now thats smart and very simple 
I did this exact thing in my half bath off the garageā¦ instead of bulbs or a smart switchā¦ I just use an occupancy sensor. saved a ton of money and even when the internet is downā¦ it still works.
Good Job!!!
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I know this is tragic, but it made me laugh. This was on the littlebits site this morning. Their Valentineās Day haiku:
Who needs a lover
When you can eat burritos
And invent cool stuff.
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I woke up this Valentineās morning and saw my shadow. Looks like 6 more weeks of being single.
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Iām at a BBQ at my brothers house and having a great time, and then he decides to ruin it by giving me his old Harmony remote and hubā¦now all I want to do is research how to connect it to ST and Alexa and go home to set it up! Way to ruin a partyā¦I call this āSHD,ā or āSmart Home Disorderā¦ā
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See, Iām actually an extreme couponer. I started this to save money and to fulfill my love of new tech crap! My goal is to have a comprehensive system that will pay for itself In 2 yearsā¦it started with an Echo I got for a gift and took off from there! I was also planning on adding things over the long term, but because of awesome clearance finds Iām sitting here 3 months later with 20 lights (between bulbs, smart hard wired switches, and smart plugs), a nest thermostat, 4 hue accent lights, half of my security system, and the capabilities of having a voice controlled TV. Iāve spent about $550 so far and am looking at another $300 to be where I really want to be (trying to find a deal on a nest smoke detector and a few cameras)ā¦but I keep adding things to the list of wants and now I realize that this going to turn into a never ending project that will consume all of my money! Lol. Iām wondering where itāll end! One thing saving me is that we are saving $600/year alone on our security system. I used to work in security system monitoring and realize that you donāt need someone monitoring for you as long as you have a good enough system in place! Iāve also been saving money on my energy bill between the LEDs and not running my AC/heat all the time. So I can probably have this thing paid for (including my immediate wants) in a little over a year!
Just make sure your married before you allow yourself to be drawn in by SHD. If your not married before you definitely wonāt be afterwards. However as long as you can sell the advantages to your spouse you can allow SHD to set in.
I just scored brownie points today, were away on holiday and my wife has been able to text the neighbours to tell them our cat is stuck in our garage. Whether that will allow me to buy more sensors only time will tell.
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So far not been brave enough to inform the wife of the capital expenditure involved to date ā¦ 
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Iām engagedā¦but my fiancĆ© is getting noticeably annoyedā¦Iām going on hold with Lowes trying to get a few switches shipped to meā¦please donāt tell her!
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I sold my Roomba so I have some gadget money to spend. (Itās kind of a long story why I decided to sell it, so I wonāt bore you with that.) Anyway, I was one minute away from buying a Hue Bloom for $54 from Amazon & 2 minutes later it was back up to $60. That pissed me off; but Iāll just wait.
Was gonna put it behind my TV that sits on a stand in the corner of my family room. Off topic, but curious if anybody has tried that.
I bought that Roomba with my birthday money, so I figure the ābossā has no right to complain. Who knows, time will tell.
I have a Roomba - it has actually done about 8 years service (with multiple battery replacements) so canāt complain. It formed a theme of buying my wife various vacuum cleaners including the latest Vax cordless followed by a Dyson as wedding anniversary presents ā¦
Do you think that the Divorce Courts class Home Automation Addiction as a irreconcilable difference ?
(The intention behind the Dyson was when I read that I could jump start my car with the Li-on Cobalt battery 
)
Havenāt tried the hue anywhere but on tables because my 2 year old wonāt stop touching them! As soon as heās out of that phase Iāll be able to put them on the floor. Lol
Hahaha. Howād the jump starting work out?
Still completing the cost/benefit analysis as to the value of the Dyson battery versus the brief kudos of starting a car ā¦
My intense curiously would have forced me to check the warranty of the battery before I bought it! Lol
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SmartThings is not a security system, no matter how hard they try to convince you otherwise. At best, it can be used as an auxiliary monitoring system, but it does not replace a dedicated security system. So, itās like saving on gasoline by riding a bicycle instead of driving a car. Yes, it works, but it only gets you so far. 
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I definitely get what youāre saying. But Iāve worked in home security monitoring in the past and Iāve realized a few things. I donāt need someone monitoring for me. All I need is to get an alert if a sensor is tripped and to be able to see inside my house when the sensor is tripped. Having someone monitoring my system is useless if I have those capabilities. As far as if power or internet going out, the likelihood of something happening during either is very unlikely. I know there isnāt a backup cellular or phone alert system, but Iām ok with that. As for the reliability of the sensors and smartthings working correctly, thatās what concerns me the most! But Iām sure itās something that will improve over time. I canāt see paying $600/year anymore for something that I can do myself, especially since I live in a low crime area. The main focus is to deter people. If someone really wanted to get in my house by cutting the cable or hacking my system, I guess they couldā¦but good luck getting anything of value cause I aināt got sh*t! Lol
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Unfortunately, itās not as much as Internet going out, as SmartThings cloud service outages and hiccups. Itās not a big deal if you just cannot turn your lights on/off remotely. But itās a different story if you cannot disarm your alarm system and get stuck with the siren wailing in the middle of the night and not being able to turn it off. Iām not saying you have to pay $600 a year. I also prefer self-monitoring, I just donāt trust SmartThings for the job.
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Aaahhhhā¦ok. That makes sense. I really havenāt run into that problem (yet). Do you have any suggestions?
There are security companies that donāt force you into a contract, have a mobile backup option and professional monitoring on demand if you go out of town in vacation and donāt feel like monitoring your homeā¦I found one, right after the first time I wasnāt able to disarm SHMā¦