Add Ecobee to Home Assistant (Local HomeKit Setup)

Welcome back to Chuck Builds!
In this video, I’m installing and integrating my new smart thermostats into Home Assistant as part of rebuilding my entire smart home from scratch. Instead of using cloud services, I’m connecting everything locally using Home Assistant’s HomeKit Controller integration, ZeroConf, and a bit of dashboard customization.

If you want your thermostats to be fast, reliable, and fully local, this walkthrough will show you exactly how to set everything up — from installation to adding them to your main Home Assistant dashboard.

What You’ll Learn in This Video:
- How to install and pair smart thermostats
- How to use HomeKit Controller in Home Assistant (local, no cloud!)
- ZeroConf usage for discovering new HomeKit devices
- How to use the File Editor add-on to adjust configs
- Adding thermostats to your dashboards
- Using HACS to improve UI and device tiles

HACS Repo for Simple Thermostat Card: https://github.com/nickdos/simple-thermostat


Amazon Affiliate Links (Chuckbuilds earns a small commission if you use these links below, thanks for your support of the channel!)

Ecobee Premium Smart Thermostat (with Sensor) (I like this one due to the air quality sensor) $260: https://amzn.to/43xJkXt
Ecobee Enhanced Smart Thermostat (slightly cheaper) $200: https://amzn.to/3LGbzNe
Capri Automatic Wire Stripper (Super convenient for trimming wires to appropriate lengths) $20 : https://amzn.to/4hPhkEA


Timestamps:
00:00 – Start
00:24 – Installing Thermostats
03:47 – Setting Up HomeKit
04:38 – ZeroConf & FileEditor Addon
05:41 – Adding HomeKit Devices
06:09 – Dashboard Thermostats
06:53 – HACS Repo
08:51 – Adding to Dashboard