Making my home "smart" in 2024. Where to even begin?

[Skipple]

I've never really had a reason nor opportunity to get into the SmartHome market previously. I've been fairly satisfied up until this point keeping my house somewhat traditional as far as technology goes. I run a Unifi WiFi system with a handful of APs scattered around the house, as well as a robust UnRAID server that manages a handful of different services. (Plex/Jellyfin, Request System, a few VMs, Gaming Servers, Websites, etc.) 

 

I recently came across a use case that got me interested in poking my head into the Smart Home landscape. I want to be able configure notifications to my phone when my washing machine and close dryer cycles are complete. I assume this would be fairly simple to configure: Install a sensor on both outlets and add workflow after the power consumption on the device drops.

Knowing myself, I imagine expanding my use case out from here. 

 

However looking into this I find myself overwhelmed with options. Zigbee, Z-Wave, Insteon, Lutron, Thread, Matter, WiFi, BLE, all with their different limitations, protocols, hubs, intercompatibility issues, etc. 

 

In the end I'm looking for the following: 

• Open source protocol
• Active user community
• Robust enterprise adoption and device availability with use of protocol
• Controlled via HomeAssistant (or similar) in a local containerized environment

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to start on my journey? All tips are greatly appreciated. 

[PowerPCFan]

20 minutes ago, Skipple said:

I've never really had a reason nor opportunity to get into the SmartHome market previously. I've been fairly satisfied up until this point keeping my house somewhat traditional as far as technology goes. I run a Unifi WiFi system with a handful of APs scattered around the house, as well as a robust UnRAID server that manages a handful of different services. (Plex/Jellyfin, Request System, a few VMs, Gaming Servers, Websites, etc.) 

 

I recently came across a use case that got me interested in poking my head into the Smart Home landscape. I want to be able configure notifications to my phone when my washing machine and close dryer cycles are complete. I assume this would be fairly simple to configure: Install a sensor on both outlets and add workflow after the power consumption on the device drops.

Knowing myself, I imagine expanding my use case out from here. 

 

However looking into this I find myself overwhelmed with options. Zigbee, Z-Wave, Insteon, Lutron, Thread, Matter, WiFi, BLE, all with their different limitations, protocols, hubs, intercompatibility issues, etc. 

 

In the end I'm looking for the following: 

• Open source protocol
• Active user community
• Robust enterprise adoption and device availability with use of protocol
• Controlled via HomeAssistant (or similar) in a local containerized environment

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to start on my journey? All tips are greatly appreciated. 

All i have to say is that I did it wrong - I got the "hubless" smart home devices, which means that you're stuck in a certain brand's ecosystem and each device has to individually connect to your router, instead of to a hub. 

 

Just make sure you get a hub and hub-compatible devices!!

 

For your washer/dryer project, I would add another condition, because some washers might pause for a few seconds between spin, rinse, wash, etc. That will drop power consumption. So if you usually run your washer for 1 hour, then you might want to add something like

 

"If the washer has been on for 1 hour and the wattage drops to 50w, send push notification to ___ devices" 

[tkitch]

or listen to Linus who said that making his home Smart was the biggest mistake of the new place

[Skipple]

11 minutes ago, tkitch said:

or listen to Linus who said that making his home Smart was the biggest mistake of the new place

I'm certainly not about to replace all my light switches. I'm not looking to smart-ify my entire house, simply play with the technology in a few specific use cases. 

[Skipple]

24 minutes ago, PowerPCFan said:

All i have to say is that I did it wrong - I got the "hubless" smart home devices, which means that you're stuck in a certain brand's ecosystem and each device has to individually connect to your router, instead of to a hub. 

Yes. This is exactly what I'm looking to avoid. 

[ToboRobot]

Rather than power monitoring, perhaps start with the machines themselves?  You can probably use a sbc to connect to the buzzer or light that activates when the cycle is complete.

The machine knows when it is done, use that signal.

 

[Brando212]

what all are you looking to automate/smartify?

 

Zigbee is still the way to go really and if you're just looking for entry level playing, I suggest Philips Hue hub.

 

Since Open Source is a factor for you I'll also recommend the next level hub:

https://www.amazon.com/Hubitat-Elevation-Automation-Pro-HomeKit/dp/B0CR4G1G8M/

 

The Hubitat hub is a little pricey at $199 but has some of the best compatibility out there for Zigbee/Zwave/etc. Even support the Philips Hue bulbs which are still considered some of the best on the market.

[PowerPCFan]

11 minutes ago, Skipple said:

I'm certainly not about to replace all my light switches. I'm not looking to smart-ify my entire house, simply play with the technology in a few specific use cases. 

I replaced my light switch, definitely worth it lol

I just walk in and boom! all of my lamps and lights all turned on with the built-in motion sensor. 

[OddOod]

25 minutes ago, PowerPCFan said:

I replaced my light switch, definitely worth it lol

I just walk in and boom! all of my lamps and lights all turned on with the built-in motion sensor. 

