Naming standards for my Home Assistant devices
While early, I want to be ready when I move in my new house and planning makes it all the more exciting! Last night, I was thinking on how I would name my devices in a logical way. In my past experience with Home Assistant, it gets messy real quick when you name your devices on the spot! You get bulbs with similar names as other devices, you want to move a sensor around, but then need to change the sensor name if you want your consistency, which also means changing your automations, and so on..
I figured since I'm starting fresh, I might as well get some kind of naming convention that I'll try and follow closely. I thought I'd share it here as I made it as generic as possible if it can help someone.
To organize, I will rely on labels, areas and floors built-in within Home Assistant. Also pro-tip, you can have the following code snippet in your configuration.yamlfile if you want to add some notes on a device/entity:
homeassistant:
customize:
entity.id:
attributename: attributevalue
Note that I haven't done any research and there may be already naming conventions available, but it's my house, so my rules! 😅 Now, let's get into it.
The naming convention itself
XX-000
...where
XXis the Type of the device000is the increment
Now, let's get into identifying the rooms and types, shall we?
Device Types
| ID | Device Type | Examples |
| PW | Power-related | Switch, Outlet, Battery, Power Source, Power sensor |
| LT | Light-related | Bulb, Lamp, LED strips |
| EV | Environment-related | Temperature sensor, Humidity sensor, Air |
| SC | Security-related | Cameras, Door locks, alarms |
| AV | Audio-Video-related | Speakers, smart speakers, TV, Monitors, Displays, Projectors |
| CS | Custom | A device that doesn’t fit in other categories or has multiple sensors. (ESP-32 with multiple functions enabled, Everything presence Lite, etc.) |
| TG | Triggers | QR Code, Barcode, Zigbee button |
| HP | Home Assistant Helpers |
Final thoughts
I originally thought of a deeper naming standard based on the room, floor and location within the room for the device. However, seeing the organization options there are in Home Assistant, I believe it’s more convenient to have device name that is more general and that would allow me to move things around without having to rename a device if it ever happens.
I would also like to label my devices with a small labeler, but since some devices are very tiny, I believe it may not be possible in all circumstances. I want to also try and rely more in virtual labels from Home Assistant for my automations. This way, I might be able to not fiddle with all the automations when a device fails or it’s being replaced by another. More on that topic in a different article!
