Home Assistant

Description: open source home automation & integration

Quick Links:

Main: https://www.home-assistant.io/
Integrations: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/
Developer: https://developers.home-assistant.io/
- Entity Info: https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/core/entity
HA Core Github: https://github.com/home-assistant/core
- Releases: https://github.com/home-assistant/core/releases
- Release Notes (Main): https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/categories/release-notes/
- Release Note (RC): https://rc.home-assistant.io
Home Assistant Community Store (HACS) - Easily add custom integrations & UI elements <=Highly recommend
- https://hacs.xyz/
  - Install: https://hacs.xyz/docs/installation/installation
My Blog Posts:

Discussion Communities:

Main HA Forums: https://community.home-assistant.io/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/

Reference:

Main docs: https://www.home-assistant.io/docs

Useful:
- Split Configuration - File structure options to keep config data organized: splitting_configuration
  - Packages: https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/configuration/packages/
- Store Secrets - how to keep PII out of the configuration: create a secrets file
- Templating: https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/configuration/templating/
  - More Detail: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/template/
  - See Jinja Templates below
- Database Mgmt:
  - https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/recorder/
    - purge_days_keep attribute - how long to keep data before it is purged. An auto purge is run every night unless disabled.
  - https://community.home-assistant.io/t/how-to-reduce-your-database-size-and-extend-the-life-of-your-sd-card/205299
    - good info even if not using SD card…
  - https://community.home-assistant.io/t/how-recorder-purge-service-works/217014
  - Useful SQL Queries (Postgres):
    - Count of records added per hour over last 3 days:
      SELECT date_trunc('hour', last_updated), count(1) FROM states WHERE last_updated > now() - interval '3 day' GROUP BY 1
    - Check the oldest records in the events & states tables to confirm HA is purging the DB as per the purge_keep_days value:
      SELECT event_id, created FROM events ORDER BY created LIMIT 10;
    - To Find the size of HA’s tables:
      SELECT nspname || '.' || relname AS "relation", pg_size_pretty(pg_total_relation_size(C.oid)) AS "total_size" FROM pg_class C LEFT JOIN pg_namespace N ON (N.oid = C.relnamespace) WHERE nspname NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'information_schema') AND C.relkind <> 'i' AND nspname !~ '^pg_toast' ORDER BY pg_total_relation_size(C.oid) DESC LIMIT 5;
    - To Find the size of the indexes of HA’s tables:
      SELECT relname, indexrelname, idx_scan, idx_tup_read, idx_tup_fetch, pg_size_pretty(pg_relation_size(indexrelname::regclass)) as size FROM pg_stat_all_indexes WHERE schemaname = 'public' AND indexrelname NOT LIKE 'pg_toast_%' AND idx_scan = 0 AND idx_tup_read = 0 AND idx_tup_fetch = 0 ORDER BY pg_relation_size(indexrelname::regclass) DESC;
- Components used in default config: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/default_config/
- Reference Configs:

Templating in Home Assistant

Jinja Templates: https://palletsprojects.com/p/jinja/
Documentation: https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/2.11.x/ <== note: 2.x version
- Tutorial (looks promising): https://ttl255.com/jinja2-tutorial-part-1-introduction-and-variable-substitution/
  - Renderer: https://j2live.ttl255.com/ …also see below to render with HA data
Tip: In Home Assistant, use /developer-tools/template to test your code

Examples

To automatically generate a list of all existing entities (drop this into /developer-tools/template):
- ```
{%- for state in states -%}
  {{state.entity_id}}
{% endfor %}
```

Formatting: Currency (US) - to display ex. $10.00 in HA lovalace

- platform: template
  sensors:
    weekly_allowance: 
      friendly_name: "allowance"
      value_template: >-      
        {% set amt = states("input_number.allowance_total") | float %}
        {% if amt >0 %}
          {% set total = amt %}
        {% else %}
          {% set total = 0 %}
        {% endif %}
        {{ '${:,.2f}'.format(float(total)) }}

Formatting: Time - to display the length of time something has been on, ex. 1h 23m

- platform: template
  sensors:
    office_tv_time_today: 
      friendly_name: "Office TV"
      value_template: >-
        {% set duration = states("sensor.office_tv_time_on") | float %}
        {%- set seconds = (duration * 3600) %}
        {%- set minutes = ((seconds % 3600) // 60) | int %}
        {%- set minutes = '{}m'.format(minutes) if minutes > 0 else '' %}
        {%- set hours = ((seconds % 86400) // 3600) | int %}
        {%- set hours = '{}h '.format(hours) if hours > 0 else '' %}
        {{ '0m' if seconds < 60 else hours + minutes }}

HA’s sun integration uses your location to calulate sunrise & sunset times each day. This can be used to calculate daylight hours. Note each calendar day (24hrs.) has 86400 seconds.

  - platform: template
      sensors:
          daylight_hours_today:
          friendly_name: 'Daylight hours today'
          value_template: >
               {% set sunrise = as_timestamp(state_attr('sun.sun','next_rising')) %}
               {% set sunset = as_timestamp(state_attr('sun.sun','next_setting')) %}
               {% set midnight = as_timestamp(state_attr('sun.sun','next_midnight')) %}
               {% if midnight < sunset %}
               {% set sunrise = (sunrise - 86328.5) %}
               {% set sunset = (sunset - 86471.5) %}
               {% endif %}
               {% if sunrise > sunset %}
               {% set sunrise = (sunrise - 86328.5) %}
               {% endif %}
               {{ (sunset - sunrise)|timestamp_custom('%H:%M',false) }}
               icon_template: mdi:weather-sunny

My Environment:

I am using a QNAP TS-253A NAS with 4GB RAM to run Home Assistant Core in Docker along with 12+ other containers (the available RAM is just enough). A list of the other containers I am using is here or more information can be found on other pages of this site.

HA Inventory - current integrations & other packages

Integrations:
- Amazon Alexa - voice control, notifications, music
- Alexa Media Player - UI control for playback & notifications
- Blue Iris - security camera status, images, video
- Ecobee - HVAC control
- Google Calendar - various calendars
- Grafana - analytic dashboard
- HACS - Home Assistant Community Store - framework to easily install and manage custom integrations and components
- InfluxDB - historic data for HA
- MQTT - monitor win10 machines & other
- Nextcloud - monitors Nextcloud instance
- Plex - music playlists
- PostgreSQL - DB for HA
- QNAP - monitors QNAP devices
- Rachio - sprinkler system control
- Roku - device control
- Shelly - switch & outlet control and energy monitoring
- SmartThings - communication w/smartthings hub (zigbee & z-waves devices)
- TP-link - switch & bulb control
- Waze Travel Time - monitors travel times
- Withings - wifi scale
Additional:
- AsusWRT - router data
- DarkSky - weather info
- Home Assistant iOS - works with mobile app
- Mobile App - iOS app
- monitor_docker - monitor docker containers
- Network UPS Tools (NUT) - monitor UPS
- OpenWheatherMap - weather info
- Sonoff - switch control
- Speedtest - internet speed
- Tautulli - plex monitor