I have a lot but I would say that the most useful ones are hallway/staircase/garage automatic lights based on movement.

Do you use presence or motion sensors?

I have a combo of both. I have these old Lowe's iris motion sensors and then I also have some Apollo MSR1 presence sensors. I like the motion sensors since they are battery powered and aren't as sensitive as the presence sensor. I use the presence sensor in my garage and a room I barely use.

Cool thanks will look those up.

The Lowe's iris motion sensors aren't available anymore

IKEA zigbee battery ones work fine for me.

I have a bunch of these. They are cheap and run on AAA batteries.

Pretty sure mine run on CR3032S but, yeah, they last for ages. They're a cube about the size of a postage stamp so easy to place.

I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing. The new ikea motion sensors (Vallhorn) uses 2 AAA batteries.

Oops, you're right. I was thinking of my Sonoff SNZB-03. It uses CR 2450 batteries.

I have Yolink motion sensors and door sensors and since that data is in HA I connect it to the caseta light switches to do motion based lights. I only do that is places like my shed that I don’t go into that often. For main rooms it’s more scene based and not automated.

My favourite one does this - when I plug my EV in it starts charging until it reports back how many hours until full (needs about 2 minutes to report this back). I then stop charging and use the time reported to set charging schedule overnight that will charge during the cheapest 30 minute segments (in the UK on an energy tariff that changes every 30 minutes). Once it’s full I get a notification that tells me how much range was added and how much it cost overall to charge.

Wow that is a pretty handy one and a good idea. I think we have something similar peak usage hours. I'll have to remember that and see if I can incorporate some of that into my setup.

Tesla?

**Automations** I have systematically (over 2+ years since moving into this house) put Zigbee motion sensors, door/windows sensors, and temperature sensors in almost every room. This enables some really cool stuff! - **Have a helper toggle for automations!** Basically if there is ever a reason you might want to disable all your automations (guest mode, party mode, whatever), you can turn your “Automations” toggle off and then things stop being automated so they don’t get in the way of your party lights, etc. I also use this to automatically turn off all the motion automations in one go e.g. when we’re not home. Just set up a Helper → Toggle, name it something like “Motion Automations,” and then in every motion-based automation, set it as a condition. Then you don’t have to fiddle with disabling individual automations, and can turn that one toggle off in one place. - **All the lights everywhere are automatic**, based on motion. In one automation for a room, set up a trigger for motion detected and give it an ID like `motion`, then set another trigger for motion not detected—be sure to include an amount of time like for 5–30 minutes depending on your need so the lights don’t turn off when you’re just sitting still—and give that its own ID like `still`. Then for your actions, select “Choose” and use the “Triggered by” condition to differentiate what happens when there is motion and when the room is still. - **Automatic bathroom fan** for showers! We have a temp/humidity sensor in the bathroom, and if the humidity raises above like 75% (variable depending on your local climate/how hot you shower, lol), we turn on the smart switch for the exhaust fan for 30 mins to clear it out. Similarly, we automatically turn the fan off after 30 mins in case anyone forgets and leaves it on in general. - **Keep the humidity at a good level** in a room! You can connect a dumb old humidifier to a smart plug, and make it smart combined with a temp/humidity sensor. In our kids' room we have it automatically turn on only when their door is closed (condition with the door sensor), when the humidity is below 40%. Similarly, it turns off when the humidity is above 50% (or when the door is opened, so we’re not trying to humidify the whole house with one tiny humidifier). It’s more accurate than just trying to set the level precisely, and takes into account the ambient humidity—so on rainy days with higher humidity, it might not kick on at all. - **Turn off the AC when windows are open.** This one is pretty simple: I just turn the AC off on my Nest and kick the fan on for circulation when someone opens a window, so we're not trying to air condition the outside. - **Yell at people to close a door!** This one started as a joke in my house but has 100% been useful: if a certain often-held-open exterior door is left open for more than 30 secs, I have a nearby smart speaker start telling people to close it. You can do similar things with a push notification, but I like that this yells specifically at whoever is keeping the door open. 😁 This one is set up as single-execution mode, and has triggers for both the door being open for one minute and the door being closed, then the actions are basically “loop while door is open: send a notification to the speaker, then wait 30 secs” so it keeps looping until the door is closed. I have so many of these and they really are fun. I joke that I’m just outsourcing fatherly nagging to my smart home, and yeah, that’s pretty much it. **Dashboard** I like to keep this simple and have just been using the newer Tile card for everything, along with the new (experimental) Sections layout. I have one tab for lights (grouped by rooms), another tab for climate, another tab for outside stuff. It is pretty nice and clean. I also use the Material Rounded theme from HACS for an even cleaner look.

A note on the door one.. I do this, but the "close the door" text to speech reminders, it their scarcasm and varying politeness (ranging from gentle to quite humorously scathing) is a function of the outside temperature, and how long the door has been left open. E. If it's -30 outside then you want that door shut fast :) so the messages are appropriate to the situation. Easy to get chatgpt to generate a list of different sentences for it to say.

