Power Shower

I have a water pump that boosts the water pressure in the apartment, but the pipes are old and can't take high pressure for long.

This recipe turns on Power Shower mode when water is running and someone is in one of the showers. As soon as the water stops or the shower empties, Power Shower turns off and the Gardena irrigation system runs briefly to bring the pressure back to normal.

Power Shower mode in the water pump

There is added complexity to this setup because the water pump has an internal timer for Power Shower mode, and Home Assistant can't read that mode's current state from the pump. To work around this, a Power Shower input_boolean helper acts as the interface:

• Turning it on triggers an automation that starts Power Shower mode on the pump for 5 minutes.
• Turning it off triggers an automation that stops Power Shower mode.
• After it has been on for 5 minutes, an automation turns the boolean back off.

Requirements

• Power Shower input_boolean with automations to control Power Shower mode in the water pump (assigned to the Main Bathroom area)
• An occupancy sensor for the shower zone in each bathroom
• Water pump sensors to measure water flow and pressure
• Gardena water control valve to turn on the irrigation system

Scene: On when somebody is in the shower

When the pump is moving more than 5 litres per minute and someone is in one of the three showers, turn on the Power Shower input_boolean, which starts Power Shower mode on the pump for 5 minutes:

House scope

This scene group uses the House scope because it acts on devices in different areas: the Power Shower input_boolean in the Main Bathroom and the Gardena water control on the Terrace.

Scene: Block until showers clear for 5 seconds

We don't want to open the Gardena valve until the person has finished, so we block until every shower reads clear for at least 5 seconds (to absorb occupancy-sensor jitter) or the water flow drops below 5 litres per minute:

Note: the On when somebody is in the shower scene has to be moved to the top of the list manually to beat the Block scene.

Scene: Open Gardena after powershower

Once the water stops flowing or every shower is vacant, turn off the Power Shower and open the Gardena irrigation valve:

Scene: Close Gardena

Once the water pressure drops below 4 bar and the Gardena valve is open, close it. We also check that the Power Shower input_boolean was turned off less than two minutes ago, so this scene doesn't interfere with the normal Gardena irrigation schedule:

Problem: The 5 minute timer on the Power Shower

Power Shower mode (and its input_boolean) turns off automatically after 5 minutes, and nothing in our scene group detects this to turn it back on.

We could add a Power Shower is off entity state condition to the On when somebody is in the shower scene, but that creates a loop:

• Someone turns on the water and enters the shower; the On when somebody is in the shower scene wins and turns on the Power Shower.
• That scene no longer matches (the Power Shower is now on), so Open Gardena after powershower wins instead, which turns the Power Shower off, so the first scene starts matching again.

Instead, we match Power Shower is (off or on). That triggers reevaluation when the timer turns it off, but keeps matching while it's on.

Problem: The Power Shower stays off

The On when somebody is in the shower scene now matches correctly, but it doesn't turn the Power Shower back on: because it never stops matching, its actions aren't reapplied.

Turning on the Apply on every match toggle at the bottom of the Actions section fixes this. It won't spam the pump every time it matches, because the built-in Turn on command checks the input_boolean and only turns it back on if it's currently off.

Note: we also added an action to On when somebody is in the shower to close the Gardena water control, as we don't want the Power Shower on and the irrigation system open at the same time.

Once we have everything in place, the Power Shower scene group looks like this:

Lifecycle

Trigger	Matched Scene	Action
Water starts flowing at > 5 litres per minute	No match	None
Water starts flowing at > 5 litres per minute and somebody enters a shower zone for more than 3 seconds	On when somebody is in the shower	Power Shower mode turns on for 5 minutes, Gardena closed if open
Power Shower turns off after 5 minutes, shower still occupied and water flowing	On when somebody is in the shower	Power Shower mode turns on for 5 minutes
Power Shower is on but all shower zones are vacated	Block until showers clear for 5 seconds	None
Power Shower is on but all shower zones are vacated for 5 seconds	Open Gardena after powershower	Gardena water control is opened and Power Shower is turned off
Power Shower is on but water is turned off	Open Gardena after powershower	Gardena water control is opened
Water flow is off or showers are vacated, but water control is open, and Power Shower has been off for less than 2 minutes	Close Gardena	Gardena water control is closed