Home Automation, Home Assistant in Thailand?

[OneMoreFarang]

I plan to renovate an apartment in a condominium high rise building in Bangkok from scratch.

And I plan to use home automation and especially Home Assistant.

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

 

For anybody who is not familiar with with Home Assistant here is a good channel on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/c/EverythingSmartHome

 

I have experience from home and office electric installations in Germany from a long time ago.

And I work with computers and electronics since forever, including programming.

Before I begin the "big" project in the new apartment I setup a little test installation and now I connect more and more smart devices mostly for testing.

 

Does anybody of you use Home Automation and especially Home Assistant in Thailand?

Is there anything special in Thailand which should be considered?

 

In the moment my plan is to plan myself what I want to do and how to realize it. Before I start the actual installation I will double check this with the boss of a professional electric installation company in Bangkok who I know since many years.

Before I do this I thought I ask the forum users about your experience and/or possible plans.

 

Until now I am not 100% sure if I will use Home Assistant. It seem to me that is is a good product with lots of possibilities and lots of active users.

I like especially that it is independent from the internet and the cloud. I want to keep everything locally as much as possible. I don't think it's a good idea to install microphones and cameras and invite big brother to watch and listen.

[MAF666]

Have you considered Google Assistant for voice control of your smart devices? The Interpret mode translates continuous speech ie speak English, translates to Thai, speak Thai, translates to English. 
We have everything on Sonoff or Tuya smart switches and rarely use an app, just OK Google…

[OneMoreFarang]

2 minutes ago, MAF666 said:

Have you considered Google Assistant for voice control of your smart devices? The Interpret mode translates continuous speech ie speak English, translates to Thai, speak Thai, translates to English. 
We have everything on Sonoff or Tuya smart switches and rarely use an app, just OK Google…

 Google Assistant is cloud based. That is for me reason enough to avoid it.

[ChristianBlessing]

Aside from Home Assistant, OpenHab and Hubitat are possibilities, particularly if you're up to configuring a Raspberry Pi as a hub. You can then connect most (but not all) Z-Wave and ZigBee devices. There a number of "IFTTT" (if this then that) apps can then allow you to create virtually any sort of automation routine.

 

Tedious, and potentially expensive, but it sounds like you've got the background, motivation and means to give it a shot.

[OneMoreFarang]

9 minutes ago, ChristianBlessing said:

Tedious, and potentially expensive, but it sounds like you've got the background, motivation and means to give it a shot.

Thanks, and let's not forget if the situation doesn't get much better than I have the time for it and I won't get too bored. ???? 

[recom273]

I heard it said, running home assistant is like having a part-time job.

 

I run homebridge, its a lot easier to maintain and I can get similar results to home assistant using node-red. I run it on a raspberry pi with a zigbee bridge from Dresden electronics, which you can also use with HA. I use a network of aqara motion sensors to sense motion and occupancy mostly to switch on lights and I can control all aircon remotely. The wife was really anti home automation to begin with, she would go crazy when the lights in the shower went out half way, but when I got it fine tuned, she really appreciated it and never touched a light switch for 2 years, she now even uses the smart rice cooker I bought her without any complaints.

 

You can get some impressive results with home assistant. I may use it in the future when my place is built and I look for more ways to automate. It depends upon how far you want to go, watering system that will respond to weather reports, face detection, automated pet feeders, you are only limited to your imagination and use.

 

I don't use any cloud based (unless I maintain it myself) and subscription services - also another thing about HA or HB, you aren't buying (or trapped) into one system, it consolidates everything - motion alerts on the TV, watch the cameras through the TV and the same GUI that controls my lights and security system, there's no need to cobble together a system using different apps. If you are having to use a phone to control your house or speak to a voice assistant then its not an automated home.

 

If you use apple, its worth a look. If not, go for HA, it's certainly good fun but be warned, its time consuming.

 

I really like this guy.

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/VaclavChaloupkaPhoto/featured

 

Good luck

[OneMoreFarang]

10 hours ago, recom273 said:

I really like this guy.

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/VaclavChaloupkaPhoto/featured

I just watched a couple of his videos. I didn't know him until now. Thanks.

 

I like what he does. Especially he seems to think about what makes sense and not just what is possible and can be done. I think one challenge with home automation is to decide what makes sense. Only because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done. Sometimes an ordinary "stupid" switch is just fine.

[BritManToo]

On 12/29/2021 at 11:20 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

Does anybody of you use Home Automation and especially Home Assistant in Thailand?

Is there anything special in Thailand which should be considered?

Me, I tried Amazon Alexa which just didn't work, then I purchased  Google nest which is almost perfect.

So 2 nests (living room and bedroom) pretty much covers my whole house for voice control.

Not really needed if you don't want voice control (or use your phone for voice control).

 

The switching is all done with TuYa devices.

Most of the house is covered, total cost under 5,000bht.

