I’m finally tackling our shower light automation because my husband brought up why I haven’t done it yet (Someone is getting spoiled!). And the answer is because I don’t know how to. I need some help on picking devices and just ideas in general. Here are some pics of our shower and main bath.
Some of my own limitations: I know a water flow sensor can be installed but I have zero confidence in my ability to not break the shower LOL. So, here is my initial thought process:
Idea 1: Use a door contact sensor to turn light on and a motion sensor to keep light on.
What I’m struggling with the motion sensor is what device to use. Do they make waterproof motion sensors or would outdoor ones work in here? I ideally want the motion sensor to be IN the shower. If so, I’d love to hear your suggestions. If not, would putting a motion above the tub outside of the shower work? Not sure how they are through glass.
Idea 2: Rather than a motion sensor, I can probably do something clever with like the “rate of change” in humidity to trigger the light off. Simply, I can probably just turn the light off when the vent fan turns off (automated with the humidity sensor), but I’m sure there’s a “tighter” way so I can turn the light off sooner than the fan since it does take a while for the vent fan to turn off. What I like about this idea is not having to buy another device.
If they're asking for more then you're doing it right. My first thought is maybe a Hue Outdoor motion sensor as they're IP44 rated. PIRs don't generally work well through glass so better to mount it inside the shower - far corner facing the door possibly?
Haha right? Now, he turns on lights in places I haven’t automated them yet (getting there) and just leaves them on. “The evening and night modes will just turn them off, right?” “Yes, love. They do ”
Yup! That’s where I would put it. I’ll check that sensor out. Thank you so much!
I get that but it’s not like anyone will just be standing / sitting very still while showering lol. I find that the flailing of the arms to wash yourself is enough for motion sensors.
I don't have a fully enclosed shower but I do have a high ceiling. I put the motion sensor high above the shower where the humidity can thin and dissipate quicker than "in the shower". (Technically the motion sensor IS within the shower but it's 4-5 ft above the top of the glass.)
I have it mounted via magnet. I 3m Command Strip a large washer to the wall and then Gorilla Glue a Neodymium magnet to the motion sensor. In your case, I might 3M Command Strip a magnet to the shower ceiling and then another magnet on the motion sensor. Two magnets will help to insure it doesn't fall. Be sure and preplan the magnet orientation so they aren't repelling.
However, all that got replaced when the mmWave Human Presence Sensors came out. They can see through glass. I have one PIR Motion Sensor for the bathroom as a whole and then the mmWave aimed so it can see into the shower too. My logic is that the lights come on by PIR but won't turn off until both are inactive after a delay.
I do have an mmWave somewhere in my stash! I’ll test it out and see if it works above the tub looking into the shower thru the glass. I’d probably still have the trigger on to be the door opening and the turn off rule to be based on the mmWave no presence. I’ll also add the shower light off in my vent fan off rule too as a failover since no one is probably showering if the humidity is back to normal even if there’s still presence in the bathroom (e.g. soaking in the tub, getting ready at the vanity)
I use a cheap Third Reality motion sensor. I paint the PCB (not any part of the sensor itself) with silicone conformal coating. I hang it high out of the water flow with a command strip. No problems for the couple years it's been there. Note: I originally tried a different cheap sensor, but somehow the conformal coating interfered with the operation.
The one I have (Linptech) works through glass in one of our showers (and through an opaque shower curtain in another shower). The shower w/the glass enclosure is a steam shower and the Linptech even works when the shower is full of steam. I would expect no problems sensing though glass for a decent quality mmWave sensor.
The main issue w/mmWave is they are (mostly) mains powered so you'd have to find a spot/spots where you can get power to the device while situating it where it can cover the desired area.
I use two sensors in both baths:
mmWave (Linptech) arranged to cover the shower area to sense motion during showers
A second sensor (Iris v2, battery powered) near the door to cover entrance to the bathroom and general motion there outside the shower.
The mmWave sensor gets me a "two-fer" as due to its placement in both rooms on the side of the vanity, it covers both the shower and the toilet, so if someone (now who would that be) is sitting very still reading for a while, the lights won't turn off.
In your case, a mmWave sensor on the far edge (by the tub) of the vanity pointing towards the shower would get you coverage for the tub for sure, and likely the shower as well (depending on the angles, hard to tell for sure. But to get power to it you'd have to run a line across the wall behind the far sink to the outlet and that might look a little dodgy.
Regardless you're going to need maybe four sensors since it's a large bathroom w/separate areas. If you want to keep it simple (no mains powered, which can cause complications) then I'd:
Put one at the top right outer corner of the shower where it hits the glass wall, w/the sensor facing down into the shower area. It will be away from water and won't be too conspicuous.
Then one on the side of the vanity next to the tub to cover in-tub motion.
