Home Automation
2015 - Present
Sections
Engine
Room Automation
Quality of Life Automations
Wall Tablets & Other Interfaces
Geofencing & Presence Detection
Environmental Monitoring & Alerting
Energy Monitoring
Engine
After starting with developing my own Home Automation system then moving to OpenHab for a couple years, I have landed on Home Assistant due to it’s refined user interface, large and expanding number of integrations and features, and community developed addons.
Room Automation
A core principal of my Home Automation is that the system should collect as much information about each space as possible and react to what the occupants are doing without the need for them to actively interface with the system.
Room Lighting
Set the room lights based on the occupancy state, time of day, and what devices are active like the TV.
Nightlight
The room accent lights will turn on low if the house has been put to sleep but the room becomes occupied.
Movie Time
Set the room scene if the TV or projector is turned on or off.
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Use motion sensors, force transducers, and bluetooth beacon for detecting room occupancy.
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Change the ambient lighting based on the Time of Day split into Morning, Mid-Day, Afternoon, Evening, and Night.
Use the local Sunrise and Sunset time to fine tune the Time of Day start and stop times.
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Detect the Room Ambient Light Level to fine tune the scenes to reach the desired light level.
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Adapt the room lighting if TVs, Projectors, are in use
Quality of Life Automations
Simple automations that make life easier.
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Wake up the house and turn on the lights when the alarm clock goes of or the bed becomes unoccupied.
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Send a notification when the mail is delivered using a door sensor. Clear the notification when the mail is retrieved.
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Send a notification when the washer finishes by monitoring the power consumption
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Sens a notification when the Coffee Machine finishes brewing by monitoring the power consumption. Turn off the Coffee Machine to prevent burning.
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Send a notification if the Microwave or Air Fryer is done by monitoring the power consumption.
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Turn on the backyard lights when the patio door is opened to let the dog out and it is after sunset.
Wall Tablets & Other Interfaces
Wall Tablets & Dashboards
Wall mounted tablets in central locations for full access to the Home Assistant UI with custom dashboards based on the mounting location.
Nanoleaf Touch
Nanoleaf Tiles in high traffic area that can be swiped to trigger automations or scenes.
Buttons & Rocker Switches
Headboard - House sleep, nightlight, house wakeup
Fridge - Lock kitchen lights on if stationary for a long time
Bathroom - Activate shower time automations
Media Knobs
Place Ikea TRÅDFRI media knobs in convenient places to adjust room media
Adjust volume
Toggle play / pause
Previous and Next Song
Cubes
Set and lock the room scene to the desired state based on which side is up. Shake the cube to reset to auto mode.
Geofencing allows for additional QoL Automations when occupants enter or leave zones such as:
Arming / Disarming the House Alarm
Turn on lights when arriving home after sunset
Turn on Air Condition when leaving work
Geofencing &
Presence Detection
Presence detection of bluetooth beacons inside the house is done using ESPresence deployed on an ESP32 Mini in each room.
Presence Detection of occupants can be used to refine Room Automations like customizing the environment to the occupants preferences.
Presence Detection of accessories can help identify what room lost items such as a phone, wallet, keys, backpack are in.
Next improvement is playing with mmWave for idle occupant detection, occupant counts, and occupant locations in each room.
Environmental Monitoring & Alerts
Each room has sensors for monitoring temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, PM2.5um Concentration.
Alerts are activated is the Particulate Matter Concentration goes above the threshold.
Next step is adding additional sensors for CO, CO2, NO2, H, Methane, Ammonia, Volatile Organics.
Energy Monitoring
The largest power consuming devices in the house are connected to smart outlets that monitor the line voltage and energy usage. This gives an estimate of the houses power consumption.
Long term plan to add current transformer clamps to the houses utility lines and circuit breakers once parts become available again.
