Five ENERGY Smart Home Automations to SAVE Money and Time

Introduction

If you have a smart thermostat, well, it may not actually be all that smart by itself. But when you combine it with home automation software, like Home Assistant, you unlock a new world of possibility.

I’ll show you five smart home energy automation ideas that I actually use for cost-savings, convenience, and comfort.

Main Points

1. Pause the HVAC when a door or window opens

If your heat or air conditioning is running, and you open a door or window for a prolonged period, you’re probably wasting energy and money. I have an automation that will pause my HVAC system if it’s running and any door or window in the house is open for 30 seconds.

To make this automation work, you’ll need a contact sensor on each of the doors and windows that you care about. In my case, I’m using Ring contact sensors because I also have a Ring Alarm, but you could use another brand. Then, in Home Assistant, you can create a sensor entity for all of your door and window sensors combined. There is even a Blueprint automation to make this super easy to setup.

I love this automation because I don’t have to think about turning off the HVAC when we open the windows for the day, or if my kids run outside and leave the door open.

2. Turn off the HVAC when you leave home

A common way to automate your smart thermostat is to setup a geofence around your home, and to have your smart thermostat turn off when you leave the geofence. Well, there are a few limitations with this. There may be other people still at home without smart devices to indicate their presence, or you may be running a quick errand, so it may not be necessary to turn off the HVAC. I solved all this in Home Assistant with a series of conditions and an actionable notification.

The automation is triggered when either me or my wife leaves home, determined by a geofence zone. Then, it checks if the doors are all locked — a sign that no one may be home — and if the thermostat is on. If all of that is true, it will delay continuing the automation for three minutes. Why? Because I then have it check to ensure neither me nor my wife is home, and that no presence is detected from any of the presence detection sensors that I have in rooms around the house. My kids are too young to have smart phones, or there may be a babysitter over, so the presence detection sensors provide confirmation that no one is in the house. However, I have an additional condition to ensure that our robot vacuum does not give a false detection that someone is home if it’s out on a cleaning mission. If all of those conditions pass, that means absolutely no one is home, and it sends me a push notification asking if I’d like to turn off the HVAC. This push notification is actionable, meaning I can select options from the notification itself, such as to turn off the HVAC, or to ignore because I plan to be back home in a minute. Let me know if setting up an actionable notification is something you’d like me to cover in a future video.

I love that this automation puts me in control so I always get the result I want. By sending me an actionable push notification when no one is home, I am able to decide if I want the HVAC to remain or to turn off, instead of having it just always turn off on me.

3. Turn on the HVAC when you return home — routine schedule

So if you have the HVAC turn off when you leave home, how do you turn it back on when you return home? There are two different automations that I use to do this.

If you have a set schedule, for example, everyone going to work and school, then you can setup an automation that aligns with this routine.

I have this automation triggered when me or my wife leaves work, determined by a geofence zone. Then, it checks if it’s after 2 pm on a weekday, to avoid a false trigger because one of us left work to grab lunch. If this condition passes, it activates a scene to re-create what our HVAC setting was before. For example, if the HVAC was set to heat, it will turn on the heat. If it was set to cool, it will revert to cool. Then, I get a push notification confirming the HVAC was turned on.

I love how this automation takes all the thought out of it, and can re-create the desired temperature in our home before we even get there, while saving us money on our energy bill during the day.

4. Turn on the HVAC when you return home — actionable

If you're wondering how would this work if you’re out all day but not at a usual destination, like work, that's where this next automation comes into play.

Here, we return to actionable notifications. If I arrive back to our home geofence and the thermostat is off, I’ll get an actionable push notification asking if I’d like to turn on the air conditioning or heat, or I can just click ignore.

I love how this automation avoids a situation where you turn off the HVAC during the day, and after a couple hours you realize it’s too hot or cold inside because you it wasn’t turned back on.

5. Receive temperature alerts if it’s too warm or cold

Let’s say you’re away from the home for a long time with the HVAC off, or you returned home after the HVAC was off all day, and didn’t turn it back on, or maybe the HVAC was turned off unexpectedly. With this automation, I get push notification alerts sent to my phone if the indoor temperature is outside of the acceptable range.

This automation has come in handy. One time our cleaning service was wiping the face of the smart thermostat, and accidentally turned it off on the hottest day of the year when everyone was gone at work and school. With this automation, I get a notification on my phone telling me it’s too hot inside, so I can take action and turn on the air conditioning (or heat) wherever I am.

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Featured Tech

Honeywell Home T5 WiFi Smart Thermostat: https://amzn.to/3Sz4XBf

Ring Alarm Contact Sensor (2nd Gen): https://amzn.to/3SPUwsb