Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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In my journey to build a smarter home, I am always thinking about how to improve the user experience especially when so much of what my house does is without any direct interaction.

One way to do that is by using Home Assistant’s helpers when building automations.

So in this video I cover the three helpers I use and the situations I use them in. We cover how to set them up, and to use them in automations and scripts, and I walk through several of my own use cases.

So if you are thinking about how to make managing your automations easier, or just want to customize how your smart home interacts with those in your house, stick around because we are about to automate some boring stuff.

Here are the video chapters:

00:00 - How to Use Helpers in Home Assistant - Intro
02:17- Using Input Booleans in Home Assistant
04:14 - Using Input Datetime in Home Assistant
05:48 - Using Input Numbers in Home Assistant
08:33 - Wrapping it Up

Links to things in the video:

Presence Package on Github
github.com/thejeffreystone/home-assistant-configuration/blob/master/config/packages/presence.yaml

Security Package on Github
github.com/thejeffreystone/home-assistant-configuration/blob/master/config/packages/security.yaml

Lighting Package on Github
github.com/thejeffreystone/home-assistant-configuration/blob/master/config/packages/lighting.yaml

Weather Package on Github
github.com/thejeffreystone/home-assistant-configuration/blob/master/config/packages/weather.yaml

Who am I?

My Name is Jeff. I am an Automator of boring things and a huge Home Assistant fan. I also live in a house that tweets.

Follow Me:
Github - github.com/thejeffreystone
Twitter - twitter.com/thejeffreystone / twitter.com/slackerlabs
On the Web - slacker-labs.com

And if you like this video or find my config or code on GitHub useful you could always fuel my coffee/automation habit - buymeacoffee.com/icE6DeBut,
or use my Amazon affiliate link ( amazon.com/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl?k=Home+Automation&ref=nb_sb_noss_2&linkCode=ll2&tag=thejeffreysto-20&linkId=18622d75c4923c69c2b7488cec58ad5e&language=en_US) which helps support this content. The affiliate link provides a small commission on things you buy without additional cost to you.

Or just subscribe, like, and share my videos. I appreciate everything that you do to help make this channel possible.

If you want to follow my house on Twitter, you can at twitter.com/anchoragehouse2 but be warned....it can be snarky.