Home Automation

I recently saw someone mention

I work in IT, which is why you don’t find smart home devices in my home.

I do work in IT, but I do run smart home devices. However, I’m very mindful about my smart home device choices. For example, you will not find me using smart locks on my exterior doors. But I do have a smart thermostat, smart lighting, and Apple Homepods.

I’ve been interested in finding ways to integrate these technologies into more of a total smart home package. I’ve started using Home Assistant, an open source smart home orchestration platform, and I’ve started tying these technologies together with this platform. I’ve learned Home Assistant can really do a lot more than just home based automation, though. And here, I will explore all of this.

• Home Assistant - The brains
• Hue - Lights
• Hubitat - Hub for various little sensors
• Cameras - Home monitoring
• Person - Things that pertain to me
• Power - Monitoring of usage

You might notice my thermostat is not listed even though I noted it’s a smart device in my home. At the moment, I’m using a Nest Thermostat, but I plan to change this. I have not, yet, decided which direction I will be going. Integrating Nest Thermostat into Home Assistant is a pain to set up and maintain and I don’t want to deal with that.