Amazon’s Alexa Routines are sufficient for most people who want to set up and forget, including yours truly. Initially, it is fun to use voice commands or conditional triggers to turn off a light or an appliance. However, as your usage patterns evolve, you’ll gradually start noticing the limitations in the logic of these smart routines. That was my “lightbulb” moment when I tried Home Assistant for the first time.

After tinkering and tweaking, it became apparent that Home Assistant’s automations are smarter than Alexa Routines. There was more than the linear Trigger and Action logic of the routines. Meanwhile, Home Assistant offers the freedom to apply complex logic with multiple conditions and triggers, and execute nuanced actions. The best part is that you can build new automations without requiring additional hardware. I did that and want to share some Home Assistant automations that can make your home feel smarter than any Alexa routine.

Smarter “set it and forget it” lighting automations

Setting the training wheels of a smart home

My early Alexa routine turns on the Philips Hue bulb in my room every evening or at sunsets. That was quite helpful until it spooked my mom, especially when I was traveling. Thankfully, Home Assistant’s automation lets me apply as many conditions as I want for it to check before performing the final action — turning on the lights. For once, it checks if I’m actually at home (using my phone’s location). Then, it presents a prompt with a 5-minute expiry limit asking me if I want to turn on the lights. If I miss the notification, it assumes it as a no response and stays switched off.

The best part is that I can configure the automation to gradually increase the brightness levels depending on the light outside. A light sensor with an ESP32 board integrated into ESPHome certainly helps with that.

Dynamically adjusting the HVAC system

Use data from multiple sensors and inputs

Alexa routine only allows you to set and use the desired values of the HVAC system based on the weather outside, and combine one or two conditions with it. The triggers take place depending on the weather situation outside the house. With Home Assistant, dynamically adjusting values according to preference and condition becomes easy. For example, the thermostat can also measure indoor temperature and humidity levels to set a suitable temperature for the HVAC systems.

Additionally, the temperature can be adjusted gradually as the weather changes and is specified to remain operational within specific hours. The idea is to let Home Assistant provide and adjust dynamic values based on inputs from different sensors.

Truly context-aware notifications based on presence

It’s all about the location

Your smart home can be smarter if it knows (detects) when you and your family are at home or away. Home Assistant provides the best reminders in text or audio form for repetitive tasks, such as unloading the laundry after a cycle. You can place a vibration sensor on the washing machine, which monitors and triggers different actions depending on your presence. If you’re home, it will trigger a voice message on the speaker stating that the laundry cycle is complete when at least one person is present. Otherwise, it’ll notify you via text when you are away and there’s no one at home.

For starters, use your smart TV, smart lights, or smart thermostats as presence indicators. Otherwise, using an ESP32-powered Bluetooth sensor works perfectly for simple notification alerts. But not everyone carries their phone everywhere. A hybrid setup combining BLE and PIR motion sensors can accurately create a two-tiered presence detector, alerting you or triggering audio playback based on context.

Better voice command assistance with local operation

No need for any cloud service support

Voice commands did seem fun when Alexa was teething, but no one wanted to fight with it forever. Even with cloud-dependent Alexa routines, you’ll rarely notice a millisecond delay until your internet connectivity nosedives. Enjoying more local and instantaneous voice assistance is unbelievably simple with Home Assistant. Your typical “Good Morning” or “Good Night” voice commands can trigger a chain of actions that involve checking the state of smart devices in your room, turning them on or off, adjusting the lighting, and other context-aware possibilities, such as speaking a daily weather report or news tickers.

On the hardware front, you can use an old smartphone with a working mic and speaker to use the Home Assistant Companion app on it. Alternatively, buy a tiny $15 Atom Echo smart speaker to start small or repurpose existing smart speakers with ESP32-based components to flash ESPHome and integrate them into Home Assistant.

You can make your smart home smarter

Unlike Alexa routines, you can test and troubleshoot Home Assistant automations before making them live. While you don’t need extra hardware to create simpler automations, adding smart home devices and sensors to Home Assistant does provide you with additional leverage.

I revived and integrated some old smart devices into Home Assistant and followed my colleague Adam Conway’s recommendation to build some smart home devices using ESP32 boards and inexpensive sensors. That can help reduce the automation bloat with better and more meaningful ones.