10 VERY Practical Home Automation Ideas! 

If you want to see how I set everything up, here’s the video on my second channel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3Oh5H6IFKj8.html I use a few different smart home platforms and there’s a TON of information, so I hope it helps! Happy New Year 🎉

To stop waiting for warm water, I bought a hot water recirculating pump, plugged it into a smart plug, and set up a rule for the motion sensor under my bed that when it senses motion (my feet either getting out of bed or walking past the bedroom into the bathroom) then it turns on the pump for 5 minutes to get hot water through all the pipes in the house. It has been my favorite automation that I have. No more waiting for hot water.

In terms of privacy, it's actually better for the blinds to default to the opposite direction, and even better, the light bounces onto the ceiling, which increases the ambient lighting over all, and it also means people cannot actually see anything since the default angle of view is the ceiling where it would be an anomaly of Physics for anyone to occupy a ceiling.

I'm just impressed with how clean your house is with kids.

A really handy automation I use is using a humidity sensor in the ensuite. If my lights are on in the bedroom, I usually like them on dim when waking up or going to bed, but bright if I'm getting dressed. Rather than using a time of day setting (which wouldn't take into account days off), I have my lights set so that if they get switched on (or are already on), and the ensuite humidity is above a certain level, the assumption can be made that I've just had a shower, and want bright lights in the bedroom so I can get dressed.

Instead of/in addition to using your garage door to suppress your pickup notification, you can also integrate your Tesla into your smart home. The Home Assistant Tesla Custom component pulls in virtually all data available to you in the Tesla app into your Smart Home including if the car is driving, parked, charging, battery state and most recently also navigation target. The latter is especially powerful for automations regarding leaving or returning home.

I set up automations to turn on the Christmas tree when someone arrives, turn off when everyone leaves, and turn on before we wake and off late at night. My wife kept thinking the tree is never turning off and wasting power since she literally never sees it off. It’s great!

I’ve been trying to use HA’s built in calendar to trigger or disable automation for when my kids have school (or not). Things like whether their alarm goes off and countdowns for bus arrival. I must be doing something wrong with how I use the calendar functionality so if you’re up for doing some automations with that, I’d definitely love to see them and learn from you! Keep up the great work!

This is the first video on home automations I've seen where each automation idea is actually practical. Super great vid! Thanks for making this.

I have an automation pretty much exactly like your garage lights! I have it set up in NodeRED with an additional condition in line with turning off the lights. This checks if the light was manually turned on at the wall switch. If it was, the light does not turn off automatically. I have this setup for a few of the lights in my home because it is nice for when the turn on conditions fail and for visitors who may not realize the lights are automated.

Your bathroom automation for the blinds is brilliant. Love it!

I just put some opaque vinyl covering over the bathroom windows. It lets lots of beautifully diffused light in but you can't see anything. It was cheap to do too. I put the same in on the strip of window next to my front door too.

Great stuff, these are the sorts of automations that a true SMART home rather than just an AUTOMATED home should have. The out-take reminded me of the visual joke about opening up the fridge to see if the light remains on 😂 It also reminds us to think about potential unintended consequences when we write our automations.

I use humidity sensors in my bathrooms to turn on the fan like others mentioned. I believe it's good to let the fan run a little longer anyways to remove any excess moisture still in there. But I do like the whole setting routines to play music and such.

Again. Amazing outros. With this one i especially sympathize. Thats how i always know that i need to rethink the automation. Making an SO proofed automation is one of the hardest things ever. But, it usually is the most natural way to run the automations.

Thank you for making a video on how you did all of this. I was about to ask for one when I saw you had it in the description

I absolutely love the little skits at the end of your videos!

Welcome back Reed.. was waiting! Hope your family is well!

I recommend the Aqara FP1 presence sensors. They make automating turning OFF lights so much easier.

I have my HA (using node-red) do a "perimeter check" every night at 8:00 pm. My Echo devices announce the state of each door and gate. If they are open or unlocked they are closed and/or locked (where possible). Front door (rarely used) has a dead bolt indicator to show that the door is closed/locked -- I converted a door/window sensor to detect the dead bolt position. The patio and driveway doors have Kwikset locks and are locked automatically if left unlocked. The driveway gate opener closes the gate if it is left open. The other gate is manually closed and locked and its lock status and position are monitored and announced. Garage door position is announced and if left open the echo will ask if I'd like to close it. As you stated, this automation is the one that makes using HA feel as though it provides value and not just entertainment.

