Our guides offer a simple, step-by-step guidance on how to get your Smart Home up and running. Our aim is not to repeat the tons of manual pages and parameter sets that can be so overwhelming, but rather focus on the essentials to get you up and running in no time.
We are constantly adding to our set of simple, easy to use guides, so make sure to come back often !
Guide 1: Is Smart Home Europe’s Approach Right for You?
Considering a smart home setup? Discover if Smart Home Europe’s local, Home Assistant–based approach suits your privacy, flexibility, and voice-control needs.
Guide 2: Setting Up Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi
Running Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi is a powerful and affordable way to start building your smart home. Follow these steps carefully to get up and running without headaches. ✅ What You’ll Need You can find the Raspberry Pi 4 startpack in our Shop Step-by-Step Instructions 1. Download Home Assistant OS Image Go to…
Guide 2b : Optional: Enable Wi-Fi (Before First Boot)
If you don’t want to use Ethernet, you can configure Wi-Fi: txtKopiërenBewerken[connection]id=my-networkuuid=<generate a UUID>type=wifi[wifi]mode=infrastructuressid=YourNetworkName[wifi-security]auth-alg=openkey-mgmt=wpa-pskpsk=YourPassword[ipv4]method=auto[ipv6]method=auto Replace YourNetworkName and YourPassword with your actual Wi-Fi credentials. To generate a UUID on Linux/macOS, use uuidgen. On Windows, use online UUID generators.
Guide 3: Introducing Zigbee — And Setting It Up in Home Assistant
As you expand your smart home, choosing the right communication protocol is essential. Zigbee is one of the most popular — and for good reason. 🌐 Why Zigbee? Zigbee is a widely adopted, open standard wireless protocol designed specifically for low-power smart home devices. It’s the backbone of many reliable and affordable home automation ecosystems.…
Guide 5: Adding a Zigbee Motion Sensor to Automate Lighting
Smart lighting is even better when it works automatically. In this guide, you’ll learn how to connect a Zigbee motion sensor to your Home Assistant setup and use it to trigger your smart lights — perfect for hallways, bathrooms, or closets. 🧾 Why Motion Sensors? Motion sensors let your smart home react to presence, without…
🌟 Guide 6: Motion-Activated Light Using Home Assistant Blueprint
With Home Assistant, automating your home lighting with motion sensors has never been easier. Instead of creating a full automation from scratch, you can use pre-built blueprints to streamline the process. In this guide, we’ll walk you through setting up the “Motion-activated light” blueprint using the Home Assistant UI. This is a quick way to…
🌟 Guide 7: Advanced Motion-Activated Light Using the “Sensor Light” Blueprint
If you’re looking for more control and customization for your motion-triggered lights in Home Assistant, the “Sensor light” blueprint is the perfect solution. Unlike the simpler “Motion-activated light” blueprint, this blueprint offers advanced features like adjusting brightness, setting conditions, and controlling multiple lights. In this guide, we will walk you through the setup of the…
Guide 8 : How to Integrate a Temperature and Humidity Sensor into Home Assistant
Adding a temperature and humidity sensor to your Home Assistant setup can provide valuable data for climate control, automation, and monitoring. Sensors can be used to trigger actions such as turning on fans, adjusting thermostats, or alerting you if the temperature or humidity exceeds certain thresholds. What You Will Need: Step 1: Prepare Your Sensor…
Guide 9 : How to Integrate a Smart Plug with Home Assistant
Smart plugs are a great way to automate your appliances and control devices remotely. With features like energy monitoring, smart plugs also allow you to track power usage and optimize energy consumption. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to set up a smart plug with Home Assistant and enable energy monitoring if your…
Guide 10 : How to Install an In-Wall Dimmer Behind an Existing Switch
In this guide, we will walk you through the steps of installing an in-wall dimmer behind your existing light switch. This smart dimmer will allow you to control the light via your regular switch, Home Assistant, and even monitor advanced features like energy usage and broken lamp detection. Additionally, the setup ensures that, even if…
