Daylight saving time ends November 1: how to keep Home Assistant automations on track

Daylight saving time ends in the US on Sunday, November 1: at 2:00 a.m. local time, clocks go back to 1:00 a.m. (timeanddate). It’s a good moment to check any smart-home automation that runs at a fixed time.

Europe goes first

France and the rest of the EU fall back a week earlier, overnight from October 24 to 25 (3:00 a.m. becomes 2:00 a.m., per Service-Public.fr). For that one week, the gap between Chicago and Paris shrinks from 7 to 6 hours, and New York–Paris from 6 to 5. Keep that in mind for calls with family overseas.

What Home Assistant does

Home Assistant follows the time zone set in Settings → System → General. If it’s right (America/Chicago, for example), the change is handled automatically: a 7:00 a.m. automation still fires at 7:00 a.m. local time. If you moved recently, double-check that the setting matches where the house is now.

Traps to avoid

• The repeated hour: on November 1, the 1:00–2:00 a.m. hour happens twice. Don’t put sensitive automations such as irrigation or heating cycles in that window.
• Fixed-time lighting: “turn on at 6 p.m.” will be well after dark the day after the change. Use sun-based triggers instead, like sunset with an offset (say, 20 minutes before) or an “after sunset” condition, so they follow the season on their own.
• Devices with their own clocks: some thermostats, programmable plugs, ovens and alarm clocks run schedules themselves. Check them Sunday morning.

Tip for two-country households

If you manage a home in Europe from the US (or vice versa), each instance follows its own time zone, and notifications and history display in the zone set on the server or your profile. During the in-between week, expect one hour less difference.

Sources: timeanddate (US), timeanddate (France), Service-Public.fr.