IdeaSift

Homeowners lack flexible controls for heating and hot-water schedules

Home Assistant users want heating and domestic hot-water circulation to respond to changing wake-up times, presence, or other triggers, but current controls can be too limited or require fixed schedules. ViCare users specifically want to control the circulation pump, while another user finds thermostat schedules cumbersome to set on the device. A useful product could make these rules easier to configure, though device support will vary.

For homeowners automating heating with Home Assistant. Mentioned from Feb 2025 to Aug 2026 on product forums and Hacker News.

4 different people described this problem in 3 separate discussions.

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1 mention in the last 12 weeks
Indie fit
3.0/10
Pain
5.5/10
Frequency
5.8/10
Willingness to pay
0.0/10
Momentum
4.7/10
Who pays
Consumers
Competition
Medium
Build difficulty
Medium

What people said

Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.

  1. I’ve started implementing this since I own a Vitcoal 250-A and would love to disable the DHW circulation when not home
  2. I need the DHW circulator as my boiler is quite far from my bathrooms but I really could do with any kind of triggers, not scheduling
    francesco3 on community.home-assistant.ioAug 2026Asked for a toolHas a workaround
Build brief

See what to build and who will buy it

  • 2 product ideas with the smallest useful version and pricing
  • 4 places to find your first customers
  • 2 more quotes from people who have this problem
  • Current workarounds, existing solutions and risks