I’m using openhab to let devices start, whenever energy is cheap.
Currently in winter, the PV is seldom enough producing enough, so the backup is Tibber and its dynamic pricing. Mostly at night the prices are lower, so openhab knows this and wants to start the dishwasher at like 3am. But this of course is only possible, if the door is closed. So, my kids do open the dishwasher at night and don’t close the door.
I’m grateful they do load the dishwasher, but I’d rather have also the machine starting as intended
So my thinking is s simple way of telling them, the machine is waiting for cheap energy. Of course a simple manual sign “On/Off” could be a simple enough solution, but we’re a smarthome community!
Is there some smart way to present at least two states via openhab? Icing on the cake would be three:
Not sure if I got your question correct, but if you are looking for ways how to notify people in a smart way, this are things I do at home:
If you have colored light in your kitchen, you can change the color of the light depending of the status
If you have smart speaker in your kitchen and light or music is turned on (or in your case: dishwasher door is opened), you can use text to speech to send a short notification.
Yes, understood. Some small sign right at the door, which is either a light (on/off) or something else, which is simple and can be integrated within openHAB.
no coloured light in the kitchen and no door sensor.
I’ve found that colored lights work very well because it’s possible to signal multiple states.
If the socket is visible you could realize this e.g. through a smart plug which often have a LED ring that can be controlled.
The next best solution would be to buy a RGB controller and attach some LED strips to the washing machine. There are also comletely manufactured LED things available that provide an API out of the box.
If you want to tinker grab an esp32 and add some LEDs or even a small display to it. You can control it by e.g. WLED oder esphome without doing any programming work.
Imho it all depends on your budget and how much time you are willing to spend.
There’s some funny solutions.
What I don’t know is, whether the door is open. I use a simple wifi outlet and don’t use a smart dishwasher.
I only have the state of the machine as trigger, so I’d like to visualize at least the state “Waiting for cheap energy”, perhaps also “ready to load/unload”.
@binderth, I’ll ask something not to kill your automation dreams. I’m also in a predicament with my dishwasher and laundry machines.
As far as I’ve read, first, it’s not recommended to leave the machines’ doors closed after they are done as the humidity can cause rust. Moreover, specially with the dishwasher, it’s recommended to ventilate at least the room to prevent the hot steam from creating the environment for mold to grow, especially in the walls (same reason why wet clothes shouldn’t be hanged on the radiators).
Were you aware of that?
I’m also thinking how to overcome these problems as I would also like the machines to start when electricity is cheaper but my machines don’t open their doors when they are done and are not smart either.
Thanks for your recommendations Erik and Skinah. I’m thinking of adding Zigbee to my setup rn, so perhaps some zigbee contact sensors will do it.
The current topic was a bit different to begin with: I wanted to show at the machine, that it’s currently waiting, so that nobody leaves the door open (after putting the last bit into it). An open door prevents the machine to start the program in the first place.
Then the topic derailed a bit to "how to tell, if the door was opened after completion. That’s where door contacts come in. and yes, either machines run for years like this. And - at leaset in Europe - the steam issue of dishwashers after running is not a biggie. We also have central room ventilation as a bonus.
But the issue is indeed, that the washing machine stays too long closed after finishing the programm, making the clothes moldy in extrem cases! That’s the reason I wanted an automation to tell, if the door is open. So that’s a double win, if so: I can see, that the machine is waiting for cheap energy - but the door is open: notification #1 and - more importantly - I can see, if a machine was ready - but wasn’t emptied up. so I can introduce a variety of more and more annoying notifications until someone empties the washed clothes at least!
I use a smart plug (from TP-Link but Kasa also has good ones) with energy monitoring and OH can identify almost instantly when the machine is done thanks to the drop in energy consumption. That triggers a notification to a Telegram group.
There is another automation that turns the plug off 10 minutes after the energy consumption is still low. That triggers a final notification to the same group.
There are countless dry contacts available for Z-Wave, Wifi (e.g. Shelly) or other communication networks. Together with a reed contact and a small magnet this will make a very reliable and easy to use solution.
You attach the small magnet to the door and the reed sensor to the machine.
The benefit is that the sensor and the magnet are tiny and you can hide the bigger communication unit.
If you are willing to open up the machine it might even be possible to use the built in sensor as an input to the dry contact. In any case this can be an almost invisible solution.
That’s basically the same as my solution. What I’m looking for is a way to determine, that the machine was indeed cleared out.
That would be top-notch, but first I’ll have some Xiaomi contacts. So I’m testing, whether the “old” Xiaomi gateway can revived - or perhaps I can us them with a Sonoff Zigbee Gateway. let’s see.
