Home Assistant Podcast

How Andrew Rebuilt His Solo Smart Home When a Roommate Moved In

Home Assistant Podcast

Show Notes

Andrew joins Phil and Rohan to share how he outgrew Apple HomeKit and built a powerful multi-user smart home in Home Assistant. We cover presence detection with ESP32s and sensors, ditching MyQ for a Meross garage opener, Yale smart locks, bathroom humidity fan automations, and fun ESPN sports goal alerts.

Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA223

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Share your story We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters 00:00:00 - Welcome, Sponsors, Intro 00:02:00 - Andrew’s Tech Beginnings 00:05:00 - From Apple Home to HA 00:08:00 - Breaking HomeKit Limitations 00:11:00 - Hardware: Pi to Proxmox 00:14:00 - Backups, Restores, Cleanup 00:16:30 - Multi-User Automation Challenges 00:19:00 - Presence Without Phone Tracking 00:22:00 - Buttons, Switches, Voice Balance 00:25:00 - ESP32 Presence And Motion 00:29:00 - Bathroom Humidity Fan Logic 00:33:00 - Sensor Health & Batteries 00:36:00 - Lighting Philosophy & Accents 00:39:00 - WLED, TV Backlights, Aesthetics 00:41:30 - Goals For The Year, Wrap-Up

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Zooz If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers. For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to https://thesmartesthouse.com

Notion Notion is an AI-powered, connected workspace for teams. Notion brings all your notes, docs, and projects into one space that just works. Try Custom Agents now at https://notion.com/homeassistant

Products Discussed Meross Smart Garage Door Opener (with reed sensor): https://amzn.to/4ratgV5 Third Reality Smart Switch (Toggle/rocker add-on): https://amzn.to/4kupS4S Aqara Temperature & Humidity Sensor: https://amzn.to/4twysV1 Philips Hue Dimmer Switch: https://amzn.to/3MskUZN Philips Hue Lightstrips: https://amzn.to/465QhA5 Govee Floor Lamp: https://amzn.to/4rfMRDv

Hosts Phil Hawthorne Website Smart Home Products Twitter: @philhawthorne Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi Website Smart Home Products Twitter: @rohank9 Buy Rohan a Coffee

This episode contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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