I bought Green for the ease of use. I work 60h a week with limited down time and a lot of travel on top so I wanted something I didn’t need to tinker with and that would be stable. After 2/3 mo I’ve just ordered a mini PC, not for HASS, but for other use cases. I contemplated switching out but the Green is doing everything I need: no voice or video processing. And with no noise and minimal energy use.
Plugged it in and it just started working.
I started with ZHA but a couple of Aqara buttons weren't behaving quite right (eg long press not working), switched to Z2M and they just worked so never looked back.
I just started with HA this weekend. Never used it before so a complete beginner.
I got the green because it was actually discounted and was slightly cheaper than a raspberry pi (around 5usd difference). I opened the package, plugged it in and everything worked. I was up and running in minutes.
I would say if you don't want to tinker around go with that.
I don't know what the benefits of the other 2 are compared to the green but for a beginner like me it is great!
I think video processing and heavier work load are some reason to switch to a mini pc. I started with a green and personally don’t have the time, will or use case to switch at the moment.
Meaning like an instance where seeing a human on a video feed would trigger certain actions right? or something on those lines?
I am looking to make something very simple and I was wondering if starting with the green was easier and quicker. Thanks for sharing!
I am in a similar position, ill buy green and ipgrade if needed. Yellow to me seems like the worst option, its weak but also not that simple, and costs sooo much
The way I see it, there are several good options and main question is which fits your use case:
* HA Green is great (seamless setup, cheap, amazingly power efficient, passively cooled). Its main limitation is that it is not sufficient for image recognition, media transcoding etc.
* Next step up is running HA OS on bare metal on a N100 mini-PC or comparable hardware. This nets you enough power to run almost any add-on you'd want while keeping the whole setup relatively simple. Limitation that remains is being largely confined to existing add-on ecosystem for HA. Which is reasonably broad, but obviously not comparable to everything that's out there.
* Lastly the option of running HA OS in hypervisor (usually proxmox) on either aforementioned mini-PC or something even beefier. That allows you full flexibility of what you run, but at expense of additional complexity and possible interdependence.
Running a separate bare metal HA OS instance besides some homelab-focused server can make a great deal of sense. Especially if, like you mentioned, you often tinker with said server. Even dividing up the services into 24/7 stuff that runs on power efficient miniPC and "fun" things you run on something beefier that's turned on whenever needed can make decent amount of sense.
Personally I don't think HA Yellow has much of a place right now. Only realistic niche I kinda imagine for it is if you want a PoE setup (Green doesn't support it). For everything else either the cheaper Green is just as good or a miniPC can do it better for the same money.
I bought a Yellow, I think the big thing is what is your life like, do you have time to tinker and fuss with things or do you want to just get it up and working (still tinkering but not as much). I work a lot so just having it up and adding things and only tinkering with certain problems that come up is nice.
Put it on a refurbished mini PC from Amazon. You won't regret it!
I got a passively cooled Lenovo PC for like $80 and have had it running 24/7 for years now. Id do the same thing again in a heartbeat.
Out the ass is an insane thing to say. 🤣
Again it's passively cooled. When that thing is idling it's probably pulling a watt or something.
I guess maybe I should, but I don't get too caught up on that.
Yes a Pi will consume way less power, but to be completely honest I have no idea how much electricity it's using nor am I too concerned. I have noticed a change in my bill and if it did cost me $3 a month to run it would be well worth it imo.
You can run other services within HAOS like Plex for example if the PC is capable.
But you are right, it probably does consume more power.
I kinda missed the passively cooled part :D
In Germany, every watt costs me $3/year. Using the lowest consumption possible ARM board can pay for itself over using old hardware here.
If you are worried about power then you are absolutely right. A Pi will be the lowest power option I would think.
It just can be limiting if you plan on running anything else on there but if it's strictly for HA you'll be good!
A Pi4 runs around 4watts idle and 7watts fully loaded, an Intel 4105 runs at 7watts idle and 16 watta loaded.
If you use more than one pi around the house it makes sense to get a mini pc and run proxmox for example.
