Based on Solar production threshold my automation sets an inline switch to on/off which powers a mechanical relay to supply power to the hot water tank. (3.6Kw) The tank temp is tracked by an Ecowitt thermometer (mounted externally in an unused tank plug) which is also used to disable supply power when at desired temp. When the tank thermometer triggers, a notification is sent, this is achieved by monitoring power consumption on the tanks phase. If solar production is insufficient on any day, a night time (off peak) temperature based automation triggers to turn on the relay and heat the water. This ensures hot water temperature is always available in the morning.
Previously I used Gas Hot Water but when that tank failed I replaced it with the setup as above (400L). I estimate I am saving > $2000 in off peak power by using my available solar. My solar is 12Kw Enphase based.
This thread is great. There are some very inspiring stuff in here.
My most useful automations are:
Power Outage Handlung
During Power Outage my solar batterie takes over but the automation shuts down all major consumers like dishwahser, washing machine, dryer and car charger. Furthermore it calculates the remaining batterie duration on base of my base power consumption and sends a priority notification to my phone.
Last thing it does is to create a permanent notification to remind me of turning on the major consumers oncy power is back again
TV / Entertainment power outlet has not been deactivated at 22:00
I check if the TV is still connected to my router at 22:00 because I want to shut down the entertainment power strip at night. I do it manually because just cutting power is not very device friendly especially the playstation is complaining if you just cut the power. This automation is a friendly reminder to take action.
Heat up bathromm before my wife returns from a late shift.
I have all my wifes work shifts in a google calender. Whenever a late shift ends it heats up the bathroom and activatse hot water if otherwise deactivated.
Advanced Heating control / Cover Control Automation in combination with WebUntis integration
Ok, not really my automation but the WebUntis integration provides access to the school calender of my big kids. I use this to identify if they have to go to school or if they have a free day. Advanced Heating Control & Cover Control Automation make use of this to set the correct heating schedule or to allow the covers to stay close longer
Switch the dimmer of the corridor by motion detection. From 22:00 it’s darker, from 00:00 it’s very dim so that it doesn’t hit my eyes when I go for a pee at night
I use the geolocation + SSID of two mobile phones to switch the mentioned motion sensor to alarm mode and send push messages if someone enters the flat
I can switch on the espresso machine with NFC next to the bed. After 15 minutes, the light next to the work surface switches on and signals that the machine has warmed up.
If I switch off the machine and switch it on again within half an hour, the light switches on immediately because the residual heat means the machine is warm again straight away
When I switch off the RPi, the 3D printer also switches off
Push message when the batteries of the IOT devices are empty
Nope, I have Shelly 1PM installed inside outlet to measure the power consumption and I added automation that triggers when power consumptions drops below 1W (that seems to be standby consumption for my washing machine) for 1 minute. Working very reliably so far.
I started to write upp all my best automation but then realized they all depend on your specific needs and uses, so I stopped and just gave some
We have so many (not mostly complicated) but here are some examples:
When some of us start to shower: In the morning on working days it turn on the news on the speakers in the bathroom, otherwise in the weekend or in the evening it turns on some lounge music.
We use calendar together with TTS to tell us if something is happening today, birthdays, national holidays, history about the day, special occasions etc. (with the help of OpenAI) when we wake up and during the day at specific times,
I have one automation (triggered by a switch in the bedroom) , when we go to bed to lower the shields and adjust the lights in the bedroom and in the rest of the adjacent rooms. The same switch (in the morning) opens the shields adjust the lights and TTS greets us and gives us the relevant information, stated above.
My office is in a Star Wars Style so when I enter the room my Millenium Falcon shoots its lasers
All the appliances tell me when they are finished, the coffee machine tells me when the coffee is fully brewed
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Just stumbled on this thread…
In my case the most useful automations are HVAC related.
very basic but saved me the hassle of pulling some new wires: start the underfloor heating circulation pump when heating is active and stopping it after 15 minutes of boiler) heat pump inactivity. If the pump or automation fails the room get heated by fan coils that have smart but autonomous thermostats
when my PV batteries are full and I m feeding too much PV power to the grid and temps are high crank the cooling to full blast in all the rooms, stop cooling when start drawing from battery power and if nothing has been done on the settings (temps or mode changes on the fancoils)
Hot … and thermostat in cooling mode turn on exhaust fan.
