Home Assistant is the open-source local-first smart home brain — no cloud dependency, full data sovereignty, and a HACS community add-on ecosystem that supports more devices and brands than any commercial hub. The 2026 hardware landscape: HA Yellow (the Nabu Casa-developed board with PoE, Zigbee+Thread radio and Compute Module 5 socket), HA Green (the cheap all-in-one Pi-based unit, no Zigbee built in), or bring-your-own on a Raspberry Pi 5 with USB SSD, an Intel N100 mini PC or full HAOS in a Proxmox VM. Electrician Londoninstalls all three.
London has a shortage of installers who can deliver Home Assistant alongside the underlying electrical work. Most HA installers are IT specialists who hand off the mains-side wiring to someone else; most electricians do not know HACS from HVAC. We sit in the middle — NICEIC-certified on BS 7671 and competent on HAOS, ESPHome, MQTT, Zigbee2MQTT and Z-Wave JS. The biggest practical wins are at the intersection: integrating an EV charger with solar generation, throttling a battery against Octopus Agile prices in real time, or running a heat pump's flow temperature against the HA Energy Dashboard for genuine cost optimisation.
Why Home Assistant for energy automation specifically? The HA Energy Dashboard (built-in since 2021.8) is the cleanest visualisation of generation, consumption, grid import, grid export, EV charging and battery state in one screen — better than any first-party app from GivEnergy, Tesla, Octopus or Solis. The Octopus Energy HACS integration pulls half-hourly Agile and Cosy pricing, consumption from your SMETS2 meter and Intelligent dispatch schedules. The data sovereignty point matters too: HA runs entirely on your local network, no cloud login required, no manufacturer can sunset features or sell your usage data.
Why Electrician London
HA Yellow / Green pre-config + delivery
Supply, configure and install HA Yellow (PoE, Zigbee+Thread, CM5) or HA Green. Pre-loaded with Octopus, Zigbee2MQTT and Energy Dashboard before delivery — boot and play.
BYO Pi 5 / mini PC install
Full HAOS install on Raspberry Pi 5 with USB SSD, or HAOS on an Intel N100 mini PC for more headroom. Proxmox VM install for power users wanting Docker alongside.
Energy dashboard configuration
Octopus Energy HACS, GivEnergy / Solis / Tesla integrations, EV charger integration, half-hourly pricing pulled into Lovelace cards. Configured per your real tariff and hardware.
Custom automation development
Battery dispatch against Agile pricing, EV charge windows on Cosy / Intelligent, solar diversion to immersion via myenergi Eddi, heat pump flow-temp modulation. Per-household scripted.
Home Assistant pricing
Indicative pricing for the most common HA install scopes. Long-term retainer for ongoing automation work available.
HA basic setup on Yellow / Green
Hardware supply, HAOS install, initial integrations (Hue, Octopus, weather), basic dashboard
£225–£395
HA install on Pi 5 / mini PC
BYO hardware install, HAOS or Docker setup, SSD config, initial integrations
£165–£295
Energy dashboard build-out
Octopus + inverter + battery + EV integrations, Lovelace dashboards, half-hourly schedules
£165
Custom automations
Battery dispatch, solar diversion, EV scheduling, heat pump tuning — per-hour billed
£85/hr
Monthly maintenance retainer
Monthly HA core + OS updates, automation review, integration troubleshooting
£55/mo
What's included
- Hardware supply (where specified)
- HAOS or HA Container install
- Backup setup (Google Drive / NAS)
- Static IP / VLAN configuration
- Reverse-proxy + HTTPS setup
- Octopus Energy HACS integration
- Inverter / battery integration
- EV charger integration
- Energy dashboard configuration
- Handover documentation
Frequently asked questions
Home Assistant vs Hubitat vs SmartThings — which should I pick?
Home Assistant: best for power users, energy automation, local control, full data sovereignty. Steep learning curve but unmatched depth. Hubitat: best for households wanting local control without HA complexity — solid rule engine, smaller community. SmartThings: best for households happy with cloud-first, polished mobile app, broad device catalogue. We install HA where the customer values control + privacy; SmartThings or Hubitat where they want simpler.
HA Yellow vs HA Green vs Raspberry Pi 5 — what should I buy?
HA Yellow (~£170) if you want PoE power, built-in Zigbee+Thread radio and a Compute Module socket — the cleanest hardware choice for new installs. HA Green (~£95) if you want a cheap turnkey unit and have Zigbee/Thread covered elsewhere. Pi 5 + USB SSD (~£120 all in) if you want to BYO and have an existing Zigbee/Z-Wave stick. Intel N100 mini PC (~£170) if you want more performance for Frigate AI cameras or many add-ons.
Cloud or local — can Home Assistant work without internet?
Yes — that is the whole point. All HA core automations run locally on your LAN. Internet is only required for (1) external access from outside the home (we set up Nabu Casa or reverse proxy + DDNS), (2) cloud integrations that genuinely need cloud (Tesla API, Ring cameras, weather forecast), and (3) HA core updates. The lights, locks, sensors, schedules and energy automations all keep working during a broadband outage. SmartThings and Alexa cannot say the same.
What is HACS and do I need it?
HACS (Home Assistant Community Store) is the third-party integration marketplace — the equivalent of an "app store" for Home Assistant. It hosts ~2,000 integrations the core team has not yet adopted (Octopus Energy, GivEnergy, Tesla Wall Connector, Reolink, Frigate, many more). You almost certainly need it. We install and configure HACS at setup and pre-load the essentials for your hardware.
What is ESPHome and when should I use it?
ESPHome lets you build custom Wi-Fi sensors and controllers on cheap ESP32 / ESP8266 hardware (around £4 a unit) configured entirely via YAML — temperature sensors, presence detectors, smart relays, custom doorbells, water leak sensors. It is excellent for filling gaps where commercial sensors are overpriced or unavailable. We use it heavily for energy monitoring (clamp-on CT sensors) and custom presence detection.
How does HA integrate with my EV charger?
OCPP chargers (Wallbox, Andersen, Hypervolt, Pod Point, Project EV) integrate via the OCPP add-on — Home Assistant becomes the OCPP backend rather than the manufacturer cloud. Octopus Intelligent Go integrates via the official Octopus Energy HACS integration, pulling dispatch schedules into HA so other automations (e.g. battery charge windows) coordinate. We configure on commissioning.
How do backups work?
Full HA configuration (automations, scripts, dashboards, integration settings, history) backs up nightly to Google Drive, OneDrive, S3, a Synology NAS or any other target via the official backup add-ons. Restore is one-click on a fresh install. We set up scheduled backups at install and verify a test restore before handover.
What do you not do?
We do not write custom HACS integrations from scratch (sometimes possible but not our specialism). We do not provide ongoing development beyond the agreed automation scope. We do not maintain unsupported devices (Chinese AliExpress unicorns that nobody else integrates). And we do not voice-train Whisper / Piper for full local voice assistant — that is a niche we will discuss but not commit to a fixed price on.
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