RE: Intelligent Light Switching - Thoughts?

["Kenneth Watt" <kennwatt@xxxxxxx>]

Yes and no is the short answer IMO.

I use HV and an Expansion Board plus PIR's in every room to accomplish
some of what you want to do. True occupancy detection is the Holy Grail
of home automation and so far there is no easy answer to it, but there
are ways to fudge it so it works to suit you in most instances.

The PIR's only bring on the lights when it is dark; this is easy to
accomplish using HV. Then you have to program the conditions under which
you wish this to happen, for example, at night I press a button on the
Pronto to tell the house that I am going to bed, this engages a macro in
HV that brings on the lights that are needed at that time and sets a
flag called "Going To Bed". A timer starts that runs for so long
and
then sets a flag called "Gone To Bed" and at this point the house
basically shuts down for the night until the morning and disables the
bedroom PIR's as you really do not want lights flashing on and off
whilst you're trying to sleep! During the night lighting will only
operate at a set level because of this flag and certain things will not
operate, like the bathroom fan for example, as it is not needed and the
noise is not wanted. Then, based on whether the following day is a
working day or not, HV clears this flag either at dawn or before if I am
going to work before sunrise.

The PIR's will also bring the lights on if the time is before sunset if
the external light sensor in the PR511 is detecting that is dark enough
to require lighting. This kills two birds with one stone, by giving a
security light and light level sensing, I would say that given a setup
like this that further light level sensors are unnecessary IMO.

However there are problems in this as well, I use Pet Immune PIR's in
the kitchen, dining room, and utility room and these *have* to be very
carefully sited or they will be very slow in picking up movement. The
Micro PIR's are excellent and very unobtrusive, but again where you site
them is important but not as critical as the Pet ones to get the
response you want. The best PIR I have used so far is some cheapo ones I
picked up from a mate for the princely sum of =A30 but I don't even know
who made them. I am waiting on Simon sending a couple of the PIR's with
the safety's removed to use in both bathrooms for a truer occupancy
detection but as yet I am unsure as to how I will set these up, Phil has
one though.

Basically, it comes down to programming after the hardware is in place
and, with a little thought and perseverance you can achieve 95% of what
you want to do, you can never be totally happy ;-)

If you want more info mail me off-list and I can send you a copy of my
HV schedule so you can see what I've done and how.

K.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: P G [mailto:psghome@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 01 January 2002 11:59
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx; comfort-technical@xxxxxxx;
homevision-
> users@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [ukha_d] Intelligent Light Switching - Thoughts?
>=20
> In my new Comfort/HomeVision/PC setup I want to be able to
intelligently
> switch lights on/off and dim depending on movement/occupancy, time of
day
> and light level (I don't want much then!).
>=20
> I'm planning to possibly use the LD11U DIN Dimmer modules for every
> ceiling
> and wall light in the house and every room will have the smallest,
most
> unobtrusive PIR.
>=20
> My thoughts are that I'd be able to automatically switch a rooms light
on
> via movement sensed by the PIR. This would only happen if the ambient
> light
> is below a certain level. Other conditions could also come into play
e.g.
> if
> it's the middle of the night, the lamp may only come on at a lower dim
> level
> etc.
>=20
> Has anyone done this? What's your setup and how have you done it?
>=20
> As to the light sensor part:
> 1)  would I need just one mounted outside
> 2)  or one in each room (allowing more local sensing)
> 3)  is a simple switching type set at a predefined level OK or can you
get
> a
> variable (analogue or digital) sensor that may be a bit more flexible
in
> the
> programming side? i.e. would report a variable light level - could be
tied
> to the dim level of the lamp?
>=20
> Am I being too ambitious? I expect the programming to be a bit of a
> headache.
>=20
> Thanks,
>=20
> Paul.
>=20
>=20
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