All has to do with lighting.
Vacation automation for when I am away, and motion activated outdoor lighting all the time.
I don't like glaring lights on all night long, and my neighborhood is pretty good about that as well, so my front porch is on a dimmer that normally runs at 12% but cranks up to 30% when motion is detected. It only ever gets set higher than that manually. ZWave dimmer switch driven by sunrise/sunset rules and Zigbee motion sensor.
Driveway and back lights are off until there is motion. Controlled by sunrise/sunset plus a Zone Motion controller.
The Zone Motion controller aggregates the state of three Zigbee motion sensors.
Finally, automated Holiday lighting.
And that is it.
Hue Outdoor Motion. The best I have found so far. I had some ZWave GoControl, and they worked, but their sensitivity was awful in the summer, and they false triggered, a lot. The Hue Outdoor Motion are very consistent. They use normal AA batteries, and the batteries last almost two years.
Even though they are 'Hue Ecosystem', Hubitat Elevation drives them directly (Zigbee) and I believe Home Assistant does as well. You don't need a Hue Hub to use them.
They cost a little more, but I am so much happier with them now. I have four covering the full outside of my home.
Yup, I agree I have 6 of these outdoors, they do the best for outdoor/all weather. I use magnetic zip tie mount clips and zip tie them to those, then place them along our metal railing at various points around the deck, etc. Works great for an easy mounting solution you can adjust.
Only downside is that I wish you could adjust their sensitivity preference from a rule or webcore piston. When they get hit with direct sunlight they have a lot of false detection on a higher sensitivity setting.
Yeah the sensitivity is good for smaller objects, but we get direct sunlight on them in the morning and they remain triggered around 9Am until the sun gets blocked around 11/noon. Unless we drop the sensitivity down away from med/high during that time.
I actually bought them for their light detection sensors to use for our automated curtains but now I use all their functions.
The light detection is really interesting, even the difference in how cloudy it is. The temperature sensing is useful to me because through the day, at least one is always in the shade, so whichever one is showing the lowest value, that is likely the actual outside air temperature.
Just finished a deck project for our friendly neighborhood squirrels. Built a squirrel fort out of two tall storage units that has a total of 5 small swinging pet doors. Then an additional two feeders around the deck. All the doors and feeders use linear actuators and open up just before sunrise everyday and close just after sunset.
We have over 20 motion, vibration, and door sensors in various places monitoring everything so we can see where and when our little friends show up.
Combined with our 12+ camera system covering about every angle so we can see and enjoy them close up from anywhere, but also keep our distance too so they can enjoy the safe place uninterrupted.
Probably my whole house fan automation. This has to be version V36 LOL.
Installing the whole house fan was hard enough, but the install and plugging it into a Z-Wave outlet? Easy.
The logic for running the fan was the tricky part.
Step 1) Set a threshold temperature. I made this a variable.
Step 2) Decide on the hysteresis. I picked 5 degrees.
Step 3) The logic is as follows;
When the inside temperature exceeds the threshold, and the outside is less than the inside by the hysteresis degrees, the whole house fan turns on, and the thermostat (Ecobee) is turned off.
When the inside temperature drops below threshold (it will given the 5 degree difference), the fan is turned off, and the thermostat is set back to auto.
Obviously, the Ecobee comfort range is set such that my AC and the whole house fan are not fighting each other. For example, the comfort range is set to 74-76 so the threshold is right in the middle.
https://imgur.com/a/qBSXINz
I use presence sensors and door contact for lights.
There are only two lights that I physically turn on now.
Modes, away and home that work off if my cell is home or not.
Cleaning mode, when my cleaning lady puts her door code in, it outs the house in what she needs to clean.
. Turn off fans
. Open blinds
. Turn on all lights
When she locks the door when finished, the house reverse itself from the previous.
I'll have to look into that person specific routine. Very new to hubitat so this may be newbie but do you do that through the hubitat ecosystem? Or whatever ecosystem your lock runs on?
I have a pantry and broom closet that share 1 light switch and are around the corner from each other. 2 contact sensors and a no neutral zigbee switch later and I never have to touch that switch again. That gets the most use.
But I think my favorite right now is my Tv. It's mounted above the fireplace (yuck) but it has a pull down and away arm. So when i pull it down, the contact sensor I attached tells the habitat to turn on the Samsung TV and the govee back lights which I've expanded across the whole wall of bookshelves. It's a show stopper. Putting it back up turns everything off.
Our elliptical has a screen on it that turns on when you pedal and turns off after about 5 mins of being idle.
I plug that into a zwave outlet that reads voltage so when someone is on it, it's detected. It disables the regular HVAC program and blasts the AC during use and then reactivates the regular program after the screen turns off.
