Thanks, but I don’t get it. If you don’t automate your lights, how do you plan to achieve…
^ at a guess, home/not_home and time based.
i do that for common areas like car porch, living room and balcony. but i don’t want certain rooms to light up as well when no one is in the room.
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
And eventually switches become a distant memory.
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.
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Another thread with a similar topic.
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i get you mean.
but doing that out of HA means you cannot…
- 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?
You just answered your own question.
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.
Awesome, love the welcome home feature. I’ve setup owntracks with GPS and a home BLE beacon for home detection so I plan on doing something similar with Google Home and TTS.
Here are my favorite automations.
- When the toilet room lights have been on for over 5 minutes, turn on the exhaust fan (if you’ve been in there over 5 minutes, you are probably making a stink). After the lights turn out, leave the fan running for another 5 minutes just to get the remnants.
- Turn the carriage lights on the garage on at sunset and off at sunrise. I know it’s simple but sometimes it’s the little things that make us the happiest.
- Dim the lights when the tv is turned on, brighten them back up when the tv is turned back off. (assuming they are on, if they aren’t then nothing happens with the lights).
- Start the fan in my office when it gets over a certain temperature, and turn it off when it gets back below it.
- Alexa integration
- Christmas lights automation. Turning on and off, and turning off the outdoor lights if it’s raining.
- notification when there is a weather alert. (requires Appdaemon)
- Notification of printer toner/ink levels (requires Appdaemon)
- Monitor the status (printing, pre-heating, stand-by, off) of my 3d printer.
I have some typical ‘lights on at sunset’ and ‘lights off at sunrise’ automations, but the one that always makes me grin is that the kettle gets turned on when I or my wife arrive home (only at certain times).
And if it’s my wife that returns home the Google Home in my office says ‘[wife’s name] is home, so I’ve put the kettle on’ 
(I work from home, so I’m always in when she arrives home from work).
How are you doing this? Is it those plugs that monitor how much electricity is being used, so sends a notification when the power usage drops?
which coffee machine?
I have a basic coffee machine plugged into a RF plug.
I have to remember to fill it the night before, which isn’t ideal, but I haven’t the budget for a fully smart solution… yet…
The one I use the most is by bedtime script… either triggered by an Alexa Skill on an Echo, via homekit using Siri on my Apple Watch or iPhone or via an Amazon Dash Button (to be replaced by a push MQTT wall mounted button)
- Turns off my TV
- Transition dims my living room lamp down to light the room while I leave
- Turns on my landing light for 5mins
- Turns on my bedside lamps and ensuite bathroom light
- Turns off all other lights and some sockets
I then have another push button above my headboard in the bedroom that turns everything off when it’s time to go to sleep.
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I have the lights at the top and bottom of the stairs triggered by motion detectors, they come on normally during evening and night time hours up until 2 AM after which they will illuminate at their dimmest setting if triggered by someone going to the bathroom. If you go downstairs they all light normally which was kind of accidental but I like it like that, usually if I’m going downstairs in the middle of the night I prefer more light.
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I’m using two Aeotech SS6 smart switches and sensing the current. I laid out how I did this along with the template sensors and automations in this thread. Start at the post I linked to and then read down a post or two for more details.
Should give you a good starting point.
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Great, thanks a lot!
PM me if you run into any issues. No guarantees I can solve them but I’ll try. 
Thanks, will do.
The code looks pretty easy to follow (even for an idiot like me), so hopefully I shouldn’t have any problems :fingers crossed:
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