We compiled 10 of our best Amazon Alexa smart home automations for 2022 that you can easily set up in no time.

If you love smart homes, then you must also love smart home automations. These help make your smart home, well, smart. We here at SmartAssTech.com love automation and put together some of our favorite automation ideas that we use in our own homes. This is not a step-by-step on how to set these up, just merely ideas to implement in your own smart homes.

These smart home automations are listed in no particular order;

#1 Candy Cabinet Alert

If you have kids that like to sneak candy in the middle of the night, then this automation is for you. Grab yourself a contact sensor, we like the Third Reality Zigbee sensor. It’s a bit thick, but it works with most Smart home assistants that have a built-in Zigbee hub like the popular Amazon Echo 4th Gen. Once you place the sensor where you want it, simply create a routine to send your phone an alert once the cabinet is opened, silent or audible, it’s up to you. If you have a camera in this area, you can also set that to trigger a recording to review later. You can also set another automation with this same trigger to turn on the kitchen lights and give the kids a little freak-out. Now, you have what you need to see which little one is taking that tasty candy when they are supposed to be in bed.

#2 Night Mode Automation

Setting up a night mode is a great way to secure your home before bed. In the Alexa app, you can set a routine up by a voice trigger. Something like “Activate Night Mode” will do nicely. When this trigger is activated, the routine will turn on security lights outside, dim interior lights, lock the doors, lower window shades, and then confirm that night mode was activated. This is a great way to have a lot of nightly tasks automated for you.

Things you will need for this automation are outdoor lights, this can be bulbs or light switches. Some Floodlights can be controlled via your assistant such as the Wyze Floodlight. You will also need smart window shades and finally smart door locks.

#3 Morning Wake Up Automation

Want a better way to wake up in the morning? Using your smart home assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, you can create a custom wake-up routine. For most of us here, our wake-up call is Alexa saying good morning, while playing some music in the background. She will then start to read off the weather, our traffic report and advises the best route to take to get to work on time, and then will end by reading the latest news. This is a great way to wake up instead of an old-school alarm. If you have smart bulbs or a smart dimmer switch, you can also have the lights slowly fade on from low to high brightness.

Want to get even more creative? Connect your Keurig machine to a smart plug and have it turn on automatically for you when your wake-up automation starts. This way, the Keurig is ready to brew some morning coffee as soon as you get in the kitchen.

#4 Movie Mode Automation

Love watching movies? Have a home theater or a room with some smart lighting? Well, why not make a custom Movie Mode? This routine can be activated with a voice trigger, let’s say “Activate Movie Mode”. Your routine can dim the house lights, turn them off and raise up your colored lighting. We like a nice blue color when watching movies. Lights can be strip lighting behind your TV, colored smart bulbs in floor lamps and any other accent lighting will work. We always recommend Philips Hue lights as they are a ZigBee-based system. They are not cheap, but they perform really well without any real delay like your average Wi-Fi smart bulbs.

#5 Coming Home From A Late Night Out

If you are like many others, the weekends are the nights out. This doesn’t have to be a weekend thing, however. Here is convenient automation for when you get home late; Let’s say you head out for a good time out on the town and know you won’t be home till late. Set up the automation as a schedule, let’s say from 10 pm to 3 am, weekends (Or any other day/night of your choosing). During this time frame, when you return home, your smart home can activate living room lights at a low brightness level when you open your front door via a contact sensor, (or whichever lights you want). Once you shut your door, have the lights turn off after a certain amount of time. I like to have my motion sensors trigger an automation to turn off the specified lights after no motion has been detected for 10 mins.

You can also set the automation to start other routines, turn on your bedroom lights, bathroom lights, fans, everything you normally do when it is bedtime. This is a simple routine but very convenient when coming home late at night. Once you are in bed and ready to clock out, let your smart assistant know by using a good night voice trigger to turn off all lights, set your home alarm, and lock the doors.

#6 Laundry Room Automations

For those who endure the luxuries of doing the laundry, having a little helping hand is a great thing. Especially when you have your hands full of clothes. This is another simple automation to set up for that little extra help.

First, if you have a light in your laundry room/area, get it set up on a smart light switch. I fully recommend the TP-Link Kasa Smart Light Switch. Add a motion sensor to the room and have it activate when it detects motion. I have mine set to turn on the lights on motion and stay on until about 15 minutes of no motion detected. This gives a good amount of time for the light to stay on while you work.

