Control home automation hardware with Home Assistant

Versatile Valet

Article from Issue 203/2017
Author(s):

Home Assistant brings an open standards approach to home automation and control.

Home Assistant [1] is an open source home automation system written in Python. The software supports a variety of open protocols and hardware components for home automation, including:

  • Reading sensors
  • Detecting the presence of people
  • Requesting the weather or the position of the sun
  • Controlling lighting
  • Playing music through media players
  • Regulating the thermostat

After a recent move to a new city, I decided to give Home Assistant a try. I wanted to equip my new apartment with Philips Hue lamps, Sonos wireless speakers, and various other sensors to support automation. My main criterion was that the technology remain invisible in my normal daily routine and that Home Assistant would, preferably, work entirely in the background.

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