How to Install Zigbee Support in Home Assistant
Zigbee is a popular, open-source, wireless communication standard used in many smart home devices, including lights, sensors, and switches. Setting up Zigbee in Home Assistant will allow you to integrate a wide range of Zigbee-enabled devices for automation and control. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of adding Zigbee support to your…
Guide 11 : Why We Recommend Z-Wave for In-Wall Dimmers (Even If We Use Zigbee for Everything Else)
At Smart Home Europe, we love Zigbee. It’s affordable, widely supported, has a strong ecosystem of devices, and integrates perfectly with local smart home platforms like Home Assistant. For lights, sensors, buttons, and plugs—Zigbee is almost always our first choice. But when it comes to in-wall dimmers, our recommendation shifts. Here, Z-Wave gets the upper…
Guide 12 : Setting Up a Z-Wave Stick in Home Assistant with Z-Wave JS (Featuring Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 and Fibaro Dimmer 2)
In this guide, we walk you through setting up a Z-Wave network in Home Assistant using the Z-Wave JS integration, with an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 and the Fibaro Dimmer 2 module. This setup is fully local, reliable, and secure—perfect for long-term smart home use. What You’ll Need Step 1: Plug in Your Z-Wave USB Stick…
Guide 13 : How to Install and Set Up the Home Assistant Mobile App
Welcome to Smart Home Europe! In this guide, we’ll walk you through installing and configuring the Home Assistant mobile app — your pocket-sized smart home control center. By the end of this guide: 📱 Step 1: Install the App The Home Assistant app is free and available for both iOS and Android: 🌐 Step 2:…
Guide 14 : Designing Beautiful Dashboards in Home Assistant: Best Practices and Creative Inspiration
Home Assistant lets you take full creative control over your smart home dashboards. Whether you’re crafting an interface for a tablet on your wall, a control panel for your living room, or an overview on your phone, the possibilities are endless — and beautiful. In this guide, we’ll walk through the best practices and design…
Guide 15 : How to Build Your First Beautiful Home Assistant Dashboard
Now that you’ve seen what’s possible with Home Assistant dashboards, it’s time to build your own — no coding required! This guide will take you step-by-step through everything you need to know to create a clean, powerful, and personalized dashboard using HACS, custom cards, and the Home Assistant UI. 🧠 Don’t worry if this all…
Guide 16 : Create Stunning Floorplan Dashboards in Home Assistant
Want to take your Home Assistant dashboards to the next level? In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a floorplan-style dashboard — a visual map of your home where lights, sensors, and cameras are placed exactly where they are in real life. This guide assumes you already followed our beginner dashboard guide. 🎨 With…
Guide 17 : Seasonal Themes, Day/Night Modes, and Holiday Magic in Home Assistant
Want your smart home dashboard to feel alive and in sync with the world around it? With just a bit of setup, you can make your Home Assistant UI adapt to the season, time of day, or even special holidays. 🎨 What Are Dynamic Themes? A theme in Home Assistant changes the look and feel…
Guide 18 : Leveraging Google Devices with Home Assistant
Introduction: A Match Made in Smart Home Heaven Google’s smart devices, including Google TV, Chromecast, and Nest Hub, bring intuitive controls, robust voice recognition, and sleek displays to your home. These devices are incredibly user-friendly and work exceptionally well for everyday tasks, from controlling lights to streaming media. They also provide excellent sound quality and…
Guide 19 : Full Local Control: Expose Home Assistant Devices to Google Home via Matter
Welcome to the future of smart homes — where your lights, switches, sensors, thermostats, and scenes can all be controlled through Google Home, without relying on any cloud. Thanks to the Home Assistant Matter Bridge, you can now expose your devices to Google as native Matter accessories, fully local and lightning fast. No more lag.…