11 Essential Tips For Home Assistant Beginners!

[@aaronrdaniels]

My grandpa has cancer currently.. he has lots of things that can be smart/are smart, such as a 320 gallon reef aquarium. He had about 7 apps but couldn’t remember what did what. Just built a HA server on a mac mini for his birthday and he now has battery backups, lights, hvac, fans, vacuum, tv, weather station, security camera for food deliveries, and a dashboard for packages coming from amazon. He doesn’t have go get up when he feels light headed and it really simplified things for when his brain is blurry. He told me its one of the best gifts he’s gotten in his entire life, so thank you on behalf of my grandpa for everyone involved in the HA community. Whether your a person who develops directly and shares your creations online. Are a user who gives there a purpose for custom integrations being developed. Or post videos like this lovely channel, just seriously thank you for making a tough time a little easier.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Awesome, love to hear that and really cool story, thanks for sharing!

[@smccrode]

The thing that can be difficult, but I still recommend: Testing. For example, test what happens if you lose internet, lose power in a certain area, or lose power to home assistant. Also, test your backups ocassionally by restoring from them.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

That's a great one!

[@chrisdixon5241]

Agreed, especially testing a restore. A backup isn't any use if it doesn't work, and finding that out when you're relying on it is painful! Have a second "test" instance of HA on VirtualBox using SD cards just for that :D More seriously, a sandbox / test instance that you don't care about to try out new things on before polluting your main install is a very useful thing

[@handlebard]

Yes - please the next time you are talking about backups at least mention testing a restore. In my professional life I've had managers proudly explain their backup strategy only to find no one had noticed they weren't working....

[@TalKintush]

I’ve entered the smart home scene 4 months ago and your videos helped me reach professional levels, thanks man!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Appreciate that thank you 🙏🏻

[@JoshsSmartHome]

Nice video. Home Assistant is awesome, and it definitely is getting easier!

[@TikTok-il9hx]

When you update the device and entity names, will they be updated everywhere or will you have to go back and fix existing automations etc?

[@shanb76]

no they won't, you will have to go into existing automations and change them to the new entity name

[@KimmoJaskari]

I got a hold of an old NUC (inherited from my day job in fact). I dedicated it to HA and it runs on bare metal. Way easier to ensure that the USB dongles and other stuff has a direct connection. HA is worth it. I have another machine to run VM's on, that runs XCP-NG which I prefer to Proxmox - although, USB passthrough and the like is not as friendly there as Proxmox, I believe. Anyway, thanks for the video... since I was watching anyway I finally did some renaming and organizing and connected the NAS for backups... just been really lax about all that.

[@KimmoJaskari]

A fair few things broke when I did mass renaming of a lot of stuff. But, worth doing anyway and I'm back on track... and sticking to naming conventions from now on.

[@gerryf7015]

Blueprints might get more use if there was a better way to search through the pile.

[@dano4700]

Thanks. As a beginner you have helped enormously. Cheers 👍🇦🇺

[@compudude]

I'm a bit surprised there's no auto-update mechanism in HA. That said, I prefer more control... as you said, it would be nice to be able to set up rules along the lines of what you described, to govern when auto-updates can happen. I'm just happy to be running a current version again. Running HA in a Docker container on Synology was a nightmare every time I wanted to update anything, not to mention no HACS or similar integrations without a ton of work, not to mention the nightmare of adding USB passthroughs for zigbee dongles, oy. Soooo happy to have finally moved it into a regular VM (still on the Synology) so the built in updating tools and add ons just work normally.

[@towers3372]

I like the auto update feature for the addons, maybe there will be an option for HA itself in the future

[@BadgerBob]

@@towers3372There is. If you’re running a docker you just need to install a watchtower that updates to the latest image automatically as they are released.

[@paulwesley3862]

I haven't tried but I think you can create an automation for it. (simplified:) when update.ha-core turns on, then call update.install-update on update.ha-core

[@mvmhughes]

Thanks, Lewis, that's amazing.

[@8Arachne8]

Every time I think about finally diving into HA I get halfway into a video and it all becomes Greek and overwhelming.

[@grzestel]

Can we buy you a new shirt? Do you just want to be like David Attenborough and always wear one? :) And nice as always ;)

[@ViorelMocanu]

Thank you for the wonderful tips! I've just finished installing my fist HA instance a month ago and these are golden.

[@АнтонК-ы8й]

There is a problem when the sensor is out of order and needs to be replaced, if it was involved in many automation and scenarios, a new sensor needs to be prescribed everywhere. How to solve it?

[@marcfuller7531]

Thanks for the great info. With regard to labels, specifically for grouping lights. What would be the differences between using a helper group vs label for say, night time lights?

[@kotgc7987]

HA is great, the hardest bit is the network and device setup. Imho, RaPi desktop OS (ARM efficient low power wattage to leave on 24 hours; RISC-V in '25) running type 1 hypervisor (Proxmox (mainstream), KVM (GUI and kernel efficient) or Xen (enterprise level security) running FOSS router and HA. LAN devices are hard to find for noobs, as shops push the WAN cloud controlled grift. When cloud control develops blockchain solutions so users are paid for their data rather than the 3rd parties earning billions (money for nothing), I might consider WAN Cloud devices (with an option for privacy on or off).

