Any tips for automated light "overrides" - presence sensor turns light on, and at a dimmer level late at night, but not sure how best to handle overrides

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My office has an Aqara presence sensor, Aqara’s ceiling light, and a z-wave light switch as well as an aqara button that sort of serves as an extra switch.

I’ve got it set so that when I come into my office between 9pm-7am, the light turns on to more like 20% instead of 100% brightness. The vast majority of the time, this is what I want, dimmer light at night.

However, sometimes I want it to go to 100% even late at night. It’s not really very convenient to unlock my phone, open the aqara app, and tweak the light (especially because the ring and light are also two separate sliders!).

How do folks set up “overrides” for situations like this in their automations?

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Maybe you could set up a zone at location within the room where u need more light. For instance, if you go into the restroom at night it turns on at 20% but if I go the shower the light will dim up to 100%.

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Hi @steve11, I have this challenge in many areas of the house because almost all our lights are smart-controlled.

That’s why I always create two automations for lighting: one for nighttime and one for daytime (sometimes also an extra one for the evening).

I then use one scene for “Day” and one scene for “Night” to switch between them—activating the desired automations and deactivating the unwanted ones.

For example, the “Day” scene disables all night automations (lights dimmed to 20%) and enables the day automations (lights at 100%)—and vice versa.

If I ever want certain lights to come on at 100% during the night, I simply press a smart button to activate the “Day” scene.

It might sound a bit complex, but it offers a lot of flexibility—and would solve your problem.

Let me know if you need any help and if it works for you.

And always remember: If your car is smarter than your house… you’re driving into the future while living in the past. :red_car::house:

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You could use a long press or double press on your button to set lights to 100%, that way you don’t have to get out your phone

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I made a slightly different automation, in the
conditions I put if the lamp is on from 23.00-07.00 then 20%, if it is on from 7.00-23.00 then 100%. I just make a separate automation for two switching periods (one-time), when one is triggered, the other is turned on.
This automation is only for the standby light, toilet, corridor. Automations for these lamps (with lamps that are higher) do not have lamp adjustment, only On/Off.

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