Comment by dusing | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dusing | Hacker News Reader

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My system is 100% local, I use zwave, zigbee, and Home assistant. If the internet goes down nothing changes. If the Pi dies, the light switches work like one would always expect.

My favorite use case is simple, I walk into a room the lights turn on, I leave the lights turn off. I open the pantry door, light on, close it light off. I also enjoy getting in bed and the house shutting down, lights, security, temperature all tied to my wife and I just getting into bed.

Where people go wrong is buying light bulbs, well now you have to keep the light switch on 24/7 or the wifi bulk isn't on to know it shoudl be off? like WTH? Just automate the switch and use normal lights. Wifi anything (wemo, etc...) sucks and almost always requires cloud service, why reply on the company that sells a $5 bulb to stay in business? insane.

I can see some energy efficiency in the auto turn on/off.

Maybe we're using different terminology, but what do you use in lieu of light bulbs? (I call any of those tubular things, e.g. fluorescent lighting, light bulbs.)

You keep the lights you have now, but you put in a smart switch. I prefer wave, like this https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-DZ6HD-1BZ-Decora-Dimmer-Techn...

Then you can program anything to turn the light on/off. Like for example I also turn off lights even if there is motion if the luminance sensors say it is plenty bright inside from the sun.

Or leave the shower light on when the humidity is really high and there is no detectable motion. I might not be moving enough in the shower but if the humidity is 90% you can assume the shower is on and I don't want to be left in the dark.

Another one of my favorites is in our kids play room. On a school night, if the xbox is on, and there is motion, Alexa will announce a warning about bed time, wrap up the game play. Then in a couple minutes the xbox turns off, and then Alexas tell them to brush their teeth, and eventually turns off the lights in the play room (they would never turn them off on their own). If the xbox turns back on, my wife and I get an alert on our phones so we can manage screen time.

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