Hello! I'm just getting started in the home automation journey and was looking for a way to smart power a dumb motion sensing flood light. Up to now, the light has been plugged into a dumb outdoor outlet controlled by a light switch inside. Leaving the switch on allows motion to be detected, kicking on the lights. You can also double tap the on switch to keep the lights on continuously.
I bought this outdoor switch outlet in the hopes to incorporate the dumb flood lights into Hubitat. I haven't tested it out yet, but was curious if anyone else had a similar setup? If the indoor light switch is always on and supplying power to this Z-wave switch through the dumb outlet, will Hubitat be able to tell when the flood lights themselves come on through the Z-wave switch?
My fear is that Hubitat would only know that the Z-wave switch is powered on and not be able to report on the light itself turning on. Has anyone had experience with a setup like this? Thanks!
Hi! The hub will only be able to tell when it is powered on or not. You could also add an illuminance sensor close to the lights to tell if they are on or not.
Another option would be to disable the motion sensor on the light and add a separate z-wave motion sensor to turn on/off the switch.
Finally, be sure that you have enough signal strength going to the switch outlet. This can be achieved by having a repeater inside close to the outside location.
Sending on/off/on commands to your current setup should work most of the time, but there will likely be instances where it doesn’t. Especially if your Z-Wave signal isn’t strong enough, or if you have some issues with the z-wave network. It will be difficult to know for sure, though you could probably setup a rule to read what comes back from the switch and try to determine if it reports an on/off/on command rapidly enough.
I have three of the HomeSeer motion sensors that @erktrek mentioned and they have been working quite well outside for a number of years now. Just replaced the original motion sensors that were attached to the exterior security lights.
The "only" gotcha is that you have to leave the circuit on. So the light switch we have for those security lights just stays on and the motion sensors control the lights directly (they also have a light sensor so you can make sure they are not coming on if it is already light enough out). Plus all the notifications come back quickly and I have a rule set up to have them trigger other lights (such as the one by the front door) depending on what goes by.
I'd have to look at the light. I've seen the HomeSeer sensors, but my light is a plug in type, so the housing isn't quite the same (?), but I'd have to open it up to confirm. Long term, I want a proper security fixture, but I'm starting to dabble in the less permanent approaches at the moment.
Is the motion sensor that is attached to the flood light removable? If so then you can probably replace with the HS. The connector seems like a fairly standard one for floodlights. In my pic above I bought some very inexpensive floodlights without the motion sensor and added them in..
With the homeseer sensor driver (whatever driver it uses) can I control whether the motion sensor is on or off? I generally don't want the motion sensor to turn the lights on (but sometimes I do), but I do want to be able to control the light from HE.
It has a "Floodlight Control" preference that you can set to Z-Wave only. That's what I have it set to and it does not come on so supersedes the "Floodlight Control by Lux".
I wonder how you're supposed to include this sucker in place? I can just see myself on a ladder trying to find that sync button and NOT having very nice things to say about it.
Depends on how high you placed the floodlight but I hear ya! The good news is the wiring is very simple - you just swap out the existing sensor if you have one. Otherwise grab an electrician or a fearless relative...
For a brand new install you can pre-wire / include on the ground using a lamp cord... like I have done for my test unit. Ultimately this will be put somewhere on my garage by an electrician.
Have you looked at the Hue outdoor flood lights? Cost quite a bit more (especially since you need a separate motion sensor) but they look pretty nice. And the thoughts of lighting up the house with red and green during the yule season is appealing. Or flashing red flood lights when the alarm goes off?
I stopped using Hue devices a while ago.. I've tried to simplify my device hubs as much as possible. I know I can integrate directly with HE but from a cost/performance standpoint for my use-case it's not worth it.
As far as the colors go - yes that is a cool. Interestingly I think that capability is actually more appropriate for outside use than in.. I never use my color changing bulbs in my den (recessed + table lamps) other than to occasionally show off.
edit: of course if you have a self-destruct sequence with flashing red lights, siren and a countdown alert via Sonos or Alexa I might be convinced otherwise.
