF24L01+ transreceivers I got from ebay (dirt cheap, less than 1€ each) are apparently some counterfeits or factory rejects, as I didn’t get them to work reliably at all even from one end of the desk to another. Specially from ebay the price point of those is really tempting to add a ton of sensors to the system, but in my experience cheaping out on these is just a waste of money. I’m not that experienced with electronics tho, so maybe someone more experienced can give a more educated answer on these.
For smart plugs I have two POPE700397 to plug in random things. I got them to control car engine/indoor heaters and for that they’ve been really nice. I just need to work with home assistant addons a bit to get the scedule management to work properly with a smart phone. The stock timer on HA is a pain in the rear to manage with a touch screen, with keyboard and mouse it works just fine, but I don’t want to open a computer whenever I need to adjust times for those.
Hey, thanks for your detailed comment :)
That Z-Wave thermostat looks really clean. I’ll try to order those. I agree with you, you should always have a simple physical button to control something instead of only relying on an app on your smartphone.
I didn’t knew about the Z-Wave store, looks that they have good prices. I see you can only buy as B2B? Not that this is an issue for me.
MySensors looks really fun, I might order some parts to tinker with :)
Hm… I’ve also purchased everything from them as B2B, but I’m pretty sure you can checkout without retail login, just add stuff to the cart and checkout with paypal.
So using for example a Shelly relay would be more ideal? I was thinking of using smart lighting because you can for example have more warm light in the evening and more white light in the morning for example.
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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io
Hola :)
I’m not sure how many boxes it ticks off for you, but I’ve been trying to get away from Tuya gear and a friend put me on to “Athom”. Most (all?) of their stuff seems to come pre-flashed with Tasmota and with what I’ve had, it integrates nicely with home assistant (mqtt + tasmota plugin, config the globe and you’re good to go).
I’ve just gotten two of their 15W led globes plus a WS2812 addressable LED controller a few weeks ago, and so far so good with all of the above.
From what I’ve seen I’m pretty sure they have plugs/sockets for a few different countries available, they have in-wall stuff, smart light switches, relays, and pretty sure they do some zigbee or similar as well.
I picked mine up from Ali Express but I’ve seen them on Amazon and they’re probably available on other places as well (eBay, etc).
Best of luck!
In case it’s useful - athom on AliExpress:
athom global Store https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOtoqZ8
Be sure to click on the “All Items” tab - the home tab doesn’t show everything.
That looks really interesting, never heard of Tasmota. I’ll look into it thank you so much!
I also have a handful of athom smart plugs but I went the ESPHome firmware route directly from their shop. Just connected to WiFi and HA picked them up immediately.
If you can, add Shelly 1’s to all light switches so you have manual control over them (via HA).
You can also just put shellies only and use normal light bulbs.
Bonus: Spin up OpenWRT + managed switch + a dedicated AP if you want to have a killer network that can handle insane amount of devices and throughput. Also make sure to route Ethernet cables to every room (use CAT6A for future proofing) and add an additional one in the room you wish to put your WiFi AP in so you don’t have to use a switch there if you wish to have a Ethernet connected device in there as well. Depending on the apartment size, you can get 2 U6 Lite APs, flash them with OpenWRT and enable fast roaming or just get a U6 LR, but make sure you test the coverage thoroughly before drilling and installing. Either way, go with OpenWRT wherever you can, it’s an amazing piece of software.
Sonoff over Skyconnect?
Hi, thanks for your comment :) I just looked at the Ikea bulbs and they seem to be cheaper than Philips Hue. I’ll look into it more later today. As for the blinds, that Shelly Plus 2PM looks interesting I have to look into it how it exactly works (I’m not an electrician, it’s all new for me ;) ) I’m not into the Apple ecosystem (for privacy reasons) You know any way to connect my Navidrome server to HA so I can stream to those Ikea Sonos speakers?
I already have a router flashed with OpenWRT and I really like it. I just bought Unifi Enterprise 24 PoE switch and a barebone router of AliExpress (4x 2.5G ports, intel celeron cpu) so I can experiment with OPNSense. For APs I already have some U6 LR, didn’t knew you can flash those with OpenWRT, will look into that :)
If you have a network mount for your music, you can mount your share within HA and use HA as the media player if I’m not mistaken.
That would be a solution, only problem is that I don’t have my playlists. But that’s not that big if a deal.
I’m a very much beginner on this and I’m just upgrading an old(ish, latest big remodel is from 90-91) house, so for me it’s important to have an solution which can extend on the existing wiring. I have couple of HeatIt Z-DIM2 dimmers and couple switches from TechniSat (altough these are pretty much impossible to get from Finland which would be nice for warranty and such). The best part for me is that you’ll still have the actual light switch, and on my case even the same rockers and covers from old ones, so you can either rely on automations with movement and light sensors and you still have the option to interact with lights by physically pushing buttons and turning knobs.
I also recently switched one of our floor heating thermostats to z-wave one (HeatIt Z-TRM3) with the same principle. It functions just the same than old one, so you can interact with it physically and then there’s the option to run as complex automations as you wish on the background. Personally I don’t like to rely only on (local) server and interface on my phone/tablet, since it’s often more convenient just to push a switch on a wall than open my phone and find an app on it (but the option to control stuff via app is nice).
Z-Wave has european store (shop.zwave.eu) and I’m pretty happy doing business with them. Couple of B-stock (customer returns and things like that) got RMA’d but beyond that they’ve been pretty reliable and warranties seem to work. Zigbee is something I’m planning to add, but for me they’re not a priority as there’s a lot to do for optimizing electricity consumption with existing hardware.
For DIY side of things I have couple of ESP32 based chinese knockoffs I’m planning to use with DHT22 sensors and potentially some LED strips, but that’s somewhere in the future. I also tinkered a bit with MySensors (mysensors.org) but NRF24L01+ transreceivers I got from ebay (dirt cheap, less than 1€ each) are apparently some counterfeits or factory rejects, as I didn’t get them to work reliably at all even from one end of the desk to another. Specially from ebay the price point of those is really tempting to add a ton of sensors to the system, but in my experience cheaping out on these is just a waste of money. I’m not that experienced with electronics tho, so maybe someone more experienced can give a more educated answer on these.
For smart plugs I have two POPE700397 to plug in random things. I got them to control car engine/indoor heaters and for that they’ve been really nice. I just need to work with home assistant addons a bit to get the scedule management to work properly with a smart phone. The stock timer on HA is a pain in the rear to manage with a touch screen, with keyboard and mouse it works just fine, but I don’t want to open a computer whenever I need to adjust times for those.
Hey, thanks for your detailed comment :) That Z-Wave thermostat looks really clean. I’ll try to order those. I agree with you, you should always have a simple physical button to control something instead of only relying on an app on your smartphone.
I didn’t knew about the Z-Wave store, looks that they have good prices. I see you can only buy as B2B? Not that this is an issue for me.
MySensors looks really fun, I might order some parts to tinker with :)
Hm… I’ve also purchased everything from them as B2B, but I’m pretty sure you can checkout without retail login, just add stuff to the cart and checkout with paypal.
For lighting, I would personally avoid smart bulbs, especially if you are redoing the apartment anyway.
All they lead to from my experience are annoyances when guests/partners inevitably flick a switch and turn off the smart bulb.
I live in Australia so the spec may be different from where you are, but I have found ZigBee to work amazingly.
So using for example a Shelly relay would be more ideal? I was thinking of using smart lighting because you can for example have more warm light in the evening and more white light in the morning for example.
Why is Zigbee rated to be better than WiFi?
More stable connection and less latency I guess
Is using WiFi on the ESP32 buggy?
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