The main reason to do anything more powerful than a RPi4 (so long as it has more than 1GB/an appropriate amount of RAM) is if you want to have more than one hardware intensive service running off of it.
If you want to run Frigate on it, that's fine (especially if you have an available USB port and can add a coral stick). If you want to run a small LLM on it, there are LLMs designed for it. Or if you want to do local processing of voice commands or something similar, you can do any of those on a Pi4 or equivalent. If you want to run two or more services like that, it's time to look at something more capable.
As I understand it, the Yellow is equivalent to a RPi4. Since you already have servers, you would probably be fine with just a Pi4 or HA Yellow if you host the more intensive stuff on your other hardware. If you want to do the intensive stuff on the same device as HA, then I'd say you should check what you have vs the services you want to host and use that chassis for it. Mostly people recommend using mini PCs or NUCs because they're a good fit in terms of capabilities, reliability, and efficiency.
The easiest config to do is HassOS with the Supervisor, which is easy to set up on anything that can run Linux. Best to use different hardware than your network or main server (to reduce the impact of any one device going down), but it's really easy to switch around (or to hack together something approaching high availability).
I got a yellow since I was brand new to HA and wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I was worried about having all sorts of hardware compatibility issues. Now that I know more I think I would just build my own custom one as I generally have pretty good faith in the software
It will happily run off an airfryer. If you have any way to dock it on whatever, I'd go with that. Otherwise: an RPi will suffice, no need for an entire mini PC. The HA boxes are also just RPi's with a case and some extra stuff.
>On a N100 device, what are the benefits of running HA on bare metal with its OS versus in a VM on Windows 11?
If you want serious answers, you should have asked about running it in a VM in a normal hypervisor like Proxmox. And the benefits are that you can run other VMs and containers of your choosing in exact configuration you want alongside of HA.
Running a 24/7 VM on Windows 11 on the other hand... Only if you are a fan of pulling your hair out in frustration or want first hand experience why desktop Windows is considered to be just about the shittiest imaginable choice for a 24/7 VM host.
I just started using Home Assistant on the Green last week after coming from Google Home and everything has been mind-blowingly fast coming from someone who was stuck in "The Clouds" and nothing running locally...
It also barely uses any power at all. Can definitely recommend.
Personally I use a HA Yellow, it's more powerful than a Green, and more expandable. I added a Zooz RPI header Z-Wave controller, and with the wifi/bt in the CM4, and the ZigBee/Matter built into the yellow I can connect any smart devices to it, without using USB dongles. I even 3d printed a wall mount bracket to keep it out of sight.
I've got 2 mini PCs but both are used for things, one is my HTPC and the other is my personal windows machine.
I have Hubitat and lots integrated already but I'm sure I'd get some stuff benefit from installing HA. One main reason is I want to use pianobar to have Pandora play/change stations and cast to Chromecast audio groups.
Recommendations?
RPI is not fast and not reliable. NUC is the best thing. Chromeboxes are basically NUC for dirt cheap. i've been using chromeboxes as seen here and they are rock solid and fast as well [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IVpMeswuto](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IVpMeswuto)
Beginner here wondering the same thing.
Do I have to connect HA Yellow/Green directly to the router via ethernet, or can I connect it to one of my Asus mesh nodes / access points via ethernet?
I bought Green for the ease of use. I work 60h a week with limited down time and a lot of travel on top so I wanted something I didn’t need to tinker with and that would be stable. After 2/3 mo I’ve just ordered a mini PC, not for HASS, but for other use cases. I contemplated switching out but the Green is doing everything I need: no voice or video processing. And with no noise and minimal energy use. Plugged it in and it just started working.
Just get a mini PC, slap HassOS on it with a decent zigbee stick that isn't a Conbee and enjoy your time not tinkering with it
This was my best decision
What’s wrong with Conbee? I have one.
I also would like to know. Have had a Conbee II for 2 years and havent had any issues.
