Hello! I’ve just recently moved into a new home with “normal” light bulb sockets, which has given me the drive to jump into home automation. My old house had strange light sockets which aren’t catered to by smart bulb manufacturers.
I would love to hear about peoples favourite, most useful or simply cool automations. So what are some of the highlights in your systems that have added a good deal of convenience, that you find extremely useful or that are simply cool?
I’m a software developer by trade, so hopefully I will be able to make some meaningful contributions to the community in the future!
I have a few, mainly based around lights and switches at the moment but as I get more stuff it should expand:
Turn the Lounge lights on at sunset
Turn the main light in the Nursery on at bedtime and then switch to the Fairy lights in the Nursery 30 minutes later.
Turn the hall light on when I’m home (and play the welcome home Marty sample from back to the future 2, i know…)
Turn various fans on if the temp goes above 25c
Turn everything in the lounge off at 11:30, this is because i am prone to fall asleep watching TV
If power goes above *kW turn off some devices that aren’t needed (i usually have more computers on than I need)
Morning automation - This turns the main bedroom light on at 6am, starts the coffee brewing and turns the TV on downstairs for the news. Want to add more to this but the wife’s not keen!
I’ve only just started with automation’s so would really like to see what everyone else does!
I’m just starting out and have an issue with my lights turning on at sunset. Could you share the config. I’m working by trial and error and it’s taking time.
Love the BTTF greeting and think I need that in my life too!
It’s stupid and simple, but one the automations that is my favorite is my laundry notifications. I just love not having to wonder about the washer or dryer anymore and having Google Home notify me in that pleasant Australian accent that the washer or dryer is done. Also, turning on/off landscaping lights at dusk and lights for the cat’s area instead of at a specific time to account for the seasons is great even though I don’t think about it all that much.
In fact, the automations that I am the most proud of are the ones that often go unnoticed. At some point in my time with HA, I decided that the goal was not to have a bunch of switches on an interface that I could turn on and interact with, but to make the house do the thinking and work for me.
I think we share similar goal. My goal is “touch-less and keyless home”. But somehow it is not yet perfect. Sometimes, the lights would turn off if I sit too still for too long like during meal. If that happen, I would need to ask Alexa to turn on the lights. Still touch-less but not what I had in mind.
I’ve stayed away from motion based lighting for reasons like this. I still think when it comes to turning on and off lights with motion sensing, unless you have just the right conditions, regular old analog motion detector switches are still the easiest, cheapest and most reliable way to do it.
I’d still like to try this for my basement steps though as it’s a complicated setup and would only need to come on at certain times of day when the lighting levels are low - best done with a lux sensor… so I haven’t totally ruled it out!
Yeah, I think a lot of these things come down to how your house runs.
Like with me, I work shifts on a pattern, and during my ‘working week’ it’s just me at home, but then on my days off some days my kids are here and some days my better half is here, and some days I’m at hers, so solely based on time would be no good.
However, my child access is pre-planned, as are my shifts, so potentially a little magic with Google calendar, some combinations of input booleans and a couple of soft switches would work.
I don’t have enough kit yet, but this is my long term plan. Do a time line:
5pm...
Is anyone home?
Are the kids here?
Am I on nights tonight?
Do I have the kids in the morning?
Based on answers, do XYZ
Who said it wasn’t automated? It’s automated, just self contained and not using HA.
OG automation. Old School Style.
I once watched a thread on the topic of automating a bathroom light here go to 40 posts before the user finally figured out that the easiest way to accomplish the goal was to use one of the switches I listed just now.
Because we’re HA fanatics, we tend to see everything in that light but sometimes the simple solution is the best.
turn on the lights when no one is at home to simulate occupancy.
use the PIR motion sensor as part of alarm system.
use alexa to turn on the light
It becomes single purpose device which against the very core reason why I spent more than 1 year on HA to get that stupid lights to work right… and it is still not working right! Arrgggh!!
Who’s going to see the lights in the basement? There’s only one well window and it’s on the side of the house.
The side entry which leads to the basement and the door from the kitchen that opens to the landing are both equipped with sensors. The minute they open either door (only way to get in since the window previously mentioned is not an egress window), alarm is triggered.
Why shout to Alexa and then wait for her to relay the commands through a few cloud services or to HA and back when I can just walk into vestibule and have the light turn on automatically, in milliseconds?
Yeah I’m also thinking similarly. I’ve made sure to grab some wall switches, because I assume my SO is just going to turn off the lights at the switch otherwise.
I think I’m going to try out motion or door activated lights in the rooms where you never stay for too long (linen cupboard, walk in wardrobe) and just turn them off 5 minutes after motion finishes or similar. I think solely motion based lighting in the tv/dining/office might not work very well.
i get you mean.