What are you project plans for Christmas 2016?

Wiki Projects & Stories
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With Christmas 2016 on the horizon, I thought it would be good to see what sort of projects each of us are planning on doing e.g. Christmas lights etc…

Might give a few of us a bit of inspiration!

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Great idea for a thread. i’m on the look out for more ideas in addition to what I’m doing below.

CoRE Pistons already set up:

  • If time is early morning or after sunset/evening then Outdoor lights ON else OFF
  • If mode is Home Day or Home Evening then Christmas Tree ON else OFF
  • If virtual switch “In Use Kitchen” is on or motion in kitchen then Kitchen Xmas lights ON else OFF
  • If girlfriend’s presence becomes present then play Xmas song on Sonos (replacing the usual sound of the imperial death march when she comes home)

For all of these the string lights will be plugged into ST outlets which I will re-appropriate for the festive season. All of these pistons are only active when my Christmas Virtual switch is on

Pistons to set up:

  • When Christmas Routine (which I’ll do via Alexa), then play a countdown on Sonos, and turn on Christmas Virtual switch. This will result in all Christmas lights turning on. Also play Joy to the World on Sonos. Basically it will be like the switch on in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. An alternative idea would be to stick two parts of a contact sensor to two “cables” and when held together this would result in lights coming on as per the movie.
  • Christmas train set. Using a simple analogue Hornby layout plugged into a smart outlet, the train will start running on mode changes or motion or on a fixed schedule (still to figure out whats best). While this outlet is on then a Sonos will play a noise of a festive steam train
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The holidays are my favorite time of year for Smart Home projects. I zone our Christmas lights into 4 groups; outside lights, window candles, indoor lights, and indoor trees.

Last year with Iris (when it worked), outside lights turned on at sunset, off at midnight, window candles on 15 minutes before sunset then off at bedtime, indoor lights were on anytime anyone was home until bedtime, and trees on anytime someone was home after sunset until bedtime. All told, it takes a combination of 33 smart plugs, outdoor modules, and z-wave outlets.

Nothing has been built yet, but that will start coming together this weekend. I’m looking forward to using the outdoor luminance sensor to make the outdoor lighting activation more effective.

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Best idea I’ve seen in a while!!! :smile: I may have to do this!

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