5 Home Assistant Built-In Integrations You Probably Should be Using

This week we are going to talk about 5 of my favorite integrations when automating the boring stuff. Not super exciting stuff, but 100% useful.
These 5 gems can make your life easier when writing automations and scripts bu making triggers easier, doing math for you, and even adding some of that all important context that allows your smart home to act...well...smart.
So if you are in the Smart Home game and using Home Assistant, stick around and hopefully there will be at least one on this list that you are not using today.
Find the configuration pieces talked about in this video at github.com/thejeffreystone/Sl...
#homeassistant
Video Chapters:
00:00 - 5 Home Assistant Built-In Integrations You Probably Should be Using - Intro
01:18 - Using the Times of Day Sensor in Home Assistant
03:34 - Set up the Workday Sensor in Home Assistant
05:17 - Better time based automation trigger Input Datetime helper
07:48 - Use History Stats sensor to track sensors over time
09:54 - All purposed Utility Meter Integration ads super powers to history stats
Who am I?
My Name is Jeff. I am an DIY-er and Automator of boring things. And, of course, a huge Home Assistant fan. Oh, I also live in a house that tweets.
Follow Me:
Github - github.com/thejeffreystone
Twitter - / thejeffreystone / / slackerlabs
On the Web - slacker-labs.com/
And if you like this video you could always fuel my automation habit -
One Time Donation:
Paypal: www.paypal.com/paypalme/Slack...
Cash App: $slackerlabs
Buy me a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/icE6DeBut
Buy a Slacker Labs T-shirt: slacker-labs.com/shop
Or use my Amazon affiliate link which provides a small commission on things you buy without additional cost to you - www.amazon.com/s/ref=as_li_ss...
Video Gear:
Canon m50: amzn.to/3ftldPH
Desk Mic: amzn.to/3wkum40
Camera Mic: amzn.to/3tXk1cp
Newer 660: amzn.to/3fwwejd
Dazzne D50: amzn.to/3oGBK5y
Audio Interface: amzn.to/3u07chK
Gimble: amzn.to/3ouKAoe
Music - Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Video Assets - LenoFx: i.refs.cc/CJXU6Da9?smile_ref=e...

[@SlackerLabs]

Which of the built-in integrations you think are critical to your smart home?

[@BeardedTinker]

Great video Jeff!! My list is very similar to ones you mentioned here - except ToD - have it only in 1-2 places...

[@rickb06]

In my humble opinion, HACS is the most important component of Home Assistant, even though it isn't built in. HACS makes Home Assistant useable, especially if you mostly have non-officially supported add-ons

[@tatarus33]

Very nice video! I really like your hightlighted texts at 8:07 . It makes it very easy to follow your speech as it forces me to focus the correct text passage for your current information. At 8:51 you did not create those hightlights. I am not sure if they would clutter the view in that example, but I think creating simular highlights like at 8:07 could help me here aswell to force my focus at the right passage. Escpecially when the page is just a wall of text. Really didn't know about these integrations but some of these are excatly what I need, so big thanks again :)

[@Chaphasilor]

I actually went one step further with the datetime input helper and connected it to the next_alarm sensor of the companion app (Android). This way I don't have to update my alarm/wake-up time in Home Assistant, but I just set the alarm on my phone as usual and HA automatically uses it. It works with recurring alarms (weekdays, weekends), but also with one-off alarms where I have to get up earlier than usual the next day! It's super useful, you should give it a shot!

[@SlackerLabs]

Ok, this is an amazing idea!

[@PatrickBulteel]

Wow. If I only looked at all the things the HA app on Android provided. I've seen and used some, but this is a great idea. In fact, I think MOST things in HA and the HA app aren't used by people because they don't know those options are there! I only just found out there's a mold sensor you can create - and it's been there a long time. All of this is just brilliant!

[@pepoweb]

1000% WAF bonus points!

[@myr3434]

I’m a recent subscriber and so happy I added your channel to my home assistant watch list. I’ve seen 3 videos including this one so far and every one has me running to my install to fix inefficiencies or achieve what I actually wanted in the first place. Appreciate your creativity and willingness to share.

[@KaidoKurrikoff]

Jeff, I really like your way of thinking, especially what concerns building the various automations or components for the automations. Thanks a lot for the ideas (time of day and weekday!) and I am looking forward to the future uploads!

