In this episode Phil and Rohan break down Home Assistant 2025.11. We cover the revamped Automation UI with the new target picker, naming options on dashboards, the new Energy pie chart, update progress indicators, and an upgraded Home dashboard.

Watch this episode on YouTube

https://hasspodcast.io/ha209

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Support Rohan and Phil on Patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 - Intro, sponsors, livestream

00:02:30 - Open Home news, GitHub

00:06:00 - Eltako joins works with program, Yellow retired

00:12:30 - LinknLink eMotion mmWave sensors hands-on

00:23:30 - AWS outage smart beds

00:27:00 - Plex debate, privacy

00:31:00 - Smart plugs and 3D printers

00:35:00 - Energy monitoring, CT clamps

00:38:30 - 2025.11 automation updates

00:44:30 - Smoke/CO relay project

00:47:30 - New integrations roundup

00:51:30 - Breaking changes, Python

00:54:00 - Neato cloud shutdown

00:56:30 - Wrap-up and outro

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Zooz

If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.

For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

Chris joins Phil and Rohan to share a brutally honest smart home journey: starting with Philips Hue, hitting limits with multiple bridges, battling MyQ and RatGDO, and landing real energy savings with Home Assistant.

Watch this episode on YouTube

https://hasspodcast.io/ha207

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

Support Rohan and Phil on Patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

01:03 Meet Chris: the ‘reluctant Home Assistant guy’ (NZ/Canada background)

03:00 Hue as the gateway: GU10s, COVID mood lights, buying a house

04:39 Discovering Home Assistant; cost shocks and smart switch vs smart bulb decisions

06:30 Legal wiring quirks in NZ and scoring bulk Hue downlights

08:00 Hue motion/presence, bridge device limits, and Pro Bridge API exposure

09:50 Upgrade cadence, iOS/MacOS betas, and why Shelly bodies didn’t fit

12:00 Daily frustrations: a random red light, Roomba fails, Alexa vs Siri

14:36 Garage/gate saga: MyQ, RatGDO struggles, Grandstream Wi‑Fi, Meross HomeKit fix

20:00 Adaptive Lighting: Hue app vs HA integration; mixed CCT bulbs going ‘red’

26:00 Three points of failure; behavior change, the cleaners’ switch, and one non‑motion room

31:40 Protocol choices: Wi‑Fi vs Zigbee vs Z‑Wave; Matter/Thread pain in practice

36:40 Energy saving wins: free ‘hour of power’, Bosch Home Connect, Hue Tap + TTS

47:06 Simple scenes that matter: spa lighting that won’t trigger floods

51:00 Biggest surprises, time sink, and the idea of HA consultants

53:40 Advice for newcomers: hobby vs lifestyle; draw the line

56:00 Dashboards: new layouts, family tabs, activity timelines, and to‑dos

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Zooz

If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.

For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

Discover the origins of AirGradient, which began as a volunteer project in Northern Thailand during the harsh "burning season" of 2019. Learn how this effort evolved into a company focused on providing open source air quality hardware, measuring critical metrics like PM 2.5 and CO2 to safeguard classrooms

Watch this episode on YouTube

https://hasspodcast.io/ha206

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

Support Rohan and Phil on Patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

01:04 Meet Achim: From Siemens to Thailand and a Wildfire Crisis

03:20 Burning Season 2019: The School That Sparked AirGradient

07:50 DIY to Open Hardware: Arduino, ESP32, PM2.5 + CO2, and Dashboards

12:24 Values: Repairability, Ownership, and CC BY‑SA Licensing

16:40 Global Takeoff: Hacker News, Jeff Geerling, and the Kit Era

20:16 ESPHome vs Native: Building the Official Home Assistant Integration

32:26 Works with Home Assistant Platinum: Local‑First and Privacy by Default

36:40 Open Culture, Community, and Academia: Why Sharing Pays Back

41:45 UNICEF Laos: ML Air‑Quality Forecasts + Open Map Integration

44:55 Roadmap: Larger Displays, Portable Monitors, and More Pollutants

46:27 Safeguarding the Mission: Foundation Plan (Switzerland)

49:45 Achim’s Home Assistant Setup: Z‑Wave, ESPHome, Geofencing

56:16 Real‑World Use Cases: Factories, Schools, and Ventilation Control

01:01:58 Accuracy Matters: Calibration, Pitfalls, and Transparent Limits

01:05:19 Wrap‑Up and Where to Buy

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Zooz

If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.

For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

We're joined by psychologist Josh Burg, who shares his unique journey from Google Home to a fully local Home Assistant setup. We get to see how he’s using some of the new Philips Hue zone capabilities to make his home smarter

Watch this episode on YouTube

https://hasspodcast.io/ha205

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

Support Rohan and Phil on Patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:09 Introducing Josh

00:01:15 Josh's Location and Weather

00:02:41 Journey into Home Automation

00:03:40 Networking Challenges

00:06:14 Switching to Unify Networking Gear

00:09:10 Home Assistant Setup

00:13:16 Smart Home Integrations and Projects

00:17:25 Lighting Automation

00:27:20 Introduction and New Gadget Excitement

00:27:30 Home Assistant Update

00:27:52 Motion Aware Technology

00:28:38 Setup Challenges

00:29:39 Community Involvement

00:30:37 Sensitivity and Testing

00:31:36 Performance Comparisons

00:31:55 Hardware and Ecosystem

00:38:05 Hue Light Scenes

00:47:22 Randomized Notifications

00:51:45 AI Integration

00:53:49 Google Home Issues

00:54:26 Apple Ecosystem

00:54:35 Home Integration and Nest

00:56:22 Network Concerns

00:57:10 Privacy and Data Traffic

00:58:06 Local vs. Cloud Hosting

01:01:55 Community Support

01:06:17 Open Source Development

01:07:10 Supportive Communities

01:09:11 Conclusion and Farewell

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Zooz

If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.

