I got sucked into home automation without considering the privacy implications because that was back before I know how bad internet privacy was. It was also something my wife was really excited about and wanting to try out. After several years and getting home automation and voice control of the lights really ingrained in our lives, we had a day and a half internet outage at my house in late 2019 that showed that a smart home isn’t actually smart if it relies on the cloud, plus there are security and privacy issues. It’s ridiculous to need a server in a data center to turn on your lights. My wife gave me the mandate to make it work even without the internet.

The highest priority was to replace the 1st gen SmartThings hub that cannot work without the cloud, the next priority is getting rid of the Google listening devices that are providing voice control. Here’s what the setup looks like now:

• At the core is Home Assistant running in a Docker container on my home server. It’s provides the automation, grouping of devices together, keeping track of the current state of devices, and passing the messages around.
• The lights are all Zigbee and are connected to a Philips Hue Bridge that allows for local control.
• There is a powerstrip on Wifi and Zwave switch. Zwave is handled by a USB Zwave stick I got years ago. The powerstrip does have a connection with Smart Life in China as well, but I will be setting up an Opnsense router soon that will allow me to deny it access to the internet.
• For voice control I am working on deploying Rhasspy with a base running in Docker on the home server and satellites on Raspberry Pis that will be in the living room, bedroom, and kitchen. So far with one satellite and it’s integration with Home Assistant I’ve already got it handling lights, switches, and the shopping list. When It’s done I’ll do a more detailed blog post about it.

As it stands, at present I have a smart home with all local control that looses very little functionality if the internet goes down. Here in another month or two it will be completely independent of the cloud.