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) .
I’ll split this list into two parts:
- Automations everyone in the family likes
- Automations I like
Automations everyone in the family likes
- All lights on with one button press
- 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.
- Heating system visualization
- I created a schematic of our heat pump and air heat exchanger that colors the active portions and shows temperatures, fan speeds, and power usage. My wife regularly checks it to see that everything is working. [Heat pump with dynamic colors and lables using picture elements card - #12 by dbs]
Automations I like (but which others ignore)
- House fan optimized for kitchen fan
- 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.
3 Likes
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.
Some personal favorites:
- 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.
5 Likes
This is one is pretty handy.