Lighting

There are tons of ways to automate lights. The most basic is by a schedule. This is also often the very first thing automated when building the smarthome. This is typically very easy Get a "smart" light, plug it in, set it up, set the schedule and walk away. This is perfectly fine if that is the goal.

I, however, had a different idea, and different methods of automating them in Node-Red.

We have lights that turn on and off on a schedule (sort of). We have holiday lights that are on/off on a schedule (sort of). We have motion activated lights. Lights triggered by other automations. The lighting automations were previously treated separate. They are now combined into a single flow for the actions that are strictly for lights. For example, we have exterior lights that are turned on at dusk and turned off at sunrise.

Included in the 'scheduled' lighting are the exterior lights (not landscape lighting), Any room nightlights, general nightlights, and landscape lighting (we have exterior lights that are on all night, but landscape lighting doesn't need to remain on all night, so they use separate schedules.

Next is motion lighting and the morning light(s).

Lastly is vacation lighting. When no one is home, and the house is empty for more than 24 hours, vacation mode is activated. Upon activation, some semi-random lighting behavior is automated to simulate someone being home.