A day in the life...

[jay (support)]

All - I wanted to start a topic here to try to create a more structured way to hear what people are doing with Indigo in their homes. To that end, we'd like to hear from you a brief narrative that describes a day in the life of your smart home. So, for example:

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At 3am, Indigo turns on the sprinkler system and adjusts the run times based on the time of year and any watering restrictions that may be currently in force by my water company.

At 6am, Indigo begins brightening the lights in my bedroom to wake me up. It also turns on the coffee maker so that I have coffee waiting for me when I get into the kitchen. Once there, I hit a keypad button that causes the weather to be spoken through my whole home audio system. It also turns on the hot water recirculating pump for morning showers.

I jump in the shower and when a humidity sensor in the bathroom senses high humidity, it turns on the exhaust fan automatically (and will turn it off again when appropriate). I open the closet door to get dressed and the light in the closet automatically turns on.

When I arm the alarm system to leave for the day, Indigo adjusts the thermostats to save energy and makes sure all the lights are off. It also turns off the hot water recirculating pump.

At around 11:30am I get a call from a neighbor saying that the UPS driver had left a package for me that needed a signature, but that they were about to go out of town. I ask them if they would mind leaving it in the garage. I open the garage door for them and once they're done I close it again.

When any one of the kid's smart phones gets close to the house, Indigo turns up the thermostats and I get a notification that they've arrived home.

30 minutes before sunset, the outdoor landscape lights come on and if it's Christmas so do all the holiday lights. After dark, if a motion sensor at the front door detects motion, Indigo turns on the porch light automatically and announces through the whole-house audio that there is someone at the front door. If someone opens a door onto the back deck, the light automatically comes on and stays on for 20 minutes - enough for the dog to complete her evening walk.

I start a load of laundry in the washing machine. My machine doesn't have an audible notification when it's done, so I have a device that monitors when it's using energy and when it's not: when it stops using energy it speaks an announcement through the whole-house audio and sends a text to my phone. When I start the dryer, a humidity sensor may detect that the humidity in the utility room has gone up and will automatically turn on (and off) the exhaust fan.

When it's time for bed, there is a keypad button that I press which turns out most of the lights in the house, turning on the ones that lead to the bedroom. It also turns out all the landscape and porch lights that may still be on. At Christmas time, it also turns off all the holiday lighting, both on the outside and the Christmas tree lights.

Everything starts again the next day.
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This is a bit of a contrived scenario (though several parts of it are true in my house), but I wanted to include some good examples. So, what's your smart home's day like? Share below!

At 6.30am, my bedroom motion sensor starts watching me, and Airfoil starts announcing the time every 5 minutes until I go to work - once I wake up, the sensor turns on my bedside lamp.

At 6.45 and 7am Airfoil announces today's weather. At 8.30, if I haven't already pressed a manual keypad button to do this earlier, Airfoil and all bedroom lights/devices turn off.

Entering the kitchen, the down lighters come on dim unless it's bright enough.

Throughout the day, the heating comes on/off depending on schedule and the temps reported by sensors around house. Any lights left on in unattended rooms go off after 5-10 mins depending on room, and TV goes off after 15 minutes.

When alarm is set, all devices and lights go off.

Tea time, mum turns on the Chip Pan - Airfoil warns us to put on a pair of goggles to avoid the toxic fumes when she leaves it cooking unattended, reminds her it's still on every minute, and turns it off after 10 minutes.

Sunset, the house lamps (and Christmas lights) come on.

On entering bedroom, lamp comes on - unless TV is on, because that's bright enough.

Bedtime, setting the alarm knocks off all lights/devices and heating and the day starts again tomorrow.

At 6.30am Indigo switches my coffee machine on

At 6.45am Indigo announces me the weather.

During the day it checks weather and adjust sunshades according to it

At 10pm Indigo closes my rollers

At 11pm Indigo checks if the rollers are closed, if not, it closes

At 11pm Indigo switches TV/LAN switch/SAT decoder off for the night

At the moment I do not have any control on lights and so on.

Howartp, how do you get it to turn off the cooker?

Too much to post here, but I thought that some highlights might fit the bill. Many actions modified by whether it's a weekday or weekend, whether we are home or away, whether it's a holiday or not, and so on.

20 minutes before the morning alarm, fire the morning climate setpoints.

5 minutes before the morning alarm, set up morning lighting.