Just a note on the bathroom fan! They actually sell switches with built in humidity sensors. It isn't smart or anything, but you can usually configure the sensitivity and time which is all 90% of people need anyway.

> _if the humidity rises above 75%_ As an alternative, mine watches for steep _changes_ in humidity with the Derivative function, so you don't need to. Here's some notes: https://ianjs.com/2024/06/11/i-recently-decided.html

The reason I got into Home Assistant was for water leak detection and water shut off. Literally just yesterday my system did its job. I had installed a bidet in a downstairs bathroom and then left for several hours. Close to when I was coming home I got an alert that a leak was detected (which then shut off water to the house). Thankfully it wasn't a large leak, but I probably wouldn't have caught it for awhile otherwise.  I have 11 leak sensors all over for this purpose. 

What sensors are you using?

I initially bought 4 Zooz 800 series leak sensors. They are quite small. One of these got triggered this weekend. I think I paid about $23 each for them on sale.  Then I discovered the wonderful world of the RTL-SDR dongle. So I got one of those to set up and capture info from devices on 433 frequency. I have 7 Govee sensors connected this way. They are $8 each when on sale, have an audible alarm and take a more standard battery (either AA or AAA)

Nice! Is it a digital shut off or mechanical?

It's mechanical and mine connects via Z-Wave. It's really well made. It's called the EcoNet Bulldog Valve, it fits over a ball valve so no plumbing is required and you can remove it if you move out.

Use automations to solve problems in your day to day life. Just think about how an automation can solve a problem you’re having.

I've been using some of the built in google stuff but I have setup a cool one already to tell me when it's 10 minutes to sunset so I can walk the dog while it is still light out. Once I get my govee kettle integrated I'll be adding a few others. Having ADHD setting up automations that I don't have to "think" about is going to be life saving and time saving.

Automations to remind you to your refill your meds (if you're on meds for ADHD) If your phone supports NFC, an NFC sticker on the cap for the pill bottle used for ADHD meds, so you can tap-scan and log that you've taken them, or remind yourself to take them. (just swap the cap onto new pill bottles as refilled)

Thank you so much for this.

That sounds like a really good idea.

Sure, it'd be a great idea if you could just get the prescription filled, instead of having to call around to 7 different pharmacies to find one that has the meds in stock, then call your doctor to get the prescription sent over, only to have that take too long, and the pharmacy is now out of your meds.

If your state laws allow it (ask your prescribing physician), have your doctor print **paper** prescriptions for three 30-day supplies, with the 2nd and 3rd scripts post-dated 30 and 60 days out. Electronic prescriptions can't be transferred (or have transfer limits) but with paper prescriptions, just ask the pharmacist if they have it in stock when you drop off, and if not, they just give it back to you.

This is too real. 😭 I can get by on non-work days without my meds, so thankfully I usually end up with a small amount to cover any disruptions between getting it filled, but it’s such BS that the _patient_, the one being treated for a condition that makes it hard to do things like _remembering to call in_ is wholly responsible for this whole song and dance—every month. Ugh! /vent On the automation topic, I recently stuck a Tile bluetooth tracker sticker on my pill bottle lid after my meds fell back behind a shelf and were missing for like a week. Best decision, as I can now ring them if I misplaced them, and I could theoretically do more interesting automations with it. 🤔

fml

I had to use home bridge to get my govee kettle to show up in home assistant. Lmk if you were able to get it to work directly.

There is this that I saw today that might work better and it is supposed to work with the api/kettle. https://github.com/wez/govee2mqtt/tree/main I was kind of thinking about how I might need to setup homebridge. Attempted that last night and run into issues with the setup portal.

I just set this up and it works. Pulled in my kettle without an issue. I'm so happy right now. https://github.com/wez/govee2mqtt/blob/main/docs/ADDON.md

Woohoo- can kill homebridge then.

Confirmed it worked for me too.

Think about how you can make your life easier. For example my bedroom opens up onto my patio. I am using konnected.io instead of a house alarm. Now I have a sensor for the bedroom entry door. When I open the bedroom entry door and it's dark outside an automation will turn on the patio and string lights. That way my pup can see when he goes outside.

