I should have done this YEARS Ago - Using Variables in Automations 

Thank you for this video! Awesome! Keep them coming!

Very cool 👍 I've used the time helper to set light on and off times, but this is potentially extremely useful for some new parts of my application of the system. Thank you!

Wow. I'm using a handful of sensors - motion, time, daylight, and prescence detection. This was amazingly informative. Thanks, I subscribed.

Thanks Stu, Happy New Year

Another variation/enhancement in your “getting a drink while watching television” would be to add an automation to set the brightness value based on the television being on, or something like an Apple TV or Plex running. You might want “nighttime” to be at midnight onwards but activate a lower brightness from 9pm onwards if the television is being used. The possibilities are endless. Thanks for the video. Great ideas to make things smarter. Cheers :-)

I very much appreciate your video. For me, as a foreigner (writing from Italy) is a valuable thing your way to speak calm and clear, so easy to understand even without the need for captions. And, moreover, you explain in a perfect clear way the topic that I was looking for. I was looking for a way to use variables in my HA automation, as I'm used to do as a former sw engineer with many languages. Now I understand that I need to use "helpers" and some kind of yaml scripting in order to read and write helpers. You didn't cover the boolean variables (maybe the "toggle" helper?) topic in your video, I'll try to make some attempt by myself This is the problem that I'm trying to solve. There is a big wardrobe where I put a zigbee light and a zigbee pushbutton. The pushbutton generates three events: short push, long push, double push. A first automation toggles the light on trigger from the short push. A second automation turns off the light after 2 mins on trigger from the light on event. I would like to turn on a boolean variable on the long push, and use it as a condition to select between a short delay (2 mins) and a long one (10 mins). And I would like to turn on another boolean variable on the double push, and use it as a condition to inhibit the light auto-off. Thanks a lot for your video.

Great video. Excellent examples for very practical use. I'm attempting to get my head around templating and some more advanced features as I am attempting to understand how I can provide some of the administration-type functionality to a normal user. Eg: Allow a user to add/remove lights & switches to a group that can then be used for night lights that come on at sunset. I'll get there but it's challenging. Separation of User and Administrator type settings is a subject I am attempting to get a balance on.

Very helpful. Thank you. I setup an 'alert' for when my schlage deadbolt is jammed. Some lights go red. I wanted to turn those lights off only when the door is locked after being jammed. I was able to set a variable and check that variable before turning lights off.

Great video, thanks! Subscribed :)

Great video, thanks

Really powerful feature !

Today I learnt that you can use trigger id’s to combine two queries and two actions in the same automation. You could redo your kitchen brightness daytime and nighttime into one single automation.

Does anybody know how to use a input_number value as the 'below' field in a light level condition?

A lot of empty black and very small text. I's not easy to read. Remember alsmost none have such a big screen. And a very small cursor/pointer. Look to it on a 14 inch screen (e.g. at 11:16)! I'ts easier to follow if you change these things!!