General > General Technical Chat
Turning lights off automatically
WaveyDipole:
Does anyone know of a good system for turning lights (and plugs) of automatically when no on is in the room for a while?
MY daughter is often up till 3.00-4.00am and leaves lights turned on and running all night. I have seen some of these "smart bulbs" and many of the talk about connecting to the cloud, dimming and colours but not proximity detection. There used to be a system called X10 for turning things on and of, not sure about proximity detection. Can't find much on that now, so I presume it has been superceded. I don't need my lights talking to Alexa or any other AI bot but if that's the only way I might consider it....
themadhippy:
--- Quote ---There used to be a system called X10 for turning things on and of, not sure about proximity detection
--- End quote ---
x10 is still alive and kicking,just.,and there's even a motion detector https://www.x10.com/products/ms16a .however whether its compatible with uk rated x10 systems is another question. theres plenty of stand alone occupency detectors to chose from, for example https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Wiring_Accessories_Menu_Index/Occupancy_Switch/index.html#Occupancy_Switch_Ceiling_Mini One problem is if the person don't move around enough they get plunged into darkness.
tom66:
Don't bother with X10. It's a ridiculous protocol allowing almost anyone in the nearby neighbourhood to control your lights, or snoop on what your lights are doing, because it injects a signal into the AC carrier.
If you want to do this kind of thing I recommend a Zigbee smart lamp system and a wireless PIR. These don't require an internet connection; you will need a hub but it can be isolated from the internet if you don't need the remote smart functions.
james_s:
Yeah I had X10 stuff back in the 90s and it was cool, but I abandoned it about 15 years ago when the number of SMPSs, CFLs, and power strips with filters resulted in either so much noise or so much attenuation that it was extremely unreliable. Zigbee based stuff is the way to go now, that or WiFi. I have a mix of WiFi based stuff running Tasmota and zigbee. Philips Hue are the best bulbs I've tried but they're expensive. Ikea sells a range of zigbee bulbs, smart sockets and sensors. They have a PIR sensor although I have not tried it. Personally I integrate everything into Home Assistent running on a RPi so I have not tried the various gateways and cloud services out there but the hardware is cheap enough to give it a go and you can always fall back to Home Assistant if the company drops the stuff.
WaveyDipole:
An acquaintance has just mentioned Gosund. Is this the same thing s as Zigbee?
Thanks BTW. I did wonder whether X10 might no longer be up to scratch. The technology is quite old now. Will have a look at Zigbee.
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