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?
If you aren’t locked in yet, I’d recommend against WiFi devices. Check Zigbee or similar. It won’t clutter your LAN and is independent. You usually need some kind of central station for that but it’s worth it imho.
ZigBee base stations are like 20€ or so if you get a simple usb dongle