For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

Rohan and Phil are breaking down the 2025.10 release, which includes bilingual support for assistants. Meanwhile Sonos finds a new partner, and we answer some listener questions

Watch this episode on YouTube

https://hasspodcast.io/ha204

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

Support Rohan and Phil on Patreon

Share your story

We wouldn't be able to do this podcast without community members and home automation enthusiasts sharing their stories. To register your interest to come share your home automation journey, head over to homeassistant.fm and click share your story.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:59 Discussion on 2025.10 Release

00:01:25 Automation Editor Updates

00:03:51 AI Image Generation Service

00:06:05 Dashboard Entity Suggestions

00:11:39 Voice Assistant Updates

00:12:05 AccuWeather and Reolink Features

00:22:51 Media Player Panel Update

00:24:31 Matter and Logbook Updates

00:25:28 Philips Hue Motion Updates

00:27:14 LG ThinQ and Litter Robot Enhancements

00:29:39 Lutron Caseta Multi-tap Actions

00:33:24 Shelly and SwitchBot Updates

00:57:20 Notification Customization

00:57:42 Using Emojis for Alerts

00:58:35 Testing LLM Vision for Driveway Gates

00:59:22 Memory Feature in LLM Vision

01:00:10 Discussion on Breaking Changes

01:00:38 Shoutout to Home Assistant Cards

01:01:11 Philips Hue and Sonos Partnership

01:02:33 Conclusion

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Zooz

If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.

For the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

Phil and Rohan talk to Gimmy Chu, CEO of Nanoleaf, about the Nanoleaf smart lighting ecosystem, their open API vision, and how Nanoleaf got its start in the world of innovative lighting technology.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

https://hasspodcast.io/ha203

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:02:27 Home Assistant and IoT

00:06:43 AI and IoT Integration

00:11:31 Challenges in IoT Development

00:17:54 Open Source and Future of Nanoleaf

00:22:42 Nanoleaf Origin Story

00:27:35 Introduction of Nanoleaf Product

00:27:48 Development of Energy Efficient Light Bulb

00:28:33 Launch and Success on Kickstarter

00:28:44 Rebranding to Nanoleaf

00:29:33 Impact of COVID on Home Décor

00:32:41 Home Automation and Product Testing

00:42:32 Challenges in Commercial Lighting

00:45:13 Development of Lighting Effects and Orchestrator App

00:51:39 Future Products and Expansion

00:56:02 Challenges with Matter Over Thread

00:56:37 Current Solutions with Nanoleaf

00:57:39 Issues with Matter Adoption

00:58:45 Future of Matter and Thread

01:01:12 Personal Experiences with Matter

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

Support Rohan and Phil on Patreon

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Zooz

If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.

So for the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee

Phil and Rohan chat with Thomas about his journey building an accessible smart home with Home Assistant. From experimenting with bulbs and voice assistants to creating cutting-edge automations like occupancy sensors and even a ChatGPT-powered smart mirror, Thomas shares how he tailors his setup to support his lifestyle and family.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

https://hasspodcast.io/ha202

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:08 Introduction of Thomas

00:01:22 Thomas' Journey into Smart Homes

00:02:51 Experiments with Smart Devices

00:07:17 Setting Up a Smart Home

00:14:07 Challenges of Automation

00:18:02 Focus on Accessibility

00:19:53 Innovative Projects for Visual Impairment

00:26:23 Smart Home Challenges and Solutions

00:30:47 Guest's Technical Background

00:31:09 Managing Home Assistant

00:32:30 Voice Assistants at Home

00:34:32 Voice Assistant Preferences

00:35:26 Accessibility Interface

00:36:20 Apple Products Integration

00:39:01 Automation Challenges and Planning

00:41:40 Security and Smart Locks

00:49:05 Pets and Automation

00:52:21 Language and Voice Recognition

00:54:18 OpenAI Integration

00:57:44 Favorite Automations

01:02:19 Closing Remarks

Support the Podcast

Get early-access to episodes and an ad-free feed by supporting our Patreon.

Support Rohan and Phil on Patreon

This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors

Home Assistant Cloud by Nabu Casa

Easily connect to Google and Amazon voice assistants for a small monthly fee that also supports the Home Assistant project. Configuration is via the User Interface so no fiddling with router settings, dynamic DNS, or YAML.

Zooz

If you're looking to upgrade your smart home - you can’t go past Zooz! Zooz offers a range of affordable and innovative devices, including water leak sensors, water valve controllers, smart plugs and scene controllers.

So for the best prices on all Zooz products, head over to thesmartesthouse.com

Hosts

Phil Hawthorne

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @philhawthorne

Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com

Buy Phil a Coffee

Rohan Karamandi

Website

Smart Home Products

Twitter: @rohank9

Buy Rohan a Coffee