What cool things are you automating? (UK)

[brumster (Paul)]

@steveburton4

1. How are people doing outdoor lighting? It seems very difficult to find any that reliably work in the UK and are supported by smartthings.

2. Are you using/ordering echo now or holding on for a potential home release over here and assessing it then?

3. How are you controlling your house? Voice, remotes, a tablet, just using mobiles or otherwise? Especially important with guests!

1. Outdoor lighting.
   I haven’t found the time to do this yet but my intention is to use a motion sensor as described below to trigger Hue bulbs

FAQ: Do you know of an outdoor motion sensor?

Okay, think I have it. Here’s the response: [image] So to answer the original question. If you want to use a mains powered PIR to trigger ST then you can use a Fibaro Relay (the FGS-212 replaced the FGS-211). In my case I’ll be using it without any load (my lights will be Hue bulbs in a different location). I’ll be using the motion detector to trigger the relay and then use ST to turn lights on/off/up/down. the fact that this will be located high, won’t require batteries, needs along range (12m) drives the requirement. Thanks for the pointer @Alwas

2. Echo ordered and being and integrated with the Ask Alexa app. Works well.

3. Acceptance factor of the house is important for me so as little manual control as possible is what I aim for. Lights are either on a timers or triggered by motion and are the biggest aspect of my ST implementation, Heating is on timers but dependant on house mode as are the small number of rad valves I utilise. I use Harmony and Alexa but they are not essential (primarily for turning AV kit on when I walk in the room by voice).

Personally I’ve learnt that trying to automate absolutely everything is expensive, a hard sell with the wife and difficult to implement perfectly. I use it where it makes sense. Notifications when the tumble drier has finished, automation of the garage door, turning lights on and off in heavily used areas, to control the heating, etc. etc.

Hope that helps.