How to use Light Groups in Automations?

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1

I am not yet a proficient HA CLI guy, so relying on the GUI. I have found that I use the Groups integration to create lighting groups like I used in SmartThings. These show up as helpers, but I can’t find where I can specify one of these light groups in an Automation. This seems like a fairly logical use case, so thinking I am missing something obvious?

2

it’s just a light. So you can use it wherever lights are available. You won’t be able to use device triggers, conditions, or actions. So don’t choose device as your type.

3

Thanks. So when selecting an action within an automation, I don’t see anything that would expose the use of a light directly other than devices. I suppose I could do it via a scene?

4

Use call service and use the light services, e.g. light.turn_on, light.turn_off, light.toggle

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5

I haven’t tried that. Will do. Thanks for the pointer.

6

See, you just opened the door to a whole area in HA I had not yet used in that way. It appears to answer a lot of questions I have. Thank you for the assist! Great community!

7

For the next guy:

Select the service you want, in my case it’s a lighting group so I select “Light:Turn on”. After that, what’s new is THEN you can select targets from Devices, Entities or Areas. The group of lights I made is not addressable as a device, but it is as an entity. Problem solved.

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