Can someone list productive smart lighting features?
I mean: I get smart heating. I get smart ovens. But smart lighting? I can't think of non-gimicky functionality that can be solved by a occupancy sensors.
I mean: I get smart heating. I get smart ovens. But smart lighting? I can't think of non-gimicky functionality that can be solved by a occupancy sensors.
Example: in the winter months if I'm waking up to take out my dogs, it's pitch black on the main floor, so a command like "Alexa, good morning" will turn on the lights for the path that I need to get to the back door and tell me what the outside temperature is so I can wear the appropriate coat.
The second most important use case for us (pre-pandemic era) was to have lighting routines that made it look like we were home while away on vacation.
I started with some wifi devices (WeMo) but eventually migrated to Z-wave, and found them to be much easier to setup and maintain (and generally more reliable) than wifi (ymmv, of course).
My Z-wave hub is basically a USB Z-wave stick connected to an old NUC that's running OpenHAB in a Docker container. I rarely log into it or do any maintenance on it other than when I add new devices, which is almost never. I chose OpenHAB over HomeAssistant (YMMV) because I found it to be easier to write a couple of basic scripts to handle state notifications for my smart locks. I had been on SmartThings which was fine prior to getting smart locks and then turned into a major pain afterwards (one firmware update basically broke all my integrations, forcing me to do everything all over again).
Keep in mind, I didn't really go so far as automating everything "just because I can". 100+ nodes (as in the article) in a home situation just seems bonkers to me.
Smart code based on MAC addresses seen on my wifi, timer based, power drawn by the wireless phone charger next to my bed, door positions and other things added together is not difficult to code or understand, but very reliable.
If I have all that on the input side may as well have it on the output side.
Some sensor work is utterly trivial. Door position plus sun elevation based on NTP accurate clock equals lights on / off in the laundry room. Position of garage door equals garage extra lights on/off kind like a giant fridge door and its fridge light. The complete set of presence code for my home office is a little more elaborate.
Morning routines that run automatically:
- Turn on the bedroom lamps at a low dim level around the same time the alarm goes off. This provides a bit of light when you first wake up without being annoying.
- Turn off all exterior lights. Most are probably off anyway, but this catches any they might have been left on, or any that were scheduled to be on through the night.
- Turn up the nightlights / stair lights to 100%. In the dark winter months, this makes it comfortable to navigate from bedrooms and bathrooms without having to turn on the full hallway lights, which can be jarring and perhaps annoying to others who aren’t quite up yet. (A bit after sunrise these go off for the day).
- Turn on a few lights in the main living areas (kitchen).
Evening routines that run a bit after sunset:
- Turn on outside lights
- Turn on nightlights and stair lights at 50%.
- Turn on the bedside lamps at 50%. This provides a relaxing light level in the bedroom through the evening. Before the smart switches we never really seemed to use the lamps. (The hassle of walking to both sides of the bed and setting them at the right dim level I guess was just enough to prevent us from using them I guess).
Bedtime routines that run automatically:
- Turn off all but one exterior light.
The other thing I like is being able to control lights from my phone. When we are in the backyard playing with the kids on a late summer evening, we can turn on all the backyard lights without having to go back to the house. If the kids have left a bunch of lights on in the basement, they can be turned off with Siri “turn off all the basement lights”. I also like it from a security perspective “turn on all the outside lights” which would normally take walking all over the house to hit all the various switches.
I also have appreciated being able to add light switches literally wherever, with no wiring or holes in the wall. Want a bedroom light switch next to your bed? Peel and stick and you’ve got it, and from the outside it looks and acts exactly like a real switch. If you move the bed to the other wall one day, you just pull the switch off and stick it in the new location.
For a long time I resisted anything “smart” in my home. I found the added complexity more than offset any benefit. But with the lights, we can just use them as normal (all the switches look and act like they always did) but the automated routines add convenience and comfort while also reducing our energy usage.