Home Assistant vs OpenHAB: Which Open-Source Smart Home Platform Fits You? (2026)
Two terminal windows open side by side — Home Assistant vs OpenHAB — both freshly installed on your Proxmox host, cursor blinking. One shows Home Assistant’s onboarding wizard already discovering devices on your network. The other shows OpenHAB’s main UI,...
Read more
Your Smart Home, Your Data — Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi vs. Google & Amazon
🎧 Listen to the 60-Second Audio Recap: The Privacy Problem — What Big Tech Does With Your Smart Home Data Every voice command you send to Google Home or Amazon Alexa leaves your local network, transits a third-party server, and...
Read more
Solar Panels 100% Local: Hoymiles Inverters in Home Assistant with OpenDTU (No Cloud)
Your Solar Data Is Flying to China First — Here’s How to Stop It 🎧 Listen to the 60-Second Audio Recap: The Privacy Problem With the Official Hoymiles DTU This guide covers OpenDTU Hoymiles Home Assistant integration via local MQTT,...
Read more
Smart Mechanical Ventilation: Control Your Itho Daalderop CVE Locally in Home Assistant (No Cloud)
This guide covers the Itho Daalderop CVE WiFi add-on for local Home Assistant control via MQTT, without any cloud dependency. Why depend on fixed speeds (1, 2, or 3) on a plastic remote, or pay for an expensive manufacturer “smart”...
Read more
Ditch the Cloud: Local Control of Your Mitsubishi Heavy Industries AC with ESP32-S3 & ESPHome
🎧 Listen to the 60-Second Audio Recap: This guide covers complete Mitsubishi AC Home Assistant ESPHome local control via ESP32-S3. The official Mitsubishi WF-RAC WiFi dongle works. It pairs quickly, the app is polished, and the integration is seamless. It...
Read more
Stop Sending Your Door & Window Data to Big Tech — The Case for a Local 433MHz Gateway
🎧 Listen to the 60-Second Audio Recap: The Privacy Problem — What Happens Every Time Your Front Door Opens This guide covers the complete RFX-433EMC Home Assistant MQTT setup with Auto Discovery. Every time a door sensor fires a 433MHz...
Read more
Pair Your First Zigbee Sensor with Home Assistant ZHA — Keep Your Bathroom Data Off Foreign Servers
🎧 Listen to the 60-Second Audio Recap: What’s Actually Happening With Your Sensor Data Right Now This guide covers how to pair Zigbee sensor Home Assistant ZHA without a vendor hub. A Zigbee humidity sensor costs about $8. The hub...
Read more
AVATTO HA 70 Review: The €37 AliExpress Home Assistant Box
In November 2025, I spotted something on AliExpress that seemed too good to be true: the AVATTO Home Assistant Box HA 70, priced at just €37.56. It looks exactly like a generic Android TV box, but the listing claimed it...
Read more