At sunrise (which is too often AFTER the morning alarm) turn off all inside lights and any remaining outside lights.

At dusk, set up all evening lighting.

At sunset, set up all exterior lighting.

1 hour before bedtime, fire the overnight setpoints.

At bedtime, turn off all inside lighting as well as all exterior, non-security lighting (paths, etc.), ensure all Sonos players are stopped, shut down all media equipment. This will not fire if "Entertain" is true. If "Entertain" is true, the bedtime action must be fired manually (which also sets "Entertain" to false.)

Behind the scenes, Indigo is running many things, like:

- my whole-home humidifier with settings based on ambient humidity measured throughout the house and the current weather (WUnderground Plugin of course!),
- running attic exhaust fan based on the attic's temperature relative to the outside temperature and whether we are in a heating or cooling mode (i.e., if heating then take advantage of the warmer attic and don't vent it--unless there's a humidity condition), and
- monitor various sub-systems to ensure function (i.e., make sure that the septic pump is running, make sure we didn't leave the garage door open, etc. and alert me via email and Growl if something's not quite right...

Honestly, we interact with Indigo very little, and rely much more on Indigo Home Automation.

Here's some of the automatic stuff, but we use Indigo touch and scene buttons, regularly, too.

If first motion detected in kitchen between 5:30am and 7:30am, Indigo turns on kitchen lighting scene, and turns the Kitchen Sonos to favorite news program,
If wind outside is less than 10mph, spray yard for mosquitos at 6am (if home status variable set to "home"),
If alarm is disarmed by occupant using code, the alarm system door chimes are temporarily disabled so dog can be let outside without waking the kids,
Alarm system sends text messages to phones if doors / windows opened while chimes are off,
Simulated sunrise awakens kids for school on school days,
Dog feeder activates for 1.5 minutes,
Outdoor lighting turns off near sunrise,
Motion sensors control lights in many portions of house during day,
Solar Pool heater turns on if pool temp low and sunlight sufficient,
Home office motion sensor turns on/off lights, fan(s), and aux HVAC depending upon room and outdoor temps,
Office lamp flashes during day if delivery detected at front door (or any motion),
Temperatures in two HVAC zones adjusted based on occupancy and weather factors,
If wind less than 10mph, 6p mosquito spraying in yard (it's a swamp)
Button on keypad in Kitchen (or Indigo touch) plays radio paradise at sufficiently loud volume in kitchen and grill area during dinner time,
Sonos action (via Indigo touch) announces food coming from grill, tells kids to wash hands and get ready,
Sunset triggers outdoor lighting,
Underwater Snook light turns on,
Kids bedroom lights automatically dim to 0 % over 10 minutes from 8pm forward (no matter how many times they turn them back on)
HVAC and fan adjustments,
Exterior motion sensors later in night trigger additional exterior lights and confirm that deadbolts are locked,
Arming alarm confirms deadbolts are locked, sends text with name of any open windows or doors, adjusts ceiling fans, lights, etc.

That's the "off the top of my head" list, but there's a lot more happening. Some of it just seems normal, now.

Howartp, how do you get it to turn off the cooker?

Was a TKB plugin switch; now it's hard wired Fibaro behind a specific double-socket as we've just completely redone the kitchen from ground up.

Ah, I thought for a moment you might've had a cooker with full control over the rings or something


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Oh, and it's just the deep fat fryer, not the oven/cooker - just realised I've called it the wrong thing for 20+ years!

Numpty!

My day with indigo:

As I work 5 week rotations at work I have a counter to set a variable to 1-5. Every weekday morning a schedule runs depending on the variable to wake me and my other half up for our work. It starts by simulating a sunrise 30 mins before that time. It also makes sure there's enough hot water in the tank for our showers, and sets the heating to come on if it's cold enough. As we move around the house the motion sensors connected to my DSC alarm turns the lights on and off automatically and turns on the extractor when we go into the ensuite.

When we leave for work and set the alarm it automatically opens the garage door (well actually right now it doesn't.. But it does announce to my other half to "Open the garage door" which is close enough... She HATES that ). Once we leave indigo turns off anything we might've accidentally left on.

If during the day the alarm is tripped it sends a pushover notification to my iPhone and work PC and starts uploading any captured video/images to an offsite server... It happens every so often when the cats are too active

At lunchtime if I'm coming home to feed the cats I hit a control on a control page from my work PC to make sure the house is warm. (I plan one day to get it to do it by geolocation).

