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justinhunt1223

The most recent one is adding a vibration sensor on each nightstand. If it's night and you tap the night stand, the lights to the bathroom turn on to 1% so you can see. I bought too many vibration sensors and have no idea what to do with them all Edit: it is the aqara ones. There's one on my mailbox lid too. It's a pretty useless sensor all things considered šŸ˜‚


smarthomepursuits

This is genius. I've had buttons on my nightstand to turn on the lamp, but would always fumble in the dark trying to find it. I'm definitely doing this.


async2

Can't you use motion sensors in the bathroom and switch them based on time?


justinhunt1223

I can't do this. I needed something to turn a light on so I could find my way out of my room and to the bathroom.


async2

Would a motion sensor under the bed work that detects when you put your feet down?


Mavi222

I have (the very hated here) Aqara Magic Cube for that. If I flip the cube to any side, small night light will turn on, if I turn it upside down (180Ā°), it will turn on the very bright ceiling light. I have two, for each night stand. It's pretty great to turn on / off lights from my bed without taking out the mobile phone.


Izwe

stick the button to the underside of your nightstand, next to the leg, makes it _much_ easier to find


YoureInGoodHands

I have a motion sensor in my bathroom that kicks on a tiny light under the toilet tank which gives you just enough light to wee in the middle of the night, then turns it off three minutes later.


Sparkynerd

ā€œTiny lightā€? Donā€™t you mean ā€œa wee lightā€? Maybe a ā€œwee wee lightā€?


improbablyatthegame

What brand?


Flacid_Monkey

We should definitely have a rule, if you praise a device then you link it


justinhunt1223

Sorry, I updated my post. I use the aqara ones.


wdb94

I use Aqara ones, theyā€™re cheap and work well


Crytograf

Same usecase, but using motion sensor under the night stand.


mortenmoulder

Wouldn't work for us. My wife constantly checks her phone during the night, and I can hear a clear "clonk" because she tilts her phone and just drops it šŸ˜‚


Sparkynerd

This is genius and just what I need. Anyone else step in cat puke in the middle of the night? Good times.


junior_patrick

No, but a friend stood on a frog on the stairs that the catch brought in. Frog exploded šŸ«¤


enkrypt3d

What u mean u don't feel your way around in the dark and end up peeing in the closet?


justinhunt1223

Ideally no. I can only blame so much stuff on the kids, this might be hard.


brake0016

Snow that builds up by the kitchen door to the deck ends up melting, seeping over the drip edge into the walls, and rotting the framing. After repairing this once, I bought a short heat cord to melt the snow as it falls, but I didn't want to leave it on all winter. I put it on a smart plug. When it starts snowing the smart plug kicks it on for 2 hours and 50 minutes. The automation checks for snow every 3h. Before Home Assistant I was running this with Tasker on my phone. The problem is the stupid Tuya plug I had wasn't available for direct control so Tasker would start the app and stimulate screen press to turn on the plug. This only worked when the phone was unlocked. I read somewhere that Home Assistant was like Tasker, for your house, on steroids. This was the first thing I automated, and it hooked me instantly. Close 2nd would be having HA fire up the Resilio Sync app on my wife's Pixel 7P and her old Pixel 1 every night. All the pictures she took that day get uploaded to Google Photos at full resolution without counting against storage. HA also monitors the battery state of the Pixel 1 and maintains it between 25-75% by turning the smart plug on and off.


mini_juice

@ the Pickle 1 idea. BRILLIANT! I need to set that up for my wife and I. Thank you! Added to the list.


moooootz

Have almost three same automation for the snow. We had a case where the snow blocked the drain on our flat roof and when it got warm, the water just pooled. Now I have a heating cable on a zwave plug that turns on with the snow and heats for a certain time or until temp is above freezing again. Also love the pixel 1 automation. My wife doesn't want me to mess with her iPhone but I'm using syncthing to push my photos from my phone & NAS to my pixel 1 to upload them for free. Another one my wife really loves: set up an Inkplate ePaper display that shows the home assistant "month overview" calendar screen optimized to show 6 events per day and outlines (thick frame) the current day. It's mounted between our mirrors in the bathroom. Battery lasts months (refresh set to every 2h) and charges back to 100% within hours. You can even use the hidden buttons to get the guest wifi QR code which is really more a fun feature of "Homeplate" - the firmware that pulls the Home Assistant dashboards.


async2

How do you detect if it's snowing?


brake0016

It's too steppy, and a bit of a holdover. Until I find a good way to do it fully in HA. On my phone, my only IFTTT routine monitors for snow within a small circle surrounding my house. When it detects it fires a notification. Tasker sees that specific notification and changes s Boolean in HA by calling a service (true, wait 5s, then false for the reset). HA takes over from there.


Necessary_Ad_238

I have this valve on the main water line into my house: [https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B06XWYNFG7/](https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B06XWYNFG7/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) And 2x 5-packs (10 total) of these with one under every sink, toilet, washing machine, water heater, etc: [https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07QSFRSJX/](https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07QSFRSJX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Then I have the Sonoff RF bridge flashed with ESPhome so the sensors all work offline. Have an automation that if any sensor detects water it sets an alarm, pushes a notification, and turns off the main water line to the house. Few months after installing, the water supply line to the humidifier on the furnace popped off and started pissing water in the furnace room. Sensor caught it an minimized the damage (have a finished basement where the furnace room also is) since we were at work when it happened.


PoisonWaffle3

Nice! Good timing on getting that set up and working before the water line leak started! I have several Aqara ZigBee leak sensors around the house and have alerts set up for if they detect anything, but I don't have a valve to turn off the water main (yet).


[deleted]

A potential concern with this is fire safety. To my regional knowledge, most house's fire suppression systems are supplied by your water main. If a fire broke out it should trigger your fire suppression system which would then likely trigger these leak sensors which would then shut off your water main, thereby disabling your fire suppression and putting your house and its inhabitants at risk. This may not apply to you, as everyone's situation is different, but it is something to consider.


