The best automation is one that runs so smoothly you forget it exists. These 15 automations are practical, easy to set up in Home Assistant visual editor, and cover the most common smart home use cases — no YAML required for most of them.
1. Motion-Activated Lights
Turn lights on when motion is detected and off after a set period of inactivity. Add a condition so it only runs after sunset. Works with any motion sensor — Zigbee, Z-Wave, or Wi-Fi.
2. Welcome Home Lighting Scene
Trigger when your phone connects to the home Wi-Fi network (using the Home Assistant Companion app). Turn on specific lights at your preferred brightness and color temperature, disarm the alarm, and adjust the thermostat.
3. Goodnight Routine
A single button press that turns off all lights, locks all doors, arms the alarm system, and sets the thermostat to your sleep temperature. One of the most satisfying automations to build.
4. Automatic Blinds Based on Sun Position
Use Home Assistant built-in sun integration to close blinds when direct sunlight hits your windows (reducing cooling costs) and open them at sunset.
5. Doorbell Notification with Camera Snapshot
When someone rings the doorbell, send a notification to your phone with a snapshot from your local camera. Works with Frigate NVR or any RTSP camera — no cloud required.
6. Laundry Done Alert
Monitor your washing machine power consumption with a smart plug. When power drops below 5W after being above 20W for a period, trigger a notification: “Laundry is done.”
7. Guest Mode
A toggle in the dashboard that temporarily disables presence-based automations so they do not turn off lights when guests are present but your phone is not detected.
8. Water Leak Alert
Connect a cheap Zigbee water sensor under your sink or near the washing machine. Send an urgent notification — and optionally close a smart water valve — when water is detected.
9. Low Battery Alerts
Home Assistant can monitor battery levels across all your devices. Create an automation that sends a weekly notification listing any device below 20% battery.
10. Automatic TV Ambiance
When the TV turns on after sunset, dim the living room lights to 30% and set them to a warm color temperature. When the TV turns off, restore lights to normal.
11. Adaptive Lighting
The Adaptive Lighting integration (available in HACS) automatically adjusts your lights color temperature throughout the day — warm and dim in the morning, bright and cool during the day, warm and dim again in the evening. Install it once and forget it.
12. Security Camera Motion Alert
With Frigate NVR integrated into Home Assistant, get a push notification with a camera clip whenever a person (not just any motion) is detected at your front door.
13. Energy Monitoring Dashboard
Add smart plugs with power monitoring to your high-consumption devices. Home Assistant Energy Dashboard gives you a real-time breakdown of electricity usage — entirely local, no subscription.
14. Automatic Vacation Mode
When all household members are away for more than 6 hours, automatically arm the alarm, lower the heating, pause smart irrigation, and simulate occupancy by randomly turning lights on and off in the evening.
15. Morning Briefing
At your wake-up time, have Home Assistant announce via a local TTS speaker the weather forecast, your calendar events, and whether any doors or windows were left open overnight.
Getting Started with Automations
In Home Assistant, go to Settings → Automations and Scenes → Create Automation. The visual editor handles most of these automations without writing any code. For more complex logic, the blueprint marketplace has ready-to-import automations built by the community.