Anyone experience with either of these? Any recommendations for other brands if not the ones below?
I want to be able to do the following:
turn lights on when light levels drop only if motion is detected.
Also want to be able to link into smart thermostats on radiators to set temperature in a room if motion is detected and temperature is below a certain level.
I haven't used the Aeotec Trisensor, but I have used the similar Mutlisensor 6. This is basically a pared down version of that without some of the additional sensors and no option for USB power (the Multi can do either battery or USB). I imagine they are similar. I wasn't a fan of the Multisensor because it ate batteries and was very slow to detect motion, even on USB power (which I eventually switched it to because of the former problem). The Trisensor might be better in both regards, but reviews are mixed, so I'm not in a hurry to try it.
I recently bought a Fibaro motion sensor. I really haven't bothered to test how quickly it detects motion since I mostly bought it for illuminance, but it appears similar to the Dome motion sensor (which I would have purchased if it were still available), which was pretty fast to detect motion. However, pretty much no Z-Wave sensor I've used compares to the speed of my Zigbee sensors. Speed may or may not be a concern for you, depending on your use. But the lux values are very usable in my experience--a wide range and good ability to distinguish different levels even on the low end of things. The Aeon Multi was also good at that. But both would probably be best if pointed outdoors, as lights turning on/off inside can mess with the readings from any lux sensor (a debate some people had in a recent, other thread here). If you do want speed, I'd steer you towards Zigbee instead, but there aren't a lot of options for lux there (the Hue motion sensors are the only commercial options I can think of, and I'm not sure how readily available they are outside the US).
Hubitat is certainly capable of doing either of your automations as long as you get the data/events into the hub, which either of these devices is certainly capable of doing (as long as, of course, you also have the thermostat and lights integrated into Hubitat somehow). So I'd mostly base my decision on price and other preferences I might have, like the appearance of the device (if it's visible) or price. Aeon and Fibaro are both reputable brands, even if I don't happen to be a fan of some Aeon products (or the price of some Fibaro products).
I use the Ecolink PIR motion sensors. They have pet immunity which is nice. I use the SmartThings zigbee motion sensors when extreme sensitivity is called for.
I do have some Aeotech Trisensors and I find them quite reliable and precise.
The advantage of their luminance sensor is its high sensitivity and the fact that they report on luminance change (some other sensors only update luminance whene they detect movement).
Their battery lasts for two years in continuous use, and even the color of the pilot LED can be configured.
Furthermore, I find their design to be more "neutral" and less "invasive" than Fibaro's bizarre eye design.
I have a mix of fibaro sensors and smartthings zigbee sensors. The zigbee sensors act noticeably faster, but also seem to eat through batteries a lot quicker too. I seem to only get 6 months out of my smartthings sensors, but the fibaro ones last nearer a year.
I use my fibaro sensors for motion and lux and they work well. They are very configurable; i have mine to measure lux every 30 minutes I believe and the values are pretty consistent - that is to say that if it 'feels' brighter in a room then the fibaro sensor usually has a higher lux level too.
Note that for measuring lux in my room, i get around the issue of the lights affecting the sensor thus - I have a rule that writes the read value from the sensor to a global variable, but only does so if the lights (hue bulbs) are off at the time of update. If they are on, the value is discarded rather than written to the variable. My lighting automation then uses the global variable in its rule to determine if it is dark enough. This avoids the lights coming on giving false lux levels.
I've got the tri-sensor, and it's been very solid for me. It's probably the best sensor I have. No false positives ever.
I did replace the battery once in 1+ years time, but that was my own fault. It fell off the wall and components inside became dislodged which caused the device to malfunction. After re-seating all the internals, it's back to solid performance.
One small note: I haven't migrated this from ST yet, as other devices in the room aren't compatible in their present state (replacements are on the way).
Agreed here. I think they also have a recessed mount, if you choose to mount it inside the wall, which would make it look even better.
Have you also considered the Inovelli sensor? It was cheaper the last time I looked and adds humidity. I've got one, and it seems solid at the moment (haven't had it very long).
Sure; the rule below updates the value of the global variable to the same value as the lux value of the sensor - but only if the lights are off at the time, and only if the automation rule is active (I have other rules that pause it for other purposes).
for implementing the global variable itself, I set one up from the interface in rule machine (rule machine/create, set or delete global variables/add another global variable?) and just created one that used a number as the variable. I think i set it to 0 initially, but it then updated when the rule ran.
My lighting automation rule then references the global variable, rather than the lux level of the sensor itself.