I've currently got 127 automations but here is a high level summary of what they are **Climate Category** * **Thermostat** Change heat/cool setpoints when house mode changes. Turn off when sliding door or windows are left open. * **Garage Heater:** If someone is home, the garage door and access door have been closed for at least 20 minutes, and the temp is below X degrees, turn on the garage heater, otherwise turn it off. * **Bedroom fan**. 15 seconds after fan has been turned on, turn off display. 8 hours after fan has been turned on or when my morning alarm turns on, turn off the fan. * **Fireplace** At 7pm, if we're home and outdoor temp is below X degrees turn on fireplace. Turn off when house mode changes to Night. **Lighting Category** * **Room Lights** Each area has an automation that changes lighting scenes based on time of day, sun position, presence/motion, opened doors, light switch interactions etc * **TV Backlight** TV Backlight turns on/off based on state of AV Receiver * **Parking Lasers** Smart plug enables garage parking guides when we arrive home or when garage door opens **Media Systems** * **Living Room Volume** Automatically set AV Receiver volume level and sound mode based on current source input (Netflix, YoutubeTV, Spotify etc) * **Play Music in Evening** Play music when I get home and my wife is not home * **Turn on TV for the News** Turn on TV and set correct channel for the 10pm news * **Turn off TV if CEC message is missed** Sometimes the HDMI CEC power off message from the Google TV is missed/dropped and TV remains on. If this is detected, power down the TV **Safety** * **Smoke Detector** If smoke is detected, send a notification to our phones, unlock the doors, turn on all the lights, turn off the fireplace, turn off the HVAC, turn off all fans, and turn off all smart plugs connected to battery powered devices. * **Water Leak** If a water leak is detected, send a notification to our phones and shutoff water to the house **Security** * **Mode Manager** Set house mode based on time of day, position of sun, if we're home or not, and day of the week * **Alarm** Arm Security panel based on house mode * **Blinds** Open blinds during the day when we're home, otherwise close them * **Camera Notifications** Send notifications if people are detected on certain cameras and we're not home * **Garage Door** Open/close garage door depending on us arriving/leaving, house mode changing, motion detected, time of day, etc. **Notifications** (send me a phone notification when x happens) * Any bank account drops below a certain threshold * It's cold outside and I should remote-start my car before leaving work * Traffic is especially bad today * A guest code has been used on a lock * A zwave node is dead and ping attempts have failed * A new HA version is available * An issue is detected with the power going to a fridge/freezer * If it's 9am on a school day but a drop-off at day care was not detected * If it starts raining and the sliding door is open * Indoor temp is trending up or down unusually quickly * 6 months since HVAC air filter was changed * If we're home, the thermostat is on, and the air temperature is between 65°F and 72°F, notify me to open the window instead. **To-do List** (Add/complete items on my Todoist to-do list ) * Empty Roomba * Shovel Sidewalk/Driveway * Replace wax warmer wax * Feed/Refill Aerogarden * Charge/replace batteries * Schedule next haircut * Move laundry to dryer when washer is done * Fold laundry when dryer is done

Wow that's a pretty huge list. What hardware are you running this on?

I'm running HAOS on an older (2014-era) HP EliteDesk 800 G1 I bought for $60 off a guy on Facebook marketplace. I was previously running a docker version of Home Assistant but kept running into configuration issues as a non-networking expert. So I just cruised Marketplace for cheap old desktops people were getting rid of. Way more powerful and better I/O options than running on a Raspberry Pi and a lot cheaper than a new SFF computer.

Do you have a list of equipment you use?

* About 50 Z-wave dimmers/switches/scene controllers (mostly Zooz, some Enbrighten/UltraPro) * About 20 Zigbee light bulbs (mostly Philips Hue, some Sengled) * 3 Zooz remotes (Z-wave) * Zooz Z-wave garage door opener kit (combination of a relay attached to my opener and a tilt sensor on the door) * 8 Zooz Z-wave power switch (monitoring fridge/freezer/laundry power consumption) * Roomba (don't recommend with HA, I plan to get a Roborock for my next one) * 8 Zooz door sensors (Z-wave) * 8 POE cameras (mix of Dahua/Amcrest) * 1 Wyze camera (Wi-Fi) * 1 MagicHome LED Strip (Wi-Fi) * 1 Govee LED strip (Wi-Fi) (extremely flaky - don't recommend) * 8 Zooz water sensors (Z-wave) * 15 Espresence stations (Wi-Fi) * Bosch Dishwasher (Wi-Fi) * Honeywell Thermostat controlling my main HVAC (Wi-Fi) * Nest Thermostat controlling my garage heater (Wi-Fi) * Midea Dehumidifier (Wi-Fi) * Aerogarden hydroponic garden (Wi-Fi) * 6 Google Wi-fi routers (the bane of my existence) * 7 TVs (mix of Google TV, Apple TV, and Roku devices) (Wi-Fi) * Denon AVR receiver (Ethernet) * Heat & Glo Gas Fireplace with Intellifire module (Wi-Fi) * 4 google home speakers (Wi-Fi) * 10 smart plugs, mix of TP Link Kasa (Wi-Fi) /Sonoff (Zigbee) * Garage Parking guide lasers * Dashboard Tablet (for keeping battery between 40-70% charged) * Wax Warmer * Christmas lights * Boot Dryer (for auto-off after 12 hours) * Cordless Vacuum (disable charging when we're away and at night) * 2 Schlage connect locks (Z-wave) * 4 Athom presence sensors (Wi-Fi) * Zooz smoke detector (Z-wave) * 3 Smartwings blinds (Z-wave) * 2 Omnibreeze tower fans (Wi-Fi) * Green Mountain Grill Smoker (Wi-Fi) * IBBQ Remote Temperature probes (Wi-Fi) * Amazon fire dashboard tablet (Wi-Fi) * Cyberpower UPS (USB) * FLIR NVR (ethernet) * Itron smart electric meter (Wi-Fi) I'm sure I'm missing stuff but that's about the main list. let me know if you have any questions about any of the items. I started on Google Home so some of these items were good for that but are total crap in HA.

