Share your favorite automations

I’ve been running HA for a while, and it’s been working well; I haven’t had to change much in a few months. That being said, it’s fun to tinker with it, and I’m curious to hear what kind of automations the rest of the community is using. What automations are you most proud of? What are your favorite? What kind of interesting automations have you written?

My personal favorite is an automation that displays the current “apparent” temperature on a Hue bulb. It takes an average of the temperature, humidity, and luminance around my property and uses the average to compute an “apparent” (feels like) temperature. Then it applies a cosine function to the apparent temperature (to approximate how people feel temperature change), uses the resulting value to calculate a level between blue and red in CIELAB (a perceptually uniform color space), converts the results to RGB, and sets the color value of the hue bulb. The result is a bulb that changes color so that the change in color (as perceived by the eye) mirrors how the temperature “feels” outside. Ultimately what that means is that we can look at a small lamp with the hue bulb and say “It feels cold outside; we should put on a coat.” It’s probably overkill, but it was a fun programming exercise. We’ve started saying things like “It’s really blue today, I don’t feel like going out.”

I’d really enjoy reading what kind of interesting automations everyone else has written.

Yearly1845, (edited )

My favorites are the really simple ones.

My basement and garage lights come on when I open the respective door.

The bedroom lights come on very dim at sunset.

The outside lights turn on at sunset also.

The mudroom light turns on when someone comes home after dark.

“Theater Mode” what turns off lights in the den if my gamer profile turns on.

Everything turns off when I go to bed (looking into automating this, currently just a button in hass).

Everything turns off when everyone has left the house.

ShepherdPie,

Do you use Adaptive Lighting for the bedroom lights? I finally made the switch and it’s pretty rad not having to deal with brightness changes throughout the day/night.

Yearly1845,

Yes, although I offload that particular detail to Hue. Everything else is controlled by Home Assisstant.

peter,
@peter@feddit.uk avatar

What’s a mud room?

lukecooperatus,
@lukecooperatus@lemmy.ml avatar

A foyer, essentially, but a lot smaller and almost strictly utilitarian. You take off and store your shoes, boots, jackets, etc there.

Yearly1845,

Yes, this exactly thank you. It’s just a little room off the main entry door that holds your like coats and boots and stuff.

Mine isn’t a room so much as an area that’s sort of closed off to the rest of my space, but I still call it a mudroom.

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks,

Washer voltage goes from a high value to a low value, then in 30 minutes (when the cycle will be done) turn an rgb lightbulb in a conspicuous location a hellish magenta. No more funky forgotten loads of laundry. Passes the partner test, too.

whyNotSquirrel,
@whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works avatar

It’s the first time I read “partner test” and I like it, I was always bothered by the usual “expression”

arandomthought,

To all of you reading this who are interested but don’t have home assistant (yet): I just set a timer for as long as the laundry takes. If I can’t go get it when the timer goes off I will place a “memento” somewhere (for example placing something on the ground in my way where it doesn’t belong) so I remember. The “set lighting to hell until I do it” solution sounds neat too, though. =)

Willdrick,

A middle ground “normie-tech” I use: after picking the cycle, whip out your phone and start a countdown timer. Mine at least can save such timers and I can name them.

I got fed up that my washing machine lies on its timer: it doesn’t count the drying cycle and then it takes another 3 minutes to unlock the door. So I timed that once. For example a 42 min timer for the quick cycle (30 wash + 9 dry + 3 stupid lockout)

lemming741,

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_motor#Applications

The reason for the stupid lockout. Pretty ingenious, but yeah they all lie. The worst offenders are heat pump dryers. I think they’re gaslighting their customers.

Railison,

Ooh I’ve got a similar trigger! Instead of coloured lights, mine strobe every five minutes incessantly until I open the machine door (power usage goes down ~3W for some reason). Also notify the phones and put a banner on the TV.

cynar,

I often use the acronym WAF, Wife Acceptance Factor.

Basically I need to make sure that all household setups can work completely dumb, with the central server having crashed.

So far, so good.

corsicanguppy, (edited )

automations

That’s as weird to see as ‘softwares’ and ‘traffics’ and ‘emails’ . I hope you can improve before the end of the school year.

thomasloven,

en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/automation

Imagine language changing to adapt to the world. Crazy times.

ikidd,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

HTML scrape of CUPS web server to see if there’s a print job waiting, turn on tasmota plug for laserprinter, then turn off in 5 minutes to save power.

It’s an old LJ4000 so it’s idle power is pretty high.

eutampieri,

I use the IPP integration for that

ikidd, (edited )
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

I’m trying this now, I see it change the state to “printing” but I can’t bring up the device in automations to act on it. If I go into the IPP devices page and try to add an automation from the device page, it tells me no devics are available for automation.

Edit: got it, it was under entities, not devices, in automations. That’s one more thing out of Node Red now, thanks!

eutampieri,

☺️

__init__,

Less of an automation and more of a scene control, but I have all my light switches set up so that double tapping them up or down turns on or off all the lights on that floor of the house. It’s simple but we use it all the time.

