Home automation scenes: useful everyday ideas

The most used

• Leaving home: turns off all lights, sets heating to setback, shuts off the water if wanted, lowers blinds depending on the time and arms the alarm. One switch by the door.
• Arrival: disarms the alarm, turns on the hall light if it's dark and sets heating to comfort.
• Goodnight: turns the house off, leaves a dim path light, lowers blinds, arms the alarm in night mode.
• Good morning: raises blinds gradually and starts the bathroom heating a little earlier.
• Cinema or TV: dims the living room lights, closes curtains.
• Dinner: warm, dimmed light over the table.
• Holiday: simulates presence, protects against frost, shuts off the water.

Automatic, no button needed

• Blinds lower in summer when the sun hits the façade.
• The hallway light comes on as you pass, very dim at night.
• Irrigation doesn't run if it has rained.
• If a window opens, that room's heating stops.

Safety scenes

• Water leak: the solenoid valve closes and an alert is sent.
• Smoke: lights come on, blinds rise and exits unlock.
• Intrusion: every light comes on.

How to design them well

1. Start from routine: what you do every day when leaving, arriving and going to bed.
2. Few, clearly named: four or five well-thought-out scenes beat twenty.
3. Always with manual control: after the scene, each light can still be changed by hand.
4. A logical place: "leaving" by the door, "goodnight" by the bed.
5. Test and adjust: after a few weeks, times and levels are tuned.

Common mistakes

• Scenes that depend on the internet to work.
• Automations that surprise people: lights going off with someone in the room.
• Too many unlabelled buttons.
• Not being able to change them without calling the installer: ask for at least times and levels to be adjustable from the app.