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this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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I assume this is going to arrive at the solution of "Upgrade to Gemini-supported devices today!" Yeah, no thanks. I wish I could get Home Assistant working with my nest minis.
No need for this. A Z-Wave or Zigbee thermostat does the same thing.
Which one would you recommend?
I bought a Honeywell Z-Wave thermostat because I have a more complicated HVAC setup than the typical American home. It was one of the few I could find that was compliant with a home automation protocol that didn't require something that announced its existence to the Internet. It's been solidly reliable, replacing my dead Nest thermostat.
The thermostat:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HFL7R44
Cool, I've come across this before. I have been looking for a more open thermostat, preferably esp32 based, that I can have good local control over. I have started to do the board layout for one with some air quality sensors built in.
If you don't mind me asking whats more complicated about your hvac setup? Multistage? Heat pump? Multizone?
Not multistage, but it's a heat pump with auxiliary heat. I have multiple zones controlled by dampers, too, soni have two of these thermostats.
Ahh, makes sense. Multizone is something I'll probably end up doing in my house soon, thankfully all my ductwork is exposed in the basement which makes it easy. Thanks appreciate it, I'm going to try to get a prototype board spun in the next week or two, test it out for a bit, and then see if other people are interested in them too. Appreciate the info, I should consider being able to control dampers also.
The Google Nest Mini is a smart speaker, not the smart thermostat with a similar name.
I know it's not the same, but my ecobee is fine and i think it avoids most mass surveillance stuff. They nuked the API but beetstat.io is cheap and nice.
If you want just a temp sensor https://apolloautomation.com/products/temp-1
The Nest Mini is not a thermostat.
I ended up picking up two of the Home Assistant Voice PE devices and I've been fairly happy with them. I even extended their firmware so I have a clock display on each with one being my bedroom alarm clock even. But even out of the box functionality, as long as you can either run faster-whisper on Home Assistant (or another box), or don't mind their lighter device-control-only route, is totally solid.
Plus music streaming to them (with an external speaker attached via the 3.5mm jack) is pretty good!
They do work pretty well, I'm phasing out the Google homes in my house trying to go completely local, and the voice PEs are pretty good for voice control.
https://github.com/justLV/onju-voice
I have it set up fine?
I imagine more as in using them for local voice. Without that, it's still dependent on connecting HA to Google Home. And outside of a fairly expensive hardware replacement module it ends up being cheaper to go other routes.
Ahh I see. I've been meaning to try out building a local Assistant to replace my Google Homes with Home Assistant Voice for a while, just haven't tried it out yet.