So my daughter is potty training and goes to our room to use the bathroom. I know I could use a motion sensor to turn on the light when she goes in there, but when we had a levitron motion light it would turn off while we were in the middle of showering. We have more control using Smart Things and z-wave devices, but i’m curious what others are doing. I thought about using a open/close sensor on a drawer she could open to turn on the light as a option. Any ideas or suggestions would be great!
The bathroom light has been the most contentious automation item in my household. I like to have a light come on in the bathroom at night to about 10%. My partner does not want any light whatsoever when she enters the bathroom at 2:00 am. I use a combination of modes and turn light on motion. In the end I manged to get a simple night light in a socket in our bathroom. Sometimes the dumb solution is the best solution.
There was another discussion for using contact sensors and a motion to automate the bathroom light a while back.
+1 for motion sensor. Very flexible because you could mount it at her height, in her room or yours. You can limit its operation hours at night, or whatever. You can mask the detection area to make it only respond to an intentional wave of the hand.
Ever since ball pythons started emerging from New York toilets, I’m thinking about them as I sit down in the dark - not good.
So, this is a bit more involved, but it’s what we did and it works well for us:
I put in a motion sensor, which, in ‘Night’ mode turns on a switch that turns on a small overhead light over the toilet (but you could use a small lamp, or something like that). I set a delay after motion stops, so the light goes out after a few minutes without motion.
For day time (showers), we use the main overhead lights, which we turn on using a wall switch, a smartRule, or a remote…then turn off with a smartRule.
BUT: if you only had overhead lights to use, just make them dim-able, then use modes to determine what turns them on, for how long, and at what level.
So, maybe at Night, the motion sensor turns the lights on at 10%, and the lights turns off after no motion is detected for three minutes. During Day, the motion sensor turns the lights on at 80%, and they stay on until turned off manually. Using modes gives you options for different actions, using the same devices.
Looks like I will be using modes and ordering another motion sensor. I might have to look into those dimmable lights for the toilet area. Didn’t think about doing that. the main walkway into my bahtroom is just the lights above the mirror.
