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How much work was it to set all that up and how much did it cost? I've messed around with home assistant, but found the upfront cost (in time and money) a bit high for automating a handful of things.
I started with things I already had, an old Raspberry Pi, some smart plugs and bulbs, an alarm system, wifi thermostat and OpenWRT router and initially installed the software just to play around. It didn't take long before I was able to control everything from a single dashboard instead of multiple web pages and apps. I found that since it connects everything it can change the thermostat and turn on lights when alarm system motion detectors or door sensors are triggered or not triggered for a few hours. Our cell phones are used for presence detection and none of that required additional hardware.
The additions beyond that have been done slowly and the costs have been minimal. At this point I've probably I've probably spent <$450 over 4 years including $180 for an inexpensive laptop. This is for something that's in use constantly. I enjoy learning and puzzles so I'd spend an hour or two here and there figuring things out. For me it's been time well spent.
Individual devices can range from dirt cheap to fairly expensive, but it all adds up over time.
Getting things initially set up is usually easy. Getting things automated correctly to your liking is a rabbit hole that is as deep as you want to dive into it.
What's really nice about HA is being able to do whatever the fuck you want whenever you want. You can take it in bites buying devices in waves and tweaking automations in waves.
That's how I've done it over the last 4 years or so.