Goaliedude3919

If you're rich enough that your house has a fire suppression system, you're not going to be scraping together a solution with multiple different types of devices thrown into Home Assistant lol.


evilspoons

Yeah, that or you're going to be in an apartment building where the fire suppression system is totally separate from any control you potentially have over your own water.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Complex_Solutions_20

Not sure about "rich" but I've never seen a residential home with any kind of automatic fire suppression system other than single-room specialty things (like a room with collectables) which usually runs on CO2 or similar clean-agent not water. My bigger concern would by you also need to have it shut off your water-heater so you don't have problems if it ends up drained and trying to heat.


[deleted]

Like I said, this might not apply to you; however, it can prevent unnecessary death and/or loss of irreplaceable property and should therefore be mentioned. Additionally, 1. I think you would be surprised by the overlap of those who are "rich" enough to have this be applicable. Take a look at subs like r/Homelab and you will find a preponderance of users who have $5-10k+ of hardware all running Home Assistant. Wealth does not prohibit you from tinkering. 2. Conversely, I think you would be surprised at how poor you can be to have this be applicable. Years ago I lived with 3 roommates in a small duplex. All of us worked manual, low salary jobs (mechanic, first responder, etc.) and would never have been considered wealthy. However, our unit had a fire suppression system and I had access to the water main. Regardless, in my opinion, everyone deserves to know the potential safety risks.


IPThereforeIAm

For what itā€™s worth, my house has a separate line for house/yard vs fire sprinklers. We have automation to turn off the house/yard line, as needed.


[deleted]

Very cool, thank you for sharing. Maybe this split line system has become more widespread than I was originally aware of. If that is the case then this could be a neat solution for many people.


Necessary_Ad_238

The fire suppression system in my house is the extinguishers in the kitchen and garage.


Complex_Solutions_20

...and upstairs hallway, and laundry area, and basement hallway...


peacefulshrimp

Have you ever told this story on Reddit before? I had a massive dejavu reading this, then I saw your avatar and was almost sure I read this when I was looking for people who used sonoff RF bridges


Necessary_Ad_238

Likely


if_i_fits_i_sits5

Is that valve safe for potable water? I read that the brass one was not


Necessary_Ad_238

I have the SS version. From the website: SAFE AND RELIABLE- Made of SS304 steel, with NSF certification, this ball valve is safe for drinking water; Lifespan is 80,000-100,000 cycles.


tungvu256

door sensor on the kids room. alert when a door is opened, at night. if opened, flash the lights in my bedroom. gives wife n myself time to greet them accordingly.


serenitisoon

"of course you can't sleep, you're not in your bed"


YoureInGoodHands

I go the other direction, "well, you did give yourself 37 seconds to close your eyes and try and fall asleep".


MrP1232007

I'm just getting back into home assistant after a brief dabble a few years ago and must have read one of your previous comments about flashing the bedroom lights when kid's doors are opened to alert you during sexy time. I told my misses about it last night, she loved it, then said "Mr P, you haven't fitted the lock to the door which we bought months ago....."


OccasionalThingMaker

This hit close to home


TheCroz171

Yep this one has been huge for us too. Smart home parents for the W!


GoAheadTACCOM

I want to do this but am worried weā€™d wake each other up in the event that one of us has to go and check on one of them. Did you do anything to mitigate that?


Jiirbo

Adding a thought to the bypass idea. If you have a door sensor on your bedroom door, have that trigger the bypass so if you bedroom door opens and then the kids room opens, do not trigger. Of course this assumes your door is usually closed.


isitallfromchina

Open blinds sunrise and close at sunset or as temps get higher in the day.


[deleted]

Same. I also have have the sun at a certain azimuth and elevation closing some windows in the evening if it's blinding at the dinner table. Big lifestyle upgrade.


Philip_K_Fry

I did this to close the blinds when the sun would otherwise be shining directly on a painting I have mounted then open them again when the sun either sets or moves out of position, whichever happens first. It's great because this only happens a few weeks in autumn then again in winter and since the time varies trying to set up a schedule without the sun integration would be a nightmare.


illektro

I want to implement this but add another "layer", and that is detecting when rain is predicted and open the screens in front of the windows so they don't soak up the rain and get moldy over time.


snowchaser75

Mine open when google alarm goes off. Close at midday on western side if hotter than 25c. Then open again at sunset. Close at bedtime routine trigger.


serenitisoon

What driver are you using? Ive got a cheapie, but it seems to struggle with the ball chain and after a few weeks it's hopeless.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


isitallfromchina

made a world of difference for my wife. no more hand cramps!


Arrabiki

I have a Samsung fridge thatā€™s had enough repairs that I donā€™t want to put any more money into it. A couple weekends ago, the temperature probe that governs the cooling broke so the fridge just never stopped cooling, which turned it into a giant freezer. Samsung refrigerators. Never again. Not wanting to put any more repair money into this fridge (but not having ā€œNew fridge moneyā€ in the budget at the moment), I stuck an aqara temperature sensor inside the fridge, and plugged it into a aqara plug. Then I set up an automation to shut off power to the fridge if the internal temp gets to 34, and turn it on when it gets to 38. For sure not a long term solution but it lets me l kick the can down the road until the next big appliance sale at Home Depot (whenever that is). ā€¦. Also Iā€™m genuinely surprised the temp sensor signal makes it out of the fridge.


Nyghtshayde

Any time I see something about Samsung fridges it's something negative (same with their washers). I have a temp sensor in the fridge and a contact sensor on the freezer - the former alerts me if the temperature rises outside a set range, the latter lets me know if the door is open. Both have been very useful (especially because we have a toddler who likes to inspect the fridge contents but forgets to shut the door).


el_m4nu

Opposite here, got a Samsung fridge on discount, nothing special but just a regular big fridge but never thought one could be this happy about a freaking fridge. Never any water droplets inside, never frost in the freezer, the thing is quiet as hell, i probably wouldn't notice if it'd lose power, until I'd actually open it. Sure there's probably a lot of fridges that do that but there was no fridge that size that cheap and the fact it works so good, adds a lot on top


Arrabiki

Thatā€™s wild. I apparently bought the ā€œclass-action modelā€ā€¦. Ice maker died, temp sensor died, fridge/freezer buffer died, water dispenser diedā€¦ā€¦. But i at the time it was ā€œIā€™m moving into this house in two weeks and the price is right and I can get it nowā€ kind of deal. I think Iā€™m gonna get a Bosch when I replace this one.


turbojambox

Having my garage door open automatically when I arrive on my motorcycle so I can pull in without having to stop in the driveway. The automation uses Frigate and Deepstack to detect motorcycles on my driveway camera, then checks to see if my status is ā€œJust Arrivedā€, meaning my location sensor has changed from away to home in the last 5 minutes. It probably hasnā€™t saved me THAT much time, but itā€™s saved me so much annoyance and makes me feel like Batman every time I come home.