More great stuff. I actually do a few of these and I'll share my subtle differences if you're interested. But Reed, I have one you really need because I know how much you like listening to music. I have one that watches my phone for activity. If my phone is in use (ringing or I start an outgoing call) then it checks if the phone is in my office via Room Assistant. If it is, then it pauses any media that is playing, my tv or music on Alexa. When the phone goes back into standby, then the media resumes. It's definitely one of my favorite automations to date. So, I use similar automations to turn on lights in my Garage, Office and Shop. But I take it 1 step further. The timer is set shorter for 5 minutes so that if someone is just passing through, the lights don't stay on long. However, if the timer is reset 3 times consecutively, it goes into long stay mode and changes the timer to 30 minutes. That way, if I'm watching Smart Home Solver on my computer while just kicked back in my chair the lights won't turn off because I'm not moving! I like what you did there with the Tesla reminder. Mine is just an annoying repeat once an hour after 9pm if the car is home and under a certain range and not plugged in. The entering garage thing is great cause that way your already there when you get it!! Keep up the great ideas. Now that I have lots of sensors and devices to control, new automations have become one of the favorite parts of my smart home for me. You always have the best out of the box ideas.

I love your automation videos!

Hi, a lot of nice and fun automations as always. Howerver, I can see one obvious automation you didn't setup yet and it's a shame because it would save a lot of water: a hot water circulating pump (sorry if I don't the proper English term for that). Basically, you get a pump that will circulate your hot water in a closed loop so you will get instant hot water when you get into the shower. I decided to automate that myself: When someone gets into one of our bathrooms and turns on the ceiling vent, it willl turn on that pump. Turning off the vent will turn off the pump. Saving roughly 10gal per day with that!

Amazing. I need to redo my bathroom and planning on automating it as much as possible. How did you do the hot water green lights thing.

You ever thought about using a leak sensor to run automations for when someone is using the shower? I put an aqara leak sensor to trigger Alexa to ask me if I want her to play music. 100% wife approval

Those colored lights in the bathroom is a brilliant idea! I don't have led strips but I'm going to screw in RGB lamps right now!

I always loved what Casey Neistat did with the front door to his office, putting a video camera where the peephole is and mounting a flat panel TV/monitor next to the door and he get's an almost life-size view of who is there. That system is on as long as he's in the office. I would add, and maybe Casey has with this system. a method to record for review after I got back.

I *really* like that multi colored tree and bear shirt!! I so need that shirt!

I love you're videos always new idea to add in my house

I love these. I didn't know about the timer in HA, I'll have to check that out. For the ending skit, the third time Aly checked, she should have been like all of our wives and manually turned the switch off, lol. But then again you probably also have a smart switch so that wouldn't really be a problem.

My favorite new automation last year was to start a 10min timer when the Zooz switch controlling the Hue downlight over my shower is turned on. At 10min, the Hue light turns red and Al Green plays on my Sonos. I also had to set it so when I turn the switch on, it's reset to white every time, and I had to put a condition in that says only play music if the light is on because accidently hitting the switch on and off again was still triggering the Sonos 10min later. Now I'm going to include my Hunter Douglas motorized blinds in that automation, thank you.

Haha I do have many interests, I chose to share my train knowledge on RU-vid but I love your channel because your just a nerd as me. I really like how a smart home can be used to safe energy.

Happy new year!! Love your channel, from Brazil ❤️❤️🇧🇷

This is great! Do you happen to already have a video on how to get and set up the main hub apps you use I’d really like to use some of these ideas in my house but It seems like you use a bunch of different systems a walk through or video on how you set up the basics like smart things or your other hubs would be great I mainly now use Alexa but I’d like to expand with these other options, thanks again :D

Thanks for your videos, love watching them. Can you let me know the brand of blinds in your bathroom? I’m looking to change my old blinds, just received the SwitchBot Blind Tilt yesterday and want to set them up. Thanks.

I like what you did. Some of these are things I wouldn't have thought of doing.

Peep the Lectric XP in the garage! I got the 3.0 a few weeks and I love it!

