I just started my journey and can’t believe I lived without smart light switches, and am looking into installing automatic blinds to make life easy.
What do you guys consider must have devices and automations that you can’t see yourself living without, and that everyone should have?
I’m still getting started with going full geek on my house, but for now I’ve got a set of automations to shift power loads to discount times on my electricity tariff (Cosy Octopus, so there’s a discount in from 2am to 5am, and 1pm to 4pm, and a peak from 4pm to 7pm).
My partner’s mobility scooter will charge in the discount times, and turn itself off outside that - it only needs a couple hours to charge to full, and rarely needs more than a charge a day (and if it does, there’s an override button on the smart switch, or it can be turned on manually in home assistant). Same for another couple circuits in the garage used for camping battery, power tools, etc - if they need a charge, just slap them on there and check them the next day.
Heating (from the heat pump) boosts by a degree or two in the afternoon dip, and turns down a degree below normal in the evening peak (which is what that tariff is designed for).
Once the solar/battery is working (first inverter installed was dead on arrival, so waiting for a warranty replacement), the battery will be in “charge only” mode for the afternoon dip, and we’ll use it to ride out all the other loads for the peak. Possibly night set some extra up to let it charge from the grid if it’s too low towards the end of the dip, but I’m going to see whether that ends up necessary first.
In principle just doing that (without counting the input from the solar) should save us about 20% on our electricity bill compared to the previous flat rate, assuming we can shift most of the power use from the peak into the dip. Which I will inevitably spend on more gadgets, resulting in effectively no actual saving!
My partner’s favourite is a simple button I added to the HA dashboard which turns the bedroom lights on or off with a long (5 minute) transition, giving her a gentler fade when going to sleep, or a less binding wake up in the morning when they come on.
Next step is probably some motion/presence sensors, and some automations to set appropriate light behaviours. Then maybe some smart curtains/blinds. And digging in to the voice assistant abilities of home assistant (probably once it’s moved to a more powerful machine than the pi it’s currently sat on, for that and other plans which need a little more power).