How autonomous should a smart home actually be?

[RacoonD]

I’ve been playing around with smart home automation for quite a while, and over time my lighting setup has become a lot more complicated than the simple “motion detected = lights on” automations I started with.

I use Homey Pro as the main automation system in my apartment, together with devices from quite a few different ecosystems, including several Aqara sensors.

For the main living area I currently have a global light level that can be Low, Medium or High. This is based on the amount of light outside, either measured by an outdoor lux sensor or calculated from the position of the sun.

Then I have separate automations for the kitchen, dining area and sofa area. They use the global light level together with presence in each area and the current state of the home, for example Home, Away or Night, to decide which lighting scene to use.

This works surprisingly well, but one problem I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to solve is manual control.

I really don’t like automations that fight you.

If I manually change the lights, I obviously changed them for a reason. Having the automation change them back 10 seconds later because a sensor triggered again is probably one of the quickest ways to make a smart home annoying instead of smart.

My current solution is to pause the automatic lighting whenever someone manually selects a lighting scene. Every new manual interaction restarts a 30 minute timer. When the timer expires, automatic control is enabled again.

I’m still not completely convinced that 30 minutes is the best solution though.

Maybe it should stay overridden until the room has been empty for a while? Until the next major change in outdoor light? Until a specific time? Or perhaps manual control should always take priority until you explicitly turn the automation back on?

This also made me realise that I’m using my Aqara devices less as their own ecosystem and more as “inputs” to the rest of the home. Presence, motion, light levels etc. tell Homey what is happening, and Homey combines that information with everything else before deciding what to do.

I’m curious how others have solved this.

How do you handle manual overrides in an otherwise automatic home? And at what point do you let the automation take control again?

[Michii]

I got to the same problem stuck on with my FP2

Controling my kitchen block and livingroom lights both in dependence of the tv and presence.

My girlfriend does not like it, understandably, as the FP2 sometimes loses her detection but actually I think it is more the „not understanding“ of how it works and what it does when.

[ott_silver]

My approach is a bit old-school, but it keeps things simple. I’m using a physical two-button wall switch:

• First button toggles between Manual and Auto mode
• Second button acts as the manual on/off switch for the lights when you’re in Manual mode.

If I want full control, I just flip it to manual. When I want the system to handle things again, back to auto it goes.

[RacoonD]

I think the “not understanding what it does when” part is actually really important. When you build the automation yourself, you know why something happened and what triggered it. For everyone else in the house, the lights can just seem to behave randomly

I’ve had the same problem. Something makes perfect sense to me because I know the logic behind it, but that doesn’t necessarily make it intuitive for anyone else.

I guess a good automation needs to be predictable as well as smart. The FP2 occasionally losing someone obviously doesn’t help with that either

How do you handle it now when the FP2 loses her while she’s still in the room?

[RacoonD]

I actually like that approach. Sometimes the old-school solution is the better one

I have pretty much the same thing as a toggle on my dashboard, but I mostly use it when we’re away or have people over and I want full manual control of the lighting. For everyday use I know myself well enough to know I’d switch to manual and forget to ever switch it back

That’s basically why I ended up with the timer. I’m trying to find a good way for the house to assume “you probably want me to take over again now” without becoming annoying.

[ipor20]

I have lights that come on when someone enters the room and turn off 10mins after they leave (unless they’re detected as being back in the room). The brightness is automated depending on the time of day. If I override the brightness using the physical dimmer switch the brightness stays overridden until the light next turns off (and the manual override gets canceled)