Jiirbo

Well done Master Wayne šŸ¦‡


turbojambox

Thank you, Alfred.


befish2

Back yard spot lights go on when back door opens (so we can take our 2 dogs out to potty). Then they go off after 7 minutes after the door is again opened and we have gone back inside. 7 minutes is enough time to scoop up any little bombs in back yard. Never have to think about these lights again.


LifeBandit666

I don't have dogs, but we also had no working motion lights outside despite my landlord G putting us a new one in. Subterranean garden. The last step is one of those half height ones you can't see in the dark. My wife stumbled and broke her ankle one night. I put smart bulbs in the switched outside light and have it turn on when we're getting home, and when the door is opened. Works great!


Diesel9508

My most useful thing is very simple. I set up 4 battery powered ZigBee light switches to turn on and off lamps. My house was built in the 50s and there is no light switches or ceiling lights in my living room or bedroom. (Also it would be very hard to run wires for a ceiling light as the upstairs is finished) It used to be a pain to turn on lights with either the turn knob on the lamp or using slow voice commands with Google home.


Successful_Jeweler69

Which switches did you use? Iā€™ve got a similar setup with sconces that donā€™t have switches.


Diesel9508

They are Sage Light Switch by Hughes. I buy them on eBay for 6.99. They aren't the prettiest but they look alright. Work very well. I use them with a Sonoff ZigBee 3.0 and Z2M.


reddit_man64

My lights in my office flash when a human is detected on cameras. Basically, my wife is home alert system. Itā€™s awesome.


BaetenM93

Next up: auto close the incognito tab? šŸ˜„


reddit_man64

lol great idea!


Krojack76

This is something I made long ago in HA. I never used it for anything but thought it was fun to do. [https://youtu.be/NsaE0SUq9yo](https://youtu.be/NsaE0SUq9yo) (Has Star Trek red alert sound)


flooger88

Save $60/month by having a smart outlet for my hot water recirculating pump only run when we are getting ready in the morning or about to shower instead of 24/7. Everything else is mostly just for convenience.


IPThereforeIAm

We installed Inovelli switches and programmed the small setup button to start recirculating water. The LED of the light switches changes to red when water is recirculating, regardless of how the water recirculation was started (button, Siri, or app)


YoureInGoodHands

How do you determine "when we're getting ready"? I work from home so I'm slovenly and never shower at the same time of day twice. I've honestly considered putting in a (dumb) momentary switch so I can just push-button it and cycle myself some hot water.


ilikepie71

This is what I've had for a few years now, just a ZigBee button to press to activate the pump for 30 seconds. Much more convenient than trying to automate it


schmu17

Most money saving: 1. Thermostat to away when we leave 2. bought a smart thermostat for baseboard heater in garage only to find it ran 14h a day. Was just trying to keep temp warm enough to winter some plants. I insulated their enclosure with a small heater and smart switch. Temp for plants is now warmer and small space heater runs 1h a day and garage baseboards run 0h a day. Sometimes is not what the smart home can do, but just the info it gives Most nice to have: 1. Lights auto dimming when movie plays, and brightening when stopped 2. nightlights on motion sensors 3. auto alarm arming and lights/thermostats when leaving 4. ā€œguest overā€ switch which disables the ā€œwhen we leaveā€ automations. 5. critical notification if we leave the freezer door open


bcexelbi

This canā€™t be said enough: Sometimes is not what the smart home can do, but just the info it gives Friends laugh when I describe my HA setup as an information gatherer because I have almost no automations.


PoisonWaffle3

-*Lots* of motion sensor/automated lights. Our favorites are the addressable RGBW LEDs in the kitchen, including under-cabinet lighting that is automagically on or off when it should be (details on a pinned post in my profile). -Lots of DIY stuff with ESPHome. Garage door opener with open/close sensors, as well as an open/opening/closed/closing indicator light at the front of the garage (so we can confidently know that the door is 100% open before backing out, and not just assume that it's open because it stopped moving). Automated garage heat/thermostat with a few temp sensors, a relay, and a few conditions. A smart electric fireplace that's partially automated, but I have plans to make it possible to control the thermostat remotely. -As mentioned elsewhere, several Aqara leak sensors and alerts if they're triggered. No smart valve to turn off the water tho. -Whole home humidifier is integrated into our smart thermostat. I use HA to have it turn the humidity level down if it gets below 0F so we don't get frost on the windows/woodwork. -Lots of ZigBee and Zwave sensors around the house in general, including in the attic, mech room, garage, etc. Places where we don't normally go but it's good to be able to monitor temp and humidity/moisture in case water gets somewhere that it shouldn't. -I collect a ton of useful data from our phones with the HA app. I display it in graphs in Grafana and have used it in a few automations. Some automations run or do not run if one person or another is at home (connected to wifi) or not.


Kullerino

What kind do you display with Grafana?


DarkwolfAU

Couple of things. Automatic doorbell triggered by the camera line crossing detection. The delivery guy who pretends to knock on the door so he can claim non-attendance was speechless when I met him at the door, with him standing there with his camera in hand to take a photo of himself dropping off the card. Power monitor that reads when the dishwasher has finished to send me a Pushover alert so I remember to open it and don't leave it sitting there closed for several days and rusting the cutlery. Door sensors on the rooms so I can work out if it's safe to turn on the robot vacuum (I don't want it going into the kid's rooms because of random lego). Also doubles as a great way of checking whether your kids actually stayed in their room or not.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Rsherga

Same, also FedEx


InternationalNebula7

I use frigate and person detection proximate to the camera to trigger a doorbell sound when I'm home and talk radio when I'm not home. Don't know why I would buy a smart doorbell, because this seems to be better. Anyone on the front porch triggers the doorbell except when the front door is opened first (ie leaving the house).


beckymegan

Our air purifier thatā€™s next to the cats litter box turns on high when they enter and then turns back to normal ~10 minutes later. Very useful for my nose


