It seems that there are a lot of things to consider before even buying the first smart device. How would you start when you would start over?
Are there any good beginner guides that helped you?
Important points for me are
- privacy (everything should be local, no Alexa-Karens in my home)
- use of open source/free software
- a good variety of smart things I can use (I don’t want to be tied Apple-like to only one company)
Is there a golden way to build a smart home with these factors in mind?
I started with a bunch of cloud connected expensive wifi devices that would have all sorts of issues on the consumer crap wifi router I had at the time.
The amount of money I spent on those devices would have been much, much better spent on something non IP based like zigbee or zwave devices with a hardwired hub.
These days I finally have a more pro grade network setup that handles all the Wi-Fi IOT devices I have just fine, but it could have been so, so much simpler.
I always had the high end network, and I still hate them.
Wemo devices randomly stop working, tplink devices don’t give you access to all of the controls/data, myQ just decided to shit the bed, Tuya intermittently shits the bed, all the management apps and their separate credentials are a fucking pain, the integrations are painful and numerous and my zigbee/zwave just keep trucking along.
I started with a bunch of Tuya devices that are almost all flashed over to tasmota etc. by now.
What really got me to actually start with home assistant though, is the exterior blinds controllers I bought. They kept losing wifi after a few days until I rebooted them, but they were hardwired, so every day I would have to turn off a circuit in my house with everything connected to it.
I flashed them with openbeken OTA and now they almost always work and, even if they didnt, they have already rebooted and are working again.