8 Simple Smart Home Automations Anyone Can Do!

Most of the time, automations in our Smart Home require hugely complex or expensive set ups just to achieve said automations. So, in today's video, I give you 8 simple automations that anyone can do - even if you're just getting started with your Smart Home!

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0:00 - Intro
0:23 - Washing Machine Notifications
2:03 - Shopping Lists
2:58 - Morning wake up lights
4:11 - Daily morning announcements
5:27 - Sandman Alexa Clocks Sponsor
7:01 - Door/Window open notifications
7:56 - Flashing Lights when someone comes home
8:56 - Sleeping computers
10:02 - Bin day notifications

[EverythingSmartHome]

What are your favourite simple automations? Let me know, I don't want to miss out! 😆👇

[FreshfrogmarketingUk]

One of my favourite automations I did recently when we had friends coming over. I created 3 input boolean's one for each of there names. I had to manually turn each one on when that guest headed to the bathroom. Once motion was detected, the Echo Flex in there welcomed them to the bathroom by name, made a funny comment about them, and asked if they would like some relaxing music while they had a wee. Went down a storm, especially with there 8yr old. Mind blown 🤣🤣🤣

[spagamoto]

Since I live alone, I've found it extremely useful to have a "Guest Mode" helper toggle! That way my more "aggressive" automations don't make my guests feel like there's a rampant AI taking over the house. For example, the alarm won't arm when I step outside, and the interior cameras automatically stop recording.

[wpoitras]

A power monitor for my laundry was my very first automation. Sadly the gas dryer still managed to trip the load protection on the plug when I turned it on, even though the normal load was 7A, so it was annoying to have to press start multiple times. Unfortunately load protection was the one protection I couldn't disable.

[andrew]

Great video. I used a voice synthesiser to have Yoda say "your laundry, finished it has. Dry it now, you must" and it got the wife's seal of approval. Also set up a daily actionable notification to reminder her to take her pill which she has said is a god send. Electric blankets also turn on automatically at 11pm if it's cold outside, with a timer for 1.5 hours whenever they are switched on because someone never turns hers off 👀
Love seeing other people's automations ❤️

[andrea]

My simple automation:

Trigger:
Every time somebody approaches my house (my flat is the only flat in the last floor, so I’ve placed a zigbee motion sensor directed towards the last flight of stairs)
Actions:
Home ammostante sends me a Telegram massage + if somebody is at home, flashes the lights in the room where I am (if any light in my flat is on, that means - due to other automations - that somebody is at home and is not sleeping, so I flash the lights where the person is, in order to let him know that in approximately 15-20 seconds somebody will be at the door of my flat!)

Trick: motion sensors placed under the bed, so that thy are not triggered when somebody is sleeping!

Thank you for your awesome videos!! :)

[exhusted]

You just need to be careful with large appliances and their load on smart plugs. Not all smart plugs can handle for example a 13amp load that could be used for the heater element in a UK/Irish tumble dryer.

[RoelWijker]

Since the kids can walk up the stairs and pop up behind me when gaming on the attic and scare the crap out of me, I made this: up to 5 min after motion detection on the middlefloor passage, the top floor passage detects motion AND my HUE play is on; All light in the attic office flash.
Saved me from a heart attack at least a dozen times now.

[llckRsprry]

Daylight simulation for the morning alarms is just beautiful. I personally use the companion app for android to get the time of the next alarm and trigger my daylight script if the alarm rings between 1 am and the sunrise. Otherwise I just open up the blinds.
Additionally you can check whether your Android smartphone is home to not make the lights turn on if you are not home.

[Bonhommeh]

One of my simplest automation is also one of my most useful: If phone start charging AND bedroom light is on, activate "Good Night" scene. (turn off everything) Might as well add my PC to the list, great idea!

[Gkm]

2:03: my washer and dryer alert the household when their cycles are complete, with both alerts requesting the dryer lint screen be cleared. My dishwasher does not alert when the cycle is complete, but it DOES announce “the dishes in the dishwasher are clean” the first time the machine is opened after a wash cycle. This (hopefully) prevents someone from putting dirty dishes in with a clean load. That is accomplished via a strategically positioned contact sensor plus a small but strong neodymium magnet.

[MrTohtoriR]

These videos are the best when you already have a steady system and dont need the basics. Give us more on that PC standby and PC control integration and notification stuff. looks useful.

[djankies]

I’ve put an Aqara vibration sensor on my trash bin. If the trash can doesn’t move during my window to take it out, HA spams me every hour until it moves. These are actionable notifications with a "silence" action. The next morning, whenever the vibration sensor detects the can was moved (i.e emptied), I get a separate notification to bring in the bin. Had to play around with sensitivity settings to avoid false triggers but works great now.

[juiice]

I have NFC tags near my washing machine and tumble dryer which I’ve programmed with timers. When I put a quick wash on I scan the 30 minute one with my phone, if it’s a spin I scan the 10 minute one. The machines have a beep to notify when programs are finished but they are pretty quiet. I get a notification when the time is up which tells me the program is done, which is useful when I forget what on earth the timer is for!

[KubedPixel]

Awesome video Lewis as always. Thank you.
Don't suppose you could do videos on each of these ideas please?
Thanks

[geekinthegarden]

I've just got into home automation in the past 2 weeks to automate my grow tent in time to start of my peppers and tomatoes later this month. It's now crept outside the grow tent a little.

Suggestion 1 - just done it, with a power plug and door monitor so that it nags until you open the door. Due to do the tumble dryer later on.

Suggestion 2 - making a shopping list using NFC tags which will be in the relevant cupboards so that when I go in and notice that I'm almost out of teabags I can just tap my phone on it and it will add it to my shopping list. Nice idea about the Geo-location, I might have to borrow that idea. It's a pity that you can only have one shopping list though, as I would prefer to split things to different lists for different shops.


Suggestion 3 - just got a smart bulb that uses the Smart Life app and this has the circadian rhythm built into it so I'm trying that hoping that it will help me get to sleep as well as wake up.


Suggestion 7 - I'm thinking about how to get my computer to shut down and want to get a way that will work with linux as well as windows. Not sure how to do this as if I've left it to render then I don't want it to shut down half way through.

[CJChild]

I mostly have simple automations that do things like turn on lights (motion or time), notify me of things, or turn climate controls up and down. But have recently setup a few door/window sensors that turn off the climate controls, when one of those doors or windows are left open, so we're not heating or cooling the outside world.
Another automation that turned out to be pretty simple (after I learned how to add API calls), announces a Joke Of The Day on my daughter's smart clock when she presses an Aqara button. It was all her idea and was a great learning experience for both of us.

[TomPaintsMinis]

This has been incredibly helpful, especially the shopping list and the Washing Machine notifications!

Just to say that for the washing machine notifications although the notification "persistent: true" means it can't be swiped off, clicking on it will take you to the Home Assitant page and clear the notification from your phone. I couldn't find a way to stop this happening except I found was if you also set "sticky: true" it means it doesn't disappear even if clicked until you hit the "It's done" option, so mine reads as -

persistent: true
sticky: true
tag: washing
actions:
- action: MACHINE_EMPTIED
title: It's done

Hope that helps

[MarvinSchenkel]

What bulbs do you use for your bedside tables? I find that my Philips hue filaments are way too bright at 1%, waking me up instantly when the automation starts 😂

[ahmadsaeid]

I have exactly the same morning brief automation, it also ends up playing soft music while I prepare my coffee in the kitchen. But it also includes api integrations that fetch a joke and a daily quote.
Loved the shopping list one though. Keep up the great content 👍