Sensor to turn lights on when I come home and open garage door

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
#1

Hi guys.

I am looking into installing a sensor on a garadge door to turn lights on at night when I come home.

Problem is when I leave at night it will also turn on the lights. Has anyone got any ideas on how I could do it? I really only want to use the sensor switch if possible. Any help would be appreciated.

#2

Can you be more specific? Are you wanting a motion sensor to turn on exterior lights when you approach the door?

Or are you seeking something to turn on the interior and exterior lights when you arrive and open the garage? This would best be served with the garage door open sensor and some logic for night time use and presence detection.

Or do you want something like the Wayne-Dalton WDHA-12R Gateway that allows you to push a button on your car’s garage door remote and send a z-wave signal to run a scene.

#3

Sorry. Want to use the aeotec door/ window sensor. Would then set a scene to run at night to turn on the 3 lights from entrance/hallway/kitchen. I am sure this is possible but my issue is that if I leave at night and open the garage door it will also turn the lights on.

Trying to think of a way around it.

#4

If you become interested in LUA programming, then this would be easy to accomplish.

I have a virtual switch that indicates if I am home or not. Using LUA progamming, the light only comes on if I unlock my door when the virtual switch indicates I am gone. I also have code to not turn on the light the first time I unlock the door after setting that virtual switch to away state (so that I can exit without turning the light on).

#5

This is a problem I run into frequently. I usually solve it with PLEG, by defining the action to be taken on the light by the current (or recent) status of the light.

Example:
If the light has been off for 10 minutes, and the garage door is opened, turn on the light.
If the light is on, or has been on in the last 10 minutes, and the garage door is open, turn off the light.

Of course, this links the action to the state of the light… so if you’re leaving and you haven’t turned the light on in awhile, the light will turn on as you leave. And if you’re coming home, and the light is already on for some reason, opening the garage door will turn it off. So I try to incorporate other logic, like the state of the alarm system, to make sure what I want to have happen happens.

#6

I think that @DeltaNu1142 is on the right track. Light on in past 30 minutes and door opens; take no action. Light off for more than 30 minutes and door opens,

IsNight AND (!LightOn AND (LightOn; NOW > 30:00)) AND DoorTripped then turn on lights.

#7

Yeah… ideally you want Vera to know whether you’re entering or exiting, but I don’t know a reliable way to do that. Another way to accomplish what you want to do might be to use a sequence with a motion or door sensor and the garage door… garage door open followed by motion inside the garage turns on the light. Motion followed by garage door open and then close turns off the light. In PLEG, you can specify that all of those actions have to occur within a fixed period of time to result in the action.

#8

Here’s a SIMPLE solution but w/ a bit of sacrifice:

Scene 1:
-get a Ecolink Garage Door Tilt Sensor (or other sensor)
-when Tilt Sensor trip, turn on garage light (Z-waved) for X-minutes

Scene 2:
-get a Motion Sensor
-When Motion Sensor trip, turn on garage light (Z-waved) for X-minutes

Total initial cost ~$100

Operating cost per year (Assuming 20W CFL; $0.15/KWh; lights on 1hr total per day).

  • one CFL: $1.10
  • five CFL: $5.48
  • ten CFL: $10.95

OBVIOUSLY THERE’S A LITTLE CONFLICT W/ THE MOTION SENSOR BUT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT VERY LITTLE OPERATING COST PER YEAR!!!

#9

Thanks for some great replies…

I think i will try the Lights on in last 30 mins and door opens to stop lights coming on when leaving. I have avoided pleg so far, guess its time i got playing.