Home Assistant on Raspberry Pi 5: Your Smart Home Brain
Install Home Assistant OS and control lights, plugs and sensors locally — no cloud required.
Home Assistant is free, open-source home automation that runs on your own hardware. It connects thousands of brands, keeps your data at home and lets you build automations visually.
Video tutorial
Video by QiSmartHome, embedded from YouTube. The written steps below are our own and match the parts list.
Mission steps
Flash Home Assistant OS
In Raspberry Pi Imager choose Other specific-purpose OS → Home assistants and home automation → Home Assistant, and write it to an SSD or microSD.
Boot on Ethernet
Plug in network and power. The first start downloads updates and can take 10–20 minutes.
Onboard
Open homeassistant.local:8123 in a browser, create your account and let it discover devices on your network.
Add integrations
Add your smart plugs, TV, printer, weather and phone app. The mobile app gives location and notifications.
Build an automation
Settings → Automations: 'When the sun sets, turn on the porch light.' Then try sensors from the ESPHome guide.
Questions
SSD or microSD?
An NVMe SSD on a Pi 5 is faster and far more durable for a 24/7 database. microSD works for testing.