The home automation hardware I actually use

Home automation gear has a recurring problem: it works great for two years and then the company gets acquired, sunsets the app, or starts requiring a subscription. Everything I've bought is local-first: it works when the internet is down, it doesn't stop working if the cloud service shuts down, and nothing is sending usage data to a third party.

Here's what I'm actually running.

Air quality monitoring

AirGradient ONE indoor sensors: CO2, PM2.5, PM10, temperature, humidity, and VOCs. They run their own firmware and communicate locally via ESPHome or the native Home Assistant integration. No cloud account required, no data leaving the house.

The AirGradient Open Air goes outside, same sensors in a weatherproof enclosure. This feeds the outdoor weather intent for the voice assistant: "what's it like outside" reads the actual sensor mounted near the front door rather than a weather API's estimate for my ZIP code.

CO2 is the one I watch most. Above ~1000 ppm in a room, cognitive performance starts to degrade noticeably. The sensor triggers a notification when a room crosses 1200 ppm, basically a "crack a window" reminder.

Zigbee sensors and switches

The protocol I landed on after evaluating options. Zigbee advantages over WiFi for sensors:

• Battery life measured in years, not months
• Forms a mesh: every mains-powered Zigbee device acts as a router, extending range
• Local: no cloud dependency, everything goes through ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) in Home Assistant directly

Light switches: Aqara switches. They work reliably, pair easily, and the buttons can be used for scenes and automations independent of the connected light.

Door/window sensors: Cheap Aqara sensors on doors I care about, plus the entry door. The deadbolt detection is more interesting, detecting whether a deadbolt is locked vs. unlocked without replacing the deadbolt itself. A Zigbee tilt sensor mounted on the rotating knob (the interior piece that turns the deadbolt) gives a 90°/180° reading that maps to locked/unlocked.

Sengled bulbs: Pairing tip that took me too long to find. To put a Sengled LED into pairing mode, switch it on and off rapidly 10+ times. It blinks five times to confirm it's in pairing mode.

The USB Zigbee stick

A USB Zigbee coordinator plugged into the Home Assistant server (running as a Proxmox VM). The specific dongle matters. Not all are created equal for range and reliability. Home Assistant's community has tested and published a recommended list. I use a coordinator from that list, not whatever's cheapest on Amazon.

Here is the list

Air purifier

The insight that unlocked this: most good air purifiers are "dumb", a mechanical device with a fan and filter. They remember their last state (on/off, speed) when power is cut and restored. That means: put one on a smart plug, and you control it completely via the plug. No cloud integration needed, no "smart purifier" premium.

The air quality sensors feed this. The PM2.5 or PM10 goes above threshold, the automation turns the plug on (and the purifier, which was left in the "on" state at speed 2). Below threshold, it turns back off.

Some theoretical ideas (that should work)

Robot vacuum

Dreame L10s Pro Ultra running Valetudo, a local-only replacement for the manufacturer's cloud firmware. The stock Dreame app sends telemetry, maps, and usage data to their servers. Valetudo removes all of that and exposes a local API that Home Assistant can talk to directly.

The general principle: any robot vacuum that works well will also work with Valetudo. The approach of buying based on vacuum quality first and then checking Valetudo compatibility second is the right order of operations.

Valetudo exposes room-by-room cleaning control, which is the killer feature. Home Assistant knows which rooms are which. I have an automation that triggers "clean the kitchen" after cooking sessions instead of cleaning the whole map every time.

The harder part is doing the hardware hacking

What I'm not automating

The thermostat. Electric baseboard heaters with Zigbee or Z-wave thermostats exist, but the cost per room for proper coverage is significant. I'll get there eventually, but it's not in the current setup.

Voice control for complex things. The local Whisper model transcribes well enough for entities and simple commands, but anything requiring context or multi-step reasoning doesn't work with pattern-matched intents. I'd rather it work reliably for what it supports than be flaky trying to do too much.

The philosophy

Every device I've added has a clear answer to: "what happens if the company that made this goes under tomorrow?"

For the AirGradient sensors: I keep the data, I can flash alternative firmware if needed. For the Zigbee sensors: they communicate with a local coordinator, there's no server involved. For the smart plugs: local-only Zigbee or Z-Wave.

This sounds paranoid until the third time a consumer IoT product announces an end-of-service date and you realize that everything you bought doesn't work anymore.

If you think I am kidding, I'd watch this Louis Rossmann video talking about Google killing their Nest devices and you can see where the paranoia comes from.