As a result of the fuel price crisis, I have created power saving automations including one that turns off the plug on my combi boiler when the temperature is above my thermostat minimum level. Works fine. However, the hot water is also heated by this boiler.
To ensure this is on when I am in the bathroom, I have a sonoff button that will turn on the boiler plug. Generally, it works. However, as with all systems, sometimes (rarely) things go wrong and the plug does not turn on. What would be good is if a small led could be near the button that would light up when the plug successfully turns on, via an automation (I have no issue with the automation). Issues are (1) I have no electricity in the bathroom so any solution would need a battery (2) I have not seen any commercial small smart light that is suitable.
Has anyone created any small hardware that acts as an indicator and is battery powered?
I know I could look at smart bulbs in my bathroom light fitting but an extractor fan is connected to the light switch too so permanently on would be an issue.
I use the WLED code (https://kno.wled.ge/) on a cheap 8266 microcontroller, wired to a short strip of LEDs. I made a preset in WLED that turns all the LEDs green, and another that turns them red, and a third that turns them off.
There’s an HA Integration for WLED, so automating those presets should be straightforward.
I wrote a short shell script that uses POST commands to activate the various presets: when I am in a meeting, I can just turn the LEDs red, and when I am available I turn them green. At the end of the work day I turn them off. This lets my family know whether I can be disturbed, because I work from home.
I think the problem with a battery powered device will be how often it needs to be recharged. If the led is only on periodically you could increase things, but my guess is the hardware itself is going to be a problem.
I’m looking for the same thing by the way. I will likely end up resorting to something wired though.