When we go home at night I activate the same function as at lunchtime, but if it's after 4pm it also turns on the TV, sets the av receiver to Apple TV, turns on the lava lamp (and other lights if it's dark enough).

If I walk into the study indigo automatically turns on the desk lamp, and I've got an AppleScript setup to wake my MacBook (which is a little flakey so needs replacing).

At dusk it turns off the solar hot water pump, which despite being a very expensive system (£10000 apparently) is loud and annoying and has no built in timer controls. And frankly in this part of the world only helps take the edge off the cold water, but they need to fit them on due to govt. legislation even when it makes no sense (I would leave it off but the rest of the gas heating system needs it to work properly)

When it's time for bed I can trigger the "goodnight" script by either turning off the TV/lamps in the living room or pressing a option on a control page which also turns off the TV/downstairs lights after a short delay. This also turns on the lamps in the bedroom and turns on the electric blanket if it's a wee bit nippy. It also turns the heating down.

Through the night occasionally one of our cats will bring in a mouse and start scrabbling around torturing the poor thing. I've found blasting the sound of a Hoover through the lounge speakers for a moment via an action group in indigo touch scares her away for a while giving me a chance to rescue it and put it outside.


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Through the night occasionally one of our cats will bring in a mouse and start scrabbling around torturing the poor thing. I've found blasting the sound of a Hoover through the lounge speakers for a moment via an action group in indigo touch scares her away for a while giving me a chance to rescue it and put it outside.

LOL!

I love threads like this one.

I agree with DaveL. I don't really want a complicated remote control system. I like an automated house that requires very little intervention.

Most of my interaction with Indigo is via basic alarm system actions. Arm Away arms the DSC, turns off lights, starts a Sonos talk station just loud enough to be heard from outside the doors, and turns off all lights. Arm Home arms in stay mode, turns off inside lights, etc. Disarm turns on certain inside lights, disarms the DSC, unlocks my entry door for 20 minutes. These are really the only button presses that I must actively engage.

The rest is pretty much automation. Some examples:

Inside accent lights on at dusk.
Outside lights on at dusk plus all outside lights on if any entry door is opened at night.
a few random overnight schedules to simulate occupancy, turn on a lamp or outside light.
if my sonos talk station stops when alarm is armed, it restarts itself.
if there's motion at either entry door (porch or deck) when alarm is armed away, Sonos plays a loud barking dog which wanders through the house.
time of day schedules to set HVAC set points (wake up, sleep, arrive home).
a wakeup alarm on weekdays that starts my sonos, ramps up volume over time, turns on a few lights, shuts off fan. I have a 'sleep late' button to disable this for one day.
if a garage door is opened, turn on garage lights, start garage sonos.
if my iPhone is away from home and the alarm is NOT set, i get a message.

if it's night and a required outside light is turned off, turn it back on.
if it's day and an outside light is turned on, message me and turn it off.

my alarm triggered actions include all kinds of mayhem with lights, barking dogs, notifications, etc. Have never had to test their effectiveness. We're in a quiet neighborhood, but I do this stuff because I can!

...and many more.

My control pages are mainly simple and concise and mainly focused on monitoring the status of HVAC, lights, security, temp, netatmo/weather. Most things just run themselves, I monitor and tweak things as needed, and Indigo does the rest.

Most of my stuff is variations of what's already been reported. I do have a few interesting ones, though:

WEATHER EMERGENCY -- Indigo checks the NOAA alerts RSS feed every 30 seconds to download and search for weather warnings with the flags EXTREME & IMMEDIATE. If there are any for my county (and if the map polygon shows my house is in the specific area), all house lights are turned on and the security alarm chirps. The polygon test is a cool addition -- it keeps us from being disturbed if there's a tornado at the other end of the county...

PLUGSHARE -- We share our EV charger via PlugShare. Once we get a request, we give the person directions to our house. Once there, SecuritySpy notifies me that they're outside the garage waiting. After I verify they actually have an electric car, I can open the garage door remotely. At the end of the charging session, Indigo alerts me to how many kWh were consumed via an interface with SiteSage.

SPRINKLER -- Adding a little bit of complexity of our setup, I use evapotranspiration modeling to determine how much moisture needs to be added back to the soil and program the sprinkler system to deliver on that forecast. I also adjust the sprinkler cycle by the millimeters of rain forecast, so that I don't waste city water.

