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.
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??
I end up appreciating my once-in-awhile automations more.
I can definitely understand this. One of my automations monitors a water sensor at the base of my water heater and under the kitchen sink (has leaked before). If it triggers, all my lights in the house turn on, any colored bulbs turn red, and they flash on/off each second. It hasn’t triggered yet (thankfully) except for testing, but the peace of mind is fantastic.
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
I use the Home Assistant companion app instead of Tasker. It has similar access to automate phone stuff
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.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/automation
Imagine language changing to adapt to the world. Crazy times.
I have a binary sensor that turns on when I’m away from home for 30 minutes and off when I’m home for 5 minutes. When I open the door and the sensor is on, music starts playing and the living room lights turn on. Love it.
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.
What do you use to monitor your washer? I’ve got an older 3 prong circular plug that I can’t find anything that hooks into it.
@Passerby6497
Shelly Pro 1PM that I had lying around. Reports Amps usage fast enough to allow me to cut off electrical heating before the breaker cuts off because of overload.
This results in washer and heating alternating their power usage without triggering the breaker.
Home assistant OS on Raspberry Pi 4.
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. =)
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)
https://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.