What did you use? I'm interested in this for all of one room in my house, but the switch doesn't look into the room

[PowerPCFan]

1 minute ago, OddOod said:

What did you use? I'm interested in this for all of one room in my house, but the switch doesn't look into the room

I used this Kasa switch to go with my Kasa smart bulbs: 

https://www.amazon.com/Kasa-Smart-Compatible-Assistant-ES20M/dp/B09NMX9N24/

 

It doesn't use a hub though, it's the kind I was saying NOT to get lol

But it works great if you just have smart stuff in one room and don't need a huge ecosystem with a hub

[StarsMars]

5 hours ago, Skipple said:

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to start on my journey? All tips are greatly appreciated. 

Read The Veldt by Ray Bradbury.

[Stahlmann]

Stay away from smart homes. They create as much works as they claim to solve. Your washing maching should show how long it takes once you start the program, then set a timer on your phone. Are you really prepared to spend money and time solving such a minor thing?

[seanondemand]

I would keep your expectations in check, and put together a short and long term list of what home items you want to be smart. I’m a smart home guy but thoroughly in the Apple ecosystem so HomeKit integration (or at least homebridge/scrypted) support has been my method and that fulfilled my expectations of local, non-cloud based control and stable performance. I have personally talked to MAANG engineers who have tried doing your washer/dryer example and found it either too unstable or too variable to work consistently and just folded and found a scrypted integration for their washer/dryer brand into HomeKit/google assistant. Most serious home nerds will tell you that

• Lutron is by far the best, most bulletproof, most wife-approved lighting solution out there if you don’t really care about rgb, because it works at the switch level and uses their own, Lutron-owned RF spectrum from their hub
• ikea is shockingly capable for the price, and their hub doubles as a zigbee controller
• don’t bother with cameras that integrate into a smart home system, they’re generally bad

[Skipple]

2 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

Your washing maching should show how long it takes once you start the program, then set a timer on your phone.

I think you underestimate how old my washing machine is. 

 

2 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

Are you really prepared to spend money and time solving such a minor thing?

I completely understand that this is more of an effort of passion more than one in utility. At the end of the day I'm a tinkerer and I enjoy playing with and learning about technology. I wouldn't be running a horribly inefficient server in the basement if I didn't.

 

There is more than likely an easier/simpler way to accomplish what I'm attempting to do. I'm doing it for the love of the game. 

[Skipple]

4 minutes ago, seanondemand said:

don’t bother with cameras that integrate into a smart home system, they’re generally bad

I wasn't planning on it. I run about half a dozen UniFI Protect cameras and planning another 4 or so. I love their ecosystem for that and I don't plan on moving off anytime soon. 

[Digital_Wizard]

You've already mentioned HomeAssistant which is definitely your best bet - open source, actively being developed, and great community.

 

You can either install this on an existing machine as an OS, or use something like Docker. Alternately, they have just released their own hardware with HASS preinstalled: https://www.home-assistant.io/green/

 

I'd avoid smart devices/bulbs that use WiFi - they're just extra noise/clutter on an already busy bandwidth. For wireless smart home devices I would recommend starting on Zigbee as it's one of the most popular standards. If you get yourself a USB dongle for this then you won't need multiple hubs for each brand of device you have as you can just connect zigbee devices directly to your HASS install and they'll all work together - the SONOFF one is good and what I use, but the HomeAssistant dongle also looks good: https://www.home-assistant.io/connectzbt1

 

Once you have a zigbee dongle there's a large range of relatively cheap devices from SONOFF, Aqara, and IKEA you can use to get started and playing around with really easily. As others have recommended, I would avoid adding smart lights to every fixed wall/ceiling light, as it can be very frustrating to lose control of your lights if your zigbee network or HASS server is playing up - just keep them dumb and save the smart bulbs for things like table/floor lamps.

 

As for your washing cycle notification then yes a sensor attached to the plug than can detect power usage could work. You'd set up an automation in HASS to detect a power surge, and then set/reset a timeout to trigger a notification 20 mins or so later of no power activity, or if the power activity drops below a certain threshold.

[ender23]

HomeAssistant has a great Discord Channel, full of people willing to help and field questions. https://www.home-assistant.io/join-chat

 

Typical recommendation for Home Assistant is to run it on bare metal or using promox + Home Assistant OS. Many people use n100 PCs for these configurations.

 

If you want to run Hue devices you don't need their hub, you can just get a zigbee coordinator like this one from HA: https://www.home-assistant.io/connectzbt1

 

As for your original ask around the washer and dryer, you could definitely accomplish this with a smart plug that has power monitoring (power level dropping below a threshold would be the trigger for your automation, your action would be a notification to 1+ devices using the HA app). You could also do it with a vibration sensor mounted on the washer or dryer. Zigbee stuff is cheap, but operates on 2.4ghz spectrum so if you have a busy wifi network(or your neighbors do) you could see drops in your zigbee mesh network. Z-wave is more expensive, but also operates in a mesh and uses a different part of the wireless spectrum. I'm primarily using z-wave in my house, with a few zigbee devices, and 1-2 wifi devices (mmWave presence detection).