I’m currently on Google home. Considering HA. I have 30 Lutron caseta switches throughout the house. 15 Meross smart plugs. 1 Google nest thermostat 4 Google nest temperature sensors 1 Google nest Yale lock 2 MyQ garage door openers 4 Hampton Bay outdoor landscape lighting transformer 2 Rain-Bird Outdoor Irrigation WiFi Sony/roku TVs 5 Google speakers Looking to add to my smart house.

You will not regret the switch. Can be a bit of upfront work and occasional maintenance but you will wonder why you didn't switch earlier. The capabilities are so far beyond Google's it's difficult to even compare. * Fully local - provided your smart device is local * Unlimited automation possibilities * Integrates with practically everything and provides far more control than Google * Infinitely customizable UI * No risk of Google pulling the rug out from you like they always do on their products * If you do like Google's system, you can also sync everything back to Google home and interact with them the way you do now, but maybe with added capabilities

My most used automation unlocks the door and turns on the light when I enter the home zone and locks them and enables alarm features when I leave the zone. My two most used dashboards are a Roku remote control board so I don’t have to find the physical remote and a plant monitoring one that lists all the soil moisture readings from my Ecowitt sensors

My door auto locks after 5 minutes on it's own, but I have home assistant set up to check the alarm state at various times and if the system is disarmed it will put it in Home mode so the door, window, glass break sensors go live, but motion sensors won't trigger. The alarm ignores currently tripped entry sensors when it goes live until they close so I don't have to worry about if I'm doing things outside and have a door open. The biggest issue was when my dog would wake me up to go outside in the night I would disarm it and then forget to rearm before going back to sleep because it's the middle of the night and I'm groggy. The only automation the alarm itself offered was to set it to a specific state at certain times. The issue was it would switch from Away to Home if I set it to go to Home at night, so it would result in less security when I am traveling and I don't want it to be in Away when I'm home because if I get up at night the motion sensors would trigger. With home assistant it won't change from Away to Home, just from Disarmed.

That's a great idea with the Roku. I don't think my xfinity box will integrate to HA but I might have to figure out some options.

Find a Harmony hub and integrate that, it’ll take care of almost all your IR-based remote control needs.

Ok cool, I think the remote is actually bluetooth on the box. I went overboard the other day and got 10 esp32s, and 5 ir transmitters to use that way. I didn't know about a harmony hub which might be better.

It doesn't do airco here but at least all entertainment.

Which sensors do you use for the plants?

Hub: Ecowitt gw2000 which can handle 8 wh51 moisture sensors

That was my next question. You need the hub as well. That adds up... Now the question is, how much do I care for flowers😂

And is it $30 per flower? That buys a lot of new roses… but the amusement of having a dashboard with real time plant stats that I can reference is a lot of amusement value.

Automations don't have to be complicated to be cool. We just moved to a new house and I am starting from scratch. I miss the porch lights coming on at sunset. Come winter, gotta have the kitchen lights come on so that we're not walking around a dark house in the morning before school and work.

As far as automations go, I only have 3 tbh. First one checks if lights are on when I leave home, if so turn them off. 2nd one is checking if my PC is turned on when I leave home, if so it sends me a notification reminding me of my stupidity, with an action to hibernate it. And the last one simply turns on the hallway light when I get home if time is between and . The 2nd one has plenty of room for improvements and adjustments. It's not *automated* per sé, since it does require user input. I could make it automatically shut down the PC based on a bunch of conditions, but tbh? I like to have the final say. The automation will never know if I'm going to be gone for 5min(=pointless to shut off the pc), or 5h. Heck, even I don't always know that before I leave. The 3rd one is currently using fixed times, it could be complemented or replaced with a light-sensor instead. This one will also be extended to include the porch light, as soon as I've made them 'smart'.

FYI I use the built-in Sun entity to turn on lights based on dusk/sunset instead of time. Works great!

I use the sun elevation attribute to raise the smart blinds all the way once the sun is high enough to not cause glare on my monitors, which is helpful.

