Vibration Sensors Are What Your Smart Home is Missing

When you think about smart homes, a vibration sensor might be one of the last things on your mind. After all, the spotlight is on digital assistants, pricey cameras, or fancy lighting automations. But vibration sensors are the true underdog of basic home automation and here’s how you can use them.

1 Picking a Vibration Sensor

I use a handful of vibration sensors in my own smart home and have been experimenting with different ways to make them useful. I chose Aqara vibration sensors that I route to a Raspberry Pi running HomeAssistant. The Aqara sensors also have compatibility with HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home, so no matter what flavor your framework, they can work for you.

Other popular sensors include Third Reality, Aeotec, and YoLink. I’ve been able to find most online at a fairly inexpensive price point, which is great for allowing a little more financial freedom of experimentation.

A small, square vibration sensor.

2 Monitor Laundry and Dish Cycles

If there’s one thing I’m bound to forget, it’s clean laundry and dishes waiting idly by for my attention. Cycles take an extended period of time, and when they’re finished, I’m likely not around or otherwise occupied whenever the machine chimes. This is where vibration sensors can come in handy!

By attaching one to your dishwasher or washing machine/dryer, you can configure an automation to remind you that a cycle has been completed.

For example, you could create an automation that monitors continuous activity through the sensor, so if activity is constant for a set amount of time, you can be fairly certain it’s running a cycle. Then, when activity ceases, you can relay that to your device. I originally considered using smart plugs for the same goal, but vibration sensors are both a cheaper and safer option.

3 Get Notified About New Mail

Checking the mail can be a daily ritual for some people, but perhaps you want to cut out the trip to the box or simply be notified about activity in it. Utilizing a vibration sensor is a simple way to get updated about potential deliveries.

This configuration could get tricky if your mailbox is far from your network, or if yours is adjoined with other boxes, which could create issues with providing alerts specific to your mail.

Nevertheless, you can create an automation to detect activity and then deliver a notification. If you’re not at the box when you receive the notification, then you know something is being delivered.

4 Don’t Forget to Take Out the Trash

Here’s another chore that can be easy to forget. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess! Worry not, our vibration sensor can wait idly by, attached to your bin to keep you prepared for trash collection day.

You probably have one day of the week when trash is collected out on the street. Using our sensor (and attaching it securely to the bins), you can wait for activity at a certain time of day prior to trash pickup. If your pickup day is Monday, you could organize a notification for some time on Sunday evening if no activity has been detected. No more overflowing trash!

5 Automate Your Bathroom Air Freshener

When I was at university, someone made an entire social media account dedicated to rating the different bathrooms across my campus. As you can imagine, smell was a pretty big deciding factor for quality-of-bathroom. With a vibration sensor, you can mask bad smells on-demand!

Attach a sensor to your toilet, and after a set amount of time has passed from activity detection, you can activate an air purifier (like the Sierra Modern Home diffuser) or smell-good device of your choice. You may even wish to turn on a fan for a period of time to help circulation.

Also, as someone who owns a cat, this automation idea would be doubly good for activity in the litter box!

6 Protect Your Home

Here’s an idea that I hadn’t considered before buying a few sensors, but has now prompted me to buy even more. If you’re looking to step up your home security, a vibration sensor can quickly become your best friend. Windows are easily the most accessible point of entry into a home for any would-be burglar, so why not protect yourself and your assets by picking up a handful of makeshift alarms?

By attaching these to your windows, you can create an automation to alert yourself and the household to a potential home invasion in the event of sudden force. Perhaps even the visibility of a sensor in the corner of your window would be enough to deter opportune criminals.

You could also set vibration sensors to monitor doors or gates after a certain time, when you aren’t expecting activity or visitors.

7 Work From Home Smarter, Not Harder

Alright, so the prior ideas have all been fairly practical, so it’s probably time for a totally unnecessary but seriously cool automation idea. If you work from home in any capacity, you likely have a desk or some sort of workstation where you draw focus for periods of time in order to get some work done. Enter: the desk chair vibration sensor protocol!

By hiding one of these sensors on your chair, you could create a fun automation that performs multiple operations after, say, detecting activity for the first time in the morning (or around whatever time you need to “lock in”).

Imagine you wake up, head to your home office, and plant yourself upon your throne of success. Suddenly, the lights slowly adjust to wake you up, or blinds rise to allow sunlight through a window ever so carefully. You hear the sound of the coffee maker firing up. Your pertinent notifications are read aloud to you. Enya blasts out of your connected smart speaker (ok, maybe not that last one).

You are ready to seize the day. Try combining this idea with these work-from-home tips as well!

The possibilities are practically endless when it comes to home automation, and they get a lot more interesting with more sensors at your disposal. I hope these simple ideas help other novices like myself get started or evoke some imaginative thinking.

Looking for more smart home tips? Check out some smart home automations that can make your life easier.