Happy New year Everyone and all the best for 2022!

Last year, I posted quite a lot about smart home and what it takes to get it going. With a lot of eco system around, it gets difficult to manage.

One of the major challenge with smart homes is having different ecosystems to interact with each other. Investing in one ecosystem might be a good idea but the risk is too high. For example, I have Amazon Alexa, Philips Hue, Sonoff, Tuya, Switchbot and others in my house and its not possible to automate them in one routine. You have to create routines on each of these apps and then remember to manage them!

What if I need an automation that says if the Philips Motion Sensor detects movement in the house, do not arm the alarm at night? Well, you simply cannot with the base apps. You need an all-in-one solution that can use all these lights, sensors, switches, etc. and make them run like one ecosystem. This is very much possible with Home Assistant.

Home Assistant is free and allows you to manage your home in one central place. The only caveat here is that you need dedicated hardware to run it. You can also design nice dashboards for controls (pictured above).

I have been testing and using Home Assistant over the past few months and automating nearly everything possible. While I will not be going into details in this post, you can expect the following in the coming weeks /months!

  • Home Assistant (What hardware am I using, how am I automating it and some general ideas to simplify your life)
  • SwitchBot Eco System (Automating Air Conditioners, all infrared devices and routines).
  • Broadlink IR devices for automating dumb a/c (using Home Assistant)

Stay Tuned and Stay Safe!