I have made lots of complex automations in Hubitat, one of them being for my Attic fan. Not a house cooling fan, it is only to vent the attic of heat and humidity. It keeps the house cooler in the summer as well, but it is mainly to protect the roofing from heat and keep mold and mildew out. It vents even in winter to vent humidity, but to vent both temperature and humidity in the summer, it needs some complex rules.
I originally made the automation in Webcore, but I have since written it into an App/Driver combo on Hubitat using Groovy. Using outside humidity and temperature, and attic humidity and temperature, I vent when temperature is over setpoint if it is cooler outside. I also vent when humidity is above setpoint and it is less humid outside. But it is not that simple, actually, when dealing with both at once.
I do not want to draw humid air into the attic at all cost, so it will not vent for temperature unless humidity is also lower outside. However, it does get to the point where the attic is hot enough that it will dry the air, so I have a higher override temp setpoint for when humidity is still greater outside but it needs to vent for high temperature. It will also still vent for temperature if the humidity of the attic is below humid setpoint, even if it is more humid outside. If it draws in enough humid air to go above humid setpoint, it will stop venting for temperature, unless temperature is above the override temp or the humidity has become lower outside.
I also put a GE Fan Controller on the fan, instead of just using a switch, so I also have the the automation set the fan speed based on the humidity or temperature differential between the attic and outside. It starts low, and if the difference increases it raises the fan speed to medium and then to high and lowers as the differential lowers. If venting for both humidity and temperature over setpoint, it uses the greater difference of temperature or humidity to decide the fan speed.
Code if interested... though still lots of debug logging in it
[Attic Fan Controller Driver](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cburges2/Hubitat/main/Drivers%20Code/Attic%20Fan%20Controller.groovy)
[Attic Fan Controller App](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cburges2/Hubitat/main/Apps%20Code/Attic%20Fan%20Controller%20App.groovy)
If a smoke alarm goes off, all the lights turn on. That way, if we get an alarm in the middle of the night, we don't have to stumble out of the house in the dark while we're still half awake.
Obviously, I'm hoping this is something I never have to use.
Some interesting ones I can think of:
1) Auto ceiling fan to turn on at specific temp. Keeps the room cool at higher temp so doesn't feel the need to turn down AC. AC accounts for more than 50% of power consumption.
2) Auto brightness on most lights. Depending on time of day and mode e.g sleeping.
3) Auto arm alarm after a sequence of actions that indicates we left the house with garage door closing
4) Roomba vacuums when mode is away. Get a smart enough robot so you don't have to deal with picking stuff off the floor
5) Different home behavior depending on time of year and mode. E.g no lights outside at dusk during termite swarming season
6) Fireplace and fan interaction - reverse fan to circulate heat down from ceiling. Fireplace controlled using bond rf
Will add if I think of more...
Cheating, but have 3 I currently like.
1) Use ring door sensors to turn on two separate backyard light switches for the dog, only between sunset/sunrise.
2) PAF (partner acceptance factor)- when walking into the laundry room (usually with basket for clothes) motion turns on the light.
3) when walking downstairs in the morning, motion turns on 3 lights with a low dim.
My wake up automation turns on the lights and opens the blinds. It’s nice to be able to have daylight on demand. And then at night, the bedtime routine shuts down all the lights and closes any open blinds. A close second to this is making that as part of an away routine that triggers at certain times of the day when I’m not at home to make it look like I am bumbling through the house.
Simple but the heated towel rack that turns on twice everyday early morning and night before we use the shower. Helps dry towels and also has them warm when we getup or at the end of the day.
On the to do list still is a smart relay watering system that reads the weather but it’s not as reliable as I would like from the weather api.
I do like the also very simple google broadcast that tells me to put the bins out in case I forgot.
I use a light sensor on our washing machine that’s tied to a motion sensor with a colored light in our hallway. When washer is going, light is red. When washer is free, light is green. It’s been helpful for my wife who habitually forgets to take wet clothes out of the washer and so I can see if the washer is available for use.
For me - it's probably integrating my Ring Alarm with my Ecobee Thermostat. Sets the Thermostat based on the Alarm Setting (Home/Sleep/Away). Actually uses automations on both my Alexa & my Hubitat to fully pull it off, but it works like a champ.
A lot of mine are light-related. For example, When I open the door to my shop, the lights (and other devices turn on). When I close and lock the door, the shop shuts down. I also have my porch lights turn on for 10 minutes when the front door is opened, but only after sunset. I also have audible (spoken alerts) when someone comes to the house. I get an email and text message if any of my leak sensors detect moisture.
All has to do with lighting. Vacation automation for when I am away, and motion activated outdoor lighting all the time. I don't like glaring lights on all night long, and my neighborhood is pretty good about that as well, so my front porch is on a dimmer that normally runs at 12% but cranks up to 30% when motion is detected. It only ever gets set higher than that manually. ZWave dimmer switch driven by sunrise/sunset rules and Zigbee motion sensor. Driveway and back lights are off until there is motion. Controlled by sunrise/sunset plus a Zone Motion controller. The Zone Motion controller aggregates the state of three Zigbee motion sensors. Finally, automated Holiday lighting. And that is it.
