Smart Lighting “Coming Home” Scene

Daylight Saving Time ended on November 5th, but that doesn’t mean you now have to arrive home to a dark house. You can use smart home technology to create a “Coming Home” scene that will light up your house automatically as you approach.

​There are 3 primary ways to achieve smart home lighting:

1. Smart lightbulbs
2. Plugging lamps into smart plug adapters or smart electrical outlets
3. Smart light switches

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Smart light switches have an advantage over the other two options since a single switch can control multiple lights – and lights requiring special bulbs are not an issue. Also, smart lightbulbs require physical switches to remain in the “on” position, and switches inevitably get turned off. 

There are many options for controlling your smart lighting, such as:

• Voice – Amazon Alexa, Siri via Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant
• Smartphone – Manually using an app or automatically using geofencing (It works with the GPS in your smartphone to turn lights on or off when you reach a certain distance away.)
• Touch – A light switch, touchpad, or some sort of control panel
• Motion sensors
• Remote – Many lightbulbs and switches come with their own remote.
• Computer
• If This Then That (IFTTT) technology – Integrate lighting with other smart home devices you may have, prompting your lights to react to specific triggers such as email received from a particular person or weather changes.

Creating a “scene” with your lighting is like setting up an automatic to-do list for the lights in your home. A “Coming Home” scene can include turning on outdoor and porch lights as well as interior lights in your entry way, kitchen, and living room.

You can create many other types of scenes as well, such as a Morning scene (turn lights on), Night scene (turn lights off), Party or Movie scene (lower the lights to create the right ambiance), or a Vacation scene (have indoor or outdoor lights turn on and off to mimic your daily lighting behaviors and discourage burglars).

If you’re interested in some assistance with adding smart lighting to your property, call AvidWorks Technology at (800) 701-9021 or send email to [email protected] to learn more about our installation services.