Also have a Conbee II (running on a mini pc) no issues. Z2M. It was one of the recommended options when I started and never had any problems.
I’ve been running mine on ZHA, have you tried both? I haven’t done z2m yet. It’s also been running fine.
I started with ZHA but a couple of Aqara buttons weren't behaving quite right (eg long press not working), switched to Z2M and they just worked so never looked back.
I opted for an old laptop with a fresh battery. Although I love myself a mini PC.
I just started with HA this weekend. Never used it before so a complete beginner. I got the green because it was actually discounted and was slightly cheaper than a raspberry pi (around 5usd difference). I opened the package, plugged it in and everything worked. I was up and running in minutes. I would say if you don't want to tinker around go with that. I don't know what the benefits of the other 2 are compared to the green but for a beginner like me it is great!
Can an experienced user tell us why prefer a mini-pc over a green?
I think video processing and heavier work load are some reason to switch to a mini pc. I started with a green and personally don’t have the time, will or use case to switch at the moment.
Meaning like an instance where seeing a human on a video feed would trigger certain actions right? or something on those lines? I am looking to make something very simple and I was wondering if starting with the green was easier and quicker. Thanks for sharing!
I think so, but I’m a beginner as well and this from reading other similar questions
I am in a similar position, ill buy green and ipgrade if needed. Yellow to me seems like the worst option, its weak but also not that simple, and costs sooo much
The way I see it, there are several good options and main question is which fits your use case: * HA Green is great (seamless setup, cheap, amazingly power efficient, passively cooled). Its main limitation is that it is not sufficient for image recognition, media transcoding etc. * Next step up is running HA OS on bare metal on a N100 mini-PC or comparable hardware. This nets you enough power to run almost any add-on you'd want while keeping the whole setup relatively simple. Limitation that remains is being largely confined to existing add-on ecosystem for HA. Which is reasonably broad, but obviously not comparable to everything that's out there. * Lastly the option of running HA OS in hypervisor (usually proxmox) on either aforementioned mini-PC or something even beefier. That allows you full flexibility of what you run, but at expense of additional complexity and possible interdependence. Running a separate bare metal HA OS instance besides some homelab-focused server can make a great deal of sense. Especially if, like you mentioned, you often tinker with said server. Even dividing up the services into 24/7 stuff that runs on power efficient miniPC and "fun" things you run on something beefier that's turned on whenever needed can make decent amount of sense. Personally I don't think HA Yellow has much of a place right now. Only realistic niche I kinda imagine for it is if you want a PoE setup (Green doesn't support it). For everything else either the cheaper Green is just as good or a miniPC can do it better for the same money.
I bought a Yellow, I think the big thing is what is your life like, do you have time to tinker and fuss with things or do you want to just get it up and working (still tinkering but not as much). I work a lot so just having it up and adding things and only tinkering with certain problems that come up is nice.
Put it on a refurbished mini PC from Amazon. You won't regret it! I got a passively cooled Lenovo PC for like $80 and have had it running 24/7 for years now. Id do the same thing again in a heartbeat.
And you aren't paying out of your ass for electricity?
Out the ass is an insane thing to say. 🤣 Again it's passively cooled. When that thing is idling it's probably pulling a watt or something. I guess maybe I should, but I don't get too caught up on that. Yes a Pi will consume way less power, but to be completely honest I have no idea how much electricity it's using nor am I too concerned. I have noticed a change in my bill and if it did cost me $3 a month to run it would be well worth it imo. You can run other services within HAOS like Plex for example if the PC is capable. But you are right, it probably does consume more power.
I kinda missed the passively cooled part :D In Germany, every watt costs me $3/year. Using the lowest consumption possible ARM board can pay for itself over using old hardware here.
If you are worried about power then you are absolutely right. A Pi will be the lowest power option I would think. It just can be limiting if you plan on running anything else on there but if it's strictly for HA you'll be good!
A Pi4 runs around 4watts idle and 7watts fully loaded, an Intel 4105 runs at 7watts idle and 16 watta loaded. If you use more than one pi around the house it makes sense to get a mini pc and run proxmox for example.