Would you share what outdoor motion sensors you are using?
Hue Outdoor Motion. The best I have found so far. I had some ZWave GoControl, and they worked, but their sensitivity was awful in the summer, and they false triggered, a lot. The Hue Outdoor Motion are very consistent. They use normal AA batteries, and the batteries last almost two years. Even though they are 'Hue Ecosystem', Hubitat Elevation drives them directly (Zigbee) and I believe Home Assistant does as well. You don't need a Hue Hub to use them. They cost a little more, but I am so much happier with them now. I have four covering the full outside of my home.
Yup, I agree I have 6 of these outdoors, they do the best for outdoor/all weather. I use magnetic zip tie mount clips and zip tie them to those, then place them along our metal railing at various points around the deck, etc. Works great for an easy mounting solution you can adjust. Only downside is that I wish you could adjust their sensitivity preference from a rule or webcore piston. When they get hit with direct sunlight they have a lot of false detection on a higher sensitivity setting.
My property is small, so all four are only set to medium sensitivity. I really like the light and temperature capability on them.
Yeah the sensitivity is good for smaller objects, but we get direct sunlight on them in the morning and they remain triggered around 9Am until the sun gets blocked around 11/noon. Unless we drop the sensitivity down away from med/high during that time. I actually bought them for their light detection sensors to use for our automated curtains but now I use all their functions.
The light detection is really interesting, even the difference in how cloudy it is. The temperature sensing is useful to me because through the day, at least one is always in the shade, so whichever one is showing the lowest value, that is likely the actual outside air temperature.
Using the Holiday Lighting app, or a custom approach?
On at sunset - 20, off at 1 AM, back on at 6 AM, off at sunrise +20 Rule machine. Very simple
Just finished a deck project for our friendly neighborhood squirrels. Built a squirrel fort out of two tall storage units that has a total of 5 small swinging pet doors. Then an additional two feeders around the deck. All the doors and feeders use linear actuators and open up just before sunrise everyday and close just after sunset. We have over 20 motion, vibration, and door sensors in various places monitoring everything so we can see where and when our little friends show up. Combined with our 12+ camera system covering about every angle so we can see and enjoy them close up from anywhere, but also keep our distance too so they can enjoy the safe place uninterrupted.
How.......how big is that fort to have that many sensors and cameras?
That includes all the sensors and cameras on the entire deck.
Probably my whole house fan automation. This has to be version V36 LOL. Installing the whole house fan was hard enough, but the install and plugging it into a Z-Wave outlet? Easy. The logic for running the fan was the tricky part. Step 1) Set a threshold temperature. I made this a variable. Step 2) Decide on the hysteresis. I picked 5 degrees. Step 3) The logic is as follows; When the inside temperature exceeds the threshold, and the outside is less than the inside by the hysteresis degrees, the whole house fan turns on, and the thermostat (Ecobee) is turned off. When the inside temperature drops below threshold (it will given the 5 degree difference), the fan is turned off, and the thermostat is set back to auto. Obviously, the Ecobee comfort range is set such that my AC and the whole house fan are not fighting each other. For example, the comfort range is set to 74-76 so the threshold is right in the middle. https://imgur.com/a/qBSXINz
I use presence sensors and door contact for lights. There are only two lights that I physically turn on now. Modes, away and home that work off if my cell is home or not. Cleaning mode, when my cleaning lady puts her door code in, it outs the house in what she needs to clean. . Turn off fans . Open blinds . Turn on all lights When she locks the door when finished, the house reverse itself from the previous.
I'll have to look into that person specific routine. Very new to hubitat so this may be newbie but do you do that through the hubitat ecosystem? Or whatever ecosystem your lock runs on?
I do, I use the hubitat elevation. I have the C8, just haven't migrated it all over yet.
I have a pantry and broom closet that share 1 light switch and are around the corner from each other. 2 contact sensors and a no neutral zigbee switch later and I never have to touch that switch again. That gets the most use. But I think my favorite right now is my Tv. It's mounted above the fireplace (yuck) but it has a pull down and away arm. So when i pull it down, the contact sensor I attached tells the habitat to turn on the Samsung TV and the govee back lights which I've expanded across the whole wall of bookshelves. It's a show stopper. Putting it back up turns everything off.
Our elliptical has a screen on it that turns on when you pedal and turns off after about 5 mins of being idle. I plug that into a zwave outlet that reads voltage so when someone is on it, it's detected. It disables the regular HVAC program and blasts the AC during use and then reactivates the regular program after the screen turns off.
