I would like to turn on mood lighting automatically when I’m taking a shower, what’s the best way to detect that?
- I’ve considered humidity sensors, but that will take a while to kick in and not immediately when the shower starts.
- I’ve also considered a water leak sensor but those are not meant to be trigger every day for a long time like 10-15 minutes. That would kill the battery, right?
- Smart valves can kind of work, but it feels like overkill because I don’t care about the valve functionality.
I would prefer the solution to be battery powered (don’t want to be messing with too many cables around a shower), but I can’t seem to find one.
The right way is some sort of inline water flow sensor, so it’ll trigger within seconds of you turning on the shower to warm it up. With an esp32 and a sensor, and some clever use of the sleep function, it’d probably last a year or so on a couple of AA’s.
Low effort and price tech is probably better in a wet environment though! If you just want the mood lighting, get a wireless button and stick it somewhere near. Tap it on, tap it off!
If you want to feel that automatic magic, consider a cheap battery powered temperature sensor. If you fix the chassis to the shower head pipe it’d probably be accurate enough. Also, assuming you need to wait for your shower to heat up, you’d have a pretty good idea when your shower was hot too - when it triggers your automation for the lights!
Just make sure the sensor polls often enough or can be made to report on a significant temperature difference in a timely fashion. Something like this might do it: https://sonoff.tech/products/sonoff-zigbee-temperature-and-humidity-sensor-snzb-02p
Also avoid WiFi for buttons, connection and addressing takes ages and sicks for an instant response needed for something like lighting changes
Any reason a flow sensor wouldn’t work?
This is a fun question.
I have to assume the absolute ideal would be some sort of water flow detection right in line with the shower head. Likely hard wired. But like I said, that’s an ideal.
I think the other suggestions in the thread are reasonable. The microphone one seems most appealing to me since that could theoretically just occupy an outlet anywhere in the room.
A waterflow sensor makes the most sense to me too, but it doesn’t have to be inside the pipes. A microphone glued to a pipe should be able to detect the vibrations due to waterflow and hardly anything else.
Perhaps combine with a motion sensor to see if the lights should be on at all. Then the microphone only switches between modes.
You could also use the drain pipe if the actual water pipe is harder to reach. It would even work against false positives (I can clearly hear the washing machine letting in water through my water pipes)…
Oh, good point. Water flow can be loud when you are right up on the pipe. You could also keep it from picking up other noise with insulation. And the detection might not have to be that fancy then. Just amplitude.
Made a flowchart for you:
< Do you feel wet? > | +-- yes --> < are you indoors? > | | | +-- yes --> < are you wearing pants? > | | | | | +-- yes --> [ you peed yourself ] | | | | | +-- no --> [ you're taking a shower ] | | | +-- no --> [ it's raining ] | +-- no --> [ you are not taking a shower ]I would use something like this to measure water usage in combination with an presence sensor in the shower stall. Water flowing + someone present in shower stall = someone taking a shower.
If you have a shower door: use a door/window sensor (on the outside). Trigger the mood light if the door was open for only a couple of seconds.
Still more complicated than hitting a switch, tho, IMHO.
Sadly, can’t do that because it will trigger when I’m cleaning the shower or just soaking in the bathtub
Then get creative with the sensor data. Look at the time it’s open when you shower compared to when you’re cleaning.
Or add a door sensor to the cleaning cabinet.
You can get a lot more out of a sensor than a boolean on/off, if you’re willing to analyse the data a bit. (Who needs a smart washing machine, if they can analyse the power usage?)
Or add an override button for when you don’t want the moodlight. Make the most common usage the default and use manual intervention when it’s not the usual occasion.
EDIT:
You’ll want to be able to easily override anything like that, anyways. When there’s some kind of reason to respond quickly (some emergency for example). You don’t want to be stuck with mood light, when you accidently slip and get injured (when you’re also naked and wet).
OK, assuming your switch is also smart
Option 1: long-press/double function turns on both light and fan, that triggers an “I am going to shower” 5 minute delay where a humidity sensor senses when it is over and keeps the fan on until humidity is stabilized with the rest of the house.
Option 2: get a smart flow meter instead of a smart valve. Then you have useful statistics for shower water usage in addition to an instantaneous status. This has the side effect of the mood lighting turning on “late”
Option 3: get one or make an esphome + LD2410S on battery or plugged in close by, nobody goes in the shower for more than like 10 seconds without showering
Option 4: Time of Flight sensor outside of the shower pointing in to tell when the door/curtain is closed. If the ToF sensor is (for example) between 1.1m and 1.2m, the door/curtain is closed
If you have a shower cubicle, could you put a door open sensor on it, and assume you’re showering if the door is closed? I think it’s normal to leave the doir open when not in use. It would probably also work if you had a shower curtain, so long as you always pulled it all the way closed in use.
I normally keep the door closed, but this is an elegant solution and I think I can work with this. Just gotta change my habit a bit
I experimented with a humidity sensor in the shower and was surprised how quickly it spiked. It’s how I woud do it. Other option would be a leak sensor in the basin but getting it to turn off at the right time would be very hard. You have a lot more control over this with a humidity sensor.
I’m using zwave for everything like this and wouldn’t be at all concerned about battery for either scenario. Both would last years, much like my door and window sensors do.
I would just go with special button, the most straightforward simple solution you have direct control over. Also sometimes you might need to use the shower without mood lights and then system based on humidity or water flow will just be annoyance.
If you use some tools when showering, like brush or spung, you can make a contact sensor into the hook/holder (more work, probably need a custom 3D print), but should also work and you don’t need to press anything
@batshit I tend to use the fact that I’m naked and wet as my cues.
I’ll try but I’m not the smartest tool in the shed
If it’s an electric shower, you can do what a salamander pump does and add some detection wires on the shower box’s on-switch. I appreciate you don’t want wires around the shower but it’s a fully direct “is the shower on” detector and the wires are technically in the shower rather than around it.
Electric shower…?
A shower that takes cold water from the mains and heats it with electricity. Common as muck in the UK.
That makes sense. I’m not sure we have those in the US. It does sound a bit like a euphemism for an execution method haha
Your individual shower habits might be predictable enough to if than your way to it with existing sensors.
If you track current draw on your boiler / water heater that would indicate a draw on hot water during time when you typically shower. You can add other checks for it to pass if you find too many false positives.
If you’re as glued to your phone as every one else alive atm a simple rfid / wireless charger or something you set your phone on when you strip for the shower triggering the event will likely be the most straight forward approach unless you bring your phone in the shower lol I’m occasionally guilty if the podcast is good enough 😅
Multiple waterproof 4k cameras pointed at the inside of your shower from every angle and image recognition by some AI that detects when a naked person enters.
Don’t forget to use Wifi and no firewall
If someone wants to see my hairy ass they better have a 4k view of it
I use a humidity sensor, motion sensor and a helper that shows the change over a period of time. If the humidity raises fast (+2%/5m) and goes over a certain amount (unique, depending on your room’s climate) the bathroom automation changes tracks to hold the light at 100%, turn the extractor fan on, and well, how you stop the automation depends on you. I let it stay on for 15 minutes before waiting for motion. Small tips: For me the humidity triggers the automation within 15s-1m of showering, which is okay for me. Motion sensors typically use IR to see movement. If the room is too steamy it might struggle to see you. Also, it cannot penetrate glass. It must have a line of sight to you.
The best alt I think would be mmwave presence sensors, but they’re pricy and require a wired connection.
I already have a presence sensor (Tuya) in my bathroom. Maybe I can use that + humidity sensor, everyone is saying it’s faster than you expect so I’ll give it a shot.
