DIY Installation

Home Assistant, only better and easier

Why Choose EffortlessHome DIY Mode?

It’s the fastest way to get up and running with a highly capable system on Home Assistant! Home Assistant is complex, super powerful and capable, but built by techies for techies. We have been HA users for 8+ years and have gained expert knowledge. To help the community grow we are helping to make real smart homes more accessible. Our DIY solutions include everything needed to get an advanced Home Assistant implementation in place quickly and easily.

HA Simplified

Best practice automations, automated device grouping, functional & stylish dashboards, and more.

Security + monitoring

Full security alarm and monitoring system built in. For a small monthly cost easily add 24/7 professional monitoring and/or Medical Alerts

Remote Access

Securely access your Home Assistant wherever you are. Free trial and $5/month after the trial.

Cloud Backups

Cloud Backups for configuration, data, and camera motion captures

Step 1: Hardware

Home Assistant runs on many different types of hardware. The first step (if you don’t already have it running) is to choose an approach and install. To get the full EffortlessHome experience please choose either Home Assistant OS or Home Assistant Supervised. See the Home Assistant Installation Guide.

If you need hardware or devices, EffortlessHome offers affordable packages and devices to get a top-notch smart home more easily.

Shop

We have many options available to use all or parts of the EffortlessHome suite. In this walk through we will cover the easiest, fastest way to get a full system installed. Warning, if you use this guide on an existing system it will replace your data so make sure to take and save a local backup before proceeding.

Download the latest system image file from https://github.com/EffortlessHome/systemimages
Go to your Home Assistant instance (typically http://homeassistant.local:8123) and then go to Settings > System > Backups
Upload and restore the .TAR file downloaded in step one
Reboot and wait
Login with the default EffortlessHome admin account: eh_admin, password: Eff@rtlessh@me
Make sure to change the password for the default admin account OR create new and remove it.
Continue to the next step, system configuration

Step 2: Configuration

Once your HA instance loads you should see any integrations which were discovered, add and configure those as desired.

With the EffortlessHome integration you get many improvements and capabilities, take a few minutes to review them and look at what is available. In the next step we will configure them.

EH Security Module
Device Groupings by Type and Area
Convenience sensors: sleeping, avg temp, avg humidity, notifications, sleeping
Automation and Script Blueprints
Home Assistant Community Store
PowerCalc
Presence Simulation
Cloud Backups
Secure Remote Access
Matter Hub for integrating with Alexa, HomeKit, Google Assistant and more
Make dumb appliances smart with smart plugs
And much more with monthly enhancement releases.

Step 3: EffortlessHome Configuration

First, get your free EffortlessHome account

Next add the EH component

Go to Settings > Devices & Services then click the Add Integration Button at the bottom right. Search for EffortlessHome

Add EffortlessHome and sign-in with your EH account email address and System ID (created above)

The EH component creates the EH Security Option (and more)

Configure the EH Security section (link available in the left Nav bar) Recommend adding the EH Group sensors to the alarm for ease as it automatically adds/removes sensors as your system changes.

Step 4: EffortlessHome Backups

Go to Settings, Add-ons

Click on EffortlessHome Backup

Start the service

Once started go to the Backups menu item in the left nav bar.

Authenticate to your Google Drive account

Step 5: EffortlessHome Remote Access

Go to Settings, Add-ons

Click on EffortlessHome Remote Access

Click on Configuration

Enter Your EH account email address and system id. Then click save.

Return to the Info tab and click start.

Once started your system will be available remotely at the URL provided when you created your account in step 3.

Step 6: Customize Dashboard

EffortlessHome provides a base dashboard but it is highly customizable. For DIY users with their own set of devices, especially, you’ll want to customize to your needs.

To make that process easier our solution automatically groups devices like lights by area, all door sensors, temp sensors, motion sensors, etc.

To customize your dashboard first select it in the left nav (e.g. Overview) and then click the pencil icon in the top right corner.

You are presented with a easy to use interface to add or move/change widgets, tabs, etc.

Step 7: Labels, Areas, Zones

Areas:

EH automatically creates common areas of the home. Go to Settings > Areas, Labels, Zones

Customize as needed.

For best results assign the devices in your home to the applicable area.

Labels:

To simplify the integration of what is linked to smart home ecosystems, EH uses Labels. The image shows the 3 types of labels we use today. Set these labels on your devices. To avoid motion lights triggered (while sleeping) in areas like bedrooms add the SleepArea label to those areas and lights in those areas.

Final Steps & Additional Items

Mobile App: Install for your device(s) from here

Matter Hub:

Labels are used per Step 7 to define synced entities. Many other options are available, but that’s complex and outside the scope of this guide.
Setup Integration
- Go to Settings > Add-ons > Home Assistant Matter Hub and make sure it is running
- If you have changed labels restart the integration to make sure they are captured. Click the Open Web UI to see the view at the right. You will need this for the next step.
Alexa/Google/HomeKit Integration
- To integrate your EH smart home with these we will use the Matter Hub.
- Open the Alexa/Google Home/Apple Home app on your mobile phone.
- Click the option to add a device:
  - Alexa: Add device > Matter
  - Google Home: Devices > Add > Matter-enabled device
  - Homekit: Add Accessory
- Scan the QR code shown on the Matter Hub page
- Follow the prompts to integrate and your devices you linked will all become available to control.

PowerCalc (coming soon)

Options

We recommend the full EffortlessHome suite for the best experience, but you can also pick and choose:

system restore

Restore our latest backup to get up and running quickly

Learn MORe

Add-ons

Add-ons for cloud backups and remote access

Learn More

Integration

The Core EffortlessHome Native Integration

Learn More

Blueprints

A large set of easy to use automation and script blueprints

Learn more