Easy & Effective: The Best 5 Home Assistant Automations for Beginners

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Please let me know what you think of this video! NOTE: Apparently, Home Assistant has changed its code, so that using - all does not work anymore the way I explain it. However, this does work: service: light.turn_off data: {} target: entity_id: all My apologies to all my sponsors. I made a small mistake in the scrolling list of patrons and members. I forgot to update it, so this is a really old list in this video. I will double-check it in my next video. ⭐ You can download the blueprint pack that I created for this video at: ko-fi.com/s/e9a15cb553 ⭐ Links referred to in this video: * How to use Trigger IDs in Home Assistant -Tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nHbCfoyZjb6qg6s * Geofencing in Home Assistant - Tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppukqoWEarqceMk

[@thatguyalex2835]

This is a cool software. Am waiting for my Google Nest Max to kick the bucket, so I can switch to Home Assistant. The issue though is that code has to be used. Once Home Assistant can create a GUI based system for newbies, I would then consider switching to HA.

[@Slimhaven1]

Thanks!

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Thank you so much for your support 🙏🏻

[@Doodmeister0]

I'm really glad you posted this. Really needed a back to basics video.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Thank you! Glad it helps.

[@Slimhaven1]

Your videos are awesome! I really appreciate all the knowledge! Thank you!!!!!!

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Thank you for your kind words!

[@simonsmith4213]

Yet another very information video, love this channel. I would like to see you cover the topic of maintaining HA, covering replacing devices without breaking automations for example.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

That is actually a great suggestion!

[@BusbyBiscuits]

I'm both really happy I have watched this, and really annoyed it didn't exist a few weeks ago before I did everything completely wrong. Thanks for giving me loads of work to do 😆

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Hahaha. I guess this is a compliment? Thanks! 😊🙏🏻👍🏻

[@Chris7opher7homas]

Very informative and will be forwarding onto a mate who is starting their journey into HA. Also love the T-Shirt. Such a great band !!

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Great to hear! And Riverside is awesome! I've seen them a couple of times. The last time was last Thursday. 🤘🏻

[@sevagjb]

top 5 , nice Thanks Ed

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Thanks Sevag!

[@nonsensorama]

With kids in my house i automated lighting in the toilets a long time ago. Best thing ever. Also, i will know if we had visitors when im not home since they always turn off the lights after using the restroom.

[@MaKoGrunn]

Thank you for the helpful video. I'm just starting in HA and these videos help me a lot! Regarding the first automation in this video, Lights on/off bases on motion: (I used it for my attic) I would like to add an exception to it that the light won't go on between certain times. The motion detector shouldn't do anything when motion is sensed between 8:00 and 16:30 hours. From 16:30 until 8:00 hours the light should go on. How do I configure this in my automation?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Add those times to the condition section, or even better, add a condition within the On action.

[@bat3332]

Can you please do a video on the mentioned to integrate router to home assitant to check if the members of the family are home or not. I have been using home assitant for basic thing for more than year but for the life of me I fail to figure how to use home assitant to detect the presence the family member home or not. Could you please do a video on the home presence pretty please 🙏

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

There are multiple ways to achieve this. It skai depends if an integration exists for your router. This older video might also help: Ultimate Presence Detection in Home Assistant kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5TbeaeVl7WfkLM

[@michiel2797]

Another cool video 😊 it seems so effortless 😂

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Nothing is what it seems 😅😅😅

[@keithgravestock3905]

I have a major problem with this in that the layout of HA seems to have changed. When I click 'New Automation', I get 'When', 'And if' and 'Then do'. Whilst they agree with Triggers, conditions and actions, the result of selecting these differs. I cannot find an 'if then' action and I don't see how a trigger can relate to an action. I have created an automation as far as I can to detect movement and turn lights on, but when the sensor detects movement, the lights flash on and off very quickly and that's it. The 'no movement' condition shows as having triggered a set period of time later, but as the lights weren't on in the first place, nothing happens. Getting very frustrated!

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Yeah, that's the burden of using Home Assistant. The UI changes constantly.

[@lilnako]

skip the conditional and find the if-then in the then do

[@DannyDM00]

For the first automation, is there a reason you choose the "Condition" action over the "Choose" option? My motion based lights are running with the "Choose" action and I'm wondering if there's a reason to switch to "Condition".

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

I only use choose when I have more than two triggers to choose from. But Choose will also work in this case.

