Setting up your smart home automations to run on a schedule often seems like the best option, but that’s not always the case. When I moved some of these automations to sensor-based triggers, it made my home feel much more natural.
Why smart home schedules feel dumb
Life doesn’t run on a schedule
The idea of running smart home automations on a schedule is sound. If you get up at the same time each morning, then having your morning routine trigger at that time every day will work perfectly much of the time. The problem is that real life doesn’t always run to schedule.
You might get up later on weekends, in which case you need to amend your automation to fire at different times on weekdays and weekends. If you take a day off or get up early, however, then your schedule-based automation won’t fire when you need it.
You might find that your smart blinds suddenly open when you’re hoping for an extra hour in bed, or your kitchen lights are off when you head down to make your morning cup of coffee. Unless you stick rigidly to your schedule, your automation isn’t always going to be there for you when you need it.
It’s not the automation’s fault. It’s doing exactly what it’s told to do by running at the same time each day. The problem is that you don’t want it to run at a set time; you want it to run when you actually need it. You can end up adding more and more conditions to your automation to try to handle all the different edge cases, but it’s almost impossible to cover every eventuality.
Sensors become triggers in your automations
Your automations run when you need them to
The problem is a common one in smart home automations. You end up creating an automation based on a specific trigger instead of one that’s based on the outcome that you want. The reality is that you don’t want your automation to fire at a set time; you want it to fire when you need it.
That’s why you need a different trigger. Instead of using a schedule to run your automations, you can use sensors as the triggers. This ensures that the automation will only run when the relevant conditions are met, rather than running rigidly at the same time every day.
For example, for your morning routine, the reality is that you don’t want it to run at a specific time; you want it to run when you get out of bed. You can use sensors to determine this, so that the automation will only run when you actually need it.
You might use a bed presence sensor or a motion sensor in the hallway outside your room to determine when you get out of bed. This can then trigger your automation, which will always run when you need it, regardless of whether you get up earlier than usual or stay in bed for longer.
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The most useful sensors for automations
Presence detection beats motion detection
There are plenty of different sensors that you can use to make your automations run when you want them to. There are a few particular sensors that I’ve used in my own home to move automations away from schedules to sensor-based triggers.
PIR motion sensors are great for detecting motion, which is a simple but effective way to get rid of a schedule. I have an automation that reads a morning briefing from a smart speaker in the kitchen, which used to run on a schedule. Sometimes, however, we wouldn’t get up on time, and no one would be in the kitchen to hear it.
Using a motion sensor, the automation now runs a minute after motion is first detected in the kitchen in the morning. Since we all go down to eat breakfast together, it means that we’re always in the room when the morning briefing plays.
Presence sensors can be even more useful. These sensors can tell when someone is in the room, even if they’re not moving. I have some automations that give useful announcements through smart speakers, and these used to run on a schedule on all the smart speakers throughout the house. If we were home, most of the smart speakers would be talking to an empty room, and if we were out, all of them would be.
I replaced these scheduled automations with automations that were triggered by presence detection. If someone is in a room for an extended period of time, the announcement plays just from the smart speaker in that room, where it’s certain that there’s someone there to hear it.
There are plenty of other useful devices for these types of sensor-triggered automations. I’ve used contact sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, and light sensors to replace automations that had been running on schedules.
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Sometimes a schedule is the right choice
Not every automation needs to be triggered by a sensor
This isn’t to say that you should never run an automation on a schedule. Sometimes, triggering an automation at a set time is exactly what you need.
For example, I have an automation that plays an announcement on the smart speakers when it’s the kids’ bedtime. The beauty of this is that we’re not the bad guys telling them that they have to go to bed; the smart speaker is the one that’s ruining their fun. Triggering this automation with a sensor wouldn’t make sense; the outcome I want is for the automation to fire when it’s time for the kids to go to bed, and a schedule is the best way to make that happen.
Even better is to combine schedules and sensors by using conditions. The bedtime announcement automation doesn’t run when no one is home, for example, because that would be pointless. While the schedule is the trigger, sensors determine whether we’re at home or not, and if we’re not, the automation won’t run.
I don’t miss my scheduled automations
Scheduled automations have their place, but they’re often too rigid to work well. Sensor-based automations have made my home feel far more human, as my automations now fire when I want them to, no matter how much my schedule may change.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
