Home Assistant Podcast

From Tuya to Home Assistant: A Kiwi’s Smart Home Journey

Home Assistant Podcast

Show Notes

Steve from New Zealand (Kiwi Smart Tech) shares his journey from Tuya bulbs to a powerful Home Assistant setup. We dig into garage door woes and wins, cross‑protocol sensors, mmWave presence, and why Apple Home is his go‑to interface Watch this episode on YouTube Show notes for this episode are available at https://homeassistant.fm/HA237

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Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:03:00 Steve’s Kiwi smart home origin 00:10:15 First Home Assistant wins and fails 00:16:00 Garage door saga and ESPHome 00:23:50 Access control 00:28:01 From tinkerer to creator 00:41:00 Apple Home as UI 00:46:30 Ambient alerts: plants, leaks 00:55:10 Appliances, HACS, lock‑in 01:04:00 Cameras and continuous video 01:07:30 Wrap‑up and links

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

Apollo Automation Apollo Automation are the makers of open source smart home sensors built for the Home Assistant ecosystem. They're an official Open Home Foundation commercial partner and their devices are built with local control, privacy, and reliability in mind, giving you full control and flexibility right out of the box.

Products we Recommend

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

Rohan Karamandi Website Twitter: @rohank9 Buy Rohan a Coffee

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