Home Assistant for beginners or easy start

What is the purpose of a Home Assistant(HA) according to Wikipedia ?

Home Assistant is free and open-source software used for home automation. It serves as an integration platform and smart home hub, allowing users to control smart home devices. The software emphasizes local control and privacy and is designed to be independent of any specific Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. 

Even for me, as someone running Apple HomeKit and Homebridge, it is a fantastic piece of software that bridges almost everything and enables highly intelligent integrations.

Since it is widely used, there is a wealth of information available. However, I couldn't find a clear "bullet list" on how to get started. This post will primarily contain links to other sources rather than writing extensive explanations myself.

Home Assistant core install, Raspberry Pi and Python 3.12 & 3.13

Updated 2025-02-20 !

The best way to start with Home Assistant(HA), and Raspberry Pi(RPi), is off course to use the ”Raspberry Pi imager” and in the menu select "Other specific-purpose OS => Home Assistant and home automation => Home Assistant". This will install the HA operating system.

It works very well and here are the install instructions. 
On the other hand if you want to add HA to a RPi which you already have up and running, without Docker, you need to install something which is called "Home Assistant Core".

Please check the "Remarks" below before you start.

New version for Python 3.13 ! Below info is not updated !! 

IVT, Bosch heat pump easy integration, Home Assistant

In search of the optimal solution on how to interface our IVT Heat pump, first try here, I stumbled over a nice integration for Home Assistant(HA). A first quick setup is shown at the right.

The first obstacle was that it was HA which I knew about but never used.  So it was "back too school" and doing a blog post about a HA Core install.