Syralists Blog

Window Automation

 SmartHome  1203  6 mins

Window Controls Radiator

As I wrote in my article about my Smarthome setup, automation is what makes a smart home smart. Here I describe how I turn the radiator down when the window is opened and turn it back up again when the window is closed.

Update 2021-01-13: In the meantime, I no longer run the automation via Node-Red, but instead use the automations natively built into Home Assistant.

Involved Components

The window is monitored with a Xiaomi Aqara door/window contact. This sends the status via Zigbee to the Conbee Stick. The Conbee is integrated into Home Assistant via Deconz.

Xiaomi Aqara door/window contact

A Homematic radiator thermostat is mounted on the radiator. As Homematic central I have a Raspberry Pi with Raspberrymatic running. The thermostats are always set to manual, because they are controlled exclusively via Home Assistant.

Homematic Thermostat

The reduced temperature is set via an input_number entity.

input_number

Automation in Home Assistant

I have created an automation for each window. The automation runs in Restart mode because I use a Wait action and any instances of the automation that are still running will be cancelled as a result.

create the automation

The trigger is quite simple: When the window contact changes state to on, the window is open and the automation should start.

set the trigger

I have added a condition here that my heating system must be running. When the heating is switched off in summer, the automation should not mess with the radiator.

optional condition

Now follow the actions that are to be carried out. First, a temporary scene is created in which the state of the thermostat is saved. For this, the service scene.create is called and a scene_id and the entities are passed.

Next, the service climate.set_temperature is called. The temperature is not entered as a fixed value, but is read from the input_number helper with the help of a template.

actions part 1

Next, a Wait for trigger action is started, which pauses the automation until the window contact reports closed again. No timeout is entered, so that the automation theoretically remains active forever.

When the window is closed again, the last action is to activate the previously saved scene.

actions part 2

Here is the complete YAML for import:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26

alias: Fenster BĂĽro
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.fenster_buero
    to: 'on'
condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.vicare_heizkreisaktiv
    state: 'on'
action:
  - service: scene.create
    data:
      scene_id: buero_snapshot
      snapshot_entities:
        - climate.00201a49a039a4
  - service: climate.set_temperature
    data:
      temperature: '{{ states(''input_number.temperatur_niedrig'') }}'
    entity_id: climate.00201a49a039a4
  - wait_for_trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: binary_sensor.fenster_buero
        to: 'off'
  - scene: scene.buero_snapshot
mode: restart

NodeRed (no longer used)

The automation is implemented in NodeRed and consists of six nodes.

Complete Flow

The state node “Fenster” reacts to a change of state of the window contact.

Window State

The switch node branches into the upper or lower path, depending on the state. The binary sensor of the window contact has the state on when the window is open and off when the window is closed.

Branching with the State

When the window has been opened, the first thing to do is to save the current status of the thermostat in a temporary scene with the call service node. In the data field, the name of the scene and a list of the entities to be saved must be passed.

1
2
3
4
5
6

{
	"scene_id": "thomas_snapshot",
	"snapshot_entities": [
		"climate.0012999395e750"
	]
}

Saving the State

Next, the value of the input_number entity is read with a current state node.

reading the input_number

Finally, the thermostat is set to the readout value with a call service node. For this purpose {{payload}} is used as a template in the data field.

1
2
3

{
	"temperature": {{payload}}
}

Setting the Thermostat

When the window is closed, the previously saved scene is activated with another call service node. Here only the name of the scene must be passed in the Data field.

1
2
3

{
	"entity_id": "scene.thomas_snapshot"
}

Resetting the Thermostat

Such a flow is used for every room in which a smart thermostat is installed. The advantage of this method with a temporary scene is that it can be expanded easily. If additional entities are to be considered, they only need to be added at one point.

Here is the complete flow to import:

  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
 10
 11
 12
 13
 14
 15
 16
 17
 18
 19
 20
 21
 22
 23
 24
 25
 26
 27
 28
 29
 30
 31
 32
 33
 34
 35
 36
 37
 38
 39
 40
 41
 42
 43
 44
 45
 46
 47
 48
 49
 50
 51
 52
 53
 54
 55
 56
 57
 58
 59
 60
 61
 62
 63
 64
 65
 66
 67
 68
 69
 70
 71
 72
 73
 74
 75
 76
 77
 78
 79
 80
 81
 82
 83
 84
 85
 86
 87
 88
 89
 90
 91
 92
 93
 94
 95
 96
 97
 98
 99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180

