Introduction

Smart home and home automation are terms that seem to be used interchangeably often, though they really shouldn’t be. A smart home is the all encompassing term for the home system that is connected to the devices in the house. It can be controlled using direct control, like using your smartphone, voice, or buttons. Home automation is something a smart home is capable of carrying out without direct control. Here are some examples:

Having your lights turn on or off with a timer

Having your stuff turn off when you leave the house.

Have your TV turn on when you get home for the day.

Automate Integrated Devices

Navigate to the Automation Editor. Configuration -> Automations Click the + on the right bottom of the screen. Create a new automation will pop up. This pop up can be used to make basic automations by using regular English.

Name and describe your automation. Choose a trigger. Conditions can be added to the automation.

Change Action type to Device. Pick the device you want from the drop down menu. Lastly, choose your action and save the automation.

Automate Manually Configured Devices

Navigate to the Automation Editor. Configuration -> Automations Click the + on the right bottom of the screen. Name and describe your automation. Choose a trigger. Conditions can also be added to the automation.

Set Action type to Call service. From the drop down menu, pick the service you want to use. Some examples include switch.turn_on / switch.turn_off / switch.toggle Choose the entity or entities you want to perform this action and save your automation.

Add Automations to Lovelace UI

Open the Configure UI, which was covered in Organize and Customize Home Assistant. Click the + in the bottom corner to add a new card. The automations can be added to an Entities card. Title the card and add the automation entities.

Save and exit the UI editing mode.

Conclusion

Automations are easy to create in Home Assistant. If you’re having any issues, slow down and make sure you’re going step by step. The more complicated the automation, it may take some time to perfect.

Extra Help