[kwlug-disc] Home automation/security using ZWave?

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

When we moved in, there was outdoor light switch that is programmable to
tell it when to go on and when to go off.  The annoying thing is that the
difference between daylight length varies considerably across the year, not
to mention that daylight savings time screws this whole process. So, I had
to reprogram it every 2 months or so.

I later replaced it with another switch that knows when sunrise and sunset
times are for your current location (latitude/longitude I think), and can
add a bit of randomness.

You don't have to keep the lights on all night. You can tell it to shut
down 11 pm (or 1 pm or whatever).

Once I had it programmed, I never had to go again and mess with it like the
old one. Because it works with sunset/sunrise for location, it never needs
adjustment for daylight saving time.

This is the switch. I got it from one of the hardware stores in town for
around $30 plus tax. A friend who knows electricity helped me with the
wiring (different than the older one). Worth every penny.

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ProductDetail.jsp?partnumber=VPT24-1PZ&section=44955&minisite=10251

Jump down to the "instruction sheet" PDF link to see how it is programmer.

On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 11:07 AM, Raymond Chen <raymondchen625 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dusk-to-dawn sensor should work well enough for me. But my wife hates to
> have the outdoor light on all night... So there is a 'click' of the switch
> when it's turned on in the evening when we're coming back. I don't know if
> it has somehow trained my cat a bit since he is always waiting for us at
> our garage door when we are back. ^_^
>
> Those sensors are cool. Some guys who live in farms set it up in the
> entrance so they know there is car coming in or out. Or get notification if
> the mailman drops something off.
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 10:04 AM, Chris Craig <kwlug.org at ciotog.net> wrote:
>
>> Does that mean your outdoor lights are on the entire time you're home
>> at night, but off otherwise? That seems like a bad idea, to me...
>>
>> We have a dusk-to-dawn motion sensor for our outdoor light, which is
>> less sexy but more practical, IMO.
>>
>> Some day I'd like to set up a system that has a motion sensor
>> activated camera for the yard / driveway / pantry (I have 2 kids ;)
>>
>> On 2 February 2016 at 08:23, Raymond Chen <raymondchen625 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > I use Wink as my home automation hub, which connects to a switch for my
>> > outdoor lamps. And I connect it with IFTTT and my a web service written
>> with
>> > node.js on my Raspberry Pi. So when my phone enters the area of my
>> house, a
>> > web request will be sent to my raspberry pi, it checks to see the
>> daylight
>> > status. If it's after sunset, another request will be sent to IFTTT and
>> > trigger my Wink hub to turn on my outdoor lamps.
>> > Those connected device are pricey, which is why I haven't set up home
>> > security system yet. Alarm, tripper and motion detector are on my watch
>> > list.
>> >
>> > Raymond
>>
>>
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>
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Khalid M. Baheyeldin
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