Total new user - but with HA up and running on Pi.
I’ve been monitoring different power-eating devices in my home. I think I found a quick win by turning off a towel warmer a couple hours after my daily shower. The thing is, it has a physical power button built in that requires you to hold it down for a few seconds to start it. It also has a thermostat dial, both built into the unit.
Without rewiring the device which I don’t want to do, is there some black magic that makes it possible to control this heater?
The alternate to that if the switchbot bot does not fit the role is a Fingerbot based on the type of button that needs to be pressed via one:
With both if you want to eliminate the need to use batteries then include a battery elimator cable that is made with the type of battery they use, which in both cases they use CR2 3V batteries.
edit: looks like they have a touch version as well… I may have to look into that and grab it to see how well it works when I have a device that can use it.
You can also put a shelly relay behind any switch and set it to “edge”. What that does, maybe not perfect for this scenario but is good in alot of others, is - regardless of the physical state of the switch - if the switch is moved to the other state, then the object (light, whatever) is changed to the opposite state that it is currently in. For example: Turn off a light with the switch. Turn the light on with the relay. Then change the switch to the other position (on) - and since the lioght is already on, that would turn it off.
This way, both the swithch and remote control can work together seamlessly without ever having to toggle the switch - to get the state desired