Dom Scandinaro

Today my partner left to walk the dog while our cleaning person was here and I was at work. The automation I added a couple months ago to stop getting in trouble for leaving the lights on activated and turned all the lights off on the cleaning person while they were in our apartment by themselves. 🙈

I guess I’m going to have to add a disable switch for cases like this?

#homeassistant

Feb 23, 2023 at 2:49amWeb
Show threadPete KeenFeb 23, 2023
@DomScandinaro give them an NFC to tap on a reader near the front door that turns the automation off for however long.
Show threadDom ScandinaroFeb 23, 2023
@zrail yea, I think something like that is a perfect idea as long as we’d remember to use it.
Show threadJohn DetersFeb 23, 2023
@DomScandinaro I added a Boolean helper called guest_present, and a calendar tie in that matches entries with the word "guest" that triggers the Boolean. Any automation that might disrupt them checks the Boolean before running.
Show threadDom ScandinaroFeb 23, 2023
@targetdrone I think I should implement something like this. It’s just unfortunate that we will need to remember to use it. I’d probably also put it on a timer so that we just use it when leaving the guest in the house so that things still work when we leave the home with the guest.
Show threadJohn DetersFeb 23, 2023
@DomScandinaro Having the housekeeper on the calendar is one fewer person impacted by the ghostly actions. You can extend that to anybody you'd schedule to come to your home, like repair people.
I also have the "guest present" toggle visible on the dashboard so I can turn it off in other situations, like when I have family or friends over and need to make a run for take-out food. (I really need a push button near the door, though.)
Show threadDom ScandinaroFeb 23, 2023
@targetdrone thank you for the inspiration! We have a tablet dashboard so a toggle on it combined with a button by the door combined could work. We don’t use a shared calendar currently, so I’m not sure creating one just for automations would result in any use. 🤔some combination of this will work for us.
Show threadJohn DetersFeb 23, 2023

@DomScandinaro I apologize! It's easy to forget that not everyone does everything the same way we do.

About a decade ago we replaced the calendar-stuck-to-the-fridge-with-magnets with an old iPad-stuck-to-the-fridge-with-magnets, and created a shared calendar that is the default calendar on our phones. We still use our personal calendars for private appointments that don't need to be shared. It's worked out very well for us.

Show threadReduxeFeb 23, 2023
@DomScandinaro We implement a guest boolean that will block lights out automations. Right now it's manually enabled but I'm thinking maybe something like "if the family is all out of the house but motion persists then enable guest and send a notification to my phone".
Show threadDom ScandinaroFeb 23, 2023
@reduxe we’ve got a dog so I think motion sensing is unfortunately off the table.
Show threadReduxeFeb 23, 2023
@DomScandinaro Yeah, it's a tricky one to automate. I've also heard some people have had luck sensing the number of devices on the guest wifi network. Also not perfect and would probably fail to catch the cleaning person. It's probably a bayesian sensor kind of problem.
Show threadMaxFeb 26, 2023
@DomScandinaro you could create a guest user and a script + button to toggle the presence of this user.