Next, set up a contact sensor for both your washer and dryer dials (If you have dials). This will give you the extra notification once the sensor makes contact again. So you would set the automation to send you a notification to your phone, or announce on your smart assistant that the wash/dry cycles are complete. Simple yet effective.

#7 Outdoor Security Light Automations

I am a huge security nut. I love lights and cameras. So when it comes to my home, I have lots of lights and cameras to play with. For outdoor security lights, most people think of floodlights. But, it is hard to find a decent floodlight that can be controlled with your smart home assistant. I absolutely love the Wyze Floodlight! It’s a bright-ass led floodlight and comes with the awesome Wyze Cam V3. It also has another integrated power source for a 2nd camera to connect to it.

So, for this, I have several floodlights installed around the corners of my home, all connected to my smart home assistant. They contain the obvious motion sensor activation like we are all used to, but now, you have full voice control and manual control over these lights. If you want to activate all the floodlights, all that needs to be done is to make a new routine triggered by voice. Let’s say “Activate security lights”. Once set, and triggered, all your sick-ass floodlights light the night up, blinding all your neighbors.

With person detection AI in these Wyze Cameras, you can also automate a notification to your smart assistant and/or your phone, letting you know some asshole is loitering around your palace. It’s endless what you can do here.

#8 Work Week Thermostat Automation

If you have an office job and want to automate your air/heat in your home, this is a great way to do it. I use the Wyze Thermostat, but this will work with any smart thermostat you have. Simply set up a routine based on your location. The idea here is to set your home thermostat to a specific temperature as you leave work. This one takes a little more setup, so I’ll explain in the Alexa app. (Google is kind of similar)

• In the Alexa app, set up a new routine by hitting the top + button
• Tap “When this happens”
• Tap location

Next is where you will start setting up the location

• When you reach the “When this device” screen, you will need to add/select your work address.
• Once you select your work address, choose “Leaves”
• Tap next to move on

Now here is where you make things happen like a boss

• Tap the Add Action
• Tap Smart Home
• Tap All Devices
• This is where you will need to find and select your thermostat
• Tap Set Temperature
• Tap Next

You should feel like a smart-ass person now. Let’s keep going

• You should see where the text says “Anytime”, tap “Change”
• On “Active Days”, choose your work days. This way, this particular routine will only trigger during your work week/days
• You will see “Active Between”. This is the time frame you want this routine to trigger. So for example, after 2 pm, but no later then let’s say 6 pm, it’s totally dependent on your schedule.
• Tap “Next”
• Tap “Save”

That’s it. You are now a Smart Ass routine maker. Now, during your workdays, when you leave the office and head home, your thermostat will trigger and start pumping your home with the temp you set.

You can also do this when leaving your home, which can set the temp to something else to avoid big crappy bills later on.

#9 Garage Door Open

Here is a simple one. If you have a garage, wouldn’t it be nice to know if it was open or closed without having to go out there and check? Yes, it’s lazy, but it’s why we love smart homes, so we can be a little lazy.

Get yourself a contact sensor and attach it to your garage door. Then in your Alexa app or Google Home, set up a routine so if the garage door is open, send a notification to your phone. Another cool feature you can do is if you have some colored smart bulbs, you can light them up red if the Garage Door is open. Once the garage door is closed, the red lights can be turned off. I know a few people who have a dedicated light specifically for the garage door notifications. Simple but very effective.

#10 Romance Mode

Are you a hopeless romantic? Want to make a cheesy, yet effective impression on the one you’re with? Here you go. First, get you some good-quality colored bulbs. As always, I recommend Philips Hue as their quality is unmatched with both color range and performance. Remember, Philips hue is not cheap, but it’s worth every penny.

Once your lights are installed, make a simple routine in Alexa that is triggered by voice. Use whatever phrase you want, maybe something like “Activate romance mode”. If using Philips Hue lights, the app has some great romantic lighting presets already done for you, so in Alexa, trigger the romance scene (or whatever lights and colors you want) to set the mood. Have an electric fireplace that uses a remote? Sweet, get yourself a Broadlink IR blaster and set that up to power on the fireplace for this automation. Last but not least, have this routine trigger some baby-making music on your Echo device to really get the juices flowing.

Your partner will be impressed and knows you mean business.

I hope this list of Alexa Routines gives you some ideas on automation you can implement into your own smart home. Just be sure to implement these top 5 requirements when it comes to building your smart home.

Be sure to check out news on the new smart home standard, Matter.

Do you have an automation or routine you want to share with us? Contact us today or leave a comment below!