From Pi to Blue, we’re revisiting Courtenay Watson
Home Assistant Podcast
Z‑Wave LR and high‑power switches
Conversation about new Z‑Wave LR devices, high‑current relays, and practical uses for heavy loads.
We’re revisiting Courtenay, who was last spoke to on Episode 45 six years ago. She’s here to share six years of Home Assistant progress: moving from Raspberry Pi to Home Assistant Blue, mastering the Energy Dashboard with MQTT, surviving cloud outages on Tuya, and restoring from backups in minutes.
https://homeassistant.fm/ha212
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Chapters
00:00:00 Welcome
00:01:04 2019 setup recap
00:03:31 Hardware: Blue and N2+
00:06:00 Real‑time energy tracking
00:12:00 Breaker chaos, disaggregation
00:16:30 Dashboards and thermostat
00:22:00 Tuya cloud lighting
00:27:30 Offline behavior, habits
00:29:30 Less YAML, more UI
00:33:30 Backups and restore
00:38:30 Z‑Wave LR range talk
00:41:30 LoRa and Meshtastic
00:42:00 Hubs, Matter/Thread woes
00:48:00 Voice assistants: then vs now
00:51:00 Everyday control patterns
00:55:00 Advice for new users
00:59:30 Recorder and data
01:03:07 Six‑year roadmap and robots
01:06:14 Wrap‑up and contact info
This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
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Products Discussed
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B: https://amzn.to/43Dppq4
Ecobee Thermostat: https://amzn.to/3XtOTCR
Shelly energy monitoring clamps: https://amzn.to/488TjDX
Sense Home Energy Monitor: https://amzn.to/4re7oss
Home Assistant Connect ZWA2 (Z‑Wave radio): https://amzn.to/3MfPzsP
Meshtastic LoRa nodes: https://amzn.to/4ihcSyy
Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Rohan Karamandi
Twitter: @rohank9
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