Hello,
I’m going on vacation soon for a couple of days and would like to create a dedicated away mode (occupation simulation) for my Zigbee controlled lights. If it used some random element to vary the times a bit, that would be extra awesome.
What would be the best way to approach this? I’m wondering if there is maybe a user-friendly way to create and manage a schedule?
Would love to hear some ideas and suggestions.
Funny you mention this…
There is just the thing…
Then there are HACS integrations that use your history and repeats the same behaviour.
Thanks Hellis81, I was totally unaware that HA has this Schedule integration. I will look into it immediately.
Your second suggestion sounds very intriguing too. Is it safe though, to install experimental HACS extensions? I’m worried about stability, because the instance is also used by users that are less experienced with IT.
I don’t use that integration myself (the turn on lights while on vacation thing) but I have a lot of other HACS integrations.
The ones I have work fine. I can’t speak for every single one there is.
I wouldn’t say HACS integrations are harder to use than official. They are just installed differently from then on it’s really no difference.
The lights come on here every evening 15 minutes after sunset, so changing that during the holidays would be suspicious. What I do turn on is a fake TV and a radio for some sound
I recebtly used the instructions from the followin post to make the automation to randomize lights on and off.
It works perfectly.
Also, used a simpler way which also worked:
There is a Blueprint you could test (it didn’t work for me):
I keep it simple. I have a few automations which turn on three lights at a random offset before sunset, and then turn them off at a random offset around our typical bedtime.
This gives a “lived in” pattern for those three rooms, if you’re looking from outside.
Why separate automations? The patterns are good enough to leave some on even when we’re home. I also have a script which will enable them all when we leave, and disable them when we come home, which can be run from the dashboard.
Wow, thanks for all the suggestions. I did not realize how many ways there are to make this work.
The history based automation is quite clever indeed. I’m cautious with extending my instance with custom integrations, but I might give this a try.
And if you don’t like any of those, the forum is loaded with ideas. Try this search in your search engine.
Blueprints, other automations, lotsa lotsa.
site:community.home-assistant.io vacation lighting