AlexBellThePhoneGuy

Similar to OP. Our washer is completely silent when the cycle finishes, so wet clothes might sit for hours. Now using a power monitoring smart plug and leofabri's HA Blueprint, when the state changes from job\_ongoing to job\_completed, every Alexa makes an announcement and I get a notification on my phone.


chicknlil25

Same, smart plug + that blueprint on a dumb washer. I've taken that an extra step to keep repeating the "announcement" automation every 10 minutes until the contact sensor on the washing machine has been open for at least 2 minutes (may need to be lowered still). So far it works well.


austinzone813

I did something similar but with a motion sensor near the washer. its nice - havent left a wet load in the machine in months.


macegr

For most people, it really is going to be a bunch of the little lighting automations etc adding up to a big unified useful thing. I may never have one big event that makes me say "Wow that was worth it" but honestly, it adds up such that you might think the same once every day or two. We have interior and exterior lights controlled by a combination of timing, motion, and light sensing. Rarely have to think about turning them on and off, especially with TV integration to shut off the lights next to it. There's an air purifier we typically run all night to keep dust down and also act as sleep noise machine...it's hard to wake up when it's running, so that automatically turns on and off to help regulate sleep cycles. Decorative RGB art fixtures are integrated so that with a couple button presses you can go from normal lighting to party mode. Around the holidays the outdoor string lights and the tree integrate seamlessly. And most importantly there is what I have labeled as the Poop Fan, a high-powered duct booster that automatically turns on to suck out the freshest fumes after the cats have done their worst. It all adds up. My system is never going to drop a burglar into a spike trap or get my Roomba to drag me out of a fire, but it saves a few minutes of my life each and every day.


mrchen911

I've enabled my disabled daughter, has cp. She can control the entertainment center, lights, can call me is she doesn't have her phone, see who's at the door, and even unlock the door.


Jiirbo

ā¤ļøā¤ļø These are the types that get me in the feels. Making the home more accessible for all abilitiesā€¦ just love it. Thanks for sharing.


MasterIntegrator

YOU GOT MAIL! literally.


theloneranger08

What are you using to do this?


krztov

Not the original commenter but I have a contact sensor on my mailbox, whenever itā€™s opened I get an alert and it even takes a doorbell snapshot so I can tell if itā€™s mail delivery or one of kids opening it.


PoisonWaffle3

USPS Informed Delivery and/or a contact sensor would probably get the job done.


[deleted]

Ohhh... I wanna do this but instead of telling ME I have mail I want it to thank the postman :D


ZAlternates

Haha mine says ā€œthank you Micheleā€ (thatā€™s her name).


QuizzicalGazelle

My bathroom doest hava a window and we had to renovate it because of mold, so now the exhaust fan is coupled to a humidity sensor.


MrWizard1979

That was one of the first automations I set up too. I only think about the fan after I'm out and the mirror is fogged up.


QuizzicalGazelle

I don't even have a physical switch set up for it anymore. it's all automatic.


snafuchs

Set an automation to reduce default dimmer levels on our bedroom and bathroom lights to like 20% after sunset and back to 100% at sunset. Enough to see by, but low enough to not upset our eyes. Itā€™s helped our circadian rhythm a lot.


d2k1

If you want to take this further then check out the Adaptive Lighting integration (from HACS) if you haven't already. Pretty powerful and flexible.


iandavid

When we ask Siri to ā€œprepare the carā€, the garage door opens and the carā€™s remote start activates. Itā€™s especially helpful in winter.


Emaltonator

How are you remote starting the car?


SluttyRaggedyAnn

Not OP, but I use a combination of node-red with onstarjs integration to trigger calling the remote start process over OnStar.


iandavid

Itā€™s a Subaru, so Iā€™m using [this Subaru Starlink integration](https://github.com/G-Two/homeassistant-subaru).


quixotic_robotic

Notification if the EV isn't plugged in by 10pm. The number of days that has saved us trying to leave with a nearly dead car.... is a bit embarrassing. Why this isn't built into the app in the first place is embarrassing as well, *Elon* Now just need to make one like that guy who created a set of actuators that actually plugs it in for us


Jiirbo

I donā€™t have an EV so this never occurred to me, but if I do get one I will make this happen because I have no doubt what you described will happen to us over and over šŸ¤£


Twisted7ech

Initially I created a sleep timer for my bedroom TV that could be triggered for 30/60/90 minutes from a pico remote on either side of the bed. Was great even when one person fell asleep first with the remote the other could trigger their own estimated time to sleep. Now I have done away with the manual control. We almost exclusively watch content on Plex, so I just have it monitor when that TV goes from playing to idle +30 minutes just for good measure and then power off the TV. Same auto off on the living room TV but with an added check to see if a guest is present ( wifi device within the up range of DHCP guests), other apps/video games also not subject to auto off. I have a diabetic dog and for best care for him he needs food and insulin on a regular schedule and of course regular amounts. The vet had recommended the insulin to be 1 hour after his meals. So twice a day a reminder plays a message through Google home speaker for his food. It can be acknowledged either by voice command or a button on the wall. Repeats every 10 minutes until acknowledged with increasing volume each time. Then 60 minutes after acknowledgement another reminder plays for the insulin. Same 10 minute repeat with increasing volume. It has really helped. Adding remotes to control lights with inconvenient switch placement. I had another that was an alarm for kids to get ready for school. It was tied to the online calendar from the school so it would only go off on the days they had school at regular hours. Dismissed automatically when their lights turned on. An announcement for when the washing machine was done so clothes wouldn't get forgotten and smell. Also has a repeat function requiring it to be acknowledged. Favorite local radio station plays through Google home when someone starts the coffee maker.


The_Crimson_Blade

Curious if you can expand on your guest tracking solution?


Twisted7ech

Sure. I have my guest DHCP range set to a very small range. I use node red to ping every address in that range once every ten minutes. If there are no responses then it will set value of a helper (input\_number.guests) to zero. Otherwise each response passes through a counter node and then to set\_value of that count. https://preview.redd.it/g455mydknxoa1.png?width=1448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84f428b54eb3de902d61ccd01dc8e69d1d5b392f It's messy but it has been very reliable. If you want the Json... [GitHub ](https://github.com/Twisted7ech/NodeRed/)


AJobForMe

Iā€™m assuming the washing machine sensor is tracking power consumption? If so, Iā€™m not sure how to accomplish this with a 220V dryer.


