I’m planning to build several WiFi connected devices for home automation: an AC remote control and air quality sensors. These devices would send data and be controlled through a local server. I’m considering two approaches: running custom software on a server PC (hardware to be determined) or integrating with Home Assistant’s protocols and purchasing their hardware. Would using Home Assistant be excessive for this use case?
Always run mine in a VM along with everything else, no need for special hardware.
Get yourself a PoE Zigbee and/or Z-wave receiver and you are good to go, can even live migrate HA if you are fancy