I was curious if there is an automation device that can listen for a given cue like say the buzzer on a washer or dryer and use it to send notifications? I don’t even know what to call it to search for it on google…
Or do you have something else watching the power draw and detecting the drop?
This. I have never done it myself, but I would imagine this would be fairly trivial with home assistant. The plug reports it’s power draw back to HA regularly, and HA has a trigger for when [a value] goes above/below [a certain figure].
So set something up like “Plug currently consumption falls below 5W, trigger notification.”
Any ESP8266-based or Zigbee smartplug will do. If you get an ESP8266-based one, get one that comes with Tasmota preinstalled, then you don’t need to open it up and flash it. Don’t get an ESP32-based one.
If you run Tasmota or use a Zigbee plug, you need to do the detection in Home Assistant or Node-RED or whatever you’re using. Personally I do it directly in ESPHome:
binary_sensor:
- platform: analog_threshold
id: machine_running
name: "Washer running"
icon: mdi:washing-machine
sensor_id: power
threshold: 5
filters:
- delayed_on_off: 60s