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Automations

Four automations covering heaters in the morning and the balcony door in the evening, none of them clever.

Four automations in active rotation. The morning ones do the boring useful thing: heat the water and warm the work room a little before I am in either of them. The door ones handle the one mistake we keep making, which is leaving the balcony open after we have stepped back inside. The goal with all of them is to do their job without me having to notice they are there.

Automations · 4 items
ScheduleMorning Heaters
At 8:00 AM daily, the bedroom water heater and the work-room heater both run for 15 minutes and shut off on their own.
Manual runHeater On-Demand
A virtual button on the HA dashboard that runs the work heater for 15 minutes and turns it off automatically. For the cold afternoons the morning schedule did not see coming.
6 PM nudgeBalcony Door Evening Check
At 6 PM, if the balcony door is still open, both phones get a reminder. Bug-prevention masquerading as a security alert.
Real-time alertBalcony Door Night Alert
Between 6 PM and 6 AM, if the balcony door is opened and stays open for more than a minute, both phones get pinged. The 1-minute grace handles "stepped out for a second".
Last updated · April 28, 2026