Hot … and thermostat in heating turn on HVAC fan.
Humid and average indoor humidity is below 50%, turn on HVAC fan.
Humid and over 50% average indoor then exhaust.
When humidity spikes take prior readings room temperature as surface temperature and if within 5 degrees of dewpoint at the surface temperature turn on exhaust fan and if within 2 degrees also turn on HVAC fan to limit the mirror fogging.
Max run time is 25 minutes for all of the above. If the light in the bathroom turns off within that 25 minutes the timer reset.
Controlled turn off is when the humidity change in the space on decreasing less than 0.5% over a 3 minute period. If run ing due to heat it is 0.5 degrees over 3 minutes.
Email notification that one of 5 local fuel stations has just increase petrol price by 25c or more - means the regular up/down fuel cycle has changed to UP!
Google Home Broadcast to empty the washing machine when it is finished - uses power measurements to determine when finished, and keeps notifying until emptied (however new washing machine turns itself off when finished which screws it up a little)
Google Home Broadcasts about doors being left opened for either too long, at night, or when cold.
Reset the wifi light switches to their default when ever someone accidently gets Google to turn off ALL the lights rather than the lights in the room they are in
Flood sensors in all wet rooms - Google Broadcast, plus siren about potential sink, bath, washing machine leak
I do the same, but for now have no way to to know when the washer it’s been emptied because it turns itself off at the end of the cycle too. It’s a SmartThings washer but I haven’t wanted to bother opening the firewall for their push endpoint and possibly fighting to make it go through my proxy.
However, just spent this last hour setting up the SmartThings integration. All the entities are available and update, except the switch to control the washer state. Maybe it’s one of those models that don’t support API control. Will look further into it tomorrow.
Update. Yes, the washer can be started through the SmartThings REST API as long as it’s on and Smart Control has been enabled. No idea why it doesn’t work through the integration.
I use 2 yolink long range outdoor thermometers, one in my pool, one at the outlet to my solar heater. I kick the solar heater on at 11am once it starts getting sun on it (tree shade). If the solar heater output is less than the pool temperature (meaning its not sunny, or its raining), it shuts the pump off for a varying amount of time based on consecutive failures (20m, 40m, 60m max) .
Zigbee wall-mounted remote in the kitchen with on/off buttons that turn on all lights (ceiling, counter, bar, spots) in the kitchen and dining room with one press.
Zwave in-wall switches that control the bathroom spots and an automation that turns on/off the wall strip and sink lights together with them.
Cozy mode in bathrooms
Double-click wall switch to set the bathroom in a “cozy” mode where lights are dimmed and the sink lights are off. Great for evening showers.
Rainbow cozy mode in bathrooms
Double-click another wall switch to get a slow color rainbow in the bathroom. Fun.
Kitchen counter motion sensor
A motion sensor under the kitchen counter turns on the counter lights whenever you enter the kitchen. Great at night, but the cats set it off all the time too. (Needs to be a bit careful to make sure the light doesn’t get turned off when you’re working in the kitchen.)
House cozy lights on at dusk and dawn
When outdoor brightness goes down, all the house “cozy” lights are turned on. This includes window decoration lights, outside garden lights, deck lights, and facade lights. They turn off when it gets bright.
House cozy lights reduced at bed time
At 11.05 the house cozy lights are reduced to night lights for the night.
All lights off from bedside remote
IKEA zigbee remote on each side of the bed that toggles the appropriate bedside reading lamp and a long press turns off all bedroom lights and house lights for the night.
Living room lights dim when TV is playing
When the AppleTV is playing, the living room lights dim and the window lights in the kitchen (which reflect in the TV) turn off. When it pauses they come back on.