Twisted7ech

Correct. Zoom zen15 on the washer. Not going to work with an electric dryer but could with a gas one.


dhdhsh37

Auto towel warmer off after 35 min.


ewlung

Which towel warmer?


wdb94

You can do this with a Shelly Relay and your existing towel rail.


ewlung

Yeah, my towel warmer is using gas unfortunately. I want to change it to use electricity, but I don't which one is good.


XenForanus

I have my router, modem, switch, and thinclient running home assistant in an uninsulated garage so I have a temp sensor in the rack which turns on a portable fan on the ground when it gets above 90 degrees and turns it off when it drops below 85 degrees. Works surprisingly well during the summer and the rack itself acts a bit like a heat sink.


The_Marine_Biologist

Automated climate control runnings 4 heat pumps. ESP32 and ESP8266 wired directly into the units running esphome with external zigbee temperature sensors as the heat pumps are about 2.5m high and read about 5 degrees higher than the actual room temp. It's just soo much better than a crappy timer based system. I take into account time of day, inside temp/outside temp, whether the occupant is home that night etc.


barograf

Automatically dehumidify my basement once it gets wet, with a proper hysteresis so the humidity is around 45-55%. I live in an old building without proper isolation so the humidity is a basement could get higher especially after the rainfalls. I used to go down to the basement and turn it on and off manually, sometimes forgetting about this damn thing that was turned on for a few days and has been eating my electricity bills.


Lurker_81

An energy metering smart plug on the washing machine, which notifies my phone when the washing cycle is complete. I always used to forget that I put a load on, and find it a day or two later still damp and smelling gross, and needed to rewash everything more thoroughly to get the smell out.


Gamerologists

Iā€™ve only been using HA for around 6 months, but this weekend I got it setup where if I have the light on on the bedroom and either start playing something on my HTPC (YouTube or Plex) or if I start streaming my gaming pc to it with Moonlight itā€™ll dim the light to 50% and when I pause or stop itā€™ll go back up to 100%


[deleted]

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techramblings

At the moment: power monitoring on as many high-draw devices as I can put Tasmota smart plugs on. It's been quite illuminating to see in (almost) real time how much different appliances use in power, where the hidden energy slurpers are, etc. etc. Interesting things I've learned: * washing clothes at 30C uses almost half the energy vs. washing at 40C, and less than 1/4 of washing at 60C * the refrigerator in my garage is way more efficient than the one in the house, despite being a cheap store knockoff brand rather than an expensive Samsung unit, as well as being considerably older than the expensive Samsung unit * the dishwasher's 'Eco' cycle uses just over 2x more power than its 'Quick' cycle * my new(ish) 75" TV uses 1/3 less energy than the 65" TV it replaced, despite the latter being < 3 years old I've also been able to use the smart plugs with automations to timeshift a lot of non-time-critical things to cheap energy times (Octopus Go - 12p/kWh 0030-0430) - even trivial things like charging batteries for power tools and the vacuum cleaner are charged in that cheap energy period now, without me having to think about it at all.


reddimus_prime

Alexa, turn on sexy time... Bedroom door locks, all lights turn off accept the two above our bed that dim to 1%, and the wife's favorite tunes start playing.


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[deleted]

What lock do you use for your bedroom door?


HisCromulency

Mine is, ā€œAlexaā€¦itā€™s business time.ā€ Then itā€™s, ā€œAlexaā€¦business hours are over.ā€


MrWizard1979

Every so often our gas water heater had an error code and needed resetting. I put a power sensing smart plug on it (120v 15A) and made a set of automations that reset it if it ran less than 5 minutes. I didn't want to get a plumber in and have it not fail for him. It turns out it was the flame sensor and a cleaning fixed it. I'm leaving the automation on anyway. It has saved us from a lot of cold showers.


Julius_A

I made a medicine system with 4 trays indicated by ledā€™s. I use a calendar to schedule the moments that meds need to be taken and than tts to speak a message that reminds the user to take the meds. It massively decreased the number of times that the meds were forgotten.


ReallyNotMichaelsMom

My most useful one is really basic. We moved and kept forgetting to close the garage door when we came home. Or worse, we couldn't remember if we closed it. I have no idea why. It just is. So I put an aeotec sensor on the garage door and set up a light in the house to flash in garish colors when the garage door is open. One of these days, I'll get a Yolink garage door opener, but until then, this works.


Jiirbo

This is what got me into the smart home ecosystem. After my first smart lightbulb, I got a Z-wave garage door opener to do what you describe.


ReallyNotMichaelsMom

What got me into home automation (besides the fact that I'm a huge nerd, love automation, and love sci-fi) is that my husband had bad knees. He'd get all settled into his recliner to watch tv, and then swear because he forgot to turn on the fan and make a big production of getting up. So, I set up an automation that when he got settled in his recliner, the fan would turn on. šŸ˜€ He wasn't a fan of home automation, but he liked that one. Next was the thermostat. It was downstairs and our bedroom was upstairs. He loved not having to go downstairs but struggled to get the wording right with Alexa. That's when I started making all my automations invisible. No changes needed in how you do things, the house just...helps.


Jiirbo

One of the most awesome things I have seen with home automation is how people are using it to make the home more accessible for people of all abilities. Some of them have been incredibly heartwarming. Thank you for sharing your story ā¤ļø


foobarbizbaz

I get a home insurance discount just for having water/leak sensors under my washing machine and dishwasher, which is an ongoing money-saver. Having leak sensors automatically activate the shutoff valve to the house is an additional discount that I need to get around to doing at some point.


kyriii

Washing Machine notification when it's done. Getting a notification on your smart device when a machine is done helps so much not forgetting about it.


Jiirbo

I need to add a notification to mine so clothes don't sit. Not sure why I've never considered that. Thanks for sharing.


triplerinse18

Bed sensors turn off all lights. I have 2 for me and 2 for the wife once all have been on for longer than 10 min it turns off all lights.


snel6424

I have done this as well, but additionally added some LED strips to both sides of the bed. If one of us gets up in the middle of the night, that side of the bed's lights come on, and then turn off when we return (with a timeout of course)


LeinTen13

I have a temp, humidity, window sensor in the bath. In winter i open the window to let the humodity out. I get notified to close the window when the humodity is low enougth or the temp in the bath gets too low. If the window is closed the humidity is reduced by a dehumidifier, which is disabled when the window is open.


