Home Assistant + Ubiquiti + AI = Home Automation Magic

It seems like every manufacturer of anything electrical that goes in the house wants to be part of the IoT story these days. Further, they all want their own app, which means you have to go to gazillions of bespoke software products to control your things. And they’re all - with very few exceptions - terrible:

Unfortunately, the quote above nails it right on the head. Every manufacturer out there seems to want you to use their app to control things around your house—from your AC unit to the lightbulbs to your water leak sensors. It’s gotten to the point where we may need an entire screen or folder full of these types of apps. All users really want is a central app that can control everything. Luckily, Home Assistant gets you most of the way there.

Of course, you do have to set it up on a Raspberry Pi or an old computer, but once you do, you’re off to the races. If you don’t have the expertise for that sort of DIY project or you just don’t want to take the time to set it all up yourself, you can buy a Home Assistant appliance that’s mostly plug-and-play.

We use HA on a Raspberry Pi at our house to control almost everything in our IoT network, mostly to control our lights with timers or dusk-to-dawn sensors. We haven’t gotten as far as controlling our hose’s water flow, but that seems pretty cool to do. Halloween is coming around soon—I’m just saying.