Best Home Assistant Automations

Whether you're just getting started with home assistant or a regular user you may need some ideas on how to simplify your life by adding automations or blueprints to your home assistant routines. We tracked down some of the most creative and useful routines that you can add to your home assistant. We'll list the required equipment and sensors to make the automations work as well as alternative methods to achieve the same affect. Here's our list of the best home assistant automations.

Using Blueprints

Home Assistant makes it easy to use routines create by others through a feature called blueprints. You can easily use blueprints found on the home assistant forums or github through the import feature. Just go to Settings>Blueprints and then click on the blue Import Blueprint button in the bottom right. After that you can add the URL to the blueprint and it will import for you.

Sunrise Alarm Clock

Start your day calmly by replacing your loud, startling alarm clock with a sunrise light routine. You can set your smart lights to slowly increase in brightness over a 30-60 minute window allowing your body to slowly wake naturally by mimicking sunrise and have you awake when your alarm would normally go off.

Required Equipment

• Smart Lightbulb

Optional Equipment

• Smart Speaker: Alexa

This routine is triggered by a paired device running home assistant when an alarm is set. You can consider adding triggers to a door sensor or a motion sensor to turn off the audible alarm if you wake up naturally from the sunlight before your alarm starts going off. You will have a peaceful wake up experience in the morning.

Blueprint URL:

https://gist.github.com/sbyx/96c43b13b90ae1c35b872313ba1d2d2d

Appliance Done Notifications

If your laundry or kitchen is in far from where you'll be spending time it can be hard to hear when a load of dishes, load of laundry or coffee finishes brewing. You can solve this problem by running a routine when an appliance finishes running.

Required Equipment

• Smart Plug or Smart Outlet

Optional Equipment

• Smart Lightbulb
• Smart Speaker: Alexa

This automation works by detecting the voltage drop on a smart outlet after an appliance runs for a period of time. Once that routine detects the appliance is finished you can set it up to do something as simple as sending you a smart phone notification or as fun as flashing your lights or sending your a voice message on your smart speaker. Be sure to match the amperage of the smart outlet with the appliance circuit to avoid any electrical issues. Always consult a professional if you are unsure.

Blueprint URL:

https://gist.github.com/sbyx/6d8344d3575c9865657ac51915684696

Camera Snapshot on Motion

Avoid paying for a monthly camera subscription and use cameras controlled entirely in your house. Pair your webcams with home assistant and have them setup to send you a still picture anytime they detect motion.

Required Equipment

• POE Webcam

This one is pretty straight forward. Avoid paying for the monthly ring camera fees and integrate your cameras into your home assistant ecosystem.

Blueprint URL:

https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/blueprint_import/?blueprint_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcommunity.home-assistant.io%2Ft%2Fsend-camera-snapshot-notification-on-motion%2F254565

Vacation Lighting

Lots of lighting automations will turn on or off lights automatically based on time or the suns position. This one takes vacation light automation the next level by replaying your actual light usage when you are out of town. This will avoid the obvious time based lights and make it appear light people are actually home.

Required Equipment

• Smart Lights the more the better

The more lights you add to your smart home the better this blueprint will work. Add a smart bathroom, hallway, bedroom and living space lights to make it appear as if someone is moving throughout your house at night, just like you always do. Most people will only have outdoor lights or one or two indoor lights turn on. This automation is much more believable.

Blueprint URL:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/vacation-lighting-replay-historical-lighting/282435

What's Your Favorite?

Do you have any other best home assistant automation recommendations? let us know in the comments and we may add them to the list. We'd love to hear from you.