Smart Home

Introduction

To come…

Home Assistant

In our house pretty much everything “smart” is based around Home Assistant.

Initially our HA setup just had those devices, components, etc. which were generally hidden from people in the day-to-day, either as they’re:

• Things which happen without any interaction (e.g. cameras), or
• They’re doing stuff like monitoring and logging of data

But that’s been expanded over time to include all the devices which have “user interaction” as well.

Home Assistant comes with a number of advantages over setups like Apple Home:

• It has a lot more flexibility than either Apple Home or many other smart home tools, both in the number of different devices and device types it supports, but also in better options for automations, scenes, dashboards, etc
• It can handle both true smart home style tasks - when ‘x’ happens do ‘y’ - as well as background activities like data logging and statistics
• It’s accessible from a wider set of clients, I can access it from phones, tablets, and browsers; not just Apple devices via the Home app.
• It’s extremely expandible / extensible through Apps and integrations, whether produced by Home Assistant, 3rd parties, or myself (it pretty much can connect to anything which has some form of network connection)

But also a number of disadvantages:

• It can be overwhelming for a new user to get started in Home Assistant, and it can take greater time and effort to get to a configuration equivalent to Apple Home
• There’s still a huge reliance on community level support to find out how to do stuff, mainly a combination of the Home Assistant forums and Discord.
• You don’t get the same options of resiliency as you do with Apple Home (Apple allows you to run multiple Apple TV & HomePod with automated failover).
• While there’s a large range of Integrations, they’re all of varying quality and level of integration with whatever they talk to (some blatantly use undocumented accesses or reverse engineering to work) which can cause integrations to have issues or just fail to work.

Devices I Use

Lighting

Device	Why	How	Note
Nanoleaf Lines (NL59)	On the wall in my home office, providing some ambient light while I’m working	Nanoleaf over WiFi
Nanoleaf Essentials Matter Lightstrip (NL68)	Used in the bedrooms as nightlights at the head of the beds, plus for under counter lighting in the kitchen, and at the foot of the stairs	Matter over Thread
Nanoleaf Essentials Matter A19 Bulb (NL67)	Used in a couple of standalone living room lights	Matter over Thread
Meross Smart Wi-Fi Ambient Light (MSL430)	Used as a table light in one of the bedrooms	Meross LAN over WiFi
Govee Outdoor Clear Bulb String Lights	Used as outdoor lighting at the front of the house	Matter over WiFi
WLED (Various Hardware)	Used for “under table” lighing in the hallway, and “above shelf” lighting in my home office	WLED over WiFi

Switching

Device	Why	How	Note
Eve Energy	Used for switching on/off my 3D printer	Matter over Thread
Eightree Matter Smart Plug (Amazon Link)	Used for various devices around the hosue, plus for controlling outside Christmas lights in December	Matter over WiFi	Review
Shelly Plus Plug UK	Used for power monitoring for my under-stairs IT kit	Shelly over WiFi

Buttons

Device	Why	How	Note
ThirdReality Smart Button	Used in a couple of rooms for light and device control	Zigbee
Aqara Wireless Mini Switch	Used in a few rooms for light and device control	Zigbee

Sensors

Device	Why	How	Note
ThirdReality Motion Sensor	Used for motion sensing in a couple of rooms	Zigbee
Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2	Used for motion sensing in the hallway and landing	Matter over Thread
Aqara Temperature and Humidity Sensor	Used for temperature and humidity sensing in multiple rooms around the house	Zigbee
Meross Smart Presence Sensor	Used for motion and presence in the living room (currently testing)	Matter over Thread
Everything Presence Lite	Used for motion and presence in my home office	ESPHome over WiFi
ThirdReality Door & Window Sensor	Used for detecting external doors open/closed	Zigbee
ThirdReality Water Leak	Used under the kitchen sink to detect water leaks	Zigbee
Xiaomi Plant Monitor	Used for checking water levels etc. for a couple of house plants	Bluetooth

Power Monitoring

Device	Why	How	Note
Shelly Pro 3EM	Monitoring power usage mains circuits in my consumer unit	Shelly over WiFI
Shelly EM Gen3	Monitoring power usage on the circuit supplying our garage	Shelly over WiFi

Cameras

Device	Why	How	Note
Reolink E1 Outdoor CX	Camera covering our driveway	Reolink over WiFI	Discontinued
Reolink Video Doorbell WiFi	Doorbell	Reolink over WiFI	Review

Appliances

Device	Why	How	Note
Samsung Washing Machine	Washing Machine	SmartThings via Cloud	Cloud
LG TV	TV	LG WebOS over WiFi
HP & Epson Printers	Printers	IPP over WiFi
Switchbot K11+ Vacuum	RoboVac	Matter over WiFi

Other

Device	Why	How	Note
Ohme Car Charger	Used to monitor electricity usage for car charging	Ohme Integration	Cloud
Octopus Energy	Used to monitor grid electricity usage	Octopus Energy Integration	Cloud

If you’re thinking about moving to Octopus, here’s my referral link!!!

ESPHome

I’ve also started dabbling in ESPHome, but that’s for later…

Apple Home / HomeKit

I have now largely moved over to Home Assistant for my smart home requirements. While some devices are still in Apple Home, it’s a minimal number and mainly Matter based devices.

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Posted/Updated on 23 February 2026

In DigitalGarden SmartHome HomeAssistant ESPHome AppleHome