[@brisbanemartialarts4122]

Are there any plans for HA to add a Homey Pro style automation creation option, ie visually instead of programming?

[@yerunski]

What i do now, for example if I want to look for blueprints as mentioned in the video, I don't go to Settings etc. and hope to find it. Instead, I hit the 'c' key from anywhere in HA and just type what i'm looking for. Same for entities, I just hit the 'e' key and type the name of the entity i'm looking for. Such time savers 😎

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Absolutely, good tips!

[@SmatekElectronicsLimited]

As a professional smart solutions factory, i can say "awesome" 👍

[@Ballissle]

Im doing everything here except im using virtual box. Is proxmox free? Can i run it within debian in headless mode? What are the benefits for home assistant? So far ive had 0 issues with virtual box. So not sure what the downsides are.

[@KimmoJaskari]

Proxmox is a type one hypervisor - meaning, Proxmox runs on bare metal. You'd install Proxmox on your server hardware, then run Debian as a virtual machine on top of that. And, run HA as a virtual machine on top of Proxmox, also. Type 1 is when the hypervisor (the part that runs VM's) owns the hardware and everything else is virtualized. Type two is when some other OS (Debian, in your case) owns the hardware, and runs a hypervisor on top of itself, like VirtualBox, which then runs other VM's on top of that. So now VirtualBox is depentend on Debian. With Proxmox, Debian would be dependent on Proxmox, which is more correct. All corporate use of virtual machines and big server farms are type 1, be it VMware, XCP-NG or indeed Proxmox.

[@Ballissle]

@KimmoJaskari interesting thank you. I need to look more into this. That was very clear and informative of an explanation. My current set up is a mini PC with debian 12 and xfce installed and HAOS running as a VM inside VirtualBox headless mode so that I can just RDP into it from my main computer if needed. And I can also then use it as a regular desktop. So if I understand correctly, proxmox would literally be the host os instead of debian in my case and that I would boot the computer straight into proxmox? How can I access the proxmox gui from another computer wirelessly?

[@AdamKirbyMusic]

I've also used Virtual Box with no issues, so, yeah, not sure about that one as a tip.

[@charleswheatcroft]

@@Ballissle I set up proxmox with HA and AdGuard on a mini PC. It's a miracle it works as I'm not really a tech guy and use Windows as work and home. Proxmox is accessible through a browser as is HA. The installation helpfully gives you these details as it installs so it should be fairly self-evident. Whilst I didn't really understand what I was doing, I managed it without wasting too much time. It's a pretty rock solid setup although I am having trouble with USB passthrough. I think this is more due to lack of knowledge on my part and lack of time.

[@charleswheatcroft]

@@AdamKirbyMusic I've only just decided upon a VitrualBox install when I build a new rig as I'm fairly tied to Windows (shocking I know but I don't work in tech and have little time to learn Linux). Then this video tells me not to bother! I really want one machine to do the whole lot and I'm sure VirtualBox and a VM can spin up automatically after a reboot right? That's the hope I'm clinging to....

[@Guinnberg]

Do you have a toilet switch with esp home??

[@hichamel926]

Thanks Lewis, great vidéos. In my case, i update lately after 8months and i still struggling with some issues.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Hopefully it's not too much work to figure out the issues and update regularly 😅 good luck!

[@TecSanento]

Is there a best practise for asking assistant for sensor values and device states? Because when I want to ask: what's the battery Level, how much Power do we Export or that's the state of the wallbox/car it usually dosnt know what I mean and I Dont need Actions

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Remember than you can use sentence triggers in an automation to use custom phrases that aren't yet added

[@Liquid_Snake]

Wait, what's wrong with SD cards now?

[@MAMDAVEM]

It is risky to run HA with an SD card, they don't like the constant reading and writing that they get from running HA 24 x 7 and are suceptable to corruption if you get an unexpected power loss. I've been using HA for over 4 years now and I had a couple of SD card failures in my early years. You can cover yourelf by making sure you have a HA backup but not on the SD card as this would be lost as well. A good alternative if you are using a Rasperry Pi is to boot it off an SSD.

[@MoltenTesseract]

What tips do you have for similar but duplicated entities? Eg. My AC has a current temp sensor, but I also have a climate sensor in the room that does temp/humidity. I often need to know what temp the room actually is, and what temp the AC thinks it as, as often it things its cooler than it is, so it stops running while the room is still too hot.

[@glittalogik]

This is also an issue with routers - my Netgear Orbi integration added a ton of duplicate devices that I already had on the network, and once they're added there's no way to remove them without killing the entire integration. I can hide the duplicates but it's still annoying. For your situation, it sounds like the climate sensor is the one giving you more useful/relevant info. Can you just set HA's AC control based on that one and ignore its onboard readings?