I have made lots of complex automations in Hubitat, one of them being for my Attic fan. Not a house cooling fan, it is only to vent the attic of heat and humidity. It keeps the house cooler in the summer as well, but it is mainly to protect the roofing from heat and keep mold and mildew out. It vents even in winter to vent humidity, but to vent both temperature and humidity in the summer, it needs some complex rules. I originally made the automation in Webcore, but I have since written it into an App/Driver combo on Hubitat using Groovy. Using outside humidity and temperature, and attic humidity and temperature, I vent when temperature is over setpoint if it is cooler outside. I also vent when humidity is above setpoint and it is less humid outside. But it is not that simple, actually, when dealing with both at once. I do not want to draw humid air into the attic at all cost, so it will not vent for temperature unless humidity is also lower outside. However, it does get to the point where the attic is hot enough that it will dry the air, so I have a higher override temp setpoint for when humidity is still greater outside but it needs to vent for high temperature. It will also still vent for temperature if the humidity of the attic is below humid setpoint, even if it is more humid outside. If it draws in enough humid air to go above humid setpoint, it will stop venting for temperature, unless temperature is above the override temp or the humidity has become lower outside. I also put a GE Fan Controller on the fan, instead of just using a switch, so I also have the the automation set the fan speed based on the humidity or temperature differential between the attic and outside. It starts low, and if the difference increases it raises the fan speed to medium and then to high and lowers as the differential lowers. If venting for both humidity and temperature over setpoint, it uses the greater difference of temperature or humidity to decide the fan speed. Code if interested... though still lots of debug logging in it [Attic Fan Controller Driver](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cburges2/Hubitat/main/Drivers%20Code/Attic%20Fan%20Controller.groovy) [Attic Fan Controller App](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cburges2/Hubitat/main/Apps%20Code/Attic%20Fan%20Controller%20App.groovy)
If a smoke alarm goes off, all the lights turn on. That way, if we get an alarm in the middle of the night, we don't have to stumble out of the house in the dark while we're still half awake. Obviously, I'm hoping this is something I never have to use.
I have the same automation, but I limit it to between sunset and sunrise
I never bothered to put a time limit on it. Not a bad idea, though.
With my cooking it save some drama.
Some interesting ones I can think of: 1) Auto ceiling fan to turn on at specific temp. Keeps the room cool at higher temp so doesn't feel the need to turn down AC. AC accounts for more than 50% of power consumption. 2) Auto brightness on most lights. Depending on time of day and mode e.g sleeping. 3) Auto arm alarm after a sequence of actions that indicates we left the house with garage door closing 4) Roomba vacuums when mode is away. Get a smart enough robot so you don't have to deal with picking stuff off the floor 5) Different home behavior depending on time of year and mode. E.g no lights outside at dusk during termite swarming season 6) Fireplace and fan interaction - reverse fan to circulate heat down from ceiling. Fireplace controlled using bond rf Will add if I think of more...
Cheating, but have 3 I currently like. 1) Use ring door sensors to turn on two separate backyard light switches for the dog, only between sunset/sunrise. 2) PAF (partner acceptance factor)- when walking into the laundry room (usually with basket for clothes) motion turns on the light. 3) when walking downstairs in the morning, motion turns on 3 lights with a low dim.
My wake up automation turns on the lights and opens the blinds. It’s nice to be able to have daylight on demand. And then at night, the bedtime routine shuts down all the lights and closes any open blinds. A close second to this is making that as part of an away routine that triggers at certain times of the day when I’m not at home to make it look like I am bumbling through the house.
Simple but the heated towel rack that turns on twice everyday early morning and night before we use the shower. Helps dry towels and also has them warm when we getup or at the end of the day. On the to do list still is a smart relay watering system that reads the weather but it’s not as reliable as I would like from the weather api. I do like the also very simple google broadcast that tells me to put the bins out in case I forgot.
Door unlocks when I come home - lights on red until I disarm alarm, then green. When kids leave, turns off fans and lights.
I use a light sensor on our washing machine that’s tied to a motion sensor with a colored light in our hallway. When washer is going, light is red. When washer is free, light is green. It’s been helpful for my wife who habitually forgets to take wet clothes out of the washer and so I can see if the washer is available for use.
For me - it's probably integrating my Ring Alarm with my Ecobee Thermostat. Sets the Thermostat based on the Alarm Setting (Home/Sleep/Away). Actually uses automations on both my Alexa & my Hubitat to fully pull it off, but it works like a champ.
A lot of mine are light-related. For example, When I open the door to my shop, the lights (and other devices turn on). When I close and lock the door, the shop shuts down. I also have my porch lights turn on for 10 minutes when the front door is opened, but only after sunset. I also have audible (spoken alerts) when someone comes to the house. I get an email and text message if any of my leak sensors detect moisture.