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
I’m tracking my HVAC filter and rest it’s 90days with an NFC tag
Loosely followed an online how-to to create a tracking chore list using NFC tags for my son’s allowance. Automations to nag him on trash night to gather/take out the trash.
A simple Automation that turns on a fan in the basement when the outside temp is above out AC setting to help distribute cool basement air.
Outside security lights on/off at dusk/dawn
House auto arms/disarms (Alarmo) when everyone leaves or someone arrives (via life 360 integration)
On trash day, after noon if my son scans (NFC) one of the trash cans, the garage door opens to let him in/put them away.
My son gets a notification when he comes home from school if we got mail (aka the mailbox was opened that day)
Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
I’m using HA to track device usage of my kids, and I can give them bonus time if they do something nice or a chore. And, negative time when they misbehave. Perhaps an idea for you?
What are you using to track/control the screentime?
Yeah that’s quite complicated as e.g. Family Link (which we use on their Android devices) doesn’t have an API.
It’s very custom and sometimes buggy, e.g. this morning the xbox sensor suddenly become “On” despite the xbox being turned off. So I’ve also added some custom helpers to be able to decrease/increase the usage for that week if something had gone bonkers.