I have automated lights using motion detectors and sunset/sunrise sensors in HA, we rarely switch light switches these days.
Automated the heater in the bathroom which preheats the place before my partner gets out of bed.
Created a floating swimming pool thermometer.
Set up my groups so I can see essential info and cameras from one page. Useful for me to see if the gate is closed before I let the dog out in the morning!
Set my amplifier to power on and change to the correct input automatically when I start playing music. It also changes to the home theatre setup when the TV is turned on.
Lights and sound system power on in my office when I’m in there … and power off when I’m not.
Voice warning when the door is opened, another if it’s left open. Eventually I’ll connect this to the A/C so that it turns off if the doors are left open.
Using this, I now have smart control of my dumb kettle. All I have to do is leave the zwave switch off at night, fill the kettle and flick the kettle switch on, then in the morning I say (from bed), “Hey Google, turn the kettle on”, and the zwave outlet switches on and the kettle boils What I have struggled to get working has been the automation to announce via Google TTS over the Google Home that the kettle has boiled… issue getting a fast response of wattage from the outlet
I too have automated lights so they turn on and off as I walk through the house, and automations to control my amplifier based on the TV turning on or music starting from my ChromeCast audio
I use this for months and I’m very happy with it. TL;DR: it’s something to disable the Internet connection to a device connected to your LAN. It’s useful for limiting the time my little children spend with their tablets. Yeah, I could take their tablets off their hands but sometimes I’m not brave enough and prefer that they blame my ISP.
Even @pilotak made a custom component that you can find here.
Lots of great ideas here, thanks for the feedback everyone. I DO need to do something with lighting, so I guess that’s my next step. I also really like the kitty litter motion setup, as I have felines.
i always like threads like this since they give me ideas.
personally i have the usual lighting/etc automations, but my favorites are always ones that aren’t especially clever but accomplish things that are hard to solve by walking up to a proverbial light switch. things like:
if smoke/CO is detected, blast a siren, send me notifications, and shutdown heat.
if certain leaks are detected, shut off water main.
a la @CCOSTAN, i have tts to tell my kids when it’s time to leave for school and time for bed.
inspired by this, i get notifications if my kid hasn’t had his meds.
lights on/off with some randomness during vacation.
What are you using for the water shut off? A Z-wave valve, or something else? I ask because I prefer wifi devices over z-wave if they are in an easily power-able place.
I do have plans on making a esp8266 smoke detector trigger device as I have hard wired detectors and there is an easy way to use the comm wire to trigger an esp and send the results via mqtt. Similar to what is done here:
Want to share my list of simple automations, hope you can get some ideas:
Google home to say if entrance door is opened for more than 5 minutes.
Kids sometimes forget or just don’t shut it, so need to remind them. Door sensor + tts + Google Home
I have 2 types of alarm. Normal one as everyone has (siren and notification to my phone saying what is opened) Second is door only alarm, I enable it if I expect someone (e.g. plumber) while I am not at home but want to know the exact time when he comes. Door sensor + notify.
Another alarm (always enabled) is to play a sound if entrance door is opened after 1a.m. and before 5 a.m. It is always good to have a warning if the door is opened at night, even if someone from the family is back home late. Door Sensor + Any media device
Google Home to say “Good morning boss… Weather forecast for today… Have a nice day” every morning to the first person who comes downstairs. Usually it’s my wife, so I duplicate the message on my phone. Motion Sensor + tts + Google Home + Notify
Google Home to say my Home status. When I ask to give me the status - Google Home gives me the temperature in every room and the status of my doors and windows. IFTTT + Door sensors + Temperature sensors + Google Home
Temperature control in the bedroom (winter only). Unfortunately, the only option I have is the Oil Heater, which is plugged into Xiaomi Zigbee socket. So if the temperature at night goes below 18 it turns on, when it reaches 20, it turns off. Temperature Sensor + Smart Power Socket
Turn lights on/off in my storage room under the stairs. I have Xiaomi Gateway installed there, so when motion is detected it turns the light on and off if there is no motion for 2 minutes. Motion Sensor + Smart Lights (Xiaomi gateway in my case)
Notify on my mobile when my wife is home.
