For Morning Wake-up lights I very much recommend also using the Workday integration/helper. Who wants to be woken up on a Bank Holiday or a Weekend ? Certainly not me 😂
I went a step further and used the next_alarm property on Alexa Media Player and both mine and my wifes mobile app. Now the lights slowly turn on 5 minutes before the next alarm goes off and reaches maximum brightness 5 minutes after. This has been working really well for us - and since we don't set an alarm on holidays, that problem is solved as well.
I have a schedule for the days I work in Google Calendar. I then set up Home Assistant to read that calendar and only kick of my alarm and morning routine X minutes before my work day starts. That way if you have different start times on different days it will adjust automatically.
Hello, I have a suggestion for you. I am writing my message to you from Turkey. Thank you for your explanation and teaching. My suggestion to you is that if you make your explanations in the videos slower, considering the people whose English is not good, we can understand it better. The video moves very fast. Thank you, good luck my friend.
I’m relatively new to HA and I’m trying to figure out how to create modes such as, “vacation/holiday” where thermostats will set to broader temperature ranges, lights on random schedules for security, and more notifications when I’m not present. Likewise, a mode for when I have guests so some automations may be inactive in order to not confuse guests.
Great video as always! The "Trigger ID" tip is powerful and overlooked indeed. I didnt know about it and managed to declutter many automations by clubbing them together into a single one. Much cleaner now! Cheers!
One of my favourite light automations uses all motion sensors together. We have a template sensor to count the number of areas with motion on (count = 1 per room). If you enter a room and the light goes on, it starts a helper/timer for nn minutes. If you stay in the room (motionless) then when the timer expires it checks to see if the area counter >0 If not you must still be in the room, so restart the timer for 30s and keep looping until the area count >0 (you leave the room)
Seems like this would be good to build as a helper and feed it into Occupancy data. Then you'd have a nice universal control to use with other functions too.
oh man! that is so nice to combine the presence triggered lights on and off in a single automation! i've been creating a single automation for each scenario. so much clutter!! i will start tidying up with these technique.
I didn't know about the adaptive lighting. Definitely going to give it a try! Thanks for the tip! I have an automation that turns on the light on a door-sensor trigger. That's even faster than a motion sensor!
I use the sun for turning on my outside lights, but instead of using the elevation, I use when it sets, 15 min after, for the trigger. It's been working well for me. Yaml platform: sun event: sunset offset: "00:15:00" I have a separate automation to turn off the lights, later at night. I use this for my lamp posts, and any lite yard decorations (christmas time)
I am about to setup a similar automation but was leaning toward the Elevation or Dusk/Dawn because I want a consistent light level. Is using sunset + offset just another way to do the same thing or is there an advantage to getting an accurate light level with Elevation or Dusk?
I'm going very well with the sunset and sunrise too. An offset "-00:30:00" works as well. This way I can turn off my night lights half an hour before the sun rises.
@@diedrichgI think it's all the same, but for me, elevation is too complicated, cause I have to get the value at a specific time. For me the easiest way to do this thing is to use sunset and sunrise with an offset between about half an hour, depending on the room I'm setting up.
Yup, I've been running dusk activated light on a 10 minute offset for my south facing house. I've also got a light sensor that'll trigger the lights in the day if the level fall below a certain value (set by hysteresis) and for a duration. This prevents lights blinking on and off on days that are both windy and bright as cloud whip overhead 😂
One issue with the schedule helper IMO is the lack of a good UI to edit it via a dashboard - the default/auto-detected card basically only shows if the schedule is active or not, so to edit it you have to go through settings->entities->helpers , which is not great for non-technical users. And an automation I've just added thanks to the EP1: motion in the corridor + low light level detected -> corridor light on, with different color/brightness level for daytime vs nighttime (AKA don't blind anyone when waking up thirsty in the middle of the night).
Great tips here. I'll definitely be using the Sun's level for my lights now. I had to make adjustments to my current automation when the sunset times changed with the seasons.
I'm going very well with sunset + "00:30:00" offset and sunrise "-00:15:00" offset to control my lights at night. Give it a try, cause you don't need to figure out the elevation at a specific time.
Thanks. I have a total of 4 of your EP1 devices. I have one fully deployed, another in in staging mode. I should have the last 2 deployed by the end of the next month. Really liking them.
Hi! It was a very helpful video, however I would like to ask about a special? case of mine :) I have a big hallway, with a lot of Hue bulbs, and a couple of different motion sensors (a few zigbee, one hue), and also have a few hue switches around the hallway. The automation part look simple based on your video, at least if i can add multiple sensors with the same trigger ID.. So my first question: can I use multiple sensors with shared triggerID, or what is the good way to do it? The sun integration is also okay, I currently using it... Where I get confused, when I want to use my switches... The automation should work itself: if the sun below X, and the lights not turned on, turn on the lights, if one of the sensors triggered... If no motion, 10-20 minutes after turn the lights off... But! If I put one of the switches, and for example increase brightness, then the automation should not turn off my lights, at least not in 10-20 minutes, but for example after an hour, if no motion detected any of the sensors in that second time period. If you can help me design this kind of automation, I would be pleased, and maybe not just me :) Thanks!