[
	{
		"id": "d302a18c.b4a5c",
		"type": "api-call-service",
		"z": "e0fe8a5c.1c4ed8",
		"name": "Temperatur speichern",
		"server": "db71ae1a.4969e",
		"version": 1,
		"debugenabled": false,
		"service_domain": "scene",
		"service": "create",
		"entityId": "",
		"data": "{\"scene_id\":\"thomas_snapshot\",\"snapshot_entities\":[\"climate.0012999395e750\"]}",
		"dataType": "json",
		"mergecontext": "",
		"output_location": "",
		"output_location_type": "none",
		"mustacheAltTags": false,
		"x": 620,
		"y": 1040,
		"wires": [
			[
				"2ba89685.0924aa"
			]
		]
	},
	{
		"id": "68ffd494.662f3c",
		"type": "server-state-changed",
		"z": "e0fe8a5c.1c4ed8",
		"name": "Fenster",
		"server": "db71ae1a.4969e",
		"version": 1,
		"exposeToHomeAssistant": false,
		"haConfig": [
			{
				"property": "name",
				"value": ""
			},
			{
				"property": "icon",
				"value": ""
			}
		],
		"entityidfilter": "binary_sensor.tur_thomas",
		"entityidfiltertype": "exact",
		"outputinitially": false,
		"state_type": "str",
		"haltifstate": "",
		"halt_if_type": "str",
		"halt_if_compare": "is",
		"outputs": 1,
		"output_only_on_state_change": true,
		"x": 100,
		"y": 1060,
		"wires": [
			[
				"8c0ea6fb.5a5d08"
			]
		]
	},
	{
		"id": "8c0ea6fb.5a5d08",
		"type": "switch",
		"z": "e0fe8a5c.1c4ed8",
		"name": "",
		"property": "payload",
		"propertyType": "msg",
		"rules": [
			{
				"t": "eq",
				"v": "on",
				"vt": "str"
			},
			{
				"t": "eq",
				"v": "off",
				"vt": "str"
			}
		],
		"checkall": "true",
		"repair": false,
		"outputs": 2,
		"x": 310,
		"y": 1060,
		"wires": [
			[
				"d302a18c.b4a5c"
			],
			[
				"e5f92e8f.b86af"
			]
		]
	},
	{
		"id": "4acbf5b0.7c7bbc",
		"type": "api-call-service",
		"z": "e0fe8a5c.1c4ed8",
		"name": "Temperatur setzen",
		"server": "db71ae1a.4969e",
		"version": 1,
		"debugenabled": false,
		"service_domain": "climate",
		"service": "set_temperature",
		"entityId": "climate.0012999395e750",
		"data": "{\"temperature\": {{payload}}}",
		"dataType": "json",
		"mergecontext": "",
		"output_location": "",
		"output_location_type": "none",
		"mustacheAltTags": false,
		"x": 1050,
		"y": 1040,
		"wires": [
			[]
		]
	},
	{
		"id": "e5f92e8f.b86af",
		"type": "api-call-service",
		"z": "e0fe8a5c.1c4ed8",
		"name": "Temperatur zurĂĽcksetzen",
		"server": "db71ae1a.4969e",
		"version": 1,
		"debugenabled": false,
		"service_domain": "scene",
		"service": "turn_on",
		"entityId": "scene.thomas_snapshot",
		"data": "{\"entity_id\":\"scene.thomas_snapshot\"}",
		"dataType": "json",
		"mergecontext": "",
		"output_location": "",
		"output_location_type": "none",
		"mustacheAltTags": false,
		"x": 630,
		"y": 1100,
		"wires": [
			[]
		]
	},
	{
		"id": "2ba89685.0924aa",
		"type": "api-current-state",
		"z": "e0fe8a5c.1c4ed8",
		"name": "temp_low",
		"server": "db71ae1a.4969e",
		"version": 1,
		"outputs": 1,
		"halt_if": "",
		"halt_if_type": "str",
		"halt_if_compare": "is",
		"override_topic": false,
		"entity_id": "input_number.temperatur_niedrig",
		"state_type": "num",
		"state_location": "payload",
		"override_payload": "msg",
		"entity_location": "data",
		"override_data": "msg",
		"blockInputOverrides": false,
		"x": 840,
		"y": 1040,
		"wires": [
			[
				"4acbf5b0.7c7bbc"
			]
		]
	},
	{
		"id": "db71ae1a.4969e",
		"type": "server",
		"z": "",
		"name": "Home Assistant",
		"legacy": false,
		"addon": true,
		"rejectUnauthorizedCerts": true,
		"ha_boolean": "y|yes|true|on|home|open",
		"connectionDelay": true,
		"cacheJson": true
	}
]
updatedupdated2021-01-132021-01-13

See Also: