1. Lights that follow the sun, not a schedule
Fixed-time lighting schedules break twice a year and feel wrong most evenings. Instead, we trigger evening lights on sun.sun elevation — typically when the sun drops below 1.5° — and ramp brightness gradually. Nobody ever notices this automation, which is the highest compliment an automation can get.
2. The “everyone left” reset
One automation, triggered when the last person’s presence drops: lights off, thermostat to eco, media players paused, and a notification only if a window was left open. We use person entities grouped into a zone.home count rather than device trackers directly — phones lie, and Wi-Fi presence flaps when someone’s phone sleeps.
3. Morning modes, not morning alarms
Instead of “at 7:00 do X”, we set up an input_select for house mode (sleeping, waking, day, evening, away). Automations react to the mode change, and the mode itself can be flipped by time, first motion in the kitchen, or manually from a dashboard. Decoupling “what happens” from “when it happens” is the single biggest maintainability win in Home Assistant.
4. Water and leak alerts that escalate
Leak sensors under the sink, behind the washing machine, near the water heater. First alert: phone notification. No acknowledgment in 5 minutes: notification to everyone in the house plus lights flash red. If a smart valve is installed, shut the water after 10. The escalation ladder matters — a single silent notification at 3 a.m. protects nothing.
5. The “is everything okay?” nightly digest
At 22:00 the house sends one message: doors locked or not, windows open or not, batteries below 15%, and any entity that’s been unavailable for over an hour. One message, once a day. This replaces the dozen nagging notifications that make people mute the app entirely.
What we stopped recommending
Motion-triggered lights in living rooms (great in hallways, infuriating on movie night), voice announcements for routine events (novelty wears off in days), and any automation that requires the client to remember it exists. If it needs a manual, it’s a feature, not an automation.
Thinking about a Home Assistant setup? We do installs — sensors, dashboards, escalation ladders and all.