[@makeitworktech]

This is a great video Jeff! More of these integration/add-on videos would be great! That is such a good idea to create a config page for your helpers. I'll be setting that up for sure

[@kreene1987]

I rely on an input_select for the home "mode", which cycles between Home, Away, Vacation, Hold, Party, Bedtime, Morning, etc. This is the condition for a TON of my automations and when the mode changes (via NR flow) it is the trigger for a bunch more automations (which call scripts). I have found it alongside the alarm to be the most versatile for controlling the home as we do different things at different times each day/week/month/year.

[@SlackerLabs]

I have been using an mqtt sensor for the mode. But I should make that an input select.

[@robjeeves]

Bro your channel rocks. Just went through all my automations and replaced the hard-coded times with helpers. So awesome, a small change, a big result in flexibility and maintenance. Love your work, greetings from Australia ❤

[@osborne82]

just found your channel, brilliant video been using home assistant for few years but didn't know about these sensors you've opened up loads of ideas many thanks

[@hishammohamed4268]

One of your best videos. Thanks.

[@PaulMeredith]

Some really useful addition there, thanks for sharing !!

[@frogeye22]

I'm pleased you showed the alternative uses of the 'utility meter' function, I had been wondering if that might work

[@Beardofy]

I started using input datetime after seeing it in use on one of your previous videos. It's made editing times for triggers so much easier. I also have a "test time" that I can use for any testing and debugging. Before, I would have to open the automation or script and edit the time, save, reload... rinse and repeat. Now I just change the input. Using a template to update input datetime is something I might try now.

[@hajunkie5820]

Great video the Power meter will help me simplify my weather data and irrigation calculations. Thank you for the tips!

[@CrankyCoder]

Time of day I haven't messed with. Thanks for showing that!

[@rodneysmith1750]

Wow, what a plethora of information. I am quite new to Home Assistant and looking forward to getting setup and geeking out!!

[@syndromeramo]

Great video. All of these tips will make automations much more flexible.

[@bdanuw]

Awesome video. Still at nucleus level but defo something I will need to look at soon... Certainly gives ideas for the near future. Thank you

[@Cra1gst]

just about to migrate and redo home assistant server and found your channel , going to rename and tidy everything so much good info !

The workday integation is something I did not know about, but its seems super useful!

[@andrewlhoover]

Nice simple ideas. Earned my sub.

[@uSlackr]

Thanks for this. Been trying to track how often and long our sump and humidifier run based on the power sensor I have on them. Sounds like the history and utility meter are what I'm looking for

[@tony113000]

Nice one centurion - Thanks

[@adyjoy]

He's a Pirate! Great video 😁

[@JoseBerruezo]

Great tips!

[@garysteo3398]

Great information thank you

[@ralphort7445]

Very helpful. Thx.

[@hamadalmarri2141]

That’s cool . You just revealed the power of HA. Thanks

[@rslbrg]

Every time I watch one of your videos...I end up with a list of things to update/recode/enhance. Excuse me while I go sling some yaml!

[@loovanloon3884]

This a very very helpful land useful video. You are teaching stuff instead of showing how-to’s.

[@CarlosRuiz-nx3vm]

Great video.

[@markheatherington8367]

Really helpful, that SL

[@Weeem]

I come from long time use of Tasker on android and I think the first 2 integrations would work better with the Google calendar integration. Admittedly, the time of day Sunrise/Sunset is nifty as it's a contently changing variable depending on current geolocation and date, but all the other options could be tracked by a shared calendar. e.g. Halfway through Tuesday and someone visits with a newborn. The babe has been restless, but the parent finally gets them down for a nap. Anyone with access to the shared calendar can make a quick edit or entry of "Quiet Time" and it'll automatically be detected by HA on the next calendar refresh. It would work especially well with voice integrations. For the Workday sensor - I used to work 12hr shifts days and nights and was the reason I first started using Tasker. Having a day and night routine following a calendar makes more sense, esp. when it's a wildly different time that each phone profile (ringer volume etc) needed to be scheduled to happen and in a pattern which exceeds 7 days. In the example of the shifts I used to do, it was a pattern of days and nights which repeated it's cycle every 28 days.

[@yorks_atheist3069]

thanks Utility Meter maybe just what I need have solar on my now want to trigger stuff to make the most of it

[@dartfrogdk]

You are a great and professional YT i like your videos, could you explain to me how i would use a helper, in time patern mode

[@SlackerLabs]

I’m not sure you can in time pattern. You can’t use the value of the platform of trigger is time and then for at: you can just put the entity id of the helper. For time pattern you might be able to use something like a input number. You would have to use a value_template: and the the template like {{ states(‘input_number.test’)}} or you might be able to use a slider the same way. If you are trying to do something like set the time pattern to /5 for every five mins I can work up an example.

[@bagorolin]

If you just use before and after sunset conditions without offset, you can also simply use the sun state like below_horizon :)

[@lwizinski]

Hey Jeff, thanks for talking about the workday sensor. I've got that in my configuration and even tweaked for holidays (I get Good Fridays off but not Columbus/Indigenous People's Day or Veterans Day). What I'd like though is a workday offset, so I could say if tomorrow isn't a workday, don't turn off the Roku at 9pm (for example). Would I make a separate workday_offset sensor, or how do I do an offset? Many thanks!

[@wasper17]

I do this by adding a "Holiday" on my Google calendar, then setting a condition in the automation to check for it.

[@sammywonks404]

I know that you need to be a little technical to make use of these features, but if you could dumb it down so lesser tech savvy folks can as well benefit from such videos. Like for example, where do you put the piece of code you shared in tod? etc

[@SlackerLabs]

So the answer will depend on how you have home assistant setup. But you can just put them in your configuration.yaml under the binary_sensor: section let this: github.com/thejeffreystone/homeassistant-config/blob/0c41d616de021e8e32e8b6cabeb00a6d282bf562/config/configuration.yaml#L66 But if you already have your binary_sensor: mapped to a different YAML file you will need to put them there.

[@seanfaherty]

If you connect your house to some third party server just so you can turn your lights off with your phone know that there are better ways. Home automation with using an intranet and a vpn give you the same functionality without giving up your data .

[@SlackerLabs]

Yep. Thats what makes Home Assistant great. You can keep everything local if you want, and nothing has to leave your local network. But for those that want to leverage services outside their homes it can do that too. Complete choose your own smart home adventure.

[@felixgarcia7878]

Hi Jeff, I have taken a few ideas from this video. Thanks a lot! It would be ideal if you add some of the code to copy/paste as template.

[@SlackerLabs]

I hope to have a new method of doing these types of videos soon where I posted the code in a easier to understand format.

[@felixgarcia7878]

@@SlackerLabs Thanks Jefff, It is understandable and your explanations clear. It is just because of the lazy to write people like me… 😜

[@cryingapple2336]

This is awesome - thanks! I also love your shirt! Where did you get it? I went through all links on the video. Edit: Found it - link in your bio. Thanks again! Can't wait to get the shirt and try out some of these sensors.

[@SlackerLabs]

That is one I made...or at least found a on demand t-shirt that could make it. I apologize, I moved some link around and broke it appears. I have added it to all me recent videos. But here it is - slacker-labs.com/shop/

[@xenoliving3951]

Made me think it would be useful to combine with location data to let me know if I haven't left my house enough in a day/week.

[@SlackerLabs]

Oh man, I dont think I want to see the results of that sensor in my house...

[@cjramseyer]

these are good suggestions, but I would like to offer another option to time of day and things like sleep and morning. It sounds like, in your house, much like mine, depending on what is going on the time that morning starts, or "sleep" starts might change. I have something similar but instead of changing the time, I use a time range (so it can't start before or must end by), but don't actually start 'morning' until a trigger aoccurs between those times. For example, in our house, morning effectively starts in the kitchen making coffee. So the House Mode (Morning, Day, Afternoon, etc.) gets set to morning on a trigger, but not before 7am. This way, I don't need to modify times at all, but I have a limiter to prevent it from starting to early which triggers other 'morning' related automations like turning on certain lights while the sun is coming up, etc. I do the same thing for sleep. Sleep can start as early as 10pm (if we all go to bed early) and will go until 7am. However, in case anyone is still up (because sleep will make sure lights left on get turned off), sleep has to be triggered when someone hits the 'sleep' trigger, or turns off certain lights manually. I am certainly not being critical of how you have things setup, as everyone's needs or desires are different. I am merely offering a thought which might reduce any need to add things that create modifiers. Great video

[@SlackerLabs]

I like that idea. I need to figure a good trigger for that.

