u/rugg3d

Help what can I do to get this out. Something bled in the wash.

I've spent a while dialing in a "Summer Shade Control" system in Home Assistant across 13 Z-Wave roller shades, and I think it's finally solid enough to share. I have a mix of 70% and 100% Essential Cream Roller Shades with z wave battery motors.

Setup

Shades are split into front-facing (get morning sun, need heat protection) and rear-facing (get afternoon/evening sun). Six automations handle the whole day:

1. Morning Opens: 7am partial open in a few rooms, 9am and 12pm full opens elsewhere, staggered by room usage
2. Early Bedroom Open: if the front door unlocks between 6 and 8am, the primary bedroom shade cracks to 8% so whoever's up doesn't wake the house
3. Front Heat Close: 9:30am and 10:30am, closes front-facing shades, but only if it's sunny/partly cloudy or the temp is already above 78°F
4. Rear Heat Close: same idea for the rear of the house at 12:30pm (plus a 2:30pm catch-up), gated on 82°F instead since those rooms handle a bit more heat before it's a problem
5. Evening Events: sunset minus 2h10m, sunset minus 1h09m, and sunset plus 10m stagger the rear shades open longer for the view, then close everything as the sun actually goes down
6. Night Close: one shade with zero solar gain just closes at 10pm on a timer, no weather logic needed

Weather Check

The heat-close automations check a local temp sensor, so a cloudy/cool day just leaves the shades open instead of closing on a rigid schedule. If the gate doesn't trip, I get an email explaining which shades stayed open and why, so I can override manually if the forecast changes.

Battery monitoring

Every battery-powered shade reports into a weekly Friday email and a low-battery alert (30% warning, 20% critical), sorted worst-to-best so I don't have to hunt for the one that's dying.

I'm happy to share my yaml if requested.

I've spent a while dialing in a "Summer Shade Control" system in Home Assistant across 13 Z-Wave roller shades, and I think it's finally solid enough to share. I have a mix of 70% and 100% Essential Cream Roller Shades with z wave battery motors.

Setup

Shades are split into front-facing (get morning sun, need heat protection) and rear-facing (get afternoon/evening sun). Six automations handle the whole day:

1. Morning Opens: 7am partial open in a few rooms, 9am and 12pm full opens elsewhere, staggered by room usage
2. Early Bedroom Open: if the front door unlocks between 6 and 8am, the primary bedroom shade cracks to 8% so whoever's up doesn't wake the house
3. Front Heat Close: 9:30am and 10:30am, closes front-facing shades, but only if it's sunny/partly cloudy or the temp is already above 78°F
4. Rear Heat Close: same idea for the rear of the house at 12:30pm (plus a 2:30pm catch-up), gated on 82°F instead since those rooms handle a bit more heat before it's a problem
5. Evening Events: sunset minus 2h10m, sunset minus 1h09m, and sunset plus 10m stagger the rear shades open longer for the view, then close everything as the sun actually goes down
6. Night Close: one shade with zero solar gain just closes at 10pm on a timer, no weather logic needed

Weather Check

The heat-close automations check a local temp sensor, so a cloudy/cool day just leaves the shades open instead of closing on a rigid schedule. If the gate doesn't trip, I get an email explaining which shades stayed open and why, so I can override manually if the forecast changes.

Battery monitoring

Every battery-powered shade reports into a weekly Friday email and a low-battery alert (30% warning, 20% critical), sorted worst-to-best so I don't have to hunt for the one that's dying.

Saw this earlier today by the airport