I have been using a direct time based automation until now, but switched over to the Schedule based one thanks to this video. Eager to see how well it works. I do have one question though - is there a way to add a "conditional delay" to the Off state so that it checks to see if the TV is still on, and if so, waits 30 min and tries again (looping as needed until the TV is detected as Off)? That way it wont turn the lights on us if my wife and I happen to be up late watching television.
Nice video Lewis, thanks for sharing! Interesting to see someone using sun elevation rather than sun above / below horizon. Glad to hear that you're "in the zone", though as a person of a certain age, my mind instantly wandered off to Mad Max in Thunderdome at that point :)
Ha! With response variables you don’t even need to choose lights, or groups, or even scenes now. I’ve started building my automations to be area based so I all I have to do is add a new light to HA or remove a light and the next time the automation triggers home assistant handles the rest. We have truly enter the realm of smart home.
@@l.h.1545 yep working a video as we speak to show it off. But I’m excited. Rewrote my room presence system. And my text to speech system so going forward when I add media players or motion occupancy sensors my setup just uses them. No having to rename entities. No having to add entities I just added to sensors to automations.
Nice video thanks. Like someone else said, the screen capture does move way too fast though. I’m a fairly experienced HA user and just looking for ideas but I found it a bit difficult to follow. For new users, this would be worse. Thanks for your videos though, much appreciated.
I'm liking this content, of the several Home Assistant creators I've checked out so far, I have found your videos to help me more than the others as I have just installed Home Assistant and I'm trying to fumble my way through the Super-Massive-Rabbit-Hole that is HA. In this video you covered how to use state detection to turn the lights on and off with the same automation. In your example, you used 1x Presence Sensor and 1x Light.. I was able to learn from that and apply it to my kitchen light, with one Method of Presense and 1 collection of Lights. I'm curious how to apply that to my living room where I have two motion detectors, and one lamp I want to control. I don't know how the logic will flow and I'm afraid that I'll end up with some light that constantly flashes on and off. I would like to trigger with motion from Sensor1 OR Sensor2, but to turn it off, how do I make it turn off smartly using Sensor1 OR Sensor2
Hi, I have a Vortex AC (ACFreedom app sees it), but can't find any solution to add to HA. Is there any way to add any device using Python? (I am a Python programmer myself)
Really good video! Picked up a thing or two, what is always nice. Mainly the sun part. I already messed around with it, but was never really getting what I wanted. Will give it a go now with more gained information ;-) One thing I would like to add on your video. With the exception of Adaptive control, and maybe also the presence, as that is room bound, all of the others, also the sun (yes I'll give it a try for it) you can also use for the 'Call Service - switch:turn on / off'. I use now a schedule based automation to trigger my pool pump what is powered by a Shelly Pro 2PM, what is just working fantastic. I've also added a second automation that basically tells the scheduled one to shut down when the manual operation of the pump is triggered. So I'm using a Sonoff TX2C to use one button to turn off or on the automation, and the other button steers the second channel on my Shelly, what is just turning on or off the pump for manual operation (read flushing, cleaning, etc). Quick remark here: the Sonoff is NOT connected to the Shelly, as you only need power, and then you can create automation or scripts depending on the state of your switch, what works fantastic. Anyhow, digressed a bit here, as always, great video, keep them up, they are always very helpful for the new people among us, and even the "veterans", great job!
It looks like they've changed the names and dialogues for setting up the automations in the current HA. Can you confirm this please as it's tricky to follow along in 2024.1
One thing I'm still looking for in HA: Is it somehow possible to group multiple color bulbs and have them change colors and brightness actively. Hue has this names active scenes, so feels like Aurora Borealis for example. I'd still love to have a feature like this.
I get to the point where I am redirected from HA to the Amazon login page to sign in. I enter my details along with the puzzle characters & then submit, everytime I get the error 404: Not Found. Any thoughts on what might be causing this? Thanks
We've been using zones for various automations for a while now, but for some reason in the last few months they haven't been working properly. Companion app on my pixel 6 and wife's s22, both won't update our location until we unlock our phones. All settings are enabled for the app to work in the background, but still zone automations won't work properly as we're already in the house by the time we unlock our phones. Does anyone have any ideas?
