Home Assistant Podcast

Frenck Nijhof, lead developer at Home Assistant and a key contributor to Open Home Foundation projects, joins to unveil the exciting features of Home Assistant 2025.12. He discusses the innovative Home Assistant Labs, purpose-specific triggers for smarter automations, and the revamped automation UI. Frenck also dives into real-time energy monitoring capabilities and the new Zigbee 4 integration. Plus, get insights on the implications of Matter.js joining the Open Home Foundation and the evolving landscape of pet tech.

Courtenay Watson, a dedicated Home Assistant enthusiast, discusses her impressive six-year journey from Raspberry Pi to Home Assistant Blue. She shares insights on mastering the Energy Dashboard using MQTT and surviving outages with Tuya devices. Courtenay also highlights the shift from YAML to a more user-friendly UI for automations. Plus, she tells a remarkable story about swiftly restoring backups after a beta hiccup. With future plans encompassing sensors and automation robots, her experience is both captivating and educational for new users.

Darren Griffin, a web developer for the Open Home Foundation, shares insights from his journey maintaining Home Assistant's sites. He discusses the vital role of community contributions and the evolving privacy landscape surrounding smart devices. Darren touches on the intricacies of remote work culture and the vision for making Home Assistant more accessible to newcomers. Listeners will find his experiences with Frigate and smart home automation both entertaining and educational, as he shares tips for seamless integrations and subtle automations.

Greg Martin, a passionate homebrew enthusiast and electronics guru, shares insights on building brewery control systems using ESPHome and Home Assistant. He explains how he retrofitted Modbus PIDs for seamless temperature and pressure control. Greg also reveals his journey into brewing automation, turning his project into a scalable business. Discover innovative uses of AI for metering, clever home automations like fish-feeding sensors, and how he celebrates sports at home with dynamic LED lights. His expertise blends brewing with automation for a smarter setup!

Discover the exciting new features of Home Assistant 2025.11, including an upgraded Automation UI and a snazzy target picker. Dive into the new Energy pie chart that uncovers insights for better energy management. Learn about the retirement of Home Assistant Yellow and the shift towards mini PCs. Explore the latest integrations, from SwitchBot to smoke and CO detection. Plus, hear the hosts debate the Plex UI and privacy issues, and share tips on energy monitoring and smart plug troubleshooting.

Join Dave Slusher, a seasoned podcaster and smart home enthusiast, as he shares his journey through home automation. He dives into the challenges of building a reliable Zigbee mesh and his year-long quest to perfect a Z-Wave mailbox sensor. Discover how Dave replaced a malfunctioning garage door opener with RATGDO and ESPHome. He also unveils his creative use of e-ink displays as Home Assistant dashboards and explores clever automations to tackle peak electricity pricing. Perfect for DIY lovers and tech enthusiasts!

Chris, a home automation enthusiast originally from Canada and now living in Auckland, shares his candid journey from starting with Philips Hue lights to embracing Home Assistant for energy-saving automations. He recounts the challenges of multiple bridge setups, motion sensors, and various frustrations like Roomba failures. Chris also discusses the migration to adaptive lighting, the importance of choosing the right protocols, and how he optimized appliance use around a free power hour, all while navigating his family's unique needs in this tech-savvy home.

Achim Haug, founder of AirGradient and an open-hardware advocate, shares his journey from a volunteer project in Northern Thailand to creating a mission-driven company. He discusses the critical need for air quality monitoring tools during the 2019 burning season. Achim highlights the transition to open-source hardware, emphasizing repairability and user ownership. He also details collaborations with UNICEF for air quality forecasting and reveals future plans for new devices and features, showcasing the power of community and open culture.

Join psychologist Josh Burg, who transitioned from Google Home to a local Home Assistant setup. He shares insights on automating his home with Philips Hue, discussing innovative lighting projects and motion sensor challenges, especially with his cats. Josh also dives into local vs. cloud hosting concerns, exploring responsive technology and the community's influence on his journey. Plus, he reveals his plans to self-host media and enhance automation with AI, all while highlighting the importance of a reliable and secure smart home.

Discover the exciting bilingual voice support in the latest release, allowing users to switch languages with ease. Explore improvements in the automation editor and a new AI image generation service for creative use cases. Learn about the Philips Hue partnership with Sonos, enhancing voice control for lighting systems. Delve into updates on Lutron's multi-tap actions for innovative automations and hear about the latest features for energy monitoring and driveway gate detection using LLM Vision.