u/Specialist-Neat2777

I have a problem with evaporation (and maybe a leak?) such that about once a week I need to add water to my in-ground pool. However, I don't know when it's happening, and I don't want to add water to the pool unless I have to (waste, heating cost). Also, my pool is not suitable AFAIK for automatic level detection and filling, because I have a pool cover mounted under the covng. I don't want the pump to run dry, as it is very wasteful wrt energy, and it can damage the pump.

I recently adopted Home Assistant Green (a home automation device - around $160). It connects with all my smart devices, including my Pentair Screenlogic system. I wrote a simple automation that checks the pump speed, whether the pool pump is set for on, whether the cleaner is set for on, and then figures out that the pump is priming and then running 0 RPM when it is supposed to be on. When that happens, it sends me an email and logs it in HA's logs. The email is sent once per day when it happens. Usually, I'll notice it first when the cleaner is running (higher pump speed, so more likely to not get sufficient water flow through the skimmers when the level is marginal). The image above is a real alert I got yesterday - so I went outside and dropped a hose into the skimmer for 30 minutes to raise the level.

This doesn't entirely solve my problem, but it sure makes it easy for me to know when the problem happens so I can solve it quickly. If you have HA and are interested in a similar solution, dm me and I'll send you what I have. If you have a suggestion for something else I should be doing, or some native solution for Screenlogic, please lmk. Thanks!

I'm wrapping up a dashboard and automations around my APC Back-UPS RS 1500MS2. Sadly, it appears that the default set of icons from HA - despite having seemingly dozens of battery icons - has no UPS icon. Before I go and try to make sense of the many HACS projects with icons, does anyone have a good recommendation for what to use as a UPS icon? I don't like using the battery icon, as I have batteries on the dashboard color coded to show battery status. If you have a recommendation, please lmk what HACS project it's from (or which default icon to use) plus the name of the icon (e.g., "mdi:ups" - sadly not an option). Good karma if you include a screen shot of the icon and/or your dashboard. Mine is shown above - I know it's not pretty, but I just want clear, not pretty at this point.

[edit: the mobile version is a lot nicer looking 😉]

[also edit: my UPS automation detects and alerts (log and email) power outage, on battery and charge falls below the early warning threshold (see the image), on battery and charge falls below critical shutdown limit (at which point it shuts down HA gracefully), when power comes back up (including power on time and HA back online time), and when any unhealthy condition for the UPS is detected. It also gives a weekly report of UPS status and power outages. As you can probably tell from the appearance of my dashboard, I care a lot more about automation and functionality than aesthetics.]

Saw this on both sides of a suburban street. It looks like the original is in the first photo, and it escaped ("Nature finds a way") to the other side of the street (second, third, and fourth photos) where no maintenance was done. The fence is a casualty of this overgrowth.

Plant identifier says this is an "Epiphyllum (orchid cactus)," most likely Epiphyllum x hybridus, citing its:

• flat, leaf-like stems (phyllocladodes)
• large, showy pink flower with many layered petals and prominent stamens
• orange bud forming a second blossom

Is this correct? This is the first time we got any flowers on this cactus, and they are just beautiful! Thanks for any pointers on this.