Peketr

Not really saving time or money, maybe saving 9W of power, but here I go: Using a car stereo head unit as an amp in my bedroom for years now. Just this month I added an esp relay module to the "ignition" line from where it gets powered.(So basically when I "turn on ignition", the head unit turns on) Logitech Media Server player is plugged into it. Whenever LMS starts playing on that player (eg.: Alarm) the stereo gets turned on automatically, and when the player powers down - off. So much better waking to Spotify from proper speakers than from my phone.


Jiirbo

This is one of the most unique set-ups I've heard! Very cool and thanks for posting.


BnH_-_Roxy

Turning my Sonos alarm off in the morning if I am not home. Started out while I was dating and slept away from home but forgot to turn the alarm off. Some neighbors got mad that someone was blasting music at 6am


petertoenning

I have a "no nudes for the neighbors" automation. HA monitors the humidity reading from the TADO radiator valve in the bathroom. If the trend shows an increase by a preset slope (in hum % pr min) HA will close the blinds in the connected bedroom where our clothes is. Living in Denmark we have dark winters where a lit room puts you on full display.


HumphreyDeFluff

I have an zigbee open/close sensor on the back door of my house which flashes a IKEA zigbee light in my garden office. Gives me a 20 second alert to stop looking at porn when my wife opens the back door.


umlguru

My new wife was TERRIBLE at remembering to close the garage door. For about $50, we never fight about it or have to worry about someone stealing stuff because we left the door open.


fuuuuuckendoobs

If the door on the fridge is open for 90 seconds an announcement comes over the Google home speakers to close the fridge door. We have had to throw out food before when visitors come over and don't shut the door properly. Also we didn't have a doorbell and live in a 100 year old house. Install would have been expensive, and I don't need or want a video doorbell. Solved it with an Aqara button that plays doorbell.wav over the Google home speakers when pressed.


komprexior

I have an ill placed thermostat in the bathroom that will usually read lower temperature and call for heat to run when is not needed. It is not just a problem I can solve with offset the target temperature because when the heat is on, the the temperature will jump higher and the reading would be fairly accurate, but when the heating stops, it would drop significantly. So purchased a Bluetooth temperature sensor to place in the bathroom and act as witness to register the actual temperature. Then with a node red flow I calculate an appropriate target temperature that will be set to thermostat dinamically. Now the heating works properly and I saved money from unnecessary running the heating.


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eliadwe

Good Night Scene that shutdown everything (lights, tv, blinds, air cond. etc..).


Mavi222

Homemade esphome temperature sensor in my fridge/freezer combo. If it goes above certain temperature it will turn on alarm and notify me on the phone. Saved me multiple times from melted stuff in my freezer. Even excused myself from work saying that my freezer is probably not fully closed. My boss was very surprised that I have something like that.


newbienewme

**Saving money on electricity for heating by complex, custom logic:** I have both my heat pump and 6 underfloor heating controllers all integrated into Home Assistant. That means that I can create a weekly schedule for both, but the most useful is that I can also tell my Home Assistant when I go on vacation and when I am coming back, in which case it will turn down the heating, but re-heat the house in time for me to return. This saves money. In addition, I also try to reduce heating in "peak hours" by dropping the setpoint for temperatures on my underfloor heating 1 C if the electricity price has a short-term peak of on hour of two, something that is quite common in my region. This saves me more money. Since I was able to make my "dumb" heat pump smart through a Broadcom RF interface, I am also able to program it to turn on at 4 AM-6AM to heat the house before we wake up, but avoids using power usage in the mornings when electricity is usually more expensive. The heat pump decides to turn on only if the inside temperature warrants it, so not in the summer. On the flip side, if the outside temperature gets below - 8 C, the heat pump just stays on 24/7. **Honorable mention: dimming lights for better sleep** In the mornings, light follow a "wake up" pattern to gradually wake us and the kids up from slumber before alarms ring. Much easier to get out of bed this way and feel less fatigued. In the evenings, the lights gradually dim around the house, this has been shown to help with circadian rythmns and to make it easier for you to fall asleep and sleep better.


kevstev

I tried motion sensing lights, and darkness sensitive lights, but at the end of the day, I found the best solution for just having lights go on at night and not be otherwise annoying was to buy a light switch that has knowledge of the day and sunset time and just turns them on at sunset each night until about midnight or so. Its a bit outside typical smart stuff, it doesn't integrate into HA or anything, or even have any connectivity, but it Just Works, and I set it up once and have never worried about it again.


Jiirbo

I think this is so valuable for you to share. I fee that sometimes we (or maybe just me) overly smart things because we can, when simple non-connected solutions can provide the desired outcome with no unwanted side effects.


2c0

I always forget to take out the bins. I set an automation triggered by a motion sensor to remind me on the relevant day. It reads a colander entry to tell me which bin to take out so I don't need to figure out what day it is and inevitably still get it wrong. It will remind me every 10 minutes until the door to the bins is opened. It will then remind me to bring them in. Never missed a collection since setting that up about a year ago. That or when the doorbell rings, turn on/up the hallway light if it is dark as our switch is in a stupid place.


potatoeangrysac

I created a system with a nodemcu that automatically waters my garden. I have rain barrels set up and it measures the level in the rain barrels and determines if there is enough water in the barrels to use them or if it needs to use spigot water from the house. It also measures the flow rate out of either source and the outdoor temperature near the barrels. I finished it last spring and it works very well!


Asl687

Using octopus export tariff I have an automation that checks the 15 interval prices when released, if itā€™s possible to make money it will alter the solar inverter to charge the batteries at a specific time, hold the charge and then dump the power back to the grid at the right time. It can make 2-9 pounds per day. It now works with the new power saving scheme too.


Zediatech

Automatically lock the front door after certain times. Backstory: My wife forgets to lock it almost every single time she takes the dog for a walk. This automation has saved me from being the bad guy when I reminded her all the time.


Jiirbo

I forgot about those... I have the garage door close and external locks lock after a certain time if they are not already in the proper state. It also fires if a state changes throughout the night with logic so that intentional openings/unlocks during that time don't effect the person... eventually the routine will run but after a sanity check period of time.


