A Basic Guide to Programming Motion-Sensitive Lighting Routines

Smart lighting can enhance the efficiency and comfort of just about any home. Meanwhile, motion sensors improve security by providing coverage for large spaces without the need for additional entry sensors. But what if you combined them to create motion-sensitive lighting routines?

Programmed lighting is pretty common in the American smart home. But I wonder how many homeowners tie their lights to motion sensors. When motion sensors are brought to bear, they open up possibilities you might never have thought of before. They come highly recommended by Vivint, a nationwide leader in smart home automation and home security.

In essence, a motion-sensitive lighting routine is a routine that combines standard programming with motion-activated triggers. You can program your system to respond to motion in different ways based on the time of day, season, or other parameters.

The Prerequisites

As you might expect, there are prerequisites to programming motion-sensitive lighting routines. First and foremost, you need compatible motion sensors. You also need smart light bulbs, smart switches, or wireless relays. Finally, you need a smart home platform capable of tying both types of devices together in a routine.

Major ecosystems like Google Home and Amazon Alexa are more than capable of handling lighting routines. You might have a fully integrated system from Vivint, in which case smart lighting is baked into the home automation platform. Setting up a routine should be fairly straightforward.

Time Windows and Lighting Profiles

When it comes to programming, the first thing you will need to do is establish time windows and lighting profiles. Let us look at both a little more closely:

• Time Windows – A time window is that portion of time during the day that you want the lighting profile to be active. The reason should be obvious: you do not want to accidentally turn lights on or off at certain times of the day.

• Lighting Profiles – The lighting profile establishes which lights will be activated by the routine. One routine may activate just the lights in the kitchen. Another might be tied to all of the second-floor lights.

By combining time windows and lighting profiles, you can program your lights to account for just about any scenario. A good example is a morning routine that turns on the first-floor lights when you walk into the bathroom first thing in the morning. The routine is only active for an hour or so, guaranteeing that it’s not running in the middle of the day.

Creating a Routine

How you set up time windows and lighting profiles depends on your smart home platform. Personally, I use an open-source platform that divides the two into completely separate categories. Your platform might do something entirely different.

The same goes for creating a routine. My platform accepts routines as automations. I would use the time windows and lighting profiles to create a script that would trigger the automation.

Regardless, you are going to add a new routine by creating it from scratch. You set the trigger – which happens to be motion – followed by selecting the device it will be linked to. Then you add your time condition and set the action: either turning the light on or off.

Two Final Notes

In closing, there are two final things to consider. First, it is helpful to create a dedicated OFF timer to ensure that you don’t inadvertently trigger lights when you don’t want them triggered. Second, you may find that your motion sensors are either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. You may have to calibrate them either through your platform or the mobile app that came with them.