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this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Check power usage. I also used an old Intel Desktop PC, but found it used about $150 / year power. Rough estimate, but if you leave something running 24/7 it's good to keep the power usage low.
It's a laptop so should have lower power usage than a desktop anyway. But I kinda expect anything doing photos/videos will use a bit of power. I might have to see if I can get a power usage measurer that's compatible with Home Assistant!
The smart plugs I linked before have power measurement built-in. It's Zigbee, so locally only.
Most of the ones sold in NZ are all WiFi based, which is annoying as they depend on the cloud. Philips Hue is I think the only proper local solution, but bring your wallet if you want to go down that route.
When you say Zigbee is local only, I presume if you have remote access to Home Assistant then you can use this to control them? But they don't rely on a cloud server. That sounds ideal.
Yes, Zigbee is a protocol for a mesh network. Mains powered devices like smart bulbs and smart plugs are routers as well to extend the coverage. Temp sensors are end devices only (and not a router). You also have Zwave but I think Zigbee is more popular.
Downside is that not all Zigbee devices follow the Zigbee standard, it's a bit of a mess sometimes.
So... there's a new kid, Matter and Thread. It's very new, so not a lot of devices, but the SkyConnect dongle is Matter/Thread ready. It will come first to HASS, and afterwards to dockerized (another advantage for HASS).
The benefits are that it's indeed local only (i.e. your local network) and the batteries in end devices like temp sensors will last much longer than the wifi equivalent.
I didn't know about all of this 6 weeks ago, hope it makes sense.
You're making sense! I can't want to dive in and get started, but will probably take a month for anything to arrive from ali express.
Glad it makes sense! Delivery times seem to have improved. It still sometimes takes a month, the Zigbee smart plugs arrived within 10 days. For the SkyConnect I ordered at Seeedstudio and paid extra for quick delivery, it was here within 5 days. Any questions just DM me.
Will do, cheers!
Oh, for remote control to HA, I use Tailscale. So I can connect to HA from my phone anywhere by turning Tailscale on. And, I get e.g. notifications for motion sensors. Very convenient.