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!

[@gayanthasenaratne]

My God Bless Him❤

[@SylvainMenard]

As a 1 week newbie in Home Assistant and migrating from SmartThings to Home Assistant, your tutorials and other HA videos are very helpful. Thanks.

[@gtoons]

Thank you. I'm just starting my Home Assistant journey and found an add-on called Samba Backup. It automates backups from my HAOS Intel NUC to my Promise RAID storage connected to my Mac Mini M2 Pro. I'm about to watch your video to create an easy but beautiful mobile dashboard. Subscribed!

[@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....

[@robinedwards218]

I have an extra dashboard called I call Sandpit. From my days of working in IT, it's a place were I can play with new cards (to me) and integration testing and try things out. Once I'm happy with the effect I move it to my home dashboard. Removes the risk of being 'told' by the others in the house that something isnt working properly. Only I use the Sandpit. Of couse having a whole extra test instance would be even better.

[@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 🙏🏻

[@theBoy_69_]

😂😂

[@martinmacleod-brown4134]

I'm literally starting my HA journey today! Subscribed on the strength of this video alone as I obviously have some renaming to do :)

[@ViorelMocanu]

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

[@JoshsSmartHome]

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

[@alexisaddicted]

Actually it’s the best vídeos regarding naming, labels and aliases

[@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.

[@Moonbase59]

This is even useful for a non-beginner, thank you!

[@DavidM2002]

I run HA as a virtual machine ( not ON a virtual machine ) on a QNAP NAS and it is super stable. This is considered a Type 2 hypervisor. It runs 24/7 and only reboots when I allow it to. After a year, I have had zero issues. HA even provides the OVA file which allows the VM to be imported which make the whole process dead easy.

[@dano4700]

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

[@SmatekElectronicsLimited]

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

[@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?

[@mvmhughes]

Thanks, Lewis, that's amazing.

[@shadician]

Interesting! I had been using device 'groups' in 'helpers' to put devices together (for example a group of lights) but labels looks like it could be a good way to do this too! Any suggestions on when it's good to use groups?

[@sebytheogre]

Hello. Great videos. I got here from another video of yours. I want your opinion on what I should use: rpi4 4gb or HA green 4gb? I am new in this and I am still learning about HA. What I want to integrate atm in HA: 1. HIK cameras (5pcs) with nvr 2. Salus thermostate (5pcs) 3. tuya vacuum 4. xiaomi vacuum 5. broadlink rm4 Thanks

[@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

[@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!

[@DavidBruner_NJ]

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

[@EverythingSmartHome]

🙏🏻

[@AlexManMe]

Backups, should I back up the VM on Proxmox or use something like the Google Drive back up on Home Assistant? Or maybe both?

[@thesecretreviewer8242]

it's getting to be ready for mainstream. Needs to allow bluetooth speakers and mics natively from server not just a client. Music streaming needs to be integrated and easier.

[@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!

[@alexconstant3909]

What's your thoughts on using HA in a VM inside of TrueNas?

[@junkins]

Great video! Thanks Lewis!

[@EverythingSmartHome]

Thanks Jamie! 🙏🏻

[@remco2777]

A newbee question please. If I already have a Philips Hue bridge and only looking for automation of lights, Zigbee smart switches and Zigbee smart plugs, can I not just make do with using the Hue app? Setting up a dedicated computer to control lights feels like overkill with too many possible points of failure

[@johnblyberg4801]

I run HA on kubernetes and it's rock solid.

[@brisbanemartialarts4122]

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

[@CNCPRINTBLOGSPOT]

To disable the unneeded things to google is a thing i hadnt on the screen. Going to do that now. Thx

[@gerryf7015]

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

[@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?

[@Guinnberg]

Do you have a toilet switch with esp home??

[@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).

[@raymorgan4657]

I'm pretty new to Home assistant and have mine running on a VM on my Synology NAS which is a Plus model. I even have a Are you saying that's a bad thing? I even have a SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle plugged into it and working well.

[@Vrenatko]

I´m running HA on Synology as well and i don´t think so it is bad. It is option. Bud, anyway I´m rly curious what he say about it.

[@raymorgan4657]

@@Vrenatko Are you running it in a container or virtual machine? Mines in the VM, so when he mentioned to stop using VM, that's what caught my attention.

[@Vrenatko]

@@raymorgan4657 In VM as well.

[@Paulruk]

I used to have HA on a qnap NAS container, used it for a few years but had issues all the time. Not sure if it was over use of my NAS on other things but also usb devices were going missing for my zigbee addons via a usb stick. Best thing I did was buy one of the HA green kits , haven’t had a single problem for the last year. Rock solid.

[@raymorgan4657]

@@Paulruk If I have to set up again for some reason, a Green is probably what I'll do. My HA is running in a VM through and has been rock solid. I used to have issues when I ran it in a container on the NAS, but running HA Supervised in the VM has been great.

