Is the espresso machine integrated into HA?
No, itās my trusty old Silvia, an old school device with only passive electtonics. But itās powered through a smart plug.
One of my first automations was operating the toilet light and I am still very happy with it. Used several times a day.
- door open, light on,
- door closed, light on,
- door open, light on,
- door closed, lights off.
1.Door open, light on, wait >10 sec, door closed, light off.
Iām new to Home Assistant but pretty proud of this one using a Zooz Scene Controller:
Press Button - Turns on backyard string lights, Turns on Spa Pump, Sets Spa Heater Temp to 98F, turns the Zooz Indicator Light to Blue
When the Hot Tub Reaches 90F the Zooz Indicator Light turns Red and I receive a Text Message that the Hot Tub is Ready and the Kitchen Amazon Echo Announces it.
My most useful automation are the one that control my domestic heat water preparation and control my furnace as this is the highest expense in my household. In my case gas heating is the biggest expense.
For now it saved me a lot of money on gas usage.
But on the other hand I did changed gasket on all my doors and windows, that also helped a lot. And I did installed smart trvs so that I can do zone heating per room.
When I looked on it, itās not just one automation but bunch of them I set up with one goal in mind, to reduce my heating bill while keeping my comfort.
I absolutely love the EPG stuff I have written.
The wife has not grown to enjoy it yet. But, I use it multiple times a day.
What is this?
Electronic Programming Guide, at a guess.
hmmm, yeah ok. Shame @jeffcrum didnāt elaborate on what exactly is so great about this āstuff he has writtenāā¦ in the same way others in this thread explain their āmost useful automationsā.
Oh, sorry. There is a long post about it already.
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My wife and I both love the pauses the TV, when either of our phones ring. Saves scrabbling for the the remote, for me any of the dozens that I forget are there, because they just work.
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Ok, our most useful is the most simple. We walk into the pantry closet, the light turns on, walk out, around 30 seconds later, it turns off. You donāt realize how useful it is until you walk in with both arms full of groceriesā¦ Gotta love it!
I feel the same way about all my auto lights, but recently I used my garage camera as a motion sensor to turn on a new light I installed that makes a dark garage look like itās in broad daylight in the middle of the Mohave and itās great because thatās where my deep freeze is and, like you, having an arm full of stuff for the freezer makes this a very nice automation.
But, honestly, all my automations are useful and the most useful changes on a week to week basis. I have some pretty crazy ones that were complicated to build but provide so much utility and even the humble āturn a light on when thereās motionā is handy every single day.
Lock Sliding Doors at night, unlock in the morning - more of a hardware solution though - Sonoff 12dcv Wifi Switch ($4) + a LOX Magnetic Lock. ($100). Automation piece of mind.
Heat Water when the Electricity General Rate Forecasted Price for a 3 hour (time it takes to heat our water tank) time period (= 6 forecasted windows/6, [1]+[2]+etc) is the lowest, which usually coincides with the most PV. So if sunny, no cost, if rainy, itās very cheap. Set and forget.
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(a little late for a replyā¦ but)
I only set my motion sensors to trigger in Away and Vacation modes. My contact sensors will only trip in home mode if no one is in that room (using presence from various motion sensors and recently added human presence sensors). So, if Iām in my office, then the living room sensors will only be tripped if someone opens a door or window and no one is in that room. That way, I can have the alarm set for Home mode, but still be able to open windows and doors. When I leave a room, the alarm is still set, but ignores the already opened sensors (by using Fromā¦To in the automations).
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lots of good ideas I will have to implement.
I have a few that are pretty useful:
- Internet modem reboot on a timer because you obviously lose internet connection when remote
- Tags, tags and tags. Z wave door locks with an nfc tag at each so it can unlock the door just by swiping.
- Tag by the garage door to toggle the liftmaster bridge/garage door
- Automation to turn on a foyer light when unlocking/opening the front door. kitchen counter lights when opening the kitchen door from the garage
- Automation for when unlocking a door (while away) to then receive a text that the particular door was unlocked.
- Pentair integration to turn pool lights on, slide water, and purge filter
- Pentair pool system control, including water fill every night for 15 minutes and emergency text if fill is left on for more than 30 minutes
- I have a Seco-larm photoelectric beam sensor hard wired to a door sensor that texts me with twilio when the beam something breaks the beam. I have it on my long drive way so that I get a text when someone is coming before they get to my front door
- Water leak sensor on water pressure pump and turns Flo Moen water valve off if theres a leak
- Power control based on time of day for water pressure pump to be turned off at 11pm and back on at 7 am
- Z wave Multi sensor with light sensor. Light sensor is covering a house backup battery system to indicate once the battery has depleted to 40% capacity and texts me
- Another light sensor on if the house is running off of the backup battery and text me. This could also be used on a laundry machine/ dryer to indicate when the cycle is done
- EV Charger shut off if house is running on backup battery
- Battery level notification to notify me every day at 5pm IF any battery is below 30% in my door locks, door sensor, water leak sensor, even cell phone and electric vehicles if I want.
- Geolocation on phones of family members so that when they are on the way home it will text me. Helpful since cell phone signal is not good on the road leading to my house
- Away occupancy for second home so that lights come on inside to make it look like someone is there.
- multi tap on light switches to perform different device control like 3 times down on the master bedroom light turns all lights off, locks all doors, and closes the garage door if its open. or 2 presses up on the kitchen light switch will open the garage door.
- timed lights on for hallway so when the kids turn the light on and go into their rooms and forget to turn the hall light off, it turns off after 3 minutes
Im looking to configure the Homeseer light switches to display rgb leds to indicate if garage door is open or door lock is unlocked so I dont have to even open the app on my phone. I had it configured when I ran HS3/4 but havent figured it out with HA. If anyone has suggestions on how to do this would be great.
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Does your phone read NFC tags without having to unlock it?
no, guess thats design. imagine so someone cant just take you phone and use the tags programmed.
Iāve been through several iterations of this and have landed on one that I really like that works perfectly every time. I had started with āif the internet is out for 5 minutes then toggle the power for 30 seconds and toggle it backā. The problem is that on really long outages I was constantly powering my modem off and on and sometimes that by itself was the problem. What I do now is this:
- Internet goes down for 5 minutes
- Power cycle the modem
- Increment a helper entity that serves as a counter
- Continue doing this 5 times (or 25 minutes of power cycling)
- If still down, at cycle 5, now use 15 minute cycles (the original automation wonāt fire past the helper being 5 cycles)
- If still down after 8 15 minute cycles (2 hours more), switch to 30 minute cycles
- If still down after 4 30 minute cycles (4 hours more), switch to 1 hour cycles until it comes back up
- When it comes up reset the helper back to 0
- At each iteration, including initial off and initial on, create a persistent notification so I am aware of what is going on
- Create recorder entries for every part of this so I can give it to the cable company and say āthis is how long you were downā
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This is interesting. Is this internet reset / counter / notification / recorder automation yaml available somewhere in this forum or on githubā¦?
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