 

Single light switches were a bit expensive (280bht), triple were a lot better value (370bht), so I did need to pull a few wires around in the loft. A few smart plug adapters for fans, for some reason the smart sockets are wayyyyyy too expensive.

And some inline switches just for a bit of variation.

 

Smart plugs 136bht

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i405022447-s786022799.html

 

Google Nest 790bht

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i2398164001-s8185375236.html

 

Inline switches 109bht

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i2285417046-s7680881020.html

 

Light switches 400bht (careful to order the 'No Neutral' cos your existing switches don't have a neutral wire)

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/smatrul-wifiappgoogle-homeamazon-alexa-220-2404-i1258482701-s3058970536.html

 

Infra red hub (to control TV and Air con) 214bht

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i402166940-s781112230.html

 

Be aware the light switches are 1/2 deeper than your existing wall boxes, live with it or start knocking deeper holes in your wall.

 

Everything I can now control from the Google nest or my phone using voice control, or my phone app (Google Home/Tuya) by pressing buttons.

 

I don't care about 'big brother' nothing much interesting happening in my home.

'They' can listen all they want!

Edited December 30, 2021 by BritManToo

[KhunLA]

I am told I talk too much already ... so giving voice controlling a pass.  It would probably just lead to an argument anyway. ????

[sometimewoodworker]

3 hours ago, KhunLA said:

I am told I talk too much already ... so giving voice controlling a pass.  It would probably just lead to an argument anyway. ????

Like this?

 

and for @BritManToo

 

 

[recom273]

On 12/30/2021 at 11:45 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

I just watched a couple of his videos. I didn't know him until now. Thanks.

 

I like what he does. Especially he seems to think about what makes sense and not just what is possible and can be done. I think one challenge with home automation is to decide what makes sense. Only because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done. Sometimes an ordinary "stupid" switch is just fine.

 

This guy is worth keeping up with for product tests. 

[tjo o tjim]

I run HomeAssistant in the US on a Proxmox VE VM; I tried with a Pi and the results were underwhelming.  I also have a Universal Devices ISY994i which controls a bunch of Insteon devices and interfaces in nicely with HASS.  The crack about it being a part-time job is not necessarily that far off, but most of the work is just in updating it.  There are parts of HASS that I have really struggled with making work properly, and other parts that are amazingly easy.

 

I would say though that the biggest decision is in your wiring devices.  For me, I have about 25% of my switches replaced, and I simply cannot get stock from Insteon.  By far, I would prefer to have all Insteon wall switches because the ISY makes dealing with them a pleasure, and the powerline + wireless network (proprietary?) simplifies a number of things.

 

I’ve also used a handful of Shelly relays, and they can be a great solution… but I have no idea how to future-proof wifi.  If I sold the house, I would need to somehow document a whole lot of stuff, and likely throw in the HASS VM and all the neworking equipment.  I also have some Sonoff devices with mixed results— I have a bunch that need to be flashed with ESPHome, but I am struggling.

 

I did use OpenHAB in the past; it was ok, but I do like the flexibility of HASS better, despite OpenHAB being significantly more transparent.  Without the ISY I am not sure what I would really think of HASS though; some of the automations are pretty clunky.

[BritManToo]

7 minutes ago, tjo o tjim said:

I run HomeAssistant in the US on a Proxmox VE VM

But we're in Thailand and nothing you've mentioned is available here.

[tjo o tjim]

Just now, BritManToo said:

But we're in Thailand and nothing you've mentioned is available here.

Shelly and Sonoff are global, but they are all based on ESP8266s and have the same issues.  Insteon was available in Thailand a long time ago, but getting anything now is not practical.  I had seen a UD ISY-994 in a Bangkok restaurant before, but I do doubt that it is a common offering.

 

The main thing I am trying to convey is that the most important decision you make is what you are going to use for your wiring devices, and how you are going to address wifi.  After that, everything else is pretty easy and flexible… you don’t have any decisions to make that will require re-wiring things.

[OneMoreFarang]

57 minutes ago, tjo o tjim said:

The main thing I am trying to convey is that the most important decision you make is what you are going to use for your wiring devices, and how you are going to address wifi.  After that, everything else is pretty easy and flexible… you don’t have any decisions to make that will require re-wiring things.

Thanks for all your information.

 

One important part of my plan (which is just a plan in the moment) is to install a dropped ceiling in my apartment. Some are available which look a lot better than the boring office look.

With a dropped ceiling wiring becomes something which can easily be changed in the hindsight. Planning is good but it will never be perfect or future proved. With such a ceiling It will be easy to add and change things (wires, lights, sensors, etc.) later.

Some devices can use WLAN or LAN (wired). I will make up my mind if maybe I use LAN in some places so that I don't have to rely on WLAN. I will for sure separate my home automation WLAN from the Internet WLAN.

 

This is just a sample picture.

 

[tjo o tjim]

To the extent possible you may want to home run everything to a box with DIN rail rather than switching in the ceiling. (Plan for about 40mm of rail per discrete switching zone.) This gives you the best flexibility and simplest troubleshooting.