[@davetay44]

Hi, thanks for putting this together, perfect for a newbie like me. Luckily the first example you gave is exactly why I've ended up coming down the HomeAssistant rabbit hole as I wanted to use a Hue motion sensor to trigger non-hue things - and googling told me HA was the answer. I do however, have a question. I'm pretty sure I set it up the same way as you just with 1 minute instead of 5. Upon testing, it seems to work that if I'm moving around in the room for longer than the minute, the lights stay on until it is a solid minute of no motion - which is perfect, exactly what I want! (when I did this through Alexa, it timed from the first motion, not the last, this is how I'm here) BUT, if I leave the room for, say, 1 minute and 20 seconds, and come back in - the lights have turned off as it's been a minute of idle, fine, but they don't then re-trigger for my new motion and turn them back on. I don't know if there's some sort of cool down before it works again, or if I've done something wrong setting it up - any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Hi and thanks for your response! It should trigger again as soon as you walk into the room. It works like this for my Hue motion sensors. Do you use the Hue bridge or a Zigbee stick? I use a Zigbee stick. Maybe the Hue Hub (if you use it) adds a cool down period, but it really shouldn't happen.

[@davetay44]

@@SmartHomeJunkie I do use the hue hub. Although the more I'm reading and playing with HA I'm learning I shouldn't have gone down the hue route and should have set my house up manually with this from the off. It's a steep learning curve that's for sure. Thanks for the reply. I'll get a zigbee stick and see if that helps.

[@pboosten]

@@davetay44 The Hue motion sensor has a parameter that can be set (at least via the Zigbee route) called 'Occupancy Timeout'. Possibly this can be set via the Hue bridge as well. For all my three motion sensors this parameter was default at 0 seconds.

[@vitorexposto4335]

Top..... sou de portugal e gosto do seus video e como estou a iniciar é top

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Thank you so much!

[@lukaspechar]

That Riverside t-shirt. Great band :)

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Great to hear that you know them too!

[@KOLKAAAA]

Great channel for beginners like me. Great help! I made the first automation exactly like you did, but I keep on getting the following error in HA: Test Sensor On With Timed Off event was fired with parameters: {'on_off_control': , 'on_time': 1800, 'off_wait_time': 0} If you see this comment, I hope you have the solution. Keep up the good work!

[@DaveMenkehorst]

So if you define only the first trigger with an trigger ID, the 'then' action fires from the second trigger?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Exactly!

[@fearthesmeag]

Hi Ed, this is brilliant - thanks. Ive been using the 2nd method - turning on a passage light during the night while visiting the loo. However, if I tell Alex to turn on passage light, it will turn off after the predefined set mins in the automation. How would I over-ride the automation if I set the light via voice/Alexa or turn it on via HA GUI or Tablet? Thus the automation will be disabled once the light has been turned off via HA GUI / Tablet, then re-arm the automation (so to speak)?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Not sure. If you use a motion sensor, the light will always turn off when no motion is detected for x minutes. When you use this automation.

[@daankoch2311]

Great video! I was looking for this part about the thermostat and heating when someone is home. But now i don't know how to make an exception for the nighttime. Like between 21:00 and 06:00 it stays at the 'nobody home' state. Any tips? :)

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Thanks for watching! I'm glad you found the video helpful. To make an exception for the nighttime, you can set a specific schedule for those hours in the condition section.

[@igolovin87]

Thank you for the video! I have an aqara lamp and a xiaomi button. They work using the Zigbee protocol and I connected them to my home assistant. I've made a lot of automations based on your tutorials, but I can't do one: how can I smoothly dim the lamp brightness while I hold the button down for a long time?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Dim Lights THE RIGHT WAY In Home Assistant - TUTORIAL kzbin.info/www/bejne/gl7FlJSYmcaArqc

[@igolovin87]

@@SmartHomeJunkie Thank you! Everything worked out! I wish you 1,000,000 subscribers and more!)))

[@caffeinatedw-w]

Hi there, thank you for the video, very helpful for HA beginners. Is that correct that we need to enable remote access to HA to be able to use location based automations like the 4th scenario you mentioned? Or in this case it's not needed as HA only needs to detects people presence based on LAN connection? Thank you!

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad the video was helpful for HA beginners like yourself. And yes, enabling remote access is indeed necessary for location-based automations. At least you need to install the Home Assistant companion app to detect if someone is home or not. But, it really depends on what device tracker you setup in your person entity.

