--- title: First (mis)Steps in Bathroom Automation | daily.dev description: A hands-on account of automating a bathroom light and fan switch using Home Assistant, Z-Wave devices (Inovelli Red Series Fan+Light Switch LZW36 and 4-in-1... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/first-mis-steps-in-bathroom-automation-68civ4i5k twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: First (mis)Steps in Bathroom Automation | daily.dev og:description: A hands-on account of automating a bathroom light and fan switch using Home Assistant, Z-Wave devices (Inovelli Red Series Fan+Light Switch LZW36 and 4-in-1... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/first-mis-steps-in-bathroom-automation-68civ4i5k og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/68ciV4i5k.png og:image:alt: First (mis)Steps in Bathroom Automation og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # First (mis)Steps in Bathroom Automation **[apalrd's adventures](https://daily.dev/sources/apalrd)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hands-on account of automating a bathroom light and fan switch using Home Assistant, Z-Wave devices (Inovelli Red Series Fan+Light Switch LZW36 and 4-in-1 sensor LZW60), and iterative automation logic. The author walks through two passes of automation design, covering humidity-triggered fan control, motion-based lighting, night dimming, and the many edge cases encountered — including being left in the dark during a shower, fan timeouts, and Home Assistant restarts breaking mid-cycle automations. A physical pushbutton backup was added as a pragmatic fallback for cases automation couldn't cleanly solve. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I prevent my Home Assistant motion light automation from turning off while someone is in the shower? The motion sensor loses sight of a stationary person in the shower, so the light turns off. A reliable fix is to override the motion automation entirely when the humidity-triggered fan automation activates: disable the motion automation, force the light on at 100%, and only re-enable motion control after the fan cycle ends (either when humidity drops or a timeout — e.g. 35 minutes — expires). _Developers solving bathroom automation edge cases like this share their Home Assistant configs on daily.dev._ ### What is the Inovelli LZW36 and how does it control a fan and light with a single wall switch? The Inovelli Red Series Fan + Light Switch (LZW36) fits in a single-gang wall box and provides separate dimmer controls for both a fan and a light. It pairs with an RF 'canopy module' that mounts inside the ceiling fan housing and handles the actual power switching at the fixture, allowing independent fan and light control without running extra wiring to the wall. _Those choosing between Z-Wave fan controllers for smart home builds track hardware options like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I automated everything in my home, then I had to undo most of it](https://daily.dev/posts/i-automated-everything-in-my-home-then-i-had-to-undo-most-of-it-fu8v1ycgk) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Home Assistant doesn't just control smart devices, and that's where it gets interesting](https://daily.dev/posts/home-assistant-doesn-t-just-control-smart-devices-and-that-s-where-it-gets-interesting-qgtrcyhag) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Home Assistant waters my plants\!](https://daily.dev/posts/home-assistant-waters-my-plants--i0o9wij2e) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I gave my smart home a bedtime button, and it actually makes every night a little bit easier](https://daily.dev/posts/i-gave-my-smart-home-a-bedtime-button-and-it-actually-makes-every-night-a-little-bit-easier-1t68byctr) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#iot](https://daily.dev/tags/iot) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/first-mis-steps-in-bathroom-automation-68civ4i5k) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"First (mis)Steps in Bathroom Automation","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/first-mis-steps-in-bathroom-automation-68civ4i5k","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/first-mis-steps-in-bathroom-automation-68civ4i5k"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:53:59.221Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:26:18.872Z","description":"A hands-on account of automating a bathroom light and fan switch using Home Assistant, Z-Wave devices (Inovelli Red Series Fan+Light Switch LZW36 and 4-in-1...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1e993271c9608275641c543b5e6bab15?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1e993271c9608275641c543b5e6bab15?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"apalrd's adventures","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"apalrd's adventures","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--4zkx8dRj--/f_auto,q_auto/v1786438309/logos/apalrd?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/apalrd"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/first-mis-steps-in-bathroom-automation-68civ4i5k","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"iot","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"apalrd's adventures","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/apalrd"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"First (mis)Steps in Bathroom Automation"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/first-mis-steps-in-bathroom-automation-68civ4i5k#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I prevent my Home Assistant motion light automation from turning off while someone is in the shower?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The motion sensor loses sight of a stationary person in the shower, so the light turns off. 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Those choosing between Z-Wave fan controllers for smart home builds track hardware options like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```