One in the toilet, mounted as inconspicuously as you can work out
One at the near end of the room that covers entry into the room and motion in the area in front of the sinks.
I've used indoor motion sensors outside for years, and as long as they aren't in spot where they get direct rain, they have lasted w/out issue. So as long as you keep your sensors from direct exposure to water I think they'll be fine.
Fun project to work out locations and sensor types, and get the decay timing and sensitivities right.
I have 2 NYCE sensors my master bath. One in the main area and one in the shower. Work very well.
Rules for master bath
10:30pm-5:30 am, Walk in and only the nightlight (3rd reality) comes on at 20% in blue. Just enough to not miss the toilet an not bright enough to wake you up.
5:30am-7:00am Lights come on at 10% and climb to 100% over 15 mins so as not to blind you.
7am to 10:30 pm. Walk in, lights come on at 100%, go off after 5 mins of inactivity.
Wife mode switch... Disables motion sensors, turns off main lights and shower lights, turns on and dims above mirror lights for relaxing soak in the tub.
Heated floor: Sinope thermostat. Don't change floor much, but Hubitat reads my Weatherflow weather station and pushes the current outdoor temp to the Display on the Sinope. Sinope display is activated by the NYCE sensors and goes out after a minute of inactivity.
Humidity. If Humidity goes above 65% fan kicks on (it's a 1 sone unit so really quiet). It stays on until it's within 15% of the hallway humidity sensor then turns off.
Multiple sensors help because my ceilings are 10'. Shower is 7'x8'x10' and the rest of the bath is about 12x15.
For bathrooms I use three pieces: motion sensor, contact sensor, Inovelli switch.
The Inovelli switch is set to smart light mode so it is always on. I use smart bulbs but you can always use it as a normal switch. The switch is mainly there for guest UI comfort.
How it all works is that the motion sensor triggers the lights just like you would expect. This works great when somebody enters the bathroom. There are cases where they may not trigger it again while in the bathroom and this is where the contact sensor comes in,
When the door is closed it overrides the motion sensor from turning off the lights. This way the lights will never turn off when the door is closed. When somebody opens the door they are also going to trigger the motion sensor so when the override is disabled (open door) then we are back in another normal motion cycle and the lights will go out as motion stops.
This works great. Nobody gets stuck in the bathroom waiving their arms around in the dark trying to get the lights to turn back on.
Where the switch comes in is for guests. They may not feel comfortable with automatic lights. So if they press the off button it will override the motion and turn the light off. Same thing if the lights are off (before the motion resets) then the on button will turn them back on. It gives some manual control without breaking the automation.
Another benefit to this setup is that my lights run on a circadian rhythm. Depending on the time of day they will transition between bright white and warm white, as well as different lighting levels. A double tap of the switch will set the lights to a preferred color and brightness.
It’s our toilet room haha but it DOES share a wall with the shower wall. There is tile in the shower all around the shower tho. Would it still work? I could try it! Then just get rid of the motion sensor in there. Things to try for sure! I like to
I've not tried it through shower tile, but it will go through interior walls. Easy to test since you have one in hand, you'd probably need to set it to higher sensitivity and distance, and mount it on inside of the doorway so it's facing the toilet/wall, which will again likely complicate getting power to it.
There is a battery powered mmWave sensor, might simplify your life a bit if you want to use mmWave sensors in the bathroom:
This is basically what I do, but a triple tap up will lock out motion activation (3x down releases). The GE/Jasco toggle glows blue when it's locked out. It's a convention that I use for all my motions.
edit: I use the GE/Jasco in-wall motion switches in the bathrooms.
I tried to create something like this, and after fighting RM and corner cases for a couple of weeks, I decided to admit defeat and I did it using Groovy instead
Of course it doesn't help with the broken actions.
The first broken action would be turning on the light and the second would be turning it off. I'm not sure why there were two actions there.
Overall it was a simple script and worked fine. It relied on the fact that sending an on command to a light that is already on isn't going to do anything. The same for a duplicate off. So if the motion sensor went inactive while the door is closed the light would stay on. As soon as you moved to open the door you would trigger the motion sensor again and now the light would turn off the next time the sensor went inactive.
This particular one was before I added the switch functionality. That may have only come along after I moved to a custom app.
(Someone is getting spoiled!). And the answer is because I don’t know how to. I need some help on picking devices and just ideas in general. Here are some pics of our shower and main bath.
My first thought is maybe a Hue Outdoor motion sensor as they're IP44 rated. PIRs don't generally work well through glass so better to mount it inside the shower - far corner facing the door possibly?
Now, he turns on lights in places I haven’t automated them yet (getting there) and just leaves them on. “The evening and night modes will just turn them off, right?” “Yes, love. They do 
”
