One of the most common uses of smart home technology is to turn the lights in your home on and off. Smart bulbs are reasonably affordable and easy to install, and combined with switches can make lights easy to control. There are three other smart home sensors that can make your smart home even better.
Presence sensors
Don’t stay in the dark
One of the easiest home automations to set up involves combining a motion sensor and a smart bulb. Set the bulb to turn on when motion is detected. When you walk into the room where is the motion sensorthe light will turn on automatically.
The problems start when you want the light to turn off again. It is quite simple to create another automation that turns off the light when motion is no longer detected. The light should turn off once you have left the room.
The problem is that a motion sensor can only detect when something moves in a room. If you stand still, the motion sensor no longer detects motion, the automation runs, and the lights turn off, leaving you sitting in the dark room.
An effective solution to this problem is use a presence sensor. As the name suggests, a presence sensor detect your presence instead of simply detecting motion. Some Millimeter wave presence sensors They are sensitive enough to be able to detect the rise and fall of your chest as you breathe, so they can detect your presence even when you are sitting still.
With a presence sensor, the lights should stay on while you are in the room and only turn off when you leave. Some presence sensors also allow you configure zones so you can do things like turn on a lamp when someone sits in a particular chair.
- Compatibility
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ESP Home
- Weight
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40g
With multi-target tracking, zone support, light level detection, Bluetooth proxy, and support for multiple different mmWave sensors, the Lite offers next-level features for an even more pocket-friendly spot.
Lux sensors
Your lights don’t need to be always on.
Another problem with using simple automation That turns on the light when a motion sensor detects movement is that it will work at any time, day or night. At night, when the room is dark, the ideal is to turn on the light when entering. During the day, when the room is full of sunlight, there is no need to turn on the light.
That’s where a lux sensor can help. A lux sensor measures light levels and you can use it to make sure the lights only come on when it’s dark enough to warrant it. You can add a simple condition to your automation that will only turn on the lights when the light level is below a certain threshold.
A lux sensor is also very useful for making the lights turn on automatically. I have an automation in my home office that turns on the lights when the light level drops below a certain value. It still feels magical every day when the light automatically turns on in the late afternoon when the light levels in my room begin to decrease. Combined with presence-based automation, I haven’t had to touch the light switch in my home office for months; The light is always on when I need it and off when I don’t.
You can buy dedicated lux sensors, but many motion sensors and presence sensors. Includes lux sensors on the device. You can then use the data from both sensors in combination to make your automations even more precise.
They can do more than you think
Contact sensors might be the most underrated sensors out there. The obvious uses of contact sensors are to determine whether a door or window is open or closed, and they are excellent for that purpose. There is so much much more you can do with themhowever.
A contact sensor on a room door can help turn on the lights before you even enter the room. While an in-room motion sensor won’t activate until you cross the threshold, a contact sensor can turn on the lights as soon as the room door starts to open.
In addition to your main doors, you can use them on wardrobe or closet doors to turn on internal lights. You can track when your front door opens and closes to help determine when someone returns or leaves the house, or have your heating or cooling stop temporarily if your windows are open.
A contact sensor in your mailbox can notify you when your mailbox has been openedand a contact sensor on the attic hatch door can turn on the attic lights as soon as the hatch is opened. You can even stick the magnet of a touch sensor on the back of your controller and the other half on the charging base. When you take the controller out of the dock, an automation can turn on the TV, turn on the console, switch to the correct TV input, and dim the lights so you’re ready to play.
These sensors can improve your smart home
Some smart home automations can be frustrating and not work properly when you need them. These sensors can help reduce these frustrations. They give you incredibly useful signals that can make your automations react when they’re supposed to and prevent them from reacting when they’re not.