HVAC -- We have a single unit, eight zone heat pump. Motion sensors in the rooms setback or turn off the system in rooms that are unoccupied. Further, the system is turned off when the alarm is armed, -or- if all of us are away from home (geofence). The system turns back on when any of us get within a few miles of the house.

SOLAR PV -- We upload statistical data from our Solar PV system and household energy usage to PVOutput via interfaces with SiteSage and Enphase Enlighten.

SECURITY -- The system arms automatically each night and locks all doors. I put door sensors in the deadbolt strike plate area to ensure deadbolts are actually engaged. If not, Indigo notifies me by iMessage.

POOL -- in process, but the intent is manage the pool pumps and chemistry via Indigo.

With Pushover plugin, Indigo reminds my wife to take pills before going to bed

At 6am I wake up after crying myself to sleep.... oh, wait, wrong forum....

I've taken the approach "if Indigo doesn't do it for me now then figure out how to make it happen".

5:00a - The house knows that someone is going to wake up soon and slowly ramps up the temperature in the house from the 60 degree "sleeping" temp. This happens in very small increments over the next 90 minutes so it's not suddenly hot in the house and THAT wakes us up.

6:30a - Rise and shine, as soon as I get out of bed the motion sensor in my bedroom detects I'm up and "wakes up" the house. My wife travels through the week, but Indigo knows when she is home (using things like Find My Phone, MAC address sensors, motion detectors, door entry codes, etc), so if ONE of us gets up then the house knows "hey one is still sleeping don't wake up the house yet", so the wake up does't happen unless it's just me or if both are awake.

6:30a - The house wakes up. The curtains all open, furnace or A/C ramps up, my office light turns on, outdoor lights go off (if they are still on), turns off the DNS on my phones, wakes up my office computer.

7:00a - Sprinklers kick in if the ETO in the zone is saying the zone is thirsty, if there is no current rain and if the weather stats don't point to rain being imminent. The plugin I wrote for this knows exactly how much water to drop for exactly how long and shuts off when its done. While I'm taking my coffee Indigo reads my calendar and tells me whats going on today.

8:00a - 9:00a - Indigo is monitoring my master bath to see if there is motion, when there is then it's "shower time" and it turns on the shower light and bathroom lights for 30 minutes. When it detects humidity in the shower it turns on the exhaust fan.

9:00a - The house wakes up if it hasn't already

10:00a - If I haven't showered yet (unusual, but I work from home so anything is possible) then it blinks my office lights. If I'm not on the phone it will also voice announce to get cleaned up.

Anytime - Indigo monitors indoor and outdoor temperatures, if the thermostat is having trouble keeping up and it's 80 or more degrees out, it closes the curtains on whichever side of the house the sun is currently hitting and then will re-open them if the thermostat doesn't have to work as hard, it cools down or the sun moves to a different part of the house

Anytime - If my motion sensors detect low luminescence and motion it will turn on the lights. Also if the house keeper arrives then Indigo knows she is here and turns on all the lights in the room she is cleaning

1 hour before dusk - The curtains all open up

Dark - Some of the house lights come on, outside lights come on, the motion sensors all activate. I have chained my sensors and written a lot of logic to know if any room is occupied and when you enter and leave areas, so the house turns on and off lights as you move around the house (trickier when it's not just me but still works)

8:00p - Curtains close for the night

9:00a - The thermostat lowers to 60

10:00p - The house goes into a "bedtime pending" mode for 15 minutes, basically turns off all the indoor lights, turns on the bedroom and waits, if there is motion in the next 15 minutes then it switches to "bedtime" mode, if not it returns to "awake" mode. When it is in bedtime mode then as soon as we turn off the light by the bed then Indigo shuts off the remaining lights and puts the house in "sleep" mode. If we get up before 6am the sensor in the bedroom triggers a "roaming" event and turns on a few key lights to very dim levels for 3 minutes unless it detect you enter my office, in which case it turns off those lights and turns on the office light (assuming I'm not able to sleep and am going to just work instead).

8p - 12a - If we want to go to bed early or late the house waits for a command from the remote control (or a manual "shut down" button in our control pages). If we turn off the TV during this time it will put the house in "bedtime pending" mode.

Throughout the day - The "smart thermostat" functions are being monitored to adjust the temperature of the house based on occupants, outdoor temperature and recorded habits (a plugin I wrote)

There's SOOOOOO much more that Indigo does but that's a typical day in the life for me