r/smarthome

Went with a Lennox Comfort E30 communicating thermostat. The display on the wall just acts as a remote, all the intelligence lives on the board in the furnace.

Old set-up (moved into this)

New thermostat

Got it into Home Assistant through the lennoxs30 HACS integration running locally. No cloud, no subscriptions. The integration exposes temperature, humidity, fan mode, system mode, and setpoints. Planning on adding standalone temperature and humidity sensors around the house next.

The furnace is from 1975 and still going strong. going to replace it this summer with a high-efficient an move this out to the garage.

Old ass furnace

Wiring Diagram

I do plumbing and heating for a living so the 24V wiring side is second nature. The smart home side is where I'm still building things out. Running a full home lab with Home Assistant on Proxmox, no cloud dependencies anywhere.

Full disclosure not affiliated with Lennox, just a trade guy who does tech stuff on the side but got my hands on one of these thermostats for a good price.

New thermostat installed

Anyone else running a communicating thermostat through HA? Trying to avoid Ecobee since their updates.

I put together a video documenting the process here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U0xa6u9bgI

Hi everyone!

I’m about to start a new chapter: moving in with my girlfriend. I’ve been appointed as the "Chief Technology Officer" of our new home. My goal is to build a powerful, flexible smart home with deep automation possibilities, but with one major rule: It shouldn't get in her way or be annoying to use. So the physical light switches should still be easily accessible and it should be Guest friendly

I’m planning to run Home Assistant (Green + SkyConnect) as the brain to bridge everything together.

Here is my current shopping list:

• Hubs: Home Assistant Green, SkyConnect (Zigbee/Thread), Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen).
• Entertainment: Samsung 55" Neo QLED (2025), Samsung HW-Q930F Soundbar, Apple TV 4K.
• Sensors: Aqara Motion & FP2 Presence sensors, Ikea Door/Window sensors.
• Climate: Tado Slimme Thermostaat X + 6 radiator valves.
• Lighting/Power: Ikea TRÅDFRI (GU10), Shelly Plus PlugS (Matter), Sonoff ZBMiniL2 (No neutral switches).
• Appliances/Security: Dreame L40 Ultra AE, Reolink PoE Doorbell, Synology DS224+ NAS.
• Network: TP-Link Deco XE75 (2-pack).

My questions for you:

1. Am I missing anything essential? (e.g., specific sensors or hardware for common automations).
2. Automation Tips: What are your favorite "invisible" automations that make life easier without being intrusive?
3. Red Flags: Do you see any compatibility issues or products on this list that are known to be "high maintenance"?

My plan is to use the Sonoff modules behind existing wall switches so she can always use the physical buttons, while I get the smart data.

Looking forward to your insights!

Not sure if this is normal, but when I take my pool robot out, some of the debris ends up falling back into the water.

Kind of annoying since it feels like I have to clean it again right after.

Am I doing something wrong here or is that just how these things work?

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My father has ALS (he cannot move propperly) and he wants to use Netflix in his Bravia 3without no one using the controller for him. We bought Alexa and i configured It so now i can open Netflix with voice control but once in Netflix i cannot choose any film without using the remote controller.

Long time Sonos user who will bin all the gear soon.

Looking for solutions that successfully work by simply entering a stream url (perhaps with key / username / password) and nothing else required. I pay the internet radio streaming service of my choice and just want a solution that plays the stream and allows me to control the stream.

Thoughts?

I have a U-Bolt Pro Wifi and a steel-framed uPVC door so the normal door sensor sticks to the frame, which apparently means it won't work (and I don't want to damage the frame fixing it, and it looks easily knocked off. So I tried with a magnet instead and it works perfectly.

The magnet is a 28mm x 12mm x 4mm Countersunk Neodymium and it's fitted in the frame in between the two strike plates with two screws. See the photo..

Pairing it was straightforward. The only annoying thing is that the lock is set by default to beep when the door is open so that has to be turned off.

https://preview.redd.it/wna08xfgextg1.png?width=480&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc26ef53dc288f761b67d13ffd3ac2d5dfbcd119

So we name our appliances. Doug is our smart vacuum, Bertha is our mini van, Bruce is my husband’s car. We’re getting basmati fridge on Friday and I’m thinking of giving her a name

Hi all

Quite new to the smart home world but have plugs and lights hooked into the Samsung Smart things app and Aeotec smart home hub

I've got the aoetic smart button/switch and I want to set up an automation for a room for that when pressed:
- Will change my Wiz lighting settings for the room
- Turn on a smart plug
- Will select play a random mp3 file (I currently have them all in a google drive ready to put wherever I need to) through a sonos speaker in the room (can change to a diff speaker if easier)
- Once the mp3 finishes, the automation reverts

The last two bolded steps I'm stuck on if anyone has any ideas on how to achieve. Thank you!

I'm on a thight budget and usually not very good at setting things up like home assistant.

I have only ikea devices with their hub

I want to be able to do more things like if, else, when etc. you can't do much in ikeas app

if you got a cheap version but its hard to set up please still tell me as I could still consider it

thanks