I’ve been running HA for a while, and it’s been working well; I haven’t had to change much in a few months. That being said, it’s fun to tinker with it, and I’m curious to hear what kind of automations the rest of the community is using. What automations are you most proud of? What are your favorite? What kind of interesting automations have you written?
My personal favorite is an automation that displays the current “apparent” temperature on a Hue bulb. It takes an average of the temperature, humidity, and luminance around my property and uses the average to compute an “apparent” (feels like) temperature. Then it applies a cosine function to the apparent temperature (to approximate how people feel temperature change), uses the resulting value to calculate a level between blue and red in CIELAB (a perceptually uniform color space), converts the results to RGB, and sets the color value of the hue bulb. The result is a bulb that changes color so that the change in color (as perceived by the eye) mirrors how the temperature “feels” outside. Ultimately what that means is that we can look at a small lamp with the hue bulb and say “It feels cold outside; we should put on a coat.” It’s probably overkill, but it was a fun programming exercise. We’ve started saying things like “It’s really blue today, I don’t feel like going out.”
I’d really enjoy reading what kind of interesting automations everyone else has written.
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Washer voltage goes from a high value to a low value, then in 30 minutes (when the cycle will be done) turn an rgb lightbulb in a conspicuous location a hellish magenta. No more funky forgotten loads of laundry. Passes the partner test, too.
It’s the first time I read “partner test” and I like it, I was always bothered by the usual “expression”
To all of you reading this who are interested but don’t have home assistant (yet): I just set a timer for as long as the laundry takes. If I can’t go get it when the timer goes off I will place a “memento” somewhere (for example placing something on the ground in my way where it doesn’t belong) so I remember. The “set lighting to hell until I do it” solution sounds neat too, though. =)
I often use the acronym WAF, Wife Acceptance Factor.
Basically I need to make sure that all household setups can work completely dumb, with the central server having crashed.
So far, so good.
My favorite is a script not a automation exactly. I run it (just before I get up for bed) via dashboard button or voice command and it:
- shuts off most of the lights and any screens around the house
- sets the thermostat to bedtime mode
- waits 5 minutes (time for me to get my stuff and get to bed) then
- turn off the remaining lights outside my bedroom
- Calls my autoremote endpoint
Auto remote then triggers a tasker profile that makes my phone
- turn on DND
- set media volume for sleep music and alarm volume for morning (just in case either has been change during the day)
- set a variable that another tasker automation will see the next time I plug in my phone. At which point it will:
- set my screen brightness below 1%
- turn on sleep tracking
The simplest automations are the best. An hour before I typically get up, if the bedroom is too cold, turn on the heater.
My favorite is turning on the bedroom lights when my alarm goes off :)
I have a motion sensor mounted in front of the cat litter box, which triggers an exhaust fan and sends me a message - 🚨Cat Poo Alert! If you have a cat that eats/requires soft food, YOU KNOW.
The problem with a good running automation is you end up used to them, I forget they’re even there most if the time.
I end up appreciating my once-in-awhile automations more. A couple times a month I need to get up extra early, skip my normal routine and go straight to work. But I’m American, this can’t be done without coffee. The night before I prepare the coffee maker and scan an NFC on the top that turns off the plug and waits for my next alarm, then turns it back on. Once it runs it disables the automation, so I dont accidently burn the house down. Worth a million bucks
In the summer in the northeast US most evenings are cool enough to sleep with just a fan in the window. For the nights that stay too warm past bedtime I scan an NFC on my AC that triggers an automation to shutoff the AC and turn on the window fan at a specified outdoor temp. Saves on electricity and who doesn’t love fresh air??
I end up appreciating my once-in-awhile automations more.
I can definitely understand this. One of my automations monitors a water sensor at the base of my water heater and under the kitchen sink (has leaked before). If it triggers, all my lights in the house turn on, any colored bulbs turn red, and they flash on/off each second. It hasn’t triggered yet (thankfully) except for testing, but the peace of mind is fantastic.
automations
That’s as weird to see as ‘softwares’ and ‘traffics’ and ‘emails’ . I hope you can improve before the end of the school year.
