My hallway is shockingly dark when not lit, and the recessed light is so damn harsh I decided to install LED strips up in the corners. But I didn’t want to switch them, so the lights are motion controlled and conditional based on time. During the day, they’re full bright but with a nice color that’s not harsh. At night, only 6 leds light up a nice green so they don’t blast your eyes in the dark.

I have similar control over the kitchen lights but kept the recessed lighting in there. Full bright during the day, dimmed at night.

When the home alarm is triggered, all lights go full bright.

When the garage door is opened, the garage lights turn on.

When the temp in the living room is below 65 in the morning, or at noon, it kicks the heater on until it hits 70.

In the evening, when the outside temp falls below the inside temp, I get sent a message to open the windows. This only triggers in warm months because that crossover doesn’t happen in the cold months. It’s just always warmer inside than out. Similarly, in the mornings, when the temp outside becomes warmer than inside, I get an alert to close the windows. I use Aqara temp sensors on my front and back porches to grab the temps, so it’s very local and takes into account the radiant heat built up from the direct sunlight and works really well. This also has me thinking I might be able to work my contact sensors into the automations too…

I’ve got a contact sensor on my bedroom door to alert me if anyone enters while I’m not home.

My crawl space is encapsulated and I have a large dehumidifier down there. I have a smart switch connected to it so I can have some easy control and monitor power usage. I also have a temp and humidity sensor down there with alerts for if either temp or humidity change too much.

I set up LED lighting on my front porch and have HA turn it on an hour before sunset and off an hour after sunrise. I set it to different colors usually based on holidays, but have it set to a purple that I really like otherwise. Way less harsh than the white porch light.

And of course I can control nearly all the lights in my house from my phone or with Siri.

Having my hallway and kitchen lights be motion activated and brighter/dimmer based on ambient light is fucking great. If you get there you might wind up loving it like I do lol.

when i was a christian there was this story that would be told that went something like this:

“one day a kid was caught by their parent doing something they knew they weren’t supposed to do. it was just a small thing with no real consequences, but it was against the rules of the house and therefore the kid was being disobedient. when the parent confronted the kid about the behavior the kid argued that it was harmless and that it was ok. the parent, seeing an opportunity to teach the kid a lesson, said ‘ok’ and left. several hours later the parent called the kid into the kitchen where they’d made brownies. the parent offered the kid a brownie who readily accepted. as the kid reached for a brownie the parent stopped them and said ‘oh, but first you should know, theres a small piece of cat poop in there, but it’s ok, it’s just a small piece and i put it in that corner over there’. the kid reeled in disgust and said they didn’t want the brownies anymore. ‘why?’ the parent inquired, ‘it’s just a small piece and won’t hurt anyone as long as they stay away from that small corner’. the kid, then realized the importance of obedience in every way.”

total bullshit story, but like all christian bullshit there’s a kernel of truth in there. one small nazi ruins the whole batch of brownies.