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I LOVE Home Assistant! Pretty much automated everything in my house. I walk around and the lights turn on with a time-appropriate brightness. They turn off when

I LOVE Home Assistant! Pretty much automated everything in my house. I walk around and the lights turn on with a time-appropriate brightness. They turn off when the room is empty again. I haven't touched a light switch in months. Garden irrigation is automated based on outside temperature and rainfall from my weather station. I get instant picture notifications when someone walks up to my patio or front door, and HA fakes inhabitance by turning on a couple lights randomly inside. My bedroom lights slowly dim up starting 15 minutes before the next alarm on my phone if I'm in bed (great for the winters). I'm notified when I can get free cooling or heating by opening the upstairs windows (calculated based on temperature differentials and HVAC status). I can set my alarm and view the status of all doors/windows/motion/etc. remotely. My thermostat loosens the desired temperature range when the home is empty, and tightens it back up when I return. Bathroom fans turn on when you've been on the toilet for more than a couple minutes, or when humidity spikes due to the shower being on. There's at least a couple hundred other little things I've written automations for, and it's really nice to be able to do whatever YOU specifically want. (I even have an Android tablet mounted on the wall in my bedroom - great for setting things conveniently and it will bring up a camera stream when motion is detected in an area around the home.) Sure the stuff requires some upkeep, but I actively enjoy that. I might have to replace a ZWave multisensor battery every year, or upgrade some configuration when a new version of HA comes out. But I always wanted a smart home I could tailor myself. Everything is local (well except Google Assistant, but that's ancillary). HA is just fantastic, and so is the community. :)

cghendrix 6y ago
Pretty cool! When I own my own home I want to do this. Thanks for the great write up!
ashtonkem 6y ago
How do you detect toilet usage? A motion sensor?
- useful 6y ago
  there are devices you can put on your water meter that passively watch flow by listening to the meter turn
  - ashtonkem 6y ago
    That wouldn't work for two reasons. 1. That would capture all water usage, which is not helpful when you're trying to take specific action based on water usage in a specific room. No point turning on the wrong bathroom's fan, or turning it on when you do laundry. 2. Presumably if you're ventilating the bathroom for odor control, you wish to ventilate it long before the toilet in question is actually consuming water, since it only does that at the end. Ideally if you're trying to turn the fan on during toilet usage, you'd want a way to detect that the toilet is in use long before said toilet is using water. Presumably motion would be sufficient, although I guess one could detect weight on the toilet somehow.
- wakkaflokka 6y ago
  You could probably do it with a sensitive vibration sensor; I know that's what folks do for basic washer & dryers. I imagine the commode shakes a bit when flushing.
jetbooster 6y ago
After doing some HA myself, what are you using for the by-room presence detection?
jordanab 6y ago
Really nice! I'm a satisfied Home Assistant user as well. > I walk around and the lights turn on with a time-appropriate brightness. They turn off when the room is empty again. I haven't touched a light switch in months I have motion sensors in my "transient" areas as well (toilet, garage etc.), but not in the other areas of my house (living, kitchen etc.) How do you prevent the lights from going out again when you're sitting motionless for a couple of minutes or so? Do you use other stuff besides motion sensors, such as computer vision or geofencing for example?

cghendrix 6y ago

Pretty cool! When I own my own home I want to do this. Thanks for the great write up!

ashtonkem 6y ago

How do you detect toilet usage? A motion sensor?

useful 6y ago
there are devices you can put on your water meter that passively watch flow by listening to the meter turn
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  That wouldn't work for two reasons. 1. That would capture all water usage, which is not helpful when you're trying to take specific action based on water usage in a specific room. No point turning on the wrong bathroom's fan, or turning it on when you do laundry. 2. Presumably if you're ventilating the bathroom for odor control, you wish to ventilate it long before the toilet in question is actually consuming water, since it only does that at the end. Ideally if you're trying to turn the fan on during toilet usage, you'd want a way to detect that the toilet is in use long before said toilet is using water. Presumably motion would be sufficient, although I guess one could detect weight on the toilet somehow.
wakkaflokka 6y ago
You could probably do it with a sensitive vibration sensor; I know that's what folks do for basic washer & dryers. I imagine the commode shakes a bit when flushing.

jetbooster 6y ago

After doing some HA myself, what are you using for the by-room presence detection?

jordanab 6y ago

Really nice! I'm a satisfied Home Assistant user as well. > I walk around and the lights turn on with a time-appropriate brightness. They turn off when the room is empty again. I haven't touched a light switch in months I have motion sensors in my "transient" areas as well (toilet, garage etc.), but not in the other areas of my house (living, kitchen etc.) How do you prevent the lights from going out again when you're sitting motionless for a couple of minutes or so? Do you use other stuff besides motion sensors, such as computer vision or geofencing for example?