5 Home Assistant helpers you’re not using (but should be)

Assistants can be very useful in Home Assistant. A Toggle Helper is an easy way to enable guest mode, turn off notifications, track status, and more. There are many other helpers beyond the Toggle Helper, and they can be even more powerful.

Threshold sensor

This is a useful aid that can tell you when a sensor’s value exceeds or falls below a set level. For example, if you want to know when your washing machine is finished, you can use an energy monitoring smart plug to measure the power the washing machine is using. When the power drops below a set threshold, you can send an alert to let you know the wash is complete.

The threshold sensor allows you to set an upper and lower limit. If you only set an upper limit, the threshold sensor will only turn on when the input sensor value exceeds this threshold. If only a lower limit is set, the threshold sensor will only turn on when the input sensor value drops below this limit. If the upper and lower limits are set, the threshold sensor will only turn on when the input sensor value is between the upper and lower limits.

To reduce beats when the input sensor value oscillates around a threshold, you can set a hysteresis value. This gives a buffer indicating how far the input sensor value is from the threshold before the state changes.

Time of day sensor

This sensor is incredibly useful and can save you from having to hardcode delays into every automation you create. For many automations, you won’t want actions to occur at specific times of the day. For example, you don’t want an automation to send you a critical alert at 3 a.m. just to tell you that the dishwasher has finished running.

The time of day sensor is very simple. You give the sensor a name and set the times you want the sensor to turn on and off. For example, you can create a sensor called “Do Not Disturb” that turns on at 10 p.m. and turns off again at 7 a.m. You can then use this binary sensor as a condition in your automations, so that the automations only work when this Do Not Disturb sensor is turned off.

The beauty of this is that if you decide to change the times you don’t want to be disturbed, all you need to do is change the time of day sensor settings. There is no need to go through and change the time conditions on each automation.

Orient yourself

A threshold sensor is useful, but sometimes you don’t want to know when a sensor’s value exceeds a specific threshold; you just want to know if the value is increasing or decreasing. For example, if you have a humidity sensor in a bathroom and the humidity level starts to rise quickly, you can be pretty sure someone is taking a shower without having to buy a smart shower. This is where a trend assistant can work.

The Trend Wizard produces a True value if a sensor value increases. You can invert the sensor so that it returns a True value when a sensor’s value decreases. By default, it looks at the last two sensor updates to make this judgment, but you can increase this value if necessary. Since at least two updates are required, it may take some time before a sensor returns a True or False value, because the value of a sensor, such as a humidity sensor, may not change very often.

Derivative

A trend assistant will tell you if a sensor’s value is increasing or decreasing, but it won’t tell you how quickly this is happening. In this case, you will need to use the Derivative sensor.

The derivative sensor measures the rate of change of the digital state of a sensor. For example, you don’t want your “someone is in the shower” automation to trigger when the humidity rises slightly. You only want it to go off when the humidity starts to rise quickly. Instead of giving you a simple true or false, the derived sensor generates a value that represents the rate of change of your input sensor, with a higher number indicating a faster rate of change. Decreasing values ​​are indicated by a negative value for the rate of change.

You can set a time window for the Derivative sensor, which then gives a time-weighted moving average. This can help filter out small fluctuations that could cause your automations to trigger incorrectly.

Mold indicator

This help was very useful to me in my house which is old and poorly insulated. I often find myself with a worrying combination of rooms that are both cold and damp, a source of mold. The mold indicator has proven to be a useful way to be alerted when I need to increase the temperature or decrease the humidity in a room to reduce the risk of mold.

The mold indicator requires three elements of data: an outdoor temperature measurement, an indoor temperature measurement, and an indoor humidity measurement. You should also calibrate it by measuring the coldest surface in the room and combining that with the measured indoor and outdoor temperatures to generate your calibration factor.

Although the installation took me a while, it was worth the effort because I was able to run a dehumidifier in all the rooms where the risk of mold was high.

Home Assistant really lives up to its name. Even basic aids can be incredibly helpful, but the list of aids may be longer than you think. It’s worth checking out all the types of help available, as some of them can save you a lot of time and effort.