New here.
Wondering if anyone has seen or heard of an app that continuously fades lights up and down to simulate outdoor cloud cover? We have 7 dimmers all in one store and it would be a really cool effect. I’m sure I’m not the first to think of it, but I just can’t find it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You could probably write/find a SmartApp that would do it however, Z-Wave/ZigBee dimmers may not respond fast enough to constant dimmer level changes to provide a good effect.
This would likely be better served with a LIFX of Philips Hue smart bulb.
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What do you sell in the store? Most retailers have to be pretty careful about lighting for two reasons: to make sure they are providing a consistent presentation of the products, and second to make sure that they don’t make anybody dizzy or increase tripping hazards. I know most retailers choose not to have natural skylights for exactly that reason, they would rather have artificial light that they can control.
There are existing smartapps that will adjust the color temperature of lights throughout the day so that they approximate natural light as it changes, but those are almost always used for residential spaces, not commercial spaces.
Anyway, a lot of people in kind of dingy apartments these days now make fake windows and some of them are really impressive.
This guy lives in a basement apartment in New York City and he made a really nice fake window just with some smart LED strips, so that would be easy to replicate with SmartThings – compatible devices. You could put it on the ceiling to make a skylight assuming you don’t have to worry about any of those retail lighting issues I mentioned earlier.
Check this out:
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Trust me, I wish it was simple enough where I could switch to another bulb! There are 8 chandeliers, each with 20 bulbs, each on their own dimmer. It’s a cocktail bar so, they’re not too concerned with product lighting. It’s more of an ambiance issue. Appreciate the thoughts/ideas though.
Ah.
Unfortunately, then I have to agree with @Benji that the dimmer switches are unlikely to have smooth enough transitions to make it work. You really need smart LEDs for this effect.
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