If you’re constantly arguing with family members or roommates about turning off the lights when they leave a room, automation can help. It’s not fancy stuff either: you simply use sensors to detect whether or not someone is in the room. If there’s no activity, the lights turn off.
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First, you need sensors, and there are two types to look for. The first is a motion sensor, which is exactly what it sounds like. The second is newer: an occupancy sensor. An occupancy sensor can tell if you’re just chilling in the room, rather than walking around in it. If you’ve been quietly reading or watching TV, the lights shouldn’t go off.
Aqara, a company that makes everything from vibration sensors to water leak monitors, made a big splash last year with its Presence Sensor FP2. It’s a small, hinged sensor that can be mounted on a ceiling or wall, pointed in a direction, and then calibrated, before the AI continuously trains itself. Depending on how you point it, it can detect or ignore pets (or low-lying family members, I guess).
Whether you use a motion detector or a presence detector, the basic automations remain the same: one to turn on the lights and one to turn off the lights if a certain control is not met.