Styxia,

I have an extension on this, in that a triple tap on the switch by the doors, will also lock the doors after 60 seconds.

__init__,

Ah nice. I just have the switches by the front and garage doors turn off everything instead of just downstairs, so we can hit them on the way out the door. I think triple taps are reserved for inclusion/exclusion mode on my switches, sadly. The delayed lock is a good idea though, might just have to add that.

linearchaos,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

If I unlock my door, it will re-lock in 15 minutes as long as the door is shut. opening the door resets the timer.

Of course it’s a code door, so re-opening it has a very low chance of locking me out :)

a1studmuffin,
@a1studmuffin@aussie.zone avatar

The simplest automations are the best. An hour before I typically get up, if the bedroom is too cold, turn on the heater.

spongebue,

I use Kasa switches all over my house and am waiting for them to release their fan controller (it was announced at CES last year, and a thread on the old place says it’ll be out at the end of the month)

I’m excited for my fan to shut off if it’s too cold in the bedroom. Already have a temperature/humidity sensor in there.

brygphilomena,

I have mostly kasa switches too. I don’t like that they don’t expose the motion sensor in them to HA.

For fans, I’m considering these to replace the ones I have that just don’t work. inovelli.com/…/blue-series-fan-switch-zigbee-3-0?…

The ones I have are complete shit. Their firmware seems to lock up regularly and not even the buttons work. There is no reset button on them, so the only way to restart them is to flip the breaker. And half the time that doesn’t even work.

Bishma, (edited )
@Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

My favorite is a script not a automation exactly. I run it (just before I get up for bed) via dashboard button or voice command and it:

  • shuts off most of the lights and any screens around the house
  • sets the thermostat to bedtime mode
  • waits 5 minutes (time for me to get my stuff and get to bed) then
  • turn off the remaining lights outside my bedroom
  • Calls my autoremote endpoint

Auto remote then triggers a tasker profile that makes my phone

  • turn on DND
  • set media volume for sleep music and alarm volume for morning (just in case either has been change during the day)
  • set a variable that another tasker automation will see the next time I plug in my phone. At which point it will:
    • set my screen brightness below 1%
    • turn on sleep tracking
SteadyGoLucky,

I use the Home Assistant companion app instead of Tasker. It has similar access to automate phone stuff

Bishma,
@Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Nice. I’ve had this going a lot longer than the companion app has existed

peter,
@peter@feddit.uk avatar
  • if the sun has set and my partner isn’t home from work (phone not connected to WiFi), turn the hallway light on
  • close the blinds when the sun sets, but only if the TV isn’t currently on so as not to make noise during a TV programme
  • when I turn the bedroom lamp on, turn the bedroom ceiling light off
  • if my front door opens when neither me nor my partner are home, send a snapshot of the doorbell camera to my notifications
padook,
@padook@feddit.nl avatar

The problem with a good running automation is you end up used to them, I forget they’re even there most if the time.

I end up appreciating my once-in-awhile automations more. A couple times a month I need to get up extra early, skip my normal routine and go straight to work. But I’m American, this can’t be done without coffee. The night before I prepare the coffee maker and scan an NFC on the top that turns off the plug and waits for my next alarm, then turns it back on. Once it runs it disables the automation, so I dont accidently burn the house down. Worth a million bucks

In the summer in the northeast US most evenings are cool enough to sleep with just a fan in the window. For the nights that stay too warm past bedtime I scan an NFC on my AC that triggers an automation to shutoff the AC and turn on the window fan at a specified outdoor temp. Saves on electricity and who doesn’t love fresh air??

thomasloven,

youtu.be/OIkZWF5uGxk?si=FgGlXXJCn3q6540A

My goto selling point for Home Assistant is that I haven’t touched the outdoors light switch in 8 years.

StefanT, (edited )

The hot water pipe to the kitchen is quite long. We have a pipe loop there with a pump. Back in the days we had an ordinary timer that let the pump run at the usual times when there is hot water demand to be expected.

I now use a Zigbee plug for the pump and added a button in the kitchen to start it manually. In addidion HA starts it in the morning and every time when somebody comes home. Another HA automation turns off the pump after 3 minutes and ensures that it does not start again for 30 minutes.

APassenger,

Sunset and sunrise automations. Lights on and off, vacuum run times - all adapted to presence.

Made the litter-robot auto-repair when it enters trouble states. Better history of all elements controlled.

v1605,

I have all the TV inputs automated via voice commands. Eg. If you say “let’s watch plex”, tv turns on if off, input switches, HDMI switch changes, and Plex launches on the shield.

EarMaster,

I have a motion sensor in the bedroom that turns the light on when you enter it (or leave it) and turns it off after some time once there is no motion detected anymore. But there is also a button right next to the door which disables the automation for 10 minutes for entering the bedroom at night when our youngest is already sleeping in the room.

Simple but very useful and even my wife likes it alot.

rambos,

Not really common automation for HA, but I made medication assistant automations. Its super helpfull for people who take loads of meds. It tracks how many pills left, does android notifications or sets alarm and it also sends an email when its time to reorder meds. Its insane how usefull it is

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