Home Automation- A Guide to Timed Events

timer-iconHaving something happen at a particular time is common in home automation.

Common examples are

  • Turning lighting on/off.
  • Turning central heating on/off
  • Turning irrigation systems on and off
  • etc





There are two approaches to implementing timed events and they are:

  1. On Device Timing
  2. Central Timing

On Device Timing

Many switches have inbuilt timers which means that they can be programmed to operate at a particular time and are not dependent on a central control.

Tasmota devices can be configured with up to 16 independent timers see Setting Tasmota Timers with MQTT.

Shelly has a single timer but this is generally enough.

The problem with on device timing is that it it isn’t easy to know what has been configured unless you have incorporated this into your dashboard.

Central Timing

This is accomplished using your control system e.g Home assistant, node-red,Alexa etc.

This is easier to manage as you have a better overview of the timing but you need a connection to the device for the timer to trigger the action. See Home Automation Timer with Node-Red.

Using Both

You can of course use a combination of device and central timing but this can be very confusing and so is not really recommended.

An approach would be to use on device timing for Tasmota devices and central timing for Shelly devices.

Summary

Timed events are common in smart homes but keeping track of timed events can be tricky if you have too many and they are set on the device itself.

Related Tutorials and Resources:

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