Home Automation

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Home automation is the residential extension of building automation.

It is automation of the home, housework or household activity.

Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.

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How to convert new home into Smart home (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by bmfsfan@alien.top to c/homeautomation@selfhosted.forum

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I’m new to smart home / automation and was looking for advice on starting from scratch at a new home. I see a lot of folks here mention Home Assistant and the debate on whether to use wifi/cloud connected devices vs a local network.

Given I’m not a computer expert, looking for suggestions on how to get started on making my home smart with a centralized control type panel and recommendations on the items you like most. For context, I’m hoping to have smart locks, smart bulbs/lightswitches that can be controlled by phone and voice, smart garage opener, smart plugs, tvs if possible (and open to other suggestions)

Thanks for your time and assistance!

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[–] bmfsfan@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Which hardware do you use/find best to run HA?

[–] ParticularCod6@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

most computers will run on it fine. raspbery pi were to go to a few years back, inexpensive, low power usage and decenttly powerful; however, the shortages during covid meant that they were very expensive, and on those price ranges, mini computers blew them out of the water in terms of performance. Look for a pc with n100 (which is still way more power than you need) and you should be good.

tldr: any computer in the last 10 years will run it fine

[–] bmfsfan@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Thank you - if I were to purchase a mini desktop PC (like the KAMRUI AK1 Plus Mini), what else would I need other than a CPU monitor? I’ve read about USB live images?