home assistant Home Automation | Z-Wave with Home assistance or Alexa?

[Pog Bob]

I am still pretty new to the home automation stuff so be kind. I want the cheapest option possible, looking for something under $35 per unit, as I am buying over 30 light switches, about 4 being dimmable. My first questions is what Z-Wave light switches should I buy that are under $35 per unit. I am also considering using home assistance for the Z-Wave devices, so my second question is will home assistance running off a raspberry pi work? Which brings us to my next issues, using home assistance on a raspberry pi Can I control the lights from anywhere as long as I have an internet connection?  Right now I have 2 Leviton light switches that I can control from anywhere using the Alexa app, as my Alexa acts as a hub (as far as I know). But will I be able to do something like that where the pi will act as a hub?

 

Note: Not related but I am writing this at 4 am so if there are spelling mistakes or I am not making any sense please let me know and I can clarify.

[Lurick]

Home Assistant cloud does allow control from anywhere and integration with an assistant or without of your choice. You don't need a internet connection to use home assistant locally although it helps if you want to control your stuff when away from home without setting up a VPN. You don't need to pay ($3 or $5/month I forget) for the cloud functionality if you don't want to integrate with an assistant and are fine with connecting back home with a VPN or using another solution.

[Pog Bob]

9 hours ago, Lurick said:

Home Assistant cloud does allow control from anywhere and integration with an assistant or without of your choice. You don't need a internet connection to use home assistant locally although it helps if you want to control your stuff when away from home without setting up a VPN. You don't need to pay ($3 or $5/month I forget) for the cloud functionality if you don't want to integrate with an assistant and are fine with connecting back home with a VPN or using another solution.

Going to be honest I HATE having to vpn back home, but home assistant cloud just doesn't seem like something I want. I much rather do VPN or another solution if there aren't any alternatives to home assistant cloud. 

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, Pog Bob said:

Going to be honest I HATE having to vpn back home, but home assistant cloud just doesn't seem like something I want. I much rather do VPN or another solution if there aren't any alternatives to home assistant cloud. 

Yah, basically you either expose it directly to the internet (very very bad, lol), VPN, or HA Cloud is basically the options at this point.

[Pog Bob]

4 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Yah, basically you either expose it directly to the internet (very very bad, lol), VPN, or HA Cloud is basically the options at this point.

If you have any other alternatives for HA let me know, for now I am going to look into VPN, tunneling and maybe other ways to connect home for HA. Maybe consider HA cloud if my budget allows for it, which I don't think it will.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, Pog Bob said:

If you have any other alternatives for HA let me know, for now I am going to look into VPN, tunneling and maybe other ways to connect home for HA. Maybe consider HA cloud if my budget allows for it, which I don't think it will.

The bright side is it’s easy.  It’s a set it and forget it kind of thing.  

[Kilrah]

You don't need any paid option to have your self-hosted HA instance online as long as you know your IP/use dynamic DNS and set up proper routing. It uses a proper login with 2FA like any good service.

[Pog Bob]

12 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

You don't need any paid option to have your self-hosted HA instance online as long as you know your IP/use dynamic DNS and set up proper routing. It uses a proper login with 2FA like any good service.

See that is the issue I am very new to this stuff, so setting up IP/dynamic DNS and proper routing are not things I know how to do right.

48 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

The bright side is it’s easy.  It’s a set it and forget it kind of thing.  

Ya true.

[Kilrah]

If HA is the only service you need to access from the outside all that might be needed is a couple of changes to your router config, basically forwarding a port or 2 to your server, and a lot of routers support dynamic DNS so you can sign up to one of the services it supports, enter the details and you're set.

[Sprawlie]

14 hours ago, Pog Bob said:

I am still pretty new to the home automation stuff so be kind. I want the cheapest option possible, looking for something under $35 per unit, as I am buying over 30 light switches, about 4 being dimmable. My first questions is what Z-Wave light switches should I buy that are under $35 per unit. I am also considering using home assistance for the Z-Wave devices, so my second question is will home assistance running off a raspberry pi work? Which brings us to my next issues, using home assistance on a raspberry pi Can I control the lights from anywhere as long as I have an internet connection?  Right now I have 2 Leviton light switches that I can control from anywhere using the Alexa app, as my Alexa acts as a hub (as far as I know). But will I be able to do something like that where the pi will act as a hub?

 

Note: Not related but I am writing this at 4 am so if there are spelling mistakes or I am not making any sense please let me know and I can clarify.

Question 1: No clue. Not using Zwave lights myself. sorry. But the answer interests me so watching.

 

Question 2: Yeah, Home Assistant runs fairly well on a Pi. Should make sure you have a 4gb model as 2gb can become slow depending on how many integrations and what kind of integrations you use.

 

Question 3: Yes. Home assistant replaces the online service provider for controlling the lights. There are a couple ways of safely opening up access to your instance online. There's a cloud service by the makers of Home Assistant if you're not comfortable with your own network security and exposing a server to the internet.

 

Question 4: Yes. The Pi will act as a central hub, controlling every device you integrate into it. There are even integrations to enable alexa to be used as a voice control for your Home Assistant instance.

 

Warning: Home Assistant is massively powerful. But it can be massively frustrating and may require a little bit of trial and error, and editting configuration files in YAML. And you might find that not everything is well documented.

 

Quote

See that is the issue I am very new to this stuff, so setting up IP/dynamic DNS and proper routing are not things I know how to do right.

HA has an integration for DuckDNS that will automatically update a public DNS you can create with their service. If I remember right (I don't use it), it'll regularly update DuckDNS with your IP and assign you a subdomain like something "PogBogsHA.DuckDNS.com". And I think it will also take care of any Certificates required via LetsEncrypt. 

 

Genuinely curious if any other HA user uses this integration though and can chime on it's reliability.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Sprawlie

[Pog Bob]

6 hours ago, Kilrah said:

If HA is the only service you need to access from the outside all that might be needed is a couple of changes to your router config, basically forwarding a port or 2 to your server, and a lot of routers support dynamic DNS so you can sign up to one of the services it supports, enter the details and you're set.

Ik no-ip is not a bad one.

 

4 hours ago, Sprawlie said:

Question 1: No clue. Not using Zwave lights myself. sorry. But the answer interests me so watching.

 

Question 2: Yeah, Home Assistant runs fairly well on a Pi. Should make sure you have a 4gb model as 2gb can become slow depending on how many integrations and what kind of integrations you use.

 

Question 3: Yes. Home assistant replaces the online service provider for controlling the lights. There are a couple ways of safely opening up access to your instance online. There's a cloud service by the makers of Home Assistant if you're not comfortable with your own network security and exposing a server to the internet.

 

Question 4: Yes. The Pi will act as a central hub, controlling every device you integrate into it. There are even integrations to enable alexa to be used as a voice control for your Home Assistant instance.

 

Warning: Home Assistant is massively powerful. But it can be massively frustrating and may require a little bit of trial and error, and editting configuration files in YAML. And you might find that not everything is well documented.

 

HA has an integration for DuckDNS that will automatically update a public DNS you can create with their service. If I remember right (I don't use it), it'll regularly update DuckDNS with your IP and assign you a subdomain like something "PogBogsHA.DuckDNS.com". And I think it will also take care of any Certificates required via LetsEncrypt. 

 

Genuinely curious if any other HA user uses this integration though and can chime on it's reliability.

Holy, the amount of info here helped out a lot. I am comfortable with loading up HA and giving it a shot and port forwarding and setting up dns for it. BUT not only do I have renovations going on, I am still looking for a good cheap (under $35 per unit) z-wave light switch as I need about 25 of them.