Help Automate Bathroom Exhaust Fan

Hi Guys - I want to automate my master bathroom exhaust fan based on a couple switches and timing...

I have a basic rule that turns on the exhaust fan when either the toilet or shower light turns on.

Where I need some help is a rule that will turn the exhaust fan off 15 minutes after all the master bathroom lights have been turned off.

Thanks, Glenn

A YouTube video of how to do that has recently uploaded on the Hubitat YouTube channel. Take a look and see if that helps.

1 Like
2 Likes

You might also want to check out a humidity/temp sensor. You can activate the fan when the humidity gets too high.

I ended up doing this in our upstairs bathrooms - originally had the fan come on when the shower light came on (and then go off 10 mins later or so after light turned off or timed out) but my dear daughter kept turning it off because she didn't like the noise and my wife was annoyed due to some wacky mental control thing - when she wants to turn a light on she doesn't like that a fan comes on too, she wants to decide... sigh.

Anyway using the humidity level to trigger the fan seems to have alleviated the issue - fan runs lowers humidity, FAF (Family Approval Factor) seems okay.

For our powder room with no bath/shower, a simple on for a certain duration when the light turns on then off does the trick. Thinking about adding motion sensors to the mix as well.

3 Likes

It's a shame that someone who knows Rule Machine better doesn't review the final rule before these get posted. IIRC, there was also mistake (now fixed) in one of the videos conditionals, too. :slight_smile:

In this case, the rule ends up like:

image

There is a cancelable delay but not "Cancel Delayed Actions" action, so it may as well not be marked as such, but presumably the intent was to put a "Cancel Delayed Actions" before (or after) the "On" action so the humiditiy has to stay below this range (or at least not rise above the other range) for five minutes. As-is, you may get unexpected surprises if that happens.

Even better would be to use the paradigm that @bravenel began suggesting a couple years ago. In that case, the rule might end up looking something like:

Trigger:

Humidity of Kids' Bathroom Humidity Sensor > Hallway Humidity Sensor + 20

Actions to run:

On: Kids' Bathroom Fan
Wait for event: Humidity of Kids' Bathroom Humidity Sensor <= Hallway Humidity Sensor + 15
Wait for event: elapsed time --> 0:05:00
Off: Kids' Bathroom Fan

In reality, you might also need to do something to accommodate the hallway sensor reporting >= 80% (i.e., 100-20) because otherwise you risk the trigger never matching (and possibly the "wait for event: humidity..." too, not that it will matter if you never get there), but this was just an attempt to re-do the rule as written.

Or at least I would have done one of these two things, likely the one I suggested just above, if I made such a rule. :slight_smile:

1 Like

I'm able to set my Zooz switch to simply shut off after x minutes in the device config. I just manually turn on the fan but it could easily be automated as well...

I also find this app quite good. I don't technically use it for my bathroom, I use it to operate a tp-link smart switch to turn on my dehumidifier in my garage.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.