The blind automation for the window is amazing!!! Do you know of any good ones for shutters?? I need

awesome work - keep it up..

I have a lutron motion sensor light switch in my garage, so it turns on as soon as you step in. Works perfect so I don't need a bunch of stuff working together to do the same thing lol. I have the same switch going into the laundry room because I got tired of the wife and kid leaving it on. My switches do my Dad role of turning off some of the lights in the house.

Curious whether you measure your water temp to know when it's hot, or just use a fixed time.

It's all amazing! Can I ask you how you check the temperature of the shower? Do you just have a timer that alerts you after a minute or do you check the temperature in some way?

I have the same garage automation but with only 1 motion sensor since it's positioned in a good spot. But I also have buttons that will do the following. Gym mode (because I have a home gym) will disable garage door open status alarm because in the summer i like to have 1 of the doors open. Disable alarm open notification for door going from house to garage (since I'm right in front of it and i don't need that extra notification). Then a button called bedtime mode will shut off all lights early in the house and check the garage door status (notify me if one is open otherwise no notification). And if i don't use the button my Google assistant will also notify me after 10:00pm via notification and voice if a garage door was left open.

I would love a follow-up video to this a little bit down the road talking honestly about how reliable all of these automations worked and how you fixed some of them and how some of them might still be broken or unreliable or annoying so you stop using them I find when I set things up like this it works for a week and then everything goes haywire and I have just turning everything off

Okay, you need to produce a book laying out step by step. I love the bathroom automation. I could use that today. And the garage lights automation, I have family members who refuse to turn off the lights!

Love it!

Great video as always!

Can you create automations like when Virtual Door opens then stop reminding me to clean up the trash on homekit? I’ve just started using home assistant and WOW it was like heavens gate opening! Thank you Reed for the amazing videos and helping us with the automations.

I have a temperature sensor attached to the piping to the shower head in my walls (since I have access from my attic) to detect when the water is hot and it automatically turns on the exhaust fan. When the lights in the bathroom go off, the exhaust fan automatically turns off after 20min, or 1hr after coming on.

The temperature sensor with lights is amazing

this house is amazing

Gracias por tus vídeos, ¿Qué modelo de garage led indicator es? enlace de amazon por favor.

From Corolla to Model Y Performance 🤯 That Odyssey is also 🔥

I love the bloopers at the end

Thanks Reed.

We solved the “are we really away?” problem differently. We also have a Ring alarm and an Echo Flex next to the door. Alexa is set up to run a HA script when we tell her goodbye that announces that the alarm will be set and starts a (silent!) countdown timer before the alarm is turned on. This gets around needing the doors closed to turn on the alarm, which was a pain when we were setting the alarm manually. We use the Ring armed away state to trigger our away mode. I really like the idea of the notification, so my task for the weekend is to configure one to fire if nobody is home and the alarm isn’t set. Now if only I could check that I remembered to lock the front door!

I use a humidity sensor in the bathroom. When the humidity reaches a certain amount, it runs my shower routine. (Increased music volume, closed blinds, ventilation)

How did you set up the notification for away routine?

Out of curiosity do you know if it’s better to connect Aqara devices directly to home assistant with the zigbee stick or to integrate it with HomeKit controller? I’m switching over from HomeKit to HA + HomeKit and was wondering best set up.

Thank you

@SmartHomeSolver How do you start that shower lights timer thing? Is it manual, or do you have something which detects the shower has turned on?

Hello Reed. I just want to wish you and your family a Happy and Prosperous 2023. Thank you for making these fun and inspiring videos for the world to see. 🥰🏡

Reed, what platform do you have your Ring door sensors connected through to trigger automations? Are they still connected to your Ring Alarm as well?

Door knock chaos is nothing w/ little ones. Get a dog and ramp that chaos up to 11!

weirdly enough, of all the things shown in your home, I was curious what kind of garage lights you are using, those things are fantastic! Bright and crispy white! LED of some sort?

I wonder if you could use the vibration sensor to automatically turn the lights on as soon as someone knocks? P.S. thank you for all the incredible info you put out for us fellow smart home builders!

I've set up an Apple Home-based smart home. Recently, I bought 2 Echo Dot speakers and their automation is pretty advanced, especially just telling a speaker to announce something. Asking Siri to say something specific in a particular automation, is like something out of Mission Impossible.