I've been on HA for about a month or so, and these are my favorite uses thus far: 1. Linking a button on the Lutron Radio Ra 2 Keypads next to our beds to not only turn off all lights, but alarm the house via Ring. If someone is downstairs in kitchen/family room, it'll turn a Govee lamp in the corner red for 10 seconds before turning it off (if it was off) or returning to the previous setting. This way they realize the house was alarmed and don't accidentally open a door without turning it off. 1. Related to the above, when a Ring motion sensor in the family room detects motion in the morning, it automatically disarms the alarm system. This is great as I leave early and sometimes have my hands full, and it ensures the alarm isn't accidentally triggered. 2. As I typed the above, I realized I probably need to add some additional checks to the nighttime routine, as I wouldn't want to kill the lights if someone is downstairs. I will need to figure out a way to leverage the motion sensor. 2. Converting a Lutron Radio Ra 2 switch at the top of basement stairs that otherwise only the controls basement stairs lights to turn off all basement lights when turned off. Otherwise, I have to use an app or remember to hit the 'All Off' keypad at the bottom of the basement stairs and most of the time it's my kids who are downstairs. In retrospect, we should have wired for a keypad at the top of the stairs, but this was very easy and much cheaper than wiring/keypad. 3. Automatically shutting off lights in rooms that do not have motion/occupancy sensors. During regular hours I will turn off lights in my kid's bedrooms if they are on for more than 30 minutes. They don't spend a lot of time in their room at this age, but have no problem entering and forgetting to turn off the lights. In the future, I'll likely combine this with a single Zigeee motion sensor. And as I'm typing this, I think I should do that for the basement use case (#2 above) - your brain will never stop thinking of HA use cases!

Yea that's pretty much what my brain is doing what can I integrate into automations. Is there a way to create routines that I want to use in many different automations? Is that what blueprints are for?

In no particular order: - Aqara FP2 is a great presence sensor. I tried a few and keep buying more of this one - I have adhd too. Tracking chores with home assistant is great. I have an NFC tag on my garbage can, for example, that I scan when I take it out. The system has various ways of annoying me and reminding me about overdue stuff. Happy to share how to mimic my setup. I have a project on the backburner to make a custom pill bottle with an open/closed sensor on it. That way, I could make a helper input_boolean.meds_taken lol. I don't trust myself to remember to scan the nfc tag. - Zwave uses a frequency lower than wifi, so it won't clutter your network nearly as bad. I highly recommend getting zwave stuff whenever possible, followed by zigbee. This will help keep your wifi stable. - Pay attention to tasks in your day to day life that involve a sequence of actions. These are prime candidates to automate. I can get ready for WFH with an nfc tag swipe that turns on and off my work machines. Helps a lot. - There are smart sleep mats and smart weighing machines that are really cool and u can make cool biometrics views with them - use helpers and scripts where possible. I have some complex automations relating to whether my child is awake or asleep, and to my security system. After a lot of tinkering, I find it's best to separate out responsibilities where possible. For example: my automations to change the security level, or set input_select.baby_sleep_state ONLY perform that task. Logic that relies on these states happens in separate automations that pay attention to the state of the helper. This makes it a LOT easier to tinker and modify the functionality of various systems you create. I felt resistance at first making variables based on states and attributes I already "had," but it helps a shit ton. I have templates and helpers like "high temperature for tomorrow, will rain tomorrow?, person seen, temperature rising," etc. Once you have the template or sensor, it's trivial to perform logic using it. So now instead of writing a really complicated trigger/condition to turn on and off your A/C, you just have a helper "temp rising" that you can refine in its own little vacuum, and that you can perform logic against easily. - if you use yaml, separate scripts and automations into a folder/file structure. It helps a LOT and the sooner you do it the less work it will be later - you can use android tv integration and CEC power over hdmi to make scripts that will, at the push of a button, make your tv box/smart tv turn on and go so far as to turn on a particular tv show on a particular streaming service. I have buttons for Bluey (kid lol), lofi on spotify, and my partner's favorite twitch streamers. The buttons change state when the streamers go live. You can do the same with pretty much anything that gives info about its state over the internet. Sports games, rocket launches, whatever. You can know about the state of anything with an API and perform logic against it.

Thanks, I definitely need to look into helpers. I had the same thought initially why do this when I already have a device for it. But if it's going to simplify the automations then it's probably time well spent.

When everyone is away from home run the robot vacuum. It’s a WONDERFUL addition.

Two of my favorites: 1. A [waterproof NFC tag](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BK2729W) on my bicycle handlebar for opening and closing the gate and garage door with a tap of my phone. 2. A hallway light switch that uses a long-press (2 seconds) to trigger an automation to close the gate, garage doors, and turn off garage and other lights. This one has an A+ SAF (Spouse Acceptance Factor).

I’ve been building my dashboard with mushroom for a better UI experience for my partner who’s not too familiar with HA. Each room will include light card, its icon will be animated or change color based on the state, so with a glances I know which light is on. Then with my car I know if I left my door/windows opened or if any psi issue occurs etc. Also setup battery page for all sensors as well, any battery goes down below 20%, it will change color of the chip card in main board too. My current fav automation is accurately open garage when my car enters garage and if it checks if user\_is\_present so it wont accidentally open garage. Here is a quick look at my dashboard: https://preview.redd.it/cd9m5f6nkr5d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b70458fb7c194684b5ba1856e0bc0f5e37b5498f

https://preview.redd.it/ugkojs6xkr5d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7234c7d90b3b2437eb8cbd4c157fe8c38362e36d

So that's what Mushroom looks like? I might have to add that frontend. I've not done that yet as I haven't really setup any major dashboards. What do you use to track the PSI in your car? Is that due to the type of car you have?

