Let me start by saying that bed warmers always seemed like a unnecessary luxury to me. That was until we got one 10 years ago and started using it in the winter to pre-heat our bed before we retired for the evening. Once you become accustomed to sliding into warm flannel sheets, it’s hard to do without. I’ll also say that we were in the habit of turning it off before we laid down to sleep, but recently I’ve discovered if I leave it on the lowest level, I sleep a lot more soundly. It has been a big benefit, but this post isn’t about improving your sleep. This is about eliminating the chore of turning on your bed warmer every night through the magic of home automation.
The biggest problem to solve is how to push the button on the controller. We have a Westpoint Stevens RestWarmer that comes with dual controllers and so the normal routine was either my wife or I would remember to go into the bedroom a couple of hours before bedtime and push the right button on both controllers (holding it in for about two seconds and watching the five lights illuminate in sequence), or we would forget and have to warm up the bed with our own body heat, like it’s 1855 or something. But not anymore.
After Robert Tait, over at The Hook Up, introduced me to Shelly relays, I realized I could use them to push these buttons for us. I simply took the controllers apart and soldered a wire to the contacts on the right button (see the attached photos) and then connected these two wires to the I/O jumpers on the Shelly 1. I won’t go into how to configure the Shelly or add it to your Hubitat – chances are you already know how to use Google – but you can be sure that if you have a bed warmer with these types of buttons on them, you can also automate the process for about $20 and two hours of your time. Trust me, you’ll be happy you did.
