Home Automation - What is gimmicky, versus really useful

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Home Automation - What is gimmicky, versus really useful

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davidcole

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#2773799 7-Sep-2021 17:26

Ge0rge:
SumnerBoy:

Another one I find extremely useful is I get a notification if the garage door has been left open for 10 mins. This has saved me on a number of occasions when we have rushed out the door and forgotten to shut the door. I am now using the Smart NORA integration with NodeRED which lets me add actions to my notifications, so now I get a "The garage door is still open" notification and a little "Close" action at the bottom I can click to instantly close the door.

How are you detecting if the door is open or closed? I have the doors tied in to HA with a Shelly 1 for open / close, but haven't sorted out knowing the state of the door at any one time yet.

Add something with a Reed switch. Else you have to start from a mown
Starte and only use your Shelly to open/close.

I open close mine via my alarm remote (or homekit to alarm). But I have a seperate arduino (d1 mini) with a Reed switch that opens and closes with the door.

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
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SumnerBoy

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#2773807 7-Sep-2021 17:41

Yep exactly that. I have a Wemos D1 with a reed sensor and relay shield. Magnet for the sensor is on the chain so reports closed when the door is fully shut, open otherwise.

The relay then pulses the door opener button on parallel with the wall mounted switch.

Killerkiwi2005

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#2773809 7-Sep-2021 17:42

Under the personally useful....

Heat pump schedules and phone control, no brainer
Electric blanket on a schedule
Office switches every thing off (screens, lights, heating) at 6pm
Turn on office from phone before I get there
Kids wifi turns off overnight, turns off all kids devices power as well overnight
Added a controller to turn on amp when chromecast is playing, off when stopped

Lights, always do the switch not the bulbs, gives you more options for fittings and the switches still work as expected

For accessibility

voice control for everything tv, heat pump, sky, lights etc
Garage door access

chriswiggins

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#2774012 7-Sep-2021 21:46

Couple of things we love with our home assistant setup:

- automatically turn on the heat pumps in the morning if room temps below certain level. Turns off as soon as the house is vacant
- same as above but for at night - the time varies as it gets later and the HRV roof temp changes
- turning lights on at sunset if no one is home
- leaving the bathroom fan running until moisture gets below a certain level or after 10 mins, whichever comes first

Something I’m working on is having home assistant automatically change the colour temperature of our new lights based on what the outside light is doing

Possibilities are endless! Also make sure you spend some time customising lovelace, using a nicely themed and organised dashboard makes a big difference

eonsim

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#2774234 8-Sep-2021 09:15

I've got a little bit set up in HA, with regards to automation.

Combine dumb heaters/dehumidifiers with temperature/humidity sensors in the room and smart plugs.
- Use the generic climate entity or dehumidifier entity and you can link a smart plug controlling the device to a sensor have control it automatically with set temperature ranges.
- Or can script up more complicated rules with extra logic around peoples presence and different temperature ranges using appDameon etc
Have smart lights in key areas turn on dimmed in response to movement at night (ie bathroom, stairs).
Link heating of a Spa, Hot water cylinder or Pool to cheaper energy production either off-peak times, or when excess solar energy is being produced (assuming you have solar).
- Can bump the Spa temperature a bit higher a midday if lots of solar being produce, temp then drops down by time we want to use it in the evening minimises power use.
Link heating control to external temperature
Link heating in bedrooms start or stop with sunrise and sunset

Psilan

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#2774793 8-Sep-2021 19:57

If I could only keep one thing it would be the robot vacuum. It's just the best by far.

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