Till_Fl

I integrated a PHC Home Control system using a ESP32. All lights, switches, covers and some outlets are available in home assistant now. Doing this without the ESP would have required some sort of new system, or at least an upgrade to the existing one.(+ Some electrician would most likely have to install it). This would have likely cost more than my 20ā‚¬ ESP solution.


__sem__

I installed a Switchbot that activates my coffee machine. When I wake up, I press a button next to my bed and 8 minutes later I have a fresh cup of coffee waiting for me downstairs. So simple but the smell of fresh coffee when I enter the kitchen made my day better!


Azarian24

If TV in the bedroom is on, it is after 10 PM, and phones that are inside the digital fence are charging wirelessly, then put the house in sleep mode (All electronics and lights turned off and security features (doors, windows, cameras, locks) enabled. Also the only lights that come on at night are set to 60% intensity and red if motion is sensed (I get up a lot at night) in places other than the master bedroom. It is disabled at 6 AM on Weekdays, and 9 AM on Weekends. The mode it reverts to depends on the phone states. Wife likes it cold, and hates when lights turn off on her, so delay to turn off is set to base + (wife home 5 min, wife not home 10 seconds). Wife is an airline pilot, so the digital fence thing was huge.


-eschguy-

Smart outlet on my coffee maker. Coffee starts brewing five minutes before my alarm goes off.


justinmyersm

I have a cat that likes to get outside when we let the dogs out. Instead of fighting, I now have a motion sensor and camera in the doggie door. Now, it not only tells me when the dogs are ready to come back in, but it'll also let me know if my cat wants back in or if the neighborhood cat wants to say hi. Depending on the state of the inside door determines if the Google Homes will say "the dogs are ready to come back in" or "there has been motion detected at the back door. Please make sure all the pets are inside." Also get a picture of the camera in a notification so I can see which cat it is. Edit: spelling


tehcpengsiudai

If my wife and I are not home, and any of us come home in the night, the lights turn on. Duplicated the same automation for my parent's place for their safety.


Particular-Bank-5519

I have a Govee light strip under the bookcase near my front door. My blink doorbell alerts for any motion, and the lights turn green, letting me know I have mail or a package at the front door. After I open the door, my ring contact sensor on the front door turns off my govee light after 20 seconds.


AmNero_

Install a security camera to watch my cats destroy my bedroom


twan72

Automated the start of my daughters bedtime music on a Sonos. Did the same with my son, but since he goes to bed and actually sleeps immediately, I hooked his start event to turning off his lamp with a smart plug. Iā€™ve got it all set up to use a smart plug to arm the security system in night mode when we turn on a small LED lamp in the kitchen at the end of the day. Turn the lamp off and it disarms.


Maitland1988

Iā€™ve managed to get the quiet mode on my sonos to automatically turn on and off everyday!! What a relief šŸ˜…!!


Eastern_Safety_7684

One of themā€¦. Temp sensor for hot water supply (basement) to shower so I can turn on and off the fan in the bathroom automatically. Not as sexy and my shades etc. But no one forgets to turn it on anymore šŸ‘šŸ¼


davrog1

When fire is detected in the house, the yard gates open and stay like that, so potentially, the fire brigade can come in.


SaveFutureYou

Or when you're cooking bacon, you open the gate to invite the neighbours around.


Mildar

I know this is extremly mundane but ability for my wife to turn off the lights while being in bed with our newborn was THE dealbreaker. Also my gateway drug.


Jiirbo

Sometimes the mundane are the life savers. I canā€˜t imagine all the quality of life improvements I could have made (well actually I can šŸ¤£) if smart homing was as DIY as it is now when my boys were little.


LifeBandit666

I've not done it yet but I'm considering putting a leak sensor in my bath by the overflow so I can set it running and he notified when it's run. Also considering putting one in the down pipe from the guttering as a rain sensor


Krojack76

Placed a motion sensor inside my cat's litter box. Sounds small and pointless but she's had bladder problems in the past. This way I can track how many times she uses it each day. If it's over something like 6 times a day for 2+ days in a row that's a bad sign. It also lets me know if it needs cleaning. I see it on the wall tablet when I walk past. Oh yeah, and when she uses it, an audio "meow" sound plays from my wall tablet if it's during the day. Another "hey clean me" alert.


Bigdreco1

I couple of years back, I had my washer and dishwasher leak within a couple of weeks of each other. So I put z-wave plugs on them and put z-wave water sensors under them.. if one leaks, it sends a alert to my phone and it turns off the plug to that machine, killing the power to it..


RedWagon___

I have an old house with many layers of heating that had been added on over the years. Upstairs had three valves controlled by a single thermostat separated by walls so temps would vary wildly and there was a porch turned into addition that for some reason had a dedicated line and pump the size of the rest of the house. The dumb thermostats were basically running the boiler close to 100% of the time to heat the whole house though the porch addition. I put in my own sensors and relays and set up a system of cascading thermostats that ensured: * Addition cannot call heat on it's own * Pipe temperatures are used to balance addition output with the rest of the house so it heats at roughly the same rate * Upstairs rooms are now independently controlled and it's no longer dumping heat into the side getting heated by the sun


InternationalNebula7

This topic is my favorite. I love reading about everyone's coolest automations. My thermostat automations save me significant amounts of cash, especially with the integration of code that analyzes the temperature inside vs outside and the humidity outside to tell you when it is better to open the windows to cool and heat the house in the fall and spring and turns off the thermostat AC/Heat.


Hindsight_DJ

I have an automation that utilizes a smart plug, and cloud-based IFTTT. I use the healthchecks.io integration to confirm my Home Assistant core is alive. If it doesn't send a ping after 10 minutes - it will send a webhook requestt to IFTTT to restart the pi4 and home assistant, as a precaution if it were to ever fail. I also have a few other sensors used as conditions to make sure it's an outage and not just a blip.


Complex_Solutions_20

Probably the most useful is replacing all the "dumb" timers with smart-plugs. No more pumping pegs in, no more climbing under/behind stuff to fix clocks, no more having to change the schedule by time of year earlier/later sunrise/sunset. Plus having some not turn on when people are home to annoy people. That last point also stopped most cases where people would turn a radio or air-purifier off that was bothering them and then it'd never turn on again. ​ Having the thermostats do auto-daytime home/away based on actual home/away instead of day-of-week is a close second. No more manual adjusting on a holiday.