[@caffeinatedw-w]

@@SmartHomeJunkie Thank you for taking your time to respond, appreciate that. I use my iPhone as device_tracker here in this case (I'll build some presence sensors maybe in near future but for now I just want to get familiar more with HA :D). Anyways, I'm trying to set up scene to open garage upon arrival. So if we know that HA needs remote access for location-based scenes. But because my house is an isolated single home and I have one Access Point in my garage that cover a bit of the street next to my garage. When I approach my garage I can see my phone connecting to my Wifi, at that time I only needs HA to recognize that and trigger the automation to open garage door. Do you think that will work? Many thanks!

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

@@caffeinatedw-w Hey! Yes, that might work as long as you can find an integration for your router that detects presence based on WiFi connection of devices.

[@voyagerxp3426]

Hi i'm new to home assistant and automations, i'm instrested your 1. Toggle lights when motion is detected or stopped partfor a lamp in my living room using a FP2 sensor. Does this automation make the lights stay off in daylight.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

If you add a condition that checks the lux value of the sensor or checks certain times it will.

[@thuisalertjonkervuijk6470]

Hoi, welke intergratie gebruik je voor honeywell evohome? En welke interval van sync gebruik je? Heb je jouw gehele verwarmingssysteem en regeling in ha gedaan?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

I use the Honeywell Evohome In tegration for that 🙃 www.home-assistant.io/integrations/evohome/ And yes, my whole heating system is controlled by Home Assistant.

[@muthanaalrawi4140]

Sir, I have some time delay time with phone notifications message. Is there anyway to improve this service

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

No idea really. It works instantly in my case.

[@rayeliinternational7949]

Do you have an update for the first one? there is no "else" in automations anymore, or not that i can find it?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

There still is. Use the new building blocks.

[@WVRetreat]

For the first example, was there a reason why you used the device detecting motion instead of the entity detecting motion? Wouldn't using the device be easier to implement? Also, I noticed you used the same automation to detect motion to turn on the lights and turn off the lights versus just doing this: TRIGGER: if motion detected ACTIONS: Turn on lights Delay for 10 minutes Turn off lights The MODE for the automation should be set to "Restart" so that the automation restarts when it detects motion again. Just wondering if there is an advantage to doing it one way over the other. Thanks for the video!!!

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

You do not always want to turn off the lights after 10 minutes of you stay longer in the room.

[@fredjaspers4364]

I am a beginner in HA, so Ed thanks for this video! I tried your example 3 in combination with a front door sensor that must send me a notification when I am away and the door is opened. For some reason I got the notification on my phone while being at home and opening the door. My first trigger is STATUS with 0 at zone Home, second trigger detection of door opening with action notify. I think it is because my phone is not shown with any entity in the zone_home. I see my phone in the mobile app overview at devices having 94 entities. Do you know what is missing in my HA setup? Is sensor.mobile_wifi_connection missing as an entity?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Is your phone registered as a tracking device to your person entity?

[@fredjaspers4364]

@@SmartHomeJunkie Not that I am aware of. How can I make my phone a tracking device?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

@@fredjaspers4364 Go to Settings > People and select your name. Add your phobia as a tracking device there.

[@fredjaspers4364]

@@SmartHomeJunkie I see two devices but see no check box to choose a devicev. At the right side of each device there is a X and arrow . When clicking on my mobile phone name, nothing happens. At the bottom there is an input field saying "Choose a device to track" with a arrow down. Clicking this arrow no selection shown. The field shows Geen overeenkomende entiteiten gevonden""

[@pboosten]

Although these are solid advises, I stepped down from the 'one-automation-per-function', but instead started dividing my automations in atomic actions for sensors (ie 'motion on' and 'motion off' - replace motion by 'window open' or 'smoke detection on', etc) and actuators ('light on' and 'light off' - or device), where sensors send events, and actuators listen for events. Suppose you want a light to trigger on motion AND on sunrise (and in my case, on the first person coming home after sunset), in your case you would have to add the same light-device in three different automations. I just have a single 'light on' that listens for different events. Suppose in your case you would add another light to those automation, you would have to modify all those different automations: I just add one 'light on' for the new light, and have it listen to those same events. Not to mention if you replace the smart light with another device. In my case, I also have the lights-automations listen for 'all_lights_on' and 'all_lights_off', which can be triggered by an automation, or a button.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Thank you for this. My automations that I show here are beginners tips. If you want to create daisy chained automations, then check this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qX_QoKGrrJl4ftE

