Sunrise (and sunset) times vary about 3 hours between winter and summer here. I would like to switch an outdoor light:
ON - at 6:15AM, but only if it is still dark outside, then
OFF - when it becomes light outside, regardless of the time,
OFF - at 7:00AM, regardless if it is still dark outside.
I will determine the "Dark" and "Light" states based on an offset from sunrise (or maybe even as determined by an illuminence sensor). I would also want to do a similar set up for turning the light on and off in the evening - but I would expect it would be a simple variation of the above
If you're using sunset and not "real" illuminance, I'm not sure you need Rule 4.0 for this. Simple Automation Rules (formerly called Simple Lighting) would probably work without a lot of effort. I'd use a few "rules," one for on:
and two others, one that turns off at sunrise (no restrictions) and another that turns off at 7:00 AM (also with no restrictions), though you can adjust everything here or combine/separate according to your preferences. (I have a restriction above so it will only turn on at 6:15 AM if it is still before sunrise.)
SAR can't handle illuminance, so you would need Rule Machine (or another app) for that. (EDIT: Guess it can and I've just never tried! See below.) But if you don't have that already, I figure no sense to make things more complicated than they need to be.
Thanks for the quick response. I'll look into that. There seem to be so many things that can be done, I get lost in all the possibilities. I have the sensor, as I thought it would be the best way to do it. Thanks again!
Actually it does as I use it to turn on my lights based upon a Lux value from my outdoor Hue motion. Then I have a restriction to only turn on between certain times.
Nice! I didn't see this option on the hub I was looking at because I don't have an illuminance sensor on that hub, and I guess SAR tries to be smart and hide things you can't use (fancy built-in apps...). That should make things easier for the OP.
