In this guide, we're going to show you how create a simple automation in Home Assistant which will send a push notification to a mobile device running the Home Assistant Companion App when some lights have been left on for an extended period. At the end of this tutorial, we're also going to show you how you can build upon this functionality to include an actionable notification - allowing you to open the Home Assistant app directly from the notification message.

If you don't have the app already installed, you will find links for both the Android and iOS versions plus the official Home Assistant Companion App documentation here. 

Requirements

• Home Assistant OS running on a Raspberry Pi (3 and above) or similar
• Home Assistant Companion App pre-installed on your phone or mobile device and registered with your Home Assistant instance. You must be logged into Home Assistant from the app to receive push notifications.

Software Versions Used in this Guide

• Home Assistant OS version 2021.7.4
• Home Assistant Companion App for Android version 2021.6.2-full 
• Supervisor version 2021.06.8 (stable)

This guide describes how to add Z-Wave to your Home Assistant using the Z-Wave JS Integration.

To support the integration, we will be using the Z-Wave JS to MQTT add-on, available from the Home Assistant community add-on store. This add-on includes the Z-Wave JS Server as part of the Z-Wave JS to MQTT application and despite the name, MQTT is not required to run it.

The Z-Wave network can be configured via the Z-Wave JS Control Panel built into Home Assistant but the benefit of using the Z-Wave JS to MQTT add-on is that it also exposes an additional, more advanced control panel, which offers wider network configuration options and diagnostic tools.

Requirements

• Home Assistant OS running on a Raspberry Pi (3 and above) or similar
• You will also need an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5+, Z-Wave.me UZB1 or other compatible Z-Wave stick or module installed. 

Software Versions Used in this Guide

• Home Assistant OS version 2021.7.3
• Z-Wave JS to MQTT version 0.22.1
• Supervisor version 2021.06.8 (stable)

Home Assistant is an open-source home automation project developed by a worldwide community of very clever people, with a strong focus on performance, reliability and protecting your privacy. If you’ve spent any amount of time researching smart home tech and the world of the “Internet of Things”, chances are, you will have seen a reference to Home Assistant somewhere, partly due to the vast number of system integrations it can support.

​Home Assistant has long been a powerful force amongst smart home aficionados, but it is sometimes criticised for being too complicated for the “average Joe” due to the product’s heavy reliance on code (YAML) for its configurations. However, over the past year or so, the developers of Home Assistant began moving a lot of this configuration to the web UI in an effort to greatly simplify the system – for all users. Thanks to this effort, tasks which used to be technically demanding can now be accomplished with the click of a few buttons.

Today, Home Assistant has reached a significant milestone in user-friendliness, and it’s only getting better. Combine this with an ever-growing list of supported smart home platforms, advanced automation tools, blazing fast performance and a rapid development lifecycle, it can arguably rival the features and capabilities of any commercially available product in this space.​

​In this article, we want to highlight some of the reasons why we think Home Assistant is such a fantastic product, and discuss some of the unique features it brings to the modern smart home… ​