Hello
I’ve been watching Gladys and home automation from afar for a while
But I’ve finally decided to take the plunge since the Matter « Zigbee »? protocol has become the standard
However, I don’t know where to start.
I have no hardware and everything seems confusing about what is needed to get started — I’d welcome a tutorial not just about Gladys.
My initial project is to have temperature information for each room and the windows to better manage the heating.
Thanks for your advice
David
Hello and welcome!
@pierre-gilles, the keymaster, has just created a doc that should answer many of your questions. You can find the article here:
What should you know?
Matter and ZigBee are two different communication protocols. Currently, ZigBee is the most stable, available, and is rather inexpensive.
If you don’t have any equipment, start by clearly defining your needs before diving in. Where will your RPi or MiniPC, your WiFi access point, your sensors be located…
WiFi works well but often requires going through third-party services.
ZigBee is an internal network but requires a gateway (USB dongle)…
What is your budget?
What is your skill level?
Don’t hesitate if you have any specific questions!
Hello, thanks for the reply and the link
First, to keep it simple: Zigbee technology isn’t very expensive and is very effective 
To get started, in your case you need:
Once Gladys is installed, you’ll need to launch the Zigbee2MQTT integration so that your dongle is recognized, and along with it your devices.
Welcome @Prof_Techno ,
I started home automation for the same reasons: managing temperature and heating. I’ll share my experience in case it helps, do with it what you want 
Equipment :
Evolutions:
Here’s roughly how I evolved my home automation setup over time, in chronological order.
Installation of temperature sensors in each room, at human height to get the temperature most representative of how it feels.
I was able to measure and understand how humidity evolves in the home as well as temperature depending on the time of day, the weather outside, etc.
From there I created alerts for when the humidity level is too high, to ventilate the house for example.
Regarding the heating, which I hadn’t connected yet, I set reminders when bedrooms were too warm for the night (above 17°C).
I also bought other types of sensors for the fridge and freezer!
Installation of presence sensors
I wanted to start building a connected alarm for holiday periods.
When I activate the scene (for leaving on vacation), as soon as movement is detected I receive a message.
Installation of smart switches
Coupled with the presence sensors, I could turn on certain lights in situations that suited me. For example when I came back from walking the dog in the evening, or in the morning on waking so the kids aren’t afraid to go into the living room if it’s too dark.
Installation of contact sensors
Now, coupled with the presence sensors, my connected alarm was more effective. And besides, I could create scenes to alert me if a window is open in summer and it’s heating the house. Same for winter, if we ventilate too long and the temperature drops too much.
I also added a notification when the front door opens. Pretty practical in my case, but not essential 
Installation of thermostatic heads
Finally, I can manage heating remotely based on presence, time of day and night, and all that automatically!
We were able to save on our bill without being colder (well, we were already cold before anyway!).
The possibilities are big: turn off heating when a window is open, turn off or lower heating when no one is home, same when we go on vacation and especially turn it back on remotely when we plan to return in a few hours.
Installation of smart plugs
I check the consumption of my fridge (which tends to overconsume), my desk, and most of the plugs in the house.
My desk turns off by itself if nothing is consumed for 30 minutes (<10W) to avoid the “slow” standby consumption.
For the Christmas period, I plug my fairy lights into smart plugs to better manage when to turn them on and off. Manually or automatically.
Finally, I have a UPS connected to a smart plug, which lets me know when there’s a power outage (the UPS allows my box and Gladys to run, and to send me a message).
Installation of a CO2 + VOC sensor (volatile organic compounds)
Useful to check air quality, whether to ventilate or not and especially if cleaning products for example are polluting the indoor air too much.
I’m surely forgetting other practical cases, but this already gives you a quick overview of my setup and the possibilities.
Welcome to Gladys @Prof_Techno!
Thanks everyone for the welcome and the number of responses tells me it’s time to get started, so I will open a thread about my installation to have a coherent thread and to note my progress or mishaps and ask for advice
without cluttering this introduction thread
Thanks everyone
the link to the thread of my future installation :
Installation en devenir - Partagez votre installation - Communauté Gladys Assistant