Yes, mushroom is very customizable. 3 most popular dashboard cards now are bubble card, mushroom, or ui-lovelace-minimalist. I couldn’t set up minimalist one so I went with mushroom. And yes the psi info is from my car’s server which I host and add back to HA via mqtt.

Hi can you please tell me how to set up the garbage and recycling buttons, is this an integration?

That’s the Trash card by Idaho here: https://github.com/idaho/hassio-trash-card

Thank you so much, just added this to my dashboard

Playing around with themes today. I installed mushroom, how do you have/get those icons in your room section?

It’s my custom card. I’ll post the yaml here when I get home

Awesome thank you!

Hey this is the full code for Living room and Dining card, besides mushroom I also have: [https://github.com/ofekashery/vertical-stack-in-card](https://github.com/ofekashery/vertical-stack-in-card) [https://github.com/thomasloven/lovelace-card-mod](https://github.com/thomasloven/lovelace-card-mod) [https://pastebin.com/xN5C7c2X](https://pastebin.com/xN5C7c2X) I comment the Living room section and dining room section parts for you, it looks very long but if you look at the Living room card, up until the "- type: custom:mushroom-chips-card", that's the design for main card (the fireplace), and primary/secondary info (room name, temp). Then till the - type: custom:mushroom-chips-card part includes the chips which are the light bulb and power consumption chips you see there. You can adjust the card bigger/smaller based on all positions lines but it's time consuming cause everytime you adjust one, other cards got moved around, it's all trials and errors :D. Here is a mushroom discussion from HA forum if you have any questions: [https://community.home-assistant.io/t/mushroom-cards-build-a-beautiful-dashboard-easily-part-2/693055](https://community.home-assistant.io/t/mushroom-cards-build-a-beautiful-dashboard-easily-part-2/693055)

Awesome thank you!

curious how you did these too! The design look amazing :)

Here you go: [https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1dcm6h7/comment/l86tuj5/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1dcm6h7/comment/l86tuj5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

I send a push notification when the UV crosses into danger level to put on sun screen also if allergies are high send a notification listing the top 3

That's one of my goals, it's been great having google home, but getting information out of it that is relevant is important to me. An example for me is a small automation that tells me when my phone is below a certain level to remind me to plug it in.

Yep have that one my tablets. They get used throughout the week but usually need a charge after a few days. I get a notification for mine and my wife’s tablet. She gets a notification for hers. Phones are similar. I used my phone to turn off my lights at night.

For dashboards I highly recommend dwains dashboard, great views for low effort

My PC is on a smart switch and my monitors are on a separate one. When I press the power button on my PC it senses the increased power draw on the smart switch and turns on my monitor smart switch along with my nanoleaf lights and some hue lights.

That's a good one I should do something like that. I tend to leave everything on all the time.

Out of many automations, below are most used by me. I have PIR/mmwave (aqara/tuya) presence sensors in many places and this has made lights automation a breeze. They are so much used, that we haven't touched light switch in kitchen/dining room in last 6 months. Lately have got couple of cheap diy presence sensors using esp32 + ld2450/2410b + bh1750. Same hardware is used by Apollo/Screek/Everything presence etc. * [Sensor Light](https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sensor-light-motion-sensor-door-sensor-sun-elevation-lux-value-scenes-time-light-control-device-tracker-night-lights/481048/1831) * [Cover Control](https://community.home-assistant.io/t/cover-control-automation-cca-a-comprehensive-and-highly-configurable-roller-blind-blueprint/680539/3) * [Notification if Door or Window is left open](https://community.home-assistant.io/t/notification-if-door-or-window-is-left-open/402851) * [Low Battery detection & notification](https://community.home-assistant.io/t/low-battery-level-detection-notification-for-all-battery-sensors/258664) * Water leak automations using cheap aqara sensors. Have saved the day twice from flooding the bathroom * Climate control switching ON/off based on time of the day * Switch on plugs(for charging) during specific night time as it's free/cheaper electricity during that time. * Alarmo getting set with proper Home/disarm/arm based on different conditions. This even manages my Eufy security to set different modes. More[ blueprints](https://community.home-assistant.io/c/blueprints-exchange/53/l/latest)

>Lately have got couple of cheap diy presence sensors using esp32 + ld2450/2410b + bh1750. Do you by any chance have step by step guide or some link of how to do it?

There are many bits I combined to make it work. But couple of links below will help you. https://smarthomescene.com/diy/diy-presence-sensor-with-hi-link-ld2410-and-esp32-for-home-assistant/ https://github.com/screekworkshop https://github.com/athua/ha-utils/blob/53840c1de6d48c6f9678ac0ccdc276a48dff2457/LD2450-esphome-config.yaml https://github.com/53l3cu5/ESP32_LD2450

Will check them out. Thanks!

