4 ms·

Can you explain the steps you have to take if you want to move through your house without the lights? Is the switch always "on" and the sensor then turns on th

Can you explain the steps you have to take if you want to move through your house without the lights? Is the switch always "on" and the sensor then turns on the light and you just have to turn the switch "off"? And then if the switch is turned "off" will you need to first turn it "on" again in order to make the automation work properly again?

jhot 3y ago
All the switches I've bought are different from normal ones. They are always in a central position and you push on the top for on and bottom for off. Some are also just a single button and pressing it toggles the light.
vidarh 3y ago
Smart switches are always on to the switch, which then switches the light on/off either via buttons or the network. So it doesn't matter if you manually turn them on/off - they remain network accessible. This is why they're strictly nicer to use than smart bulbs. Even if you want smart bulbs, you'll probably want smart switches too, but if you have smart switches you only really get a benefit from smart bulbs if you want to control the colour of the light.
- cassianoleal 3y ago
  > you only really get a benefit from smart bulbs if you want to control the colour of the light You can control brightness of a smart bulb. Not all dumb bulbs are dimmer-friendly. That said, you can always replace those with dimmable dumb ones.
  - vidarh 3y ago
    That's true, I guess I should have expressed that slightly differently - my point was that the only capability you can't get from "just" a smart switch irrespective of your choice of bulbs is changing colour. But also, smart bulbs with a dumb dimmer is the worst combination, so if upgrading somewhere, if it has dimmer switches that's an extra reason to replace the switch too, irrespective of whether you also replace the bulbs...
efitz 3y ago
I bought Eve brand motion/occupancy/illuminance sensors for high traffic areas. I run them in Matter mode so everything is local and vendor neutral. I use an Apple TV as a controller and I use HomeKit automation to create rules to turn lights on and off. By using occupancy and time of day conditions I can have multiple rules to turn on lights to different brightnesses at different times of day. I turn on sets of lights vs individual lights so it’s not the absolute most efficient in terms of power but on the other hand having lights turn off automatically is a good saver when you have kids. I use Lutron Caseta wall dimmers and dimmable LEDs everywhere so they already have a nice fade-off effect. I once tried to code a fade-on effect but it turns out that instant on is preferable so I gave up on that (it was unreliable anyway). For low traffic areas like closets I use Lutron Caseta motion sensors; they work great and have very little configuration. One note of advice - there is a lot of grey market Lutron stuff on Amazon; you can get burned by clones or up-labeled stuff that doesn’t function exactly as advertised. I would stick to buying at a home store or buying from the Lutron store on Amazon.

jhot 3y ago

All the switches I've bought are different from normal ones. They are always in a central position and you push on the top for on and bottom for off. Some are also just a single button and pressing it toggles the light.

vidarh 3y ago

Smart switches are always on to the switch, which then switches the light on/off either via buttons or the network. So it doesn't matter if you manually turn them on/off - they remain network accessible. This is why they're strictly nicer to use than smart bulbs. Even if you want smart bulbs, you'll probably want smart switches too, but if you have smart switches you only really get a benefit from smart bulbs if you want to control the colour of the light.

cassianoleal 3y ago
> you only really get a benefit from smart bulbs if you want to control the colour of the light You can control brightness of a smart bulb. Not all dumb bulbs are dimmer-friendly. That said, you can always replace those with dimmable dumb ones.
- vidarh 3y ago
  That's true, I guess I should have expressed that slightly differently - my point was that the only capability you can't get from "just" a smart switch irrespective of your choice of bulbs is changing colour. But also, smart bulbs with a dumb dimmer is the worst combination, so if upgrading somewhere, if it has dimmer switches that's an extra reason to replace the switch too, irrespective of whether you also replace the bulbs...

efitz 3y ago

I bought Eve brand motion/occupancy/illuminance sensors for high traffic areas. I run them in Matter mode so everything is local and vendor neutral. I use an Apple TV as a controller and I use HomeKit automation to create rules to turn lights on and off. By using occupancy and time of day conditions I can have multiple rules to turn on lights to different brightnesses at different times of day. I turn on sets of lights vs individual lights so it’s not the absolute most efficient in terms of power but on the other hand having lights turn off automatically is a good saver when you have kids. I use Lutron Caseta wall dimmers and dimmable LEDs everywhere so they already have a nice fade-off effect. I once tried to code a fade-on effect but it turns out that instant on is preferable so I gave up on that (it was unreliable anyway). For low traffic areas like closets I use Lutron Caseta motion sensors; they work great and have very little configuration. One note of advice - there is a lot of grey market Lutron stuff on Amazon; you can get burned by clones or up-labeled stuff that doesn’t function exactly as advertised. I would stick to buying at a home store or buying from the Lutron store on Amazon.