I agree that motion sensors should have adjustable windows to suit the use… I’ve used tape in these situations…
occupancy / motion sensors usually have an adjustment for sensitivity… you may want to play with those settings and get it to the point it doesn’t detect roll-overs in bed…
I think there is a point in which convenience becomes inconvenient…
my overall importance to automation: strong 6 on a scale of 10…
my opinion, automation is emerging, but its not quite where I think it could be… I feel that hardware is advanced enough, but software hasn’t caught up with it… and I believe the up and coming generations are loosing the creativity needed to get software to hardware levels…
I use motion sensors for quite a few rooms in my house as well. I use the SmartThings ones and just have them programmed to not use the motion sensing during the times we are normally asleep. This works pretty well, except for those days where one of us is sick and stays in bed or something and then the lights keep turning on/off rolling over. For those occasions I just take the sensor down since they’re just mounted magnetically (see link) and stick it in a drawer
Would SmartThings allow you to create a virtual status variable “Sick mode” or whatever you’d like that if enabled the lights don’t do their thing to motion? Then if home sick yell at Alexa to enable sick mode.
For example I have a “Holiday Mode” virtual device I turn on/off inside of HomeSeer if I enable other routines like “Christmas Mode” or “Halloween Mode” which I use for setting holiday specific lighting scenes. My usual lighting automation routines have if “If Holiday Mode == $False” in them which then prevents them from running when I’m doing holiday stuff.
The home automation that has the biggest everyday impact for me is that I have a motorized shade that closes at 10 pm and opens at sunrise. I installed this because my neighbor installed some bright lighting for his parking area and it interfered with my ability to get to sleep.
The aforementioned automation not only enabled me to get to sleep, but it allows me to wake up naturally in the morning.
Funny story: I thought of this solution while watching “The Crown,” specifically when servants would open the curtains in the Queen’s bedroom in the morning.
I’ve looked into the motorized shades, at least for my bedroom. I pretty much rely on blackout curtains to get a good sleep, but also prefer to wake up with sunlight (I have some timed Hue bulbs on daylight temp but it’s not quite the same thing).
Which one do you have? They all seem a bit…clunky. Noisy at all?
We have some motorized shades, but I would put them in the mostly clunky category, mostly because they are battery operated and replacing the batteries is a pain - we don’t raise them regularly because of that. We’re eagerly awaiting IKEA’s new smartshades which make it easy to replace/recharge batteries plus will connect to HomeKit:
I didn’t even know about those. That’s very exciting. I had their honeycombs in the last place I lived and, while they weren’t perfect, they were pretty nice for the price. But I guess that’s IKEA’s thing, isn’t it?
I got Bali roman shades online with the motorized option and the AC power adapter, so no batteries. I clipped the power cable to the window trim so it looks pretty nice with just a small power tail down to the outlet that happens to be right under the window.
With your noise question, you’ve inspired me to break out my professional sound meter. The A-weighted background noise at my bed is 36 dBA. In operation, the motorized shade seems to vary from 46 dBA to 51 dBA. Most of the time I don’t hear it go up, though if I’m in bed reading it does surprise me when it goes down. You can definitely hear them, unlike the almost silent motorized shades at my old work/office, though I think those cost many thousands of dollars.
Like I said, they are a life-changer!
Funny story: I’ve named them “sun” so I can tell Alexa “Alexa, turn sun off” when I want to sleep in.