Does Home Assistant have a home and away mode? because I'd have some of these automations but I wouldn't want them working if I'm out of the house. I don't want my phone constantly looking up my location tho, I'd rather have a button i press when I leave my house that says "I'm away" and double press to say "I'm home" That way my lights won't come on if I'm staying out of the house for a few days
The problem with HA is it's many options as possibilities, it's ezy the get stuck, and asking for help in the forums isnt any easier, you have to know how to add a question and thats also whery hard to get right, and even then you might not get help, soo if you dont have the time, Dont use HA...
I wished you did something simple like - turn lights on at sunset and off 5 hours later. I need some building blocks with this stuff - thanks for you time. The video is great but it is 747 for me at this time.
I didn't know there was something for adaptive lighting, so I made something similar for myself a while back. Works pretty good, although it is one of my first projects when I started with HA. I also made a wake up lighting + wake up music linked to the alarm on my phone
I wish there was an automation response option of "match state" or something - I have a bunch of automations with "choose - state:on, turn thing on - state:off, turn thing off" and it seems like a thing that should be possible to simplify
Hi Ive used sunset for last 2 or 3 years but some days are darker than others and I dont have a weather station to give me a lux reading. Tried setting up the elevation below 7 and nothing turns on. The state is numeric state trigger too. Anyone else had issues ? Thanks
Best tutorial I've found online but it's a bit quick for someone new starting out. Even pausing and rewinding the video it's a bit too quick to take in the information.
I use our house alarm as a trigger for most of my lighting, as the time we get up changes from day to day and our alarm is always armed at night and when we go out. Using this accommodates for any changes in our schedule and a simple condition for before sunrise or after sunset stops it from coming on during the day.
Great one! The only one I missed is the "rising sun mode" based on the alarm on your mobile phone. I haven't integrated it yet (too much heating stuff has priority), but I am looking forward to it!
I'm trying to create an automation with trigger type "zone" but do not see my person under the list of entities in the automation drop down. Any advice?
I think one important UK specific add here is that automating based on sun elevation is not very reliable because certain days will be spotless blue sky where it will remain relatively bright even until after sunset whereas on a typical gray day where the clouds nearly touch the ground and it feels like dusk all day long it will be dark way before the sunset time. Britain problems I guess 😂
Haha can certainly be a challenge, that's why I mentioned it not being perfect as opposed to a light sensor. You could get fancy and use a template to get the weather from a weather integration and use that to offset the elevation value of the sun depending on if it's sunny, cloudy, raining, etc
@@EverythingSmartHome yup offsetting the elevation based on the weather or illumination certainly could help though I don't trust illuminance sensors much
@@mateuszdrab Take your point. It might be a challenge with an illuminance sensor in where outdoors it's best to place one and then it's guesswork on what is the best trigger illumination value. Trial and error is the only way I guess.
I have been turning my lights on via an automation and in same adding a wait for the detection to clear, then running light off. Is it better to use your option 1 and 2 method as that does look interesting and a new one for me!
I believe you may have missed the most important one of all. For security purposes, turning "OFF" specific lights using a "RANDOM" feature. IE: Turn off a light between 10:30PM and 11:05 randomly each night. This feature is highly recommend for Security as anyone watching the house over time should believe that someone someone is home. I used a system that I would just put in a time frame like 10:30PM and 11:05PM and each night it selected an "OFF" time randomly between the requested times. My neighbors used to go crazy trying to figure out if anyone was home. Great video!
It's definitely a good idea, though I prefer to use "presence simulation" for that exact reason which I covered in a previous video, it does that plus a lot more! Thanks and glad you liked it!
On another topic Lewis, I wonder if you're planning on doing a similar video that uses the new Aqara FP2 sensor. I have a couple of these sensors and it really is quite a shift in thinking with what's possible for automating compared to our traditional PIR sensors and the typical automations based on them.
I'm unfortunately seeing lots and lots of comments about the FP2 giving ghost readings, which I also observed during my review video but seems to be even worse with later firmware. Firmware needs longer to finish cooking in the oven first I think before I can do videos on it
@@EverythingSmartHome no worries. My experience is generally pretty good. However, rather than ghost readings, I get the occasional absence when there is presence. Waving arms about does the trick but the WAF is diminishing every time.
Interesting video. I've only been u using Ha for about 1 year, and I use a blueprint for lights and sensors. What do you think of this instead of the manual ways you have shown?
Have you watched the first templates video I did? What else would you like to see? Templates are difficult to make videos about as there is such a wide range of things you can do
@@EverythingSmartHome just did - great video. I think we can benefit from Vol.2 of this video focusing on templating in notifications - specifically for TTS and App notification/Actions. And maybe at the beginning you can call out 10 most important {{ }} to focus (e.g {{ states }} , {{ state_attr }} etc. Thanks anyway - it was very helpful
Quick question. I saw you've got the Aqara TVOC sensor. Any issues with it stopping responding? I had my original one replaced because it stops daily. New one is better, it only stops once a week.
