I want to set up some night lights around the house, but I want the ability to automate them with SmartThings. I bought some cheap ones on Amazon just to get the job done for now.
I considered two solutions, either find some sort of reliable but cheap plug in sockets (this solution is sort of bulky, but it works), or, find zigbee or ZWave night lights. I found some made by centralite, but I can’t seem to find them for sale anywhere.
I searched the forum’s but didn’t find much on this topic.
Homeseer makes a nice zwave nightlight which is a combination motion sensor/light sensor and has 7 possible colors on the light, but it’s expensive. Still, the built-in motion sensor makes it worth it for some people. On sale right now for $60.
An inexpensive pocketsocket with your night light of choice Will likely be the least expensive.
The Lowes Iris 3210L is on sale right now for about $24.
An outlet is pretty expensive and takes a little work to install, whereas a lamp is much cheaper, mobile and simple to work with.
Instead of using small night lights, I have routines to turn on my household lamps at a minimum level when necessary, better in my opinion than the small night lights you may be used to and multi purpose.
@JDRoberts that one is a bit out of my budget for this particular project haha. For about that same price, I would rather get a LIFX bulb and a SmartThings motion sensor haha. However, that Iris plug might be just what I need. Funny that it looks identical to the SmartThings branded outlet.
@Ac7ss, @siam, in some parts of the house I do use a LIFX bulb set to a soft light blue as a night light, but for this particular part of my house, it would cost me significantly more money to try and go with the smart bulb method. The upstairs hallway in my house has 5 bulbs and 3 light switches to control them. No clue why 3 switches are needed for something like a 12 ft hallway lol.
I already purchased the night lights that I like based on design and light output. I think that Iris switch might be the way to go…it’s a bit of an eyesore, so I might also consider going with in-wall outlets, I don’t mind doing the installation.
Many of the home automation zigbee devices sold in the US are made by one company: centralite. Then they are rebranded and sold by other companies, including SmartThings and Lowes.
There are often some feature differences, but they may reuse the same case.