What are your favorite automations?
What are your favorite automations?
I figured we could all share some of the cooler things we've done to get the conversation moving in here.
Here are some of the automations I'm proud of and get the most use out of.
Blinds and Lighting
- Open and close the blinds (Ikea Fyrtur) according to the light levels outside
- If a window is open, the blind will only close to 50%, but it will close automatically after the window is closed
- Turn all lights off when the blinds are opened, and turn lights on in occupied rooms when the blinds are closed
- Automatically close the blinds in the bedroom and bathroom when the shower is on. Open them after we leave the master suite.
Websites
- (Selenium) Auto login to Amazon to check on the status of my Kindle daily reading streak and notify me if I forget to read. We must keep the streak intact!
- Auto categorize new transactions in YouNeedABudget and mark them as approved, as well as pull my net worth into Home Assistant
- Get my most-listened to tracks and artists from Last.FM and pull those into Home Assistant
- Notify me if there are documents in my Paperless-NGx server that need to be categorized and filed
Reminders
- When I walk in the door, announce any outstanding Todoist tasks marked with the @alert label so I know to do it before I sit down. Examples are to change the furnace filter or Venmo my friend for Youtube TV
- I run OCR on the camera feed from my garage camera to determine whether the bins are in the garage. The bins say Trash and Recycling on top, so I look for those words in the image. If they are in the garage in the evening before trash day, I receive an alert
Media and Torrenting
- Notify me and display a badge in Home Assistant when there is a pending request in Overseerr
- (Selenium) Log into my favorite private torrent tracker website from Node-RED to check whether I need to take any actions
HVAC
- Preheat or pre-cool the house prior to peak electricity pricing going into effect. During peak hours, auto adjust the thermostat to prevent it from running
- Turn the thermostat off if there are windows open. Automatically restore previous setting (cool or heat) when all windows are closed.
- Turn the bathroom fan on after the shower is turned off and no one is around. Turn it off after 80 minutes or the humidity in the bathroom is within 10% of the humidity in the bedroom, whichever comes first.
Misc
- Node-RED monitors the status of my UPSes for my servers. If the battery drops below 50% while the power is out, it initiates graceful shutdowns of my Synology and other servers
- Auto sort the Home Assistant grocery list upon adding a new item
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A few automations are running in my house:
- Turned the nightstand light into a wake-up light, which distinguishes between weekdays and weekends,
- Kitchen light turns on and off based on sunset and midnight with random offset respectively,
- Garbage collection notifications,
- Introduced an extra (wireless) light switch in the hallway, which controls a Shelly connected to the light. The original light switch is still intact, however it is positioned at an unconvenient location.
In the coming period I want to:
- Automate the shutters and combine that with a light sensor.
- Introduce a routine that starts the washing machine and/or drying during the day based on the amount of incoming solar power. Not sure yet how to do this, since the washing machine has a physical start button via touch.
IDK if taking the machine apart is an option, but I once integrated a machine with touch switches with an arduino by probing the board with an oscilloscope and finding the signal that was triggered when it was pressed. It wasn't as involved as it sounds.
I like that this method integrates everything in the machine itself. Not sure if I'm confident opening the machine myself, but I will definitely keep this option in mind. Thanks!
How does your wake-up light behavior change on weekdays versus weekends?
For your washing machine and dryer, could Switchbot be a good fit?
How does your wake-up light behavior change on weekdays versus weekends?
The current automation works via Node-RED, where a function will check the current day. If that day is saturday or sunday, the wake-up light will not be enabled. The automation is documented here.
For your washing machine and dryer, could Switchbot be a good fit?
Thank you for the tip! The buttons are touch switches, so maybe wrapping the Switchbot's probe in something conductive might work?
That's awesome -- thanks for the documentation! I really like how your website is set up as well.
It looks like at least one person has modified the Switchbot to work with capacitive touch buttons.
Not my website, but I'll let the owner know!
It looks like at least one person has modified the Switchbot to work with capacitive touch buttons.
That looks promising. I will check it out and possibly post here when it's working.
I now have my washer and dryer plugged into smart outlets. I have an automation on each that is triggered by the power consumption of the outlet going over 100W for 5 minutes, then delaying until power consumption drops below 5W for 15 seconds. It then fires a notification to come move the laundry from the washer into the dryer; or to remove the clothes from the dryer.
No modifications to the appliances were needed.