Sometimes I need to know when my wife comes home, as a reminder. So it sends me a message to my phone when she is connected to home wifi. nmap scaner + notify platform
Notify when kids are back from school.
This is one of the most valuable automations for those who have kids. When kids phone is connected to the home wifi I and my wife are notified. As a backup (in case if mobile turned off) I receive a notification when the door opens (only once when kids usually come home). If they don’t have keys, I can still see in Home Assistant if there was any motion detected on the porch and check my security camera which monitors my front yard. Worse case is if they forget their keys and mobile is off, but that never happened. Notify + device scanner + Door Sensor + Motion Sensor.
When kids are back from school (and parents are not home) they are welcomed by Google Home and reminded to change their clothes, wash their hands, tidy up their room and start doing their homework. Door sensor + Device tracker + tts
When I say Good night to Google Home - in 10 seconds it turns off the light and TV in the living room. IFTTT + tts + Xiaomi Remote + Smart Bulbs + Google Home
And some other simple things like:
turning lights on/off if motion is detected after sunset on my front yard
Turn TV (TV + Blue Ray) on/off if I ask Google Home to do that
The best automation I have is using a xiaomi door sensor on my sons door which sounds an alarm on my phone if he tries to sneak out at night. He has down syndrome, and we had issues with him sneaking into the kitchen when everyone was asleep and gorging on food. If it was just a small amount we could live with it, but he would literally stuff his face with a whole pack of stuff, normally involving bread, donuts or something similar. We’ve had lots of times when he has nearly choked on them where he is trying to wolf them down before getting caught.
We tried using a simple door sensor that sounded a high pitched alarm when it was opened, but the batteries would only last a short while before running out, and because we had to manually set it we would sometimes forget and have issues. It would also wake his siblings. Now if he tries to get up it sends an alert and sound to my phone using pushover. Enough to wake me, but not disturb the whole house. He hasn’t tried his luck from about a week after we started using it!
Another favourite is custom greetings using alexa tts whenever someone comes in from being away. Have also now set up a tts reminder stating what my sons homework is and when it’s due - this will probably be my new favourite but probably not his!
I was going to do this with a TP Link smart plug, and have it trigger by motion, haven’t decided where to place the sensor yet. Only issue is that I’ll probably forget to fill up the kettle each night!
Now that I’ve written this, I think I may as well give it a shot. I think I’ll set it as an input boolean and then I can just tell Alexa to boil the kettle and use it in the evening as well.
Some excellent stuff here, just wanted to add a couple of things I’ve been using:
entity filter card in Lovelace, which shows me a card with currently open doors & windows
insect repellent + z-wave plug = time-programmable insect protection (soon w/duration-based notification when the liquid runs out)
humidifier + z-wave plug + humidity sensor = correct humidity with just the occasional water replenishment (would like to add a scale sensor here to notify me when I need to add more water)
sandwich maker + z-wave plug = semi-automatic, voice-controlled sandwich maker - most such devices don’t have buttons and would need to always be plugged in, then unplugged after the light turns off, this way power is only provided for the 6 mins it takes to heat a sandwich and there is no need to fiddle with the plug
dumb sprinkler + motorized water valve + z-wave switch = time & weather-based sprinkler system (will also add an outdoor humidity sensor in the future)
floorplanner.com + component in Lovelace = visually controlled lights, AC, heating, remote, etc. Kid loves it
zwave-controlled window covers + period of day automations = excellent for waking up easier, keeping the house lit just right, etc.
Harmony Hub + Chromecast Audio + Google Home Mini + AVR = a very silly little automation, but very handy. It is set so that whenever I turn off any of my TV-watching, Xbox-playing, Apple TV macros, it starts the AVR again and sets it to the Chromecast Audio input, which alongside the Google Home Mini means that I can always ask for Spotify songs and have them play via the full audio system.
What I have struggled to get working has been the automation to announce via Google TTS over the Google Home that the kettle has boiled… issue getting a fast response of wattage from the outlet 
