Home assistant server

[neilrfuller]

Hi, apologies for asking what is probably a very basic question. I'm completely new to HA. I have 2 x S5-EH1P3.6K-L in parallel each with 4kW panels connected and each with 2 x 5kWh puredrive batteries. Thanks to excellent diagrams and instructions here & wills106, and also JW Solar on youtube, I have managed to get waveshare devices configured and working. Been using an old Windows PC with Virtualbox as HA server but that's just died. Now need to invest in a replacement. Will something as basic as Home Assistant Green support all of the integrations involved here please? Any advice about what is ideal to use most gratefully received.

[alienatedsec]

Hi @neilrfuller

While it might be a basic question, it is still valid and worth considering, so you are more than right about asking, and there is no need for you to apologise.

I have been running my HAOS on multiple devices in the past 24 months, and unfortunately, the Home Assistant Green wasn't on my list. However, I have gone through QNAP, RPi4, and a dedicated mini/micro PC and finally, I ended up using three of those miniPCs in a Proxmox cluster. QNAP was fine at the beginning, RPi4 struggled with performance (maybe it was the overheating, who knows), and the miniPC's gave me some redundancy for all of my HomeLab servers.

The only reason why I would choose a single mini PC over other solutions is that you can get a decent one for around £60.00 on the Facebook marketplace, and it will offer a much faster experience along with more running options than Home Assistant Green (£86.00).
I would be keen for Home Assistant Yellow, but I believe it's an overpriced product, and still limited with what it is dedicated for, and without redundancy, but this is my opinion for my use case.

Here is what came out of my personal AI assistant - some data had to be amended as it wasn't true (e.g., RAM) ;)

Home Assistant Green: A dedicated, tiny computer designed specifically for home automation and IoT tasks. It is an affordable, low- power solution that can run Home Assistant, a popular open-source automation platform.

Intel i5 6500T PC with Proxmox: A powerful desktop computer running Proxmox, a popular open-source virtualization platform. This setup allows you to run multiple virtual machines (VMs) on the same physical machine.

Here's how this comparison is represented:

Virtualization capabilities: 
With Proxmox on the Intel i5 6500T PC, you gain the ability to:
- Run multiple VMs simultaneously
- Assign resources (CPU, RAM, and storage) to each VM as needed
- Use a single physical machine for multiple virtual environments

Performance comparison:
Home Assistant Green: 
- Home Assistant Green has limited computing resources (e.g., 1-2 GHz processor, 4 GB RAM). It's designed to be low-power and efficient for home automation tasks.

Intel i5 6500T PC with Proxmox:
- CPU Power: Intel i5 6500T PC's processor is significantly faster than Home Assistant Green (2.5 GHz vs. 1-2 GHz).
- Memory: Intel i5 6500T PC has much more RAM (8 GB) compared to Home Assistant Green (4 GB), and Proxmox can allocate this memory across multiple VMs.
- Storage: Both options have fast storage options, but the NVMe SSD in the Intel i5 6500T PC is significantly faster and more spacious than 32 GB eMMC on Home Assistant Green.

Key differences:
- Purpose: Home Assistant Green is designed specifically for home automation and IoT, while the Intel i5 6500T PC with Proxmox is a virtualization platform for running multiple VMs.
- Scalability: The Intel i5 6500T PC with Proxmox offers more scalability options due to its powerful hardware and virtualization capabilities.

When to choose each:
Home Assistant Green: 
- Ideal for home automation projects that require a dedicated, low-power device with specific IoT and automation capabilities.

Intel i5 6500T PC with Proxmox:
- Suitable for running multiple VMs (e.g., Windows, Linux, or other operating systems) on the same physical machine. 
- Ideal for projects that require resource-intensive virtual environments or high-performance computing.

In summary, if you need a dedicated device for home automation and IoT tasks, Home Assistant Green might still be the better choice. However, if you want to run multiple VMs on the same physical machine with Proxmox, the Intel i5 6500T PC is likely a more suitable option.

[alienatedsec]

@neilrfuller I forgot to mention that my HA is not for Solar only. I got multiple integrations, and automations with some data graphs going back to when it was first installed. In addition, Alexa works very well when following this forked and updated repo https://github.com/alienatedsec/Haaska

[neilrfuller]

Hi, Thanks so much for getting back to me quickly. I've just ordered a Micro PC :- Dell 3050 Micro Intel Core i5@6500t 8GB Ram 512GB SSD. It seems to be a better way of spending £80, & hopefully offers a bit more future proofing. The wish to get better control of my solar install has prompted me to make a start with HA, no doubt once I learn more, I will use it for other things too.