Hello. Few questions if u don’t mind. I’m looking for a battery powered/operated bulb socket to recreate the same on 8:28. Have few projects in mind but I’m kind of lost with these.

@4:39 I've not fully integrated my voice assistant yet in my HA build, but would it be possible to upon detecting no one is home use your voice assistant of choice to make an announcement to the effect of "no one home, beginning away mode in 30 seconds" and have an option to respond to the VA saying that I'm here (clearly my phone is dead or broken so I won't be using my phone to turn off away mode).

How did u get synchronism with Motion Detector and response to turn on the lights? My PIRs Motion Sensors are to lazy... Please help me.. Cheers from Brazil

You and Linus are on a mission to make your houses unsellable via technology. LOL

very smart whit the time reset.

Hi do you use Node-Red or HA automations for the RGB in the bathroom ? If Node-Red would you be willing to share the flow ?

My Wyze contact sensor stopped working and I had it for my closet door to turn the light on and off. So the Ring contact sensors don’t need to trigger the alarm? They can work with regular routines? I know you need the hub but I’ve been looking to replace my Wyze ones since they don’t make them anymore.

The shower idea is one I am going to use

Dude. your response to your remark of your wife its a brilliant add to the video ! :)) lovely end . keep up the good work

How would the sensor know whether you walk into the garage or leave the garage? Like the door sensor trigger light on when enter but how about when u leave the garage?

I have a question. Does home assistant work well or at all with the Aeotec smart home hub?

whats the trigger for the first shower-lightstrip-green automation? some kind of moisture sensor?

how are you pairing your aqara motion sensors into HA? Sonoff or conbee 2?

Hey man, can you post some screenshots of how you set all of this up on HASS?

Will the blind thing work without a wand? Mine has 2 strings instead and I’ve been wanting to automate them for ages 🤔

The end bit is like the fridge door. 😄

Hi. I love this videos but I have one question. For alexa don't need to be pay in the app to work?? From I heared this from one friend.

Is there such a thing as a Smart temperature monitor so you could monitor for the temp of your shower before getting in? Timer works but if you could actually get the temp of the water coming out of the shower head that would be perfect!

8:47 love this one!

Hey Reed! I was wondering what sensor you use on your mattress? A friend of mine wants to use one to keep an eye on his elderly relative (to make sure he got into bed okay), but all I can find on Google are complex DIY solutions.

How do you know when the door is open? What sensors do you use for that?

You manually turn off the fan in your bathroom? I don't have home automation (other than a smart thermostat), but both my bathroom fans are on a timer so they can continue to clear the air after I'm done.

I have some automated lights and such that were installed several years ago. I haven't gone further with home automation because every couple of months, the system(s) disconnect from the hub or network and have to be reset/reinstalled. How often does this happen to you? Is there a way to avoid this? I'm not willing to have to reinstall/reconnect dozens of devices (which aren't easy to begin with) every couple of months due to a bug up its butt causing disconnections. Thoughts? Currently, I only use the manufacturer's and Amazon's applications for setup and activation/control. I don't use the Home Automation software you do.

Happy New Year, will you guys be out at CES again this year?

Quote of the year Sane person: Reed: “I don’t need no clock”

What door garage sensors do you use to turn on the lights?

You could also install a ReadyTemp TL4000n system that would optimize your hot water lifestyle and eliminate the wasted time spent waiting for hot water. ReadyTemp satisfies both routine and non-routine occupant lifestyles. Offering both on-demand and scheduled operations. Additional benefit of not having a thermostatic valve is that you won't get scolded while showering, which is a sign that the thermostatic valve is at its end of life (2 years@$60+).

Please do a similar video showing how home automation can be used for home security.

Hahaha your videos are hilarious 😂 1:33 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Hey Reed Congratulations on the new baby! I too will have a 3rd baby. I see you have a Tesla how do you fit 3 car seats? What is your secondary car? Any tips? 9:38

set the “automated dinner music” to play the “lofi beats to relax/study to” livestream by lofi girl. it’s so relaxing.

3:17 "Aly's Table - no smart home devices" LOLOL i imagine this to be my life if I ever get married

You should place a smart button by the front door going from the garage into the house, that way you can simply click the button to turn the lights off when leaving the garage.