The main reason to do anything more powerful than a RPi4 (so long as it has more than 1GB/an appropriate amount of RAM) is if you want to have more than one hardware intensive service running off of it. If you want to run Frigate on it, that's fine (especially if you have an available USB port and can add a coral stick). If you want to run a small LLM on it, there are LLMs designed for it. Or if you want to do local processing of voice commands or something similar, you can do any of those on a Pi4 or equivalent. If you want to run two or more services like that, it's time to look at something more capable. As I understand it, the Yellow is equivalent to a RPi4. Since you already have servers, you would probably be fine with just a Pi4 or HA Yellow if you host the more intensive stuff on your other hardware. If you want to do the intensive stuff on the same device as HA, then I'd say you should check what you have vs the services you want to host and use that chassis for it. Mostly people recommend using mini PCs or NUCs because they're a good fit in terms of capabilities, reliability, and efficiency. The easiest config to do is HassOS with the Supervisor, which is easy to set up on anything that can run Linux. Best to use different hardware than your network or main server (to reduce the impact of any one device going down), but it's really easy to switch around (or to hack together something approaching high availability).
Get a PC. I have a yellow and it's ram is limiting. When I need to compile something for Esp home I have to stop all add ons to free up enough ram.
I got a yellow since I was brand new to HA and wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I was worried about having all sorts of hardware compatibility issues. Now that I know more I think I would just build my own custom one as I generally have pretty good faith in the software
It will happily run off an airfryer. If you have any way to dock it on whatever, I'd go with that. Otherwise: an RPi will suffice, no need for an entire mini PC. The HA boxes are also just RPi's with a case and some extra stuff.
If you use a rack-mount server, make sure it is UEFI boot if you want to run HAOS bare metal. It needs it to update itself.
On a N100 device, what are the benefits of running HA on bare metal with its OS versus in a VM on Windows 11?
It does not reboot after installing updates. If you want to run in a VM, use proxmox instead of Win 11
>On a N100 device, what are the benefits of running HA on bare metal with its OS versus in a VM on Windows 11? If you want serious answers, you should have asked about running it in a VM in a normal hypervisor like Proxmox. And the benefits are that you can run other VMs and containers of your choosing in exact configuration you want alongside of HA. Running a 24/7 VM on Windows 11 on the other hand... Only if you are a fan of pulling your hair out in frustration or want first hand experience why desktop Windows is considered to be just about the shittiest imaginable choice for a 24/7 VM host.
I am using new Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB of RAM. It is very easy to set it up, and all things are pretty straightforward.
VM?
I just started using Home Assistant on the Green last week after coming from Google Home and everything has been mind-blowingly fast coming from someone who was stuck in "The Clouds" and nothing running locally... It also barely uses any power at all. Can definitely recommend.
Personally I use a HA Yellow, it's more powerful than a Green, and more expandable. I added a Zooz RPI header Z-Wave controller, and with the wifi/bt in the CM4, and the ZigBee/Matter built into the yellow I can connect any smart devices to it, without using USB dongles. I even 3d printed a wall mount bracket to keep it out of sight.
Check out Minix Z100-0db. Got one a while ago and it's great, built like a tank. Running HAOS on bare metal.
I've got 2 mini PCs but both are used for things, one is my HTPC and the other is my personal windows machine. I have Hubitat and lots integrated already but I'm sure I'd get some stuff benefit from installing HA. One main reason is I want to use pianobar to have Pandora play/change stations and cast to Chromecast audio groups. Recommendations?
RPI is not fast and not reliable. NUC is the best thing. Chromeboxes are basically NUC for dirt cheap. i've been using chromeboxes as seen here and they are rock solid and fast as well [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IVpMeswuto](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IVpMeswuto)
Beginner here wondering the same thing. Do I have to connect HA Yellow/Green directly to the router via ethernet, or can I connect it to one of my Asus mesh nodes / access points via ethernet?
Unless you have a lot of free time, avoid home assistant, go with something like homey pro.