Kids night time hug lights
When its time for the kids to have their going-to-sleep hugs (they’re teenagers so this is more of a reminder that they should be in bed) the light strip under the TV and their desk lamps flash briefly.
Entrance lights on when you enter
Motion sensor and door sensor turns on the ceiling lights (via in-wall Zwave switch) and a light strip in the entrance. Turns off 3 minutes after last motion.
Dim lights at night
The entrance ceiling lights and bathroom spotlights dim to 70% when it is dark outside. (I have six 1000lm bulbs in the entrance, so it’s really bright at night otherwise.)
Kids cozy lights from switch and remote
The kids second wall switch and a button on their remotes put their room in “cozy” mode where the desk light and accent lights are on but the ceiling light is off. A second switch and remote button put it in Full, and a long-press puts it in cozy for 10 minutes followed by off for the night.
When the kitchen fan is on high (via power measurement) the house fan increases the supply and reduces the exhaust to increase inside air pressure, which helps the kitchen fan.
House fan when shower humidity goes up
The house exhaust fan increases when the bathroom humidity spikes over the running average.
Battery optimization for kitchen iPad and Home Assistant laptop
The chargers are in a wall switch so that when the charge gets over 75% the power is shut off and when it gets down to 50% it is turned on. This prevents the batteries from charging to full and should dramatically extend their lifetimes.
Living room remote controls kitchen and entrance
I can turn off the lights in the kitchen and entrance from the living room remote, which is helpful since they are visible from the TV. (Ikea audio remote.)
Living room remote all off with door lock alert
When I press the “all off” button on the living room remote it turns off all downstairs lights and then flashes the strip under the TV green if the door is locked or red if not. Great for “done watching TV and time to go to bed.”
Bathroom towel rack heater on with shower
When the humidity spikes above the average and it is cold outside, the bathroom towel rack turns on for an hour
Color temperature by time of day
All bulbs in the house adjust their color temperature to the time of the day (3300 in the day, 2700 at 8pm, and 2500 at 10pm). I love this, but no one else notices. I have IKEA color temperature bulbs everywhere I can.
Kitchen lights off from dining room table
I attached an IKEA remote below the table where I sit so I can turn off the lights in the kitchen with one press.
Deck lights on with house side motion
When the motion detector light on the side turns on (detected via power measurement) the deck flood light also turns on. Doesn’t scare the deer, though.
My favorite automation is when I set the home alarm to “stay”, it will set the workshop alarm to away and lock all exterior doors.
Another favorite is when I set the home alarm to “away”, turn off any lights or TV’s that may have been left on, play music for the dog, and enable a presence simulation where lights will turn on & off based on usage history.
Navigate to Person, Notifications - My daughter is in high school and has activities and social events all over the place. Everyone in the family with a phone has Home Assistant and, as locations change, an automation updates their personal “bubble” zone. When I need to pick her up, I just click a button in the app to bring up Waze to navigate me to wherever she is. When I enter her bubble zone, she gets a notification on her phone to let her know.
Lights, of course - Open the sliding door to the backyard and the lights come on. Motion sensor detects activity, lights on. That’s got to be the single most popular automation, but I take it for granted, especially when taking the dog out in the evening. We don’t even think about this one anymore and it works so perfectly.
Ceiling Fan Auto-Speed - The bedrooms upstairs get hot. I would turn the ceiling fan on high before going to sleep then wake up in the middle of the night to turn it down. I recently automated this. If the fan is set to auto in Home Assistant and the fan is on, the speed will adjust from low to medium to high based on the difference in temperature in the room vs. what the thermostat is set for.
Fun with Lighting - Everyone in the family has a different color. The landscape lights turn on to white when motion is detected but then do a domino effect in our special colors as we are individually recognized as having arrived home. Now it’s a little bit of a game when we pull into the driveway to see whose color comes up first on the lights.
Shopping Lists - I setup shopping lists using the to-do lists and set them to show up on the main screen of the app if we’re at one of our local grocery stores so we don’t have to go clicking around for it.