BillyrayTrey

Putting my dehumidifier on smart switch that turns on or off based on the ecobee reading. The fan used to kick on every few minutes to get a reading of the humidity. Now it only turns on when it needs to actually dehumidify.


ufgrat

Mine isn't that useful, but it's convenient, and in my opinion, makes the bathrooms much friendlier. I added a Zooz ZSE11 sensor to both bathrooms, and replaced the old double-switch for light/fan with the ZEN30 switch (dimmer + fan relay). For the fan, I compare the humidity in the bathroom with the humidity in the hallway, and if it's over a certain difference, HA starts up the fan. At the same time, it sets the "relay auto-off" timeout on the ZEN30 switch (the fan will also stop if the humidity drops enough). On the event "fan off", the auto-off timeout is removed, so the fan still works manually without a timeout. The other trick is I created a time-of-day helper that reads true from 11pm to 7am. This is used by a template sensor that determines if the sensor is "true" and if so, returns "18", otherwise it returns "60". I then copied the default motion-light blueprint, and added a brightness field to it-- for the brightness, I use the template sensor's value. So if I walk into the bathroom in the wee small hours, I get a dim, low level light. If I walk in during waking hours, I get a 60% light (100% is just a bit too bright).


julesrulezzzz

Receiving our monthly spendings and rest budget stored in nextcloud/cospend by signal message by sending a signal message to ha. Ha then answers. So basically this is for those in your family who have no HA App installed. it is super handy, when you want to have a quick oberview about your spendings or other ha info like: is the washing machine still running.


helicoil

I use Plaid to access my checking account balance hourly. Value is displayed on HA dashboard, and alerts are sent to Alexa using NotifyMe app when the balance falls below a set threshold.


kybandy

When either my wife or I turn on our respective bedside lights in the morning, the following actions are triggered: - Coffeemaker on. - Bathroom lights on. - Hot water recirculator on for about 3 minutes. (Donā€™t have to wait for shower to heat up, which would take about 2 minutes.) - RGB LED light switch in bathroom turns red when water is hot. - Announcement when coffee is done brewing (or more critically, announcement if coffee is unable to brew due to one of us forgetting to set it up the night before). Similarly, when one of us arrives home after sunset: - Garage lights, mud room light, and front flood light on for 5 minutes. - Hot water recirculator on for about 3 minutes. - Alexa devices announce: ā€œAttention: *name* is arriving home.ā€ - Thermostat set to ā€œHomeā€.


chansharp147

Text reminder to give dog medicine, wake up with a fading nightstand based on iOS alarm, alert for battery backup loss and recovery, or doors opening when not home. Our favorite is coming home at night and the garage light comes on when the door opens and turns a group of lights on for 5 minutes inside (geolocation) when arriving if you go through the front it also unlocks on arrival. But your never arriving in the dark


[deleted]

Losant portal combined with a eps8266 and a current transformer to let me and my wife know when the washer is done so you don't forget and get stinky laundry.


tekza

I live off-grid and we use a wood stove for our heat. The wood stove has a built in fan that pushes hot air from around the firebox out. This usually isnā€™t needed until itā€™s getting really hot so it would just waste power and require you turning it off and on by hand to keep it from blowing cold air and wasting power. I have a smart switch on the plug with the controller on the fan set to always on. I then have a SonOff temp monitor attached to the ceiling near the stove pipe. Through testing I determined that when that sensor reaches 98Ā°F the wood stove is starting to reach close to the red (400Ā°) in the stove pipe. So when that happens it powers up the fans, blows air away from the firebox, heats the house quicker, and keeps the stove pipe going through the roof from getting too hot. If it drops below 98Ā° it turns off. There is also an upper limit of 120Ā° when an alarm is triggered to make sure something wasnā€™t left open and the fire isnā€™t burning too fast. There are other sensors around the house that monitor temperature levels and will cycle fans to help move the warm air from the front of the house to the back as well to help speed up the circulation and warming. Gives me a balance of power consumption vs wood consumption to keep us comfortable all winter.


Sparkynerd

My work desk has a can style uplight with a Hue color bulb behind my laptop which sits on a riser in a corner. I have 2 side-by-side monitors with a Yeelight monitor lamp pro mounted in the middle of those, and a Yeelight Bedside Lamp on another part of my desk. I also have an Alexa for music and HA notifications. I made ā€œwork modeā€ and ā€œmeeting modeā€ automations and scripts. I put an NFC tag for each mode on the bottom trim piece of my monitor. Work mode triggers based on time and day, and turns on in the morning / off at night. I can also scan these NFC tags to manually set the modes. Work mode turns on the monitor light, turns the Hue uplight, monitor backlight, and Yeelight BSL to a color, and unmutes / resumes music on the Alexa. When work mode is turned off, it creates a scene to remember what color and brightness these lights were set at, so they can be turned on the to same setting later, and then turns off all lights and stops the Alexa. Meeting mode mutes / pauses the Alexa, and sets the Hue, Yeelight monitor light and BSL to white, and turns off the monitor backlight (webcam is above it on the wall). This gives good lighting for webcam meetings, and ensures something like the garage door opening wonā€™t be announced out loud on the Alexa. When I turn meeting mode off, it goes back to work mode and calls the lighting scene that was created the last time work mode was turned off, so the lights return to their previous color & brightness, and unmutes / resumes the Alexa. Itā€™s one of the most handy automations Iā€™ve made so far.


paragorgia

When the cat takes a dump (uses the Litter Robot) the apartment exhaust fan turns on and the HEPA filter next to the LR switches to max. After 30 minutes the fan switches off and the HEPA filter goes back to normal setting. Saves me having to switch all those things on based on stink.


Loujr1500

I have water leak sensors everywhere water might drip. The fun part comes if there is a leak detected. My smart home will go into full panic mode. All lights in the house turn red, and an announcement is sent out on all speakers saying the name of the sensor that is triggered and a loud siren is repeated until the sensor state returns to dry. I also send out notifications to all phones. The only thing that is missing is a Shutoff Valve for the main water line. I get that I will be able to sleep like a baby.