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The Reluctant Home Assistant Guy: From Hue Chaos to Hour‑of‑Power Wins
Manage episode 515238102 series 1451487
Chris joins Phil and Rohan to share a brutally honest smart home journey: starting with Philips Hue, hitting limits with multiple bridges, battling MyQ and RatGDO, and landing real energy savings with Home Assistant.
Support the Podcast
Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.
Support Rohan and Phil on Patreon
Share your story
We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.
Chapters
00:00 Welcome
01:03 Meet Chris: the ‘reluctant Home Assistant guy’ (NZ/Canada background)
03:00 Hue as the gateway: GU10s, COVID mood lights, buying a house
04:39 Discovering Home Assistant; cost shocks and smart switch vs smart bulb decisions
06:30 Legal wiring quirks in NZ and scoring bulk Hue downlights
08:00 Hue motion/presence, bridge device limits, and Pro Bridge API exposure
09:50 Upgrade cadence, iOS/MacOS betas, and why Shelly bodies didn’t fit
12:00 Daily frustrations: a random red light, Roomba fails, Alexa vs Siri
14:36 Garage/gate saga: MyQ, RatGDO struggles, Grandstream Wi‑Fi, Meross HomeKit fix
20:00 Adaptive Lighting: Hue app vs HA integration; mixed CCT bulbs going ‘red’
26:00 Three points of failure; behavior change, the cleaners’ switch, and one non‑motion room
31:40 Protocol choices: Wi‑Fi vs Zigbee vs Z‑Wave; Matter/Thread pain in practice
36:40 Energy saving wins: free ‘hour of power’, Bosch Home Connect, Hue Tap + TTS
47:06 Simple scenes that matter: spa lighting that won’t trigger floods
51:00 Biggest surprises, time sink, and the idea of HA consultants
53:40 Advice for newcomers: hobby vs lifestyle; draw the line
56:00 Dashboards: new layouts, family tabs, activity timelines, and to‑dos
This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa
Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.
If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.
For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com
Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Rohan Karamandi
Twitter: @rohank9
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
280 episodes
Manage episode 515238102 series 1451487
Chris joins Phil and Rohan to share a brutally honest smart home journey: starting with Philips Hue, hitting limits with multiple bridges, battling MyQ and RatGDO, and landing real energy savings with Home Assistant.
Support the Podcast
Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.
Support Rohan and Phil on Patreon
Share your story
We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.
Chapters
00:00 Welcome
01:03 Meet Chris: the ‘reluctant Home Assistant guy’ (NZ/Canada background)
03:00 Hue as the gateway: GU10s, COVID mood lights, buying a house
04:39 Discovering Home Assistant; cost shocks and smart switch vs smart bulb decisions
06:30 Legal wiring quirks in NZ and scoring bulk Hue downlights
08:00 Hue motion/presence, bridge device limits, and Pro Bridge API exposure
09:50 Upgrade cadence, iOS/MacOS betas, and why Shelly bodies didn’t fit
12:00 Daily frustrations: a random red light, Roomba fails, Alexa vs Siri
14:36 Garage/gate saga: MyQ, RatGDO struggles, Grandstream Wi‑Fi, Meross HomeKit fix
20:00 Adaptive Lighting: Hue app vs HA integration; mixed CCT bulbs going ‘red’
26:00 Three points of failure; behavior change, the cleaners’ switch, and one non‑motion room
31:40 Protocol choices: Wi‑Fi vs Zigbee vs Z‑Wave; Matter/Thread pain in practice
36:40 Energy saving wins: free ‘hour of power’, Bosch Home Connect, Hue Tap + TTS
47:06 Simple scenes that matter: spa lighting that won’t trigger floods
51:00 Biggest surprises, time sink, and the idea of HA consultants
53:40 Advice for newcomers: hobby vs lifestyle; draw the line
56:00 Dashboards: new layouts, family tabs, activity timelines, and to‑dos
This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa
Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.
If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.
For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com
Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Rohan Karamandi
Twitter: @rohank9
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
280 episodes
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