I’ve tried using the scheduler for various things but always have issues when trying to span across midnight, causing an off and on trigger. Does anyone have any tips to cope with this?
I have an outdoor weather station which gives me the light level outside, this has the advantage in cloudy old England that when the levels drop in the late afternoon (or never get bright enough to do with out lights) in the winter the lights come on. Using light levels in room I found could cause problems as you needed to factor in the fact when the lights come on the light level may exceed your trigger level and you get the lights going on and off. The sun elevation is a good option as a fall back and if you create an input.number helper to store the value makes it easy to adjust as needed. If you have good ideas or recommendations for managing a multi-zone heating system, I would be interested, currently I have the thermostats in HA, but still schedule with the manufacturers app as you can not set the target temps on the schedule helper.
One of the issues I see with many light automations including mine is that they are good at turning on the light when you walk into a dark room. How about when you are already in the room when it gets dark? I guess a better automation would be triggered on entering the room, exiting the room, becoming dark or becoming light. Then the automation would turn on the lights if the room is occupied AND it is dark and it would turn off the lights if the room is unoccupied for a set period of time OR the room is not dark. Why the automation is triggered is not important. Just the condition of the room when it was triggered.
Hi, thanks a lot for this video. I use illuminance sensors for light controls. Just installed your presence sensor lite and the presence works fine, however I find the light sensor rather low compared with others like the aquara ones. Any chance to increase the sensitivity of your presence light sensor for illumination?
Showing how to set up automations actually makes me want to get a HA unlike other videos ❤
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I combine a lot of these for my lights, i have some time schedules for things like wake up that will shut down either with no presence in an area in 10mins or immediately if no presence and the front door is locked. When someone comes home it turns the lights on if the light level is below a certain threshold and the door is unlocked, will still turn off light in rooms on the global 10min presence after that though. And a lot of other combinations of triggers, timers, presence and other sensors. Lights I have found are both the first and the last thing I automate
Does sun elevation work better than going off of sunset/sunrise? I have an automation for blinds closing at sunset and opening at sunrise but run into the problem where they close too early or too late depending on each date.
even though home assistant have so many rich features . We want someone like you to come and show it us in visual level like you did. I had no clue these can be done these are awesome one and every single one is so useful thank you. And since you asked what else we like, I would request a video on how to identify that you or all any one in your family memebers are home . like person.lewsi is home how to achieve that
Great Video! I have several Aqara PIRs, but I've only used them for motion detection. I want to try using their luminance function for some triggers or conditions in my existing automations.
I'm using 2 Philips Hue motion sensors inside + 1 outdoor version and use the outside light level as a condition when presence is detected in the room, the entity for the Philips sensor is called "Current Outdoor Sensor 1 Illuminance illuminance" and the condition is set to < 850 lx. Don't know if a condition is the best way but it works for me.
Be aware that some motion sensors might only update the light level when motion is detected! It is the case with Hue sensors I'm using. I solved it by adding a 0.3s delay to evaluate the light level before the command is sent for the lights to turn on
@@Marquo1 Interesting, I have not noticed this but will keep an eye on it today to check - how are you connecting with the Hue products? I'm using Zigbee directly (no Hue Bridge or phone app) with ZHA via Sonoff 3.0 dongle plus
As someone who just dove it and tried figuring things out, I appreciate you showing the basics such as "Triggered by" and "Choose". Also, the Lights On service was something I was not familiar with and it's so much easier! Thanks!
another great video, only downside is needing so time to rewrite a heap of my lighting automations that "worked" but ive never been completely happy with. keep up the good work. thanks for taking the time to help those of us who need that little push to make it all work smarter
A different version of the Schedule that I quite like is using a Calendar. We flag events we'll be away from our house, like vacations. I then have automations to adjust lighting similar to a home schedule, to switch the thermostat to efficiency settings, to cycle the ceiling fans every day, and the vacuum doesn't run until the day before we get back.
Old school habit I guess! Sometimes/occasionally you will find that "device" doesn't always have all the options listed (especially for newer devices I found) so I always go straight for call service
I have a couple of questions: 1. When using a light sensor, how do you work around the issue that after the lights turn on, it "thinks" that it's bright and turns off the lights? 2. How do you handle a light being triggered by 2 sources: movement and a smart light switch? The switch could be useful when the movement sensor is not detecting you correctly and you "force" the light on. Also, the switch could ensure that the light can be used even if HA is down. Thoughts?
@@EverythingSmartHome so, you only check the light level before turning the light on... Makes sense. I was thinking of a light turning on and off based on the light level only, but that would be weird because it would turn on the lights while no-one is there... 😅