[@TechySpeaking]

First

[@elliebobelllie]

What do we use instead of an SD card?

[@oleksandr_belei]

SSD or NVMe drives

[@DavidBruner_NJ]

Nice video. Even seasoned users will likely pick up reminders.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

🙏🏻

[@waynenocton]

I have an issue with my voice assistant, like if I say, Alexa, turn bedroom lamp on. Alexa will come back and say, did you mean bedroom lamp? I’m like yes, bedroom lamp is what I said, why are you asking me if what I said, is what I meant? Lol.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Are you using an LLM with that? That sounds more like an LLM behaviour

[@waynenocton]

@@EverythingSmartHome no just normal Home Assistant with Alexa connection. We just moved so I started things over so it’s a new issue.

[@MR-ew6uw]

Now that we have labels, categories and areas, it feels a bit redundant to include this information in device names/IDs - and makes moving things around a pain. It would be great if we could simplify names by removing this extra data - though I know that voice assist is a bit hit and miss when it comes to using labels/categories/areas.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

I don't necessarily agree since the names of devices are used in lots of places where labels aren't, like when adding cards in the dashboard or referencing devices/entities in automations

[@MR-ew6uw]

@@EverythingSmartHome yes I wasn't meaning that we can drop them all now - just that it would be great if HA moved in a direction where the 'meta' information was just as useable as the name/IDs are currently.

[@CraigTinson2015]

beat me.. lol... I had to pause the video.. because when you are scrolling through the devices I noticed a "Dave"... thats what I've called my voice assistant.. with a "ok dave" wake-word.. lol

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Everyone needs a Dave in their life 😄

[@junkins]

Great video! Thanks Lewis!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Jamie! 🙏🏻

[@DealingLace]

Lewis is my spirit dad

[@EverythingSmartHome]

😂

[@samiraslan9735]

can you make us a video how to move from VM to Proxmox??

[@LifeWithMatthew]

I did a whole video about taking a 1L PC and installing Proxmox on it to manage Home Assistant VMs and a Docker VM and someday might even follow that up with a video on using some of the extra power to run Plex and Arr containers. The point is, I'm a huge fan of running home assistant in a virtual machine 🤣

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Me too!

[@urbatecte7737]

Resist the harder you can ✊ OMG, I'm so weak 😅

[@bhushangadiya]

I have a house with 8 rooms and multiple people. Whats the best naming convention you would suggest for all the lights and switches and fans and the sockets

[@impy1980]

Really useful thanks, I've had HA running for a while in a container, just doing lights stuff, but recently moved to HA OS on Proxmox as I got a mini PC for getting into homelabbing. Wanted/needed HACS, recently got some Matter smart plugs for both power management and energy tracking, looking at a Air Quality sensor too, having asthma and seasonal hayfever, I've noticed at times my breathing struggles so interested to monitor if there's any correlation. So I'm getting into HA much deeper than just lights now, I'd say I'm more of an advanced beginner still, I have reasonable technical knowledge. I found the Categories and Labels explanation really helpful, and a good reminder/warning about when you expand. Also about NAS backups, I've got a NAS but hadn't setup the storage, although I do have Proxmox doing weekly backups of VMs/CTs to my NAS, so I could always restore the whole VM, but good to have HA backing up too.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Sounds like you've already begun the deep descent into the Home Assistant rabbit hole 😅

[@michaelha481]

I have an old mac mini with virtualbox on it. What should I do instead?

[@kilian935]

Do you use the mac mini for anything else? If not, why not install something like ubuntu server and then install home assistant via docker? There are a heckton of tutorials for that

[@sdfhjklhsfdjdsflhkds]

All good advice Lewis, although I would qualify the update strategy a bit. I still find the odd breaking change due to bugs an issue, which is why I am almost always 2-3 weeks behind. Not as bad as it used to be, and backups generally help, but there's been a couple of "fun" updates this year that remanded me to be wary.

[@EverythingSmartHome]

That's perfectly reasonable, it was more like people who are 3-6 months plus behind 😅

[@slyceth]

None of these tips are useful for just having a house of 3 lights, a presence sensor, doorbell and switch

[@EverythingSmartHome]

What would you like to see?

[@slyceth]

@@EverythingSmartHome more of a buyer's guide for specific automation ideas. Like for example how i can schedule a certain timeslot and channel on which a program I want to see airs, and a minute before that it would automate booting up the tv, and turn it to the right channel using an ir emulator

[@dixonbg]

That sounds like a way more specific case that can be accomplished only on a specific IR device/tv/program/calendar integration, which will be valid only to you. Managing 5 devices is as easy as adding them and linking them with simple automations... but naming them correctly sound good, even for 5 devices. That's just my 2c. Anyway, I do like your idea for buyers guide that is linked to a cool idea. I have a pile of sensors, but I do not have so many ideas 😊

[@timothymason5545]

Is there any integration for Narwal Vacuums?

[@SolaryPoseidon]

Hello