[@EsotericArctos]

I noticed you had night and day sensors. Is this needed or could you just use if night is off for day time? Just thinking of that as sunrise to sunset shouldn't usually overlap. I am just curious on a use case for having them as separate sensors :)

[@vetsus3518]

What!? WHAT!? What in the actual… wha? Ok… I use 2 out of 5 of these… but…. Wow! This is life changing! Question though… for workday… let’s say you have… a vacation day? Or week? How could that factor into the work week? Because I’ve been using input booleans to define my work days for the week. Every week they reset… so… any way you can add them in? Or I suppose that’s in the docs… if you know of a way not listed in the docs I’d love to hear it. Keep up the good work. I gotta really bring up my knowledge. BTW.. previous to this… the video on packages COMPLETELY changed how I have my everything running!

[@SlackerLabs]

If I was going to add vacation days I would use the google calendar integration for tracking those. That way you could just put it on the calendar, and the a binary sensor would turn on and you could use that as a condition in any work day specific alarms. Less work if you already use a google calendar to put your vacation days...

[@ebaystars]

In thailand where labour is cheap I got a maid from Myanmar. personally as a system's engineer I cant see how to use a lot of home automation, it seems overkill with dad controlling the kids univers like little automatoms - apart from sensor monitoring and security. main problem for me I have a large 5 acre area where I live so integration is probably going to be difficult (I got proxmox ve and fibre everywhere at PoE nodes etc) and I dont want to use any Radio to control most devices, lan instead, so I guess I am going to have to install sensors and controls where the mains power boards are onto the cables, (which makes sense to me) and my home network too has to be air gapped (physically isolated) so absolutly no hackers can ever enter it.with me physically plugging in switch cables when I want s/w updates, ..hmmm

[@TristynRusselo]

My work schedule is based on a 14 day work week, so for me, i used the google calendar integration, put my work schedule on google calendar, created a calendar entity that looks for "{my name} work" on the selected calendar. my automations have a conditon template that looks for if i work that day. {{ ((as_timestamp(states.calendar.my_work.attributes.start_time) - as_timestamp(now())) < 43200) and ((as_timestamp(states.calendar.my_work.attributes.start_time) - as_timestamp(now())) > 0) }}

[@db869]

I want to track the brightness of a dimmable lamp and create line graphs showing the history of the brightness. Is history stats the thing to use to create this data? Or do I need to use something else? If this will do it, what do I use for start, end, and duration? The documentation says these are optional variables, but HA won't work without them. I'm confused! Thanks for any help pointing me in the right direction!

[@paulot88]

Is it possible to use the position of the sun instead of an offset based on time in the TOD? Like sun below 2 degrees

[@eclecticlife]

Great video. Do you have an example of a binary sensor for a date period? For instance a binary sensor called 'Summer' that is true/on between July 21st and October 21st. Or a binary sensor called Christmas Season that is true between December 1st and December 25th? Thanks again for your great videos.

[@SlackerLabs]

I apologize for not replying sooner. I dont really have a binary sensor for those. I think in both of those cases I would use an input boolean and an automation that on those initial dates would turn on. Then turn off as needed. For Christmas I actually have a countdown that could be used as a season sensor. I took it from kzbin.info/www/bejne/q52llpycnbx1rrs

[@TheITSquad]

Hi, Can you please make a video, How to integrate Hubitat with Home Assistant?

[@migo040]

Dude you gotta get node red

[@EthanTripp320]

Just started HA a few weeks ago - would like to integrate the tod and calendar automation you went over, but I don’t have a binary_sensors folder or the .yaml files within that you had. Can I just add those manually? Or is that a feature of HA that’s been sunset since the time of this video? Thanks!!

[@SlackerLabs]

Yep. Just add them. You will need to put a directive in your configuration.yaml that tells ha it’s there. binary_sensor: !include_dir_merge_list binary_sensors But then when HA restarts it will look in that folder

[@wolffair1119]

Hi can you show your configuration final structure, when I go to my config folder on my HA there is a configuration.yaml but no binary_sensors folder. I am sure I can make one and then the calendar.yaml but how do you include that back into the configuraton.yaml or HA?

