this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
48 points (98.0% liked)

homeassistant

14504 readers
1 users here now

Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
greatalbatross@lemmy.world
48
my very first automation (lemmy.zip)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
19 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I used Home Assistant to create my very first automation today. It's really stupid simple, but I feel as though things will only get crazier from here.

Context: i have an old dumb window AC that has 2 physical dials. One turns fan- low, fan-high, cool-low, and cool- high while the other is labeled from 1 to 8 with 1 being warm and 8 being coldest. This AC is either on or its not. Even if the compressor is not running the fan runs 24/7 until it is physically switched off.

My current automation checks once per hour, and if the temperature is above 80 degrees, it will notify me to turn on the air conditioner.

I intend to buy one of the third reality smart plugs soon and switch the action from notify to "turn on the third reality plug for 10 minutes". Then I will just leave the unit itself on Cool High and let the plug manage the power.

Eventually, I think I will also buy a third-reality temperature sensor and set the trigger to if the temperature sensor says that the room itself is above 80 degrees instead of using the forecast.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] tburkhol@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Also check that the switch is rated for motors. A lot of the switches I've seen have separate power ratings for resistive (lights) and inductive (motors) load, because of the power-factor or inrush spikes. https://www.getzooz.com/zooz-zen15-power-switch/ is Z-wave, but specifically for high-current motors.

[โ€“] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

I didn't see an answer online so I decided I would email the company support just to make sure. Drawing 550 watts. It's definitely capable of holding it while it is running. But I do not know how much power it takes to actually start it up. So that is a very good point. And I want to make absolutely certain I don't kill the plug.