5 Reasons Not to Build a Smart Home on home Assistant

In this video, I am doing something a bit different.

We have talked a lot about Home Assistant and using some different ways to build a smart home using Home Assistant. But It's not for everyone, no matter how much I think everyone SHOULD be using it.

So if you are considering whether home Assistant is the right platform for you, here are 5 Reasons I think might give you pause. The purpose of this video is not to convince either way. I simply want you to have as much information as possible so you can make the best decision for yourself.

And with that... let's get to it.

Video Sections:

00:00 5 Reasons you may not want a Home Assistant Smart Home - Intro
00:49 Home Assistant Makes You Choose Your Own Adventure
02:00 Home Assistant isn't Always Easy
03:12 Home Assistant requires more Attention
04:00 Home Assistant Breaks from Time to Time
05:18 Home Assistant is built for Tinkers
06:14 Wrapping up

Things Mentioned / Referenced in this video:

#homeassistant #smarthome #homeautomation

Who am I?

My Name is Jeff. I am a DIY-er and Automator of boring things. And, of course, a huge Home Assistant fan. Oh, I also live in a house that tweets.

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Video Gear:

[gildaslefur]

Thank you for keeping it real and honest.
I agree with all your points. It can definitely be very intimidating in the beginning but what a reward when everything finally works together.
Stick with it and it's worth it in the end.

[itsJoshW]

Home Assistant was made for tinkerererererers. Got it.

[guitarchitectural]

Thank you SO much for this. I've been wondering if I should re-think my setup recently, as I'm looking at video doorbells. I currently run everything off of Homeseer... it's "OK" and gets the job done, but I'm looking for something with a higher WAF that will better integrate my thermostat (ecobee), home theater (logitech), lights/sensors (zwave), and doorbell/security cameras (undetermined but leaning amcrest). It seemed like Home Assistant has made a lot of progress since i first set everything up, but i'm definitely having cold feet seeing this video. I used to like to tinker, but with kids and less free time - i don't any more. I just want things to work and work well, but i also don't want to get locked onto a platform where i have to buy specific devices. I set up my current Homeseer setup a few years ago on an RPi and haven't touched it, so there are major points for stability there!! But they are slow as molasses for updates and lots of new technologies just don't have plugins, at all.

What do you think -- can home assistant be stable enough to work well or is it, in its current form, still requiring code and other stuff to work well?

[EsotericArctos]

Ultimately, honesty is needed rather than being obessed with a platform. If all you need is some automated lights, a few motion sensors and a thermostat then honestly you don't need Home Assistant. If you mainly want voice assistants to do the job, you don't want Home Assistant. Thank you for your honesty. So many get obsessed with a platform and think everyone should use it no matter what. It's good to see people who love the platform, but know when it is not the best solution.

[A_Ck]

One of the best advice I got this year, I wish I had seen your video before I did sank in this misrable journey " Home Assistant "😢

[TheAdminFromHell]

Home Assistant is perfect for us that are into mental self-mutilation 👍

[yorks_atheist]

having come over from openHAB about 3 years ago can tell you HA is a dream, but I'm a born tinkerer discovered less stuff breaks if you only use open source firmwares and if it does the fix is soon avail

[the_smart_home_maker]

Clear words - good advice for users that are not makers / tinkerers

[PersonXes]

All these comments made on this video seem so familiar! Very strange how you have to first climb a mountain of sleepless nights before finally reaching the heavenly dream called home assistant. Very happy I did climb that mountain, because HA heaven is o so sweet.

[hippieredneckgeekbuildsstu]

Jeff, Thanks from another Georgian (I'm not far from you in Bethlehem) who's been working on home automation for a while. I only recently found Home Assistant and your videos have helped me thru some of the things that I have had issues with.

[miketony]

I would love to see your take on a semi advanced topic like firmware updates on z-wave devices (i.e like an inovelli or zooz switch). It's so painful in ST as you need to unpair, update on a separate z-stick and then repair. Obviously all automation break as a result. I'm curious if HA makes this easier

[garryk]

Doing some research about using Home Assistant and came across your channel and videos. Very helpful and useful information given on your videos I have watched. By the way I love your shirt where did you get it. I still remember that equation for Force because of my high school physics teacher over 30 years ago. Thanks for the great content

[DesertGardenPrepper]

You're pretty funny dude. I have spent a few evenings beating my head against some HA code (non programmer) and gone to bed with the sun coming up and the birds beginning to chirp outside, lol. damn birds!

[CMDR_Analdo_Blackvoid]

I’ve Smart Home units based on WiFi, BlueTooth, Z-wave, Zigbee and Philips Hue and I would love to gather them all in Home Assistant, but it isn’t exactly and easy task.

I already have a Home Assistant account and a running installation on a Raspberry Pi, but I’ve never really got started using it.

Currently I have something that work … somehow, and I don’t really have the patience spending long nights surfing the internet to find a solution on how to make none-generic units work with HA.

I’m not a novice in this field. I have been designing hard- and software for more than 40 years and it was fun back then, in the mid 70’ties, to mess around with this kind of stuff ... magic almost. These days I just want my gear to work out-of-the-box.

I’ll continue to follow the development for Home Assistant and maybe one day I’ll make the transition to Home Assistant.

[cesarcuellar]

Good video, Thanks for sharing your experience.

[bgable]

I just read your comment on Smart Home Makers "Ep2 - Complex DYNAMIC Automations" video, so, I jumped over to your channel to find out more. Darn, I've found another nugget to follow. Reason #2 is what interest me, YAML, Python, and Ginja. What is that last one, hold on tight, down the rabbit hole I go, again!

[makeitworktech]

Yeah... Not scaring me away haha. Best thing I did was jump in.
Best way to learn for me was people sharing their yaml on Reddit. Plus watching YT guys. Great reasons (not) to switch to HA!

[mariofnl]

Why not going for openhab instead, could you give me some strong arguments? I'm starting right now but I cannot take a decision (I'm a firmware engineer and I love to not sleep 8 hours per day) I was a bit mad before the conclusion at the end of the video hehe

[tondeautomation]

Came straight to the comments section even before watching the video.

[benjestrydom]

Hi, im am using googe home with connex connect and Shelly's, in South Africa we have alot of internet interpretations, and if a come home i can not turn on or off the lights or plugs if the internet is out. is that something i can solf with Home assistant or Hubitat? Or should i rather het a mobile router and keep everything connected?