[@SlackerLabs]

Let me put something together. I’ve decided to do these differently going forward and demo them on a clean home assistant instance and then version the config so it’s just what we talked about in the video. To make it easier to grab this stuff.

[@SlackerLabs]

Ok, try this. I added the code talked about in this video to its own repo. Tried to add notes. But it has the binary_sensors,yaml and the sensors.yaml and notes in the configuration.yaml on how you connect them. github.com/thejeffreystone/SlackerLabVideoExamples/tree/main/2021-10-5_Home_Assistant_Integrations_Youre_Not_Using Let me know if it helps.

[@DjBoomBoX]

Hi Jeff, another fantastic video 🙂 can you (or one of you who read that) for workday sensor, tell me how i can see the holiday list that is include by default for Canada, Quebec (CA,QC) easily ? i think a saw a way by python but i am not a programmer so, is there another way ? Thank you 🙂

[@SlackerLabs]

I am not aware of another way. It's not super readable, but you can see the names of the holidays in the python file. github.com/dr-prodigy/python-holidays/blob/master/holidays/countries/canada.py You just have the scroll though it.

[@DjBoomBoX]

@@SlackerLabs thank you Jeff this is perfect for me because I can see them with the way you explain 😊

[@Adam-to2gt]

When I try and copy and paste the script I'm getting this error: Message malformed: extra keys not allowed @ data[‘repeat’] Any idea why? I'm literally copying and pasting it word for word.

[@SlackerLabs]

Not seeing how it looks in your file my guess is has to do with indention. Yaml is particular that way. Make sure the - repeat is indented

[@jamesgrabatin5520]

Great video! Pronunciation as "bi-in-ary" is incorrect. It's simply bi-nary ;)

[@SVRockChalk]

do you have an example of the time of day Code? I don't have either of the files you are call for add it to?

[@SlackerLabs]

These are defined in a file in my binary sensors folder: github.com/thejeffreystone/home-assistant-configuration/blob/master/config/binary_sensors/calendar.yaml but you could drop them in your configuration.yaml under the binary senors section like: binary_sensors: - platform: tod name: Day after: sunrise before: sunset - platform: tod name: Quiet time after: '21:00' before: '06:00'

[@SVRockChalk]

@@SlackerLabs thx, will give it a try tomorrow.

[@chrisrock9937]

the music sounds familiar - Loxone?

[@SlackerLabs]

No Loxone. The intro is Positronic Emotions from Oman and the music at the title cards is It Can Be Done by Airae. Both sourced from Epidemic Sound

[@rishabMehta7]

Workday sensor per person makes more sense.

[@SlackerLabs]

Good point. I left that part out. But you can easily add multiple workday sensors. You just have to supply the name attribute and make sure each name is unique. Then you could have a separate workday sensors with different days and holidays for each person in your smart home that is working.

[@mrabasel]

I started trying to use the Time of Day integration but get, "Platform error sensor.tod - No module named 'homeassistant.components.tod.sensor'"

[@SlackerLabs]

Is it defined under sensor or binary_sensor in your configuration? From that error message it makes me think its under sensor: instead of binary_sensor:

[@mrabasel]

@@SlackerLabs ah thanks....sorted :)

[@daverosenblatt4902]

I see you're in GA - what part?

[@SlackerLabs]

I’m in the Atlanta area. Are you in GA as well?

[@daverosenblatt4902]

@@SlackerLabs indeed. Down here in Canton. Got (corporate) relocated last year. Really dig it! 👍 Also, like the channel 😁

[@durganagothi6703]

I have added calnder.yml in the bonary_sensor folder and changed configuration.yml accordingly. But I don't see the binary_sensor.quiet_time entity any where (node-red or Lovelace dashboard or developer tools)

[@SlackerLabs]

Make sure you config knows to look there. If you just started suing that folder, you will need to add a line to your configuration.yaml like this: binary_sensor: !include_dir_merge_list binary_sensors Then restart home assistant. That will get to read anything in that binary_sensor folder as a binary sensor.

[@shawn3817]

Is this smart home solver's dad?

[@SlackerLabs]

Haha. I dont think I am old enough for that to be possible.

[@Dorff_Meister]

Great tips!