[@pboosten]

@@SmartHomeJunkie I know it's for beginners, however beginners will often (always?) fall into pits by creating very complex automations (which do unexpected things), once they're more familiar with HA. Nonetheless I like the work you put into this, I've learned a lot from you in the past.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

@@pboosten Thanks. Nobody starts at the finish line. 🤪

[@michiel2797]

I do have a related question though. My sunscreen (zonnescherm) it triggered to retract by several triggers wind, rain and sun angle. As winter is approaching I notice that the sun angle should be reduced in the automation that I use. Would there be a way to automate the reduction of the sun angle?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Interesting question. I'm not sure how to do that tbh.

[@DannyDM00]

Yes there is! Check out the sun.sun entity and play around with the Azimuth attribute.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

@@DannyDM00 Thank you for this answer. I didn't think of it! Great! 👍🏻👍🏻

[@MartinHiggs84]

For number 3 you could setup a guest helper and use it as condition in case a visitor is there and everybody leaves

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Great tip!

[@FelipeH]

I have exactly this🎉

[@MartinHiggs84]

@@FelipeH 👍

[@W0Ndr3y]

Can you elaborate? This is extremely helpful

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

@@W0Ndr3y Just create a toggle helper and call it Visitor Present. Then check in the condition of the automation if the state of this helper is "on". Add a button to your dashboard that shows the helper so that you can toggle it on or off.

[@AngloYorkshire]

Couldn't you put all people in one group and then wont it realise once everyone leaves the home it will run the automation but if some stay it will not trigger?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Yes, but that is the old way of doing this. Nowadays the Zone method is the way to go.

[@boudewijndejong9134]

Love your videos, but may I ask why you’ve chosen to use the ui for automations and not eg node-red? I find that it is easier in keeping an understanding of what the automation is doing, especially when it becomes more complex.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

I don't use Node Red. It's just not needed and evening can be done in HA itself. Node Red just takes up extra resources which I don't want.

[@julianm1502]

Helaas werkt de optie om - all toe te voegen bij mij niet. Ik krijg een invalid entity id melding. Ik draai 2023.9. Is deze optie daarna pas toegevoegd aan HA? target: entity_id: - all

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Do not mind the invalid entity message. It will still work. This works for years already.

[@julianm1502]

@@SmartHomeJunkie But my light don't turn off when I try this!

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

@@julianm1502 I just treated it on the beta version and you're right. It doesn't work anymore. I will let it know to the HA team.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

I've just reported it to HA. It's a bug since 2023.9 and will be fixed asap.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

For now (as a workaround), you can try to make it work using this code: service: light.turn_off data: {} target: entity_id: all

[@bartbjorri9502]

Why the trigger_id? It can be done without with less effort. So what is the benefit of the trigger _id?

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

See my video about Trigger IDs for the answer.

[@bartbjorri9502]

@@SmartHomeJunkie Hi Ed, I watch that one more than once. It's telling the how but not realy the why. In general I want to have more structure in my automations. Naming policy works but for the rest I have the feeling I am building spagetty. So where to find a plan for basic design principles? Thanks for your realy helpfull video's.

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

@@bartbjorri9502 Thanks. Trigger IDs help to create single automations that can handle multiple triggers. This way you can cluster certain behavior in only one automation. I created this video that explains how I structure my entities: Five Best Practices in Home Assistant - Use this now! kzbin.info/www/bejne/baDSk4l-gsx_ZpY

[@nmfireman]

I'm sorry but Home Assignment mush have changed a lot since you made this video. I can't follow this video. Can you update

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Home Assistant changes constantly. That's the burden of using HA.

[@MrNetworkG]

price of a coffee, what if in my country coffee cost 1 USD? :))) it's a price of 3 coffee

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

Ah, your coffee is really cheap. I think I should move to your country! 😊

[@MrNetworkG]

@@SmartHomeJunkie anyway, thank you for your videos, I like to watch it. Good luck, man!

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

@@MrNetworkG Thank you for your kind words! 🙏🏻

[@gajduso]

good but too fast ! tutorial should be bit slower

[@SmartHomeJunkie]

You can slow it down using the playback options in KZbin 🤷🏼‍♂️