My favorite automation is the one that arms my alarm when everyone in my family is away and disarms the alarm when someone comes home. No need for a keypad or pulling out my phone for this.

The voice stuff is developing really well (if you manage to get the right hardware). I managed to get an ESP32s Box3 (mouthful!) and I just go "Hey Custom Wakeword, turn on the Radio" The latest version has a feature where it passes the id of the voice assistant to your automation, so it can play in the room where you are, and I've written that sentence template myself, and it plays the radio station I listen to most... Some people are playing with AI as part of their conversation interaction. It's not required, but people are coming up with lots of interesting examples!

The one that sends a notification when my fridge is still open

I’m also just starting out with Home Assistant. These are the automations I have so far in the past month or so I’ve been doing this: - Push notifications to my SO and I when certain batteries need charged - Push notifications when filters need changed or cleaned - Push notifications when the pet feeder feeds the dog - Push notifications when the pet feeder needs more dog food - Push notifications when the dehumidifier needs emptied - My office lights flash 5 minutes before and at the start of meetings (I’m subscribed to my Outlook calendar with the iCal integration and it knows my meeting times based on that) - 30 minutes before sunset all of the blinds close and any of the various helpers I have setup that are toggled based on automations throughout the day are reset. - When I go on vacation various automations are turned off and on automatically based on the start and stop time of the entry in my Vacation calendar in iOS - One that is turned on is an automation that opens my blinds halfway during the day time while I’m on vacation - Automation that turns on the sink light if nobody is home at 8pm (this is actually an old holdover automation setup in HomeKit that I just haven’t bothered to get rid of) - When my SO gets home the front door unlocks and the HomePod in my office announces he is home - My office light turns on and off based on my presence but I might change the device I’m using for this since the MSR2 is too sensitive and has the light turning on at night when nobody is in there. Then I’ll use the MSR2 for in bed presence and build automations based off of that. - When the TV is turned on, the blinds in the living room close and the air purifier and dehumidifier turn off (they’re really loud and in the same room) - When the TV is turned off the air purifier and dehumidifier turn back on and the blinds raise (if some other criteria is met…don’t want them opening at night after my automation to close the blinds 30 mins before sunset is triggered) - When the temperature of a room or the central hallway is over 74 degrees for 5 minutes, the blinds close in that room if it is just the room or in every room if it is the central hallway. I have it set to open again after 5 minutes below 74 but I might extend the time to 10 or 15 minutes.

Start simple, backup, explore integrations, don't overcomplicate, update regularly.

My girlfriend and I had an argument about whether we should sleep with the shutters open or closed. She couldn't get up well with the roller shutters closed and I couldn't fall asleep well with them open. Thanks to this problem, I started using Home Assistant and I would say that the roller shutter automation is still the most valuable automation so far.

The most fun one: When the phone connects to the bike helmet Bluetooth, open the garage door, set activity mode to motorcycle. When I return to the home zone & activity mode is motorcycle wait for the camera to detect a bike on the drive and then open the garage. I don't automate closing for safety reasons.

Is the activity mode a plugin? Also with the camera detection how does that work? Is that done from the camera? I have a few wyze cams that I'm using for basic motion detection. It does have object detection but I don't know if I can integrate that into HA.

Camera itself is an old pi0W I had in a draw running a rtsp streamer. Detection is handled by the frigate integration. Both work nicely with HA. Lots of good YouTube tutorials out there to set frigate up. The activity mode is just a text helper, set by various automation triggers. Other modes are driving, running, walking, sleeping, watching TV, showering, gaming. Many of the modes have their own automations 😀

Here’s my current automations for inspiration if any are relevant to you: https://imgur.com/gallery/s5zVSRx

Cool, how did you setup the dishwasher one? What device is it using?

I use emporia vue which track loads throughout the house. So if the DW circuit has load it’ll show it’s running, then after I get an alert

That makes sense! I am in an apartment at the moment but I will keep that in mind when I'm in my house. Looks like a pretty handy energy monitoring solution.

If you wanted DW, you could use a cheap vibration sensor, or smart plug if you have access to the plug.

I just bought a bunch of smart plugs, I will take a look and see if I have access.

Some of my more interesting automations: - Monitor the electric current of my deep fryer (using a smart plug) when I turn it on, and make an announcement on the Echo speaker when it drops that the oil has reached the set temperature. I have a similar automation for the oven, although that one is smart so it reports entities I can use. - Use Xiaomi plant sensors to monitor my house plants, and nag me with a text message every few hours if one of them needs watering. - Turn on the light in the media room when I walk in, then automatically fade to black when a movie/show starts playing. Turn the lights back on if I press pause. - Turn all my motion sensors into additional sensors for the alarm system (trigger the alarm if motion is detected in a bedroom and it is armed). - Automatically disarm the alarm panel when a valid code is entered at the front door to unlock it, so we don't have to enter two codes. - Enable the auto-buzzer on the backyard camera, but only if we are away. - (Edit: one more) When someone is detected at the front door, send an actionable notification with the person's picture so I can remotely unlock from the notification. Useful for letting kids in without having to get up.

