this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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homeassistant

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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

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The best and worst decisions I made for my smart home - YouTube (youtube.com)
submitted 5 months ago by sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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[–] Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Best:

Network rack, unifi wifi, and cabling

Home assistant

Zigbee devices.

Smart heating/cooling

Automated lights

Hacked T6Es

Worst:

Batteried smart blinds (with not battery level reporting)

Bed mat sensors (some issues)

[–] andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Haven't watched the video yet, but I'm a huge fan of our plug-in z-wave smart blinds. Makes getting all that extra light way easier and automatable.

[–] Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

In short, the issue was that the battery blinds don't alert when they are low battery, and he didn't think to hard-wire them in advance.

Ones that are close enough to power, he's run some 5v lines on an automation timer.

[–] mathesonian@kbin.social 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

what brand? I've been wanting to get some zwave blinds soon.

[–] andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun 2 points 5 months ago

I ordered them through Lowes and they had all sorts of options for connectivity and power, including just old school chains. Looks like they're Bali brand.

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

I also got Z-wave shades from Bali when Home Depot had a 50% off custom window treatments sale. They've been wonderful, and integrate with Home Assistant very nicely overall. Battery lasts a long time (about 6 months of use, with a daily "round trip" and they're still at about 60%) and status gets reported back. One piece on one shade got machined weirdly so I couldn't use the Z-wave, and they were happy to send a replacement.

Bali is manufactured by a company called Springs Window Fashions. Might be worth looking into them and their other brands too!

Oh, and Home Depot has sample material books you can take home for a night to see what would work best for you.