[@gerbenvandenheuvel5615]

Hello, Looking for a bit of a light in the dark. I have a great thing going with Alexa and ton of TP link Kasa light switches. But looking to grow my system I have a UDM and hand full of cameras and G4pro door bell that I would like to be able to get to show up on my Amazon show devices. I recently picked up a Zima board and think I am ready to get into home assistant to bring them all together. But not really sure where to start with it all. Any help would be great, thanks!

[@8Arachne8]

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

[@emmgeevideo]

I couldn't agree more. It seems better now but it's still a) a commitment and b) requires a hobbyist-level enthusiasm to setup and maintain. No "set it and forget it".

[@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

[@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....

[@IanSMoyes]

Have you moved house? That's a REALLY nice dining space.

[@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?

[@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 😅

[@Chris-zu4es]

i dont even own a computer can i use this? to download all software updates and so can i do it from my tablet or phone?

[@1337JackMack]

Every time after a HA update my changes to entity names and locations get reverted, am I doing something wrong, missing a step or is this a normal behaviour?

[@elliebobelllie]

What do we use instead of an SD card?

[@oleksandr_belei]

SSD or NVMe drives

[@thesecretreviewer8242]

I find naming the device should NOT include the area in the name since the area already defines that group. this way if you're in that area the Assist can just turn that on easier. For example Liiving Room Lamps with an Area of Living Room is redundant. If you just say turn on lamps and the speaker is also located in the Living room you can say less and more natural to get things working. Also helps when and if moving things around. Like plugs from one room to another. All you have to do is change the Area.

[@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 ;)

[@VincenzoMarzano]

I'm in naming convention too but I don't agree with you approach honestly. The device name should be type of device, in you example Office Thermometer, and then the Entities can be the function, like temperature and humidity. So you have a unique name which is sensor.office_thermometer_humidity

[@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

[@GaryBarclay]

Backups are great but pointless if restores don't work. Don't count on backups across different install types.

[@woodwose_scot]

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

[@woodwose_scot]

@@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.

[@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 😅

[@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

[@samiraslan9735]

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

[@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.

[@SharpShruter]

Great video! But during the “Virtual Machines” section, I thought maybe you switched to a different language. LOL 😂

[@DealingLace]

Lewis is my spirit dad

[@EverythingSmartHome]

😂

[@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!

[@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

[@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 😄

[@RobertQvist]

I literally had to pause the video to organize my automations into categories when I was this one. My "OCD" says thanks!

[@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.

[@timothymason5545]

Is there any integration for Narwal Vacuums?

[@urbatecte7737]

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

[@TechySpeaking]

First

[@tommyrihu824]

Home Assistant is not for beginneers , why wasting time om that

[@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 😊

[@mrat42]

Great video, but I didn’t understand most of it! I am a home assistant beginner. “What’s a beginner?” I spent a lot of my working life involved with using computers in the school classroom. I was highly proficient with using computers in that area. However no matter how proficient I was I had to get down to a level that my clients, the teachers and pupils, could relate to, using language they understood. This video is not a beginners guide, the use of terms specific to HA come thick and fast, even non HA terms are used. (E.g. “Don’t use with a VM”. I doubt if a beginner would know what a VM was). I have HA running on a Ras pi, with a few things set up (not sure if they are entities, devices, integrations or what). The jargon involved is overwhelming. I have been very careful not to “install” everything everything.. I started with connecting temperature / humidity sensors from ThermoPro, I was amazingly happy that it worked. I bought some more and they didn’t work. I discovered in forums somewhere, or was it in GitHub, that an updated device had a different Bluetooth identifier. I waited and eventually there was an updated device had I installed. I added my router, Yamaha wi fi, local river level, my Samsung tv didn’t work , but discovered I needed to add a wait in, I think, YAML (how do I do that?). I bought a mains switch (Meross) for a project I had in mind. This was to use the ThermoPro humidity sensor to turn on an extractor fan when needed in the bathroom. There are stats that show % of how many users are using a particular integration (forgive if that’s not the correct term), I think I worked out that there were 250000 HA users. Somewhere else I heard 10% of users were involved with upkeep of code, repositories or something. To my mind it means that 10% of users are super technically competent. I think that to use HA you have to have a degree of computing technical competence that far above what the general public have. There is little out there to help a real novice. How many beginners HA, KZbin videos must I watch before I find one that is truly a beginners one? Yes there are step by step videos for installation. But after that? Then there are videos that are using ancient HA versions, which don’t help. I’m sure that your video offers really useful advice gained from hours of using HA. I want something flexible that I can use. Apple Home and Alexa might offer the simplicity, but not the flexibility Perhaps HA is too complex for the mass market, beyond the enthusiast. perhaps we need an HA “lite “ with a more limited range of devices that work easily.

[@SolaryPoseidon]

Hello