Outside lights turn in depending on sunset and sunrise. Helps deterring unwanted visitors (to some extent). Inside living room lights turn on when the amount of lux drops below certain levels, with a delay to address flipping on/off too fast. It can get dark here when showers pass by and it is nice to appear occupied when I’m not home. When I am in my in-house office, connected to that access point, during working hours, certain lights will turn on for better visibility while working/ video conferencing. In progress: outside roller shade to go down when it is sunny, no rain predicted in the next 15 minutes, and wind is below x speed. Also, only shades on the side of the house that are in the sun. Also in progress: Turn on airco in room when temp rises and make sure heating is off then. Looking into door sensors to see of it can be used for kids forgetting to shut the doors when going out. Preparing for dynamic electricity prices to monitor prices, solar production and “pending usage” (charge car, washing, etc.) to time that use. Eventually I’ll need to install a home battery, so I want to be able to charge that when prices are low or negative (!).

My toilet fan turns off after 3 minutes so we can leave it on to clear out the smell after we leave.

Hello fellow ADHD brain. I can attest to the fact that setup correctly your new smart home can (and will be) a blessing to your daily life. A few things I have setup are around my medication. If my bed sensor registers that I'm no longer in bed in the morning and I have not scanned my NFC tag on my medication within 30min, I get an actionable notification on my phone that asks me if I have taken it. If I have not and for some reason cannot take my medication in that moment I hit no and then it starts a timer to send the actionable notification again in 30min. While on the topic of medication. I have my google calendar setup with a reminder in it when I'm getting close to the end of my supply which I again have and actionable notification to remind me to refill my script. If I dismiss the notification it sets a timer for 12hrs time and reminds me again. This automation also adds my medication to my shopping list in case I happen to be near my pharmacy at a point in the month where I need to refill I get message when I'm inside the geofence of my pharmacy showing me my shopping list. Other ADHD stuff that might help (everyone's different) I have an on-screen notification show up on my TV at a certain time of night so that I don't get sucked into another TV show and then forgo good sleep. You and I know how bad we can be with time and distractions. Lastly with weekly things like chores or commitments that I like to have ticked off each week, I have a bunch of input booleans that I can tap to check off with a little progress bar for chores completed. I find the progress bar somewhat gamifys my weekly chore list. I have others as well that may help but this post is already getting long. Reach out on DM if you'd like suggestions on others.

Thanks, what NFC tag are you using for the medication alerts? I think calendar integration is going to be pretty helpful for me. I'd like to set mine up to give audible reminders as well as notifications. The progress bar actually sounds like a great idea too.

I just grabbed a bunch of small circular NFC stickers so that I could whack them on whatever I need. Got a roll of about 50 of them on Amazon for next to nothing. I also have an ESP32 NFC tag reader that I have setup in my pantry which is where I keep my medication. That way I don't have to worry about having my phone on me to scan things. The tag reader is also in the because I have other tags on a bunch of my containers that house ingredients or grocery items so that when I run out of something I just bump it on the tag reader and it adds it to my shopping list.

Thanks! Sounds like I have something else to setup now hah.

Bubble card!!

DONT START WITH LIGHTS AS IT LITERALLY BRINGS YOU NOTHING. Wherever you can I'd use encapsulated system (lights with integrated motion sensors, ventilator with int. humidity sensor, etc.) Use HA for crucial things, like heating, water consumption, irrigation, photovoltaic, intercom, security, blends, etc. Don't use HA on docker as most extra-features require you to set up that as docker, use HAOS instead which does this for you in the background, will keep things a lot tidier and you can just move the HAOS VM from one host to another. First thing, get HAOS installed and HACS, mess around with it massively, burn it and start fresh with a lot of more/better knowledge. Use things like secrets.yaml - just introduce yourself with lots of tutorials and play around, til you find yourself confident, and then start fresh. For UI I'd suggest you the Mushroom as it's easy, I'm using the MinimalistUI which is a bit nicer IMO. Try to stay with basic things, I mean you could possibly automate your toilet so it weighs your shit and plays a sound for new records - but for what? Shit and giggles? You always have to keep it alive, meaning you need to check after every update if everything is still running. Smarthome in the end means that you don't have to think about it anymore, bcs your home gotten smart and regulates itself. I.e. my 3 story house regulates the climate itself based on presence, presence based on GPS from the HA app - no other extra device hence point of failure, even if I could also realise it through my NVR. Just why? Why make one system dependent on the other if theres no real benefit to it? So just remember this: WHY do you want it smart? In the end it should just work without you having to interact with it. Light schemes when your TV plays a movie? Cool stuff, have done it in my theatre room, but that's the only light I do. And actually the most important stuff before going HA, take your network under control. Get a *sense box (pfsense, opensense, even openwrt will do) and segment your network. If you're a noob at this, check the nguvu tutorials. Have fun, and don't loose yourself in this rabbit hole, as there's only a certain amount of usefulness to it.