I'm still looking for a decent way to measure outdoor lux at home, and just came across the Sensative Indoor/Outdoor Comfort strip... Anybody use this to measure outdoor illuminance?
I use Aeon MultiSensor 6. I have 12 of them so I get a good Lux reading from all over the house. Using that, I picked two that I thought represented the 'best' lux reading and put them into a Rule I call Illuminance. It simply compares the luminance values against an arbitrary value I picked. This one has to be greater than 30, either of those tow are greater than 40, etc. and turns on (or off) a virtual switch.
Then I use that virtual switch and an arbitrary time range I think of as 'day time' and if the Illuminance switch is off, that rule is called 'Gloomy Day' and if true, turns on some extra lights. When it goes false it turns them back off.
I also use ApiXU weather driver for outdoor lux. Again i pick an arbitrary value to be bright enough and set another virtual switch called: Illuminance (outdoor)
In other words, I'm not using specialty one use devices but picked Dome and Aeon's motion sensors because they ALSO have temp and lux.
Roughly the same price and yields motion and temp TOO.
I use ApiXU for the outdoor illuminance, but it's still not that good for me, basing it on the local weather stations (seems like they're always quite a bit off from my house, whether passing clouds or overcast, etc.)
It'd be nice to just have something that can directly measure the outdoors.
I used to have several of the zooz 4-in-1 sensors, but their range was some arbitrary 0-100 value, and my old versions had horrible battery life, so I've kind of been ignoring those type for now.
Any other lux sensors that can be mounted outside?
Haven't got one myself but I've seen these advertised. (Coming Soon).
I'm also interested in that one, barring any issues with reporting lux by itself (doesn't the Hue indoor motion sensor not send lux on its own, only when it gets a motion event? Or has that been resolved?)
My indoor one reports lux every 5 minutes, most of the time. Sometimes it might be 10 mins but I think that could be if the lux level has actually changed or not.
It is fitted in my spare bedroom looking out from the window and I use this for all my lux measurements.
I use the strips device. Currently mounted on a post of a backyard deck; I use the lux reading to control garage light behavior when the overhead door opens. Seems to be working fine, even during a cold winter.
I got the outdoor sensor. Anyone have any ideas regarding lux reporting ranges? Right now it’s mostly cloudy outside and the lux is over 13000.
Is this a normal range?
I researched those at one point and IIRC they had a range of 0-64000 or 65000. That was when I learned there really isn't a standardized measurement for lux.
@bjcowles is correct. Lux is one lumen per square meter. So.. light a candle, hold a pure white piece of paper a meter away and that's one Lux. It's used to determine 'ideal working light levels' and has little to do with the Sun directly. One can however, extrapolate... use an indoor meter to measure sunlight levels outdoors and find that sunlight levels vary hugely. 10,000 lux to 100,000 lux is the range for 'full sun.' I have no idea how a 10:1 difference in what can be called 'normal', can be useful -- but there ya are... 65,000 is right in the range of what is 'normal' 
FAR more valuable is the specific values you get at important moments. You can then use your specific values to build automations. You might, for example say.. "900 lux is the level at which I want more lights on inside the house... or inside specific rooms."
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Yep, I've just had to make judgment calls based on how bright I feel it is, then note the value from the sensor. Generally I've been using 3000-4000 lux reading from my sensor as the cutoff for my few rooms that I have lux based motion lighting on.
Does the comfort strip work with the standard driver? I could not find a sensitive driver in the list (don’t own a sensative)
I want to use it for both temp and lux outside.
Also, be careful using lux on an indoor sensor. As soon as lights come on, the lux of the sensor will jump. I saw someone who's lights continued to blink over and over, low lux, light on resulting in high lux, lights off....over and over again.
Yeah, I have it mounted on the outside of the front window. I haven't been to happy with the response of the sensative strip, it just stops reporting for days at a time, even after resetting it, and it's not very far away from a z wave repeater inside.
I just ended up getting one of the Wireless Tag sensors that reports lux, and modified the SmartThings driver that I read the rest of my tags through already to support the lux readings, and fixed it up to report as an omni sensor through Send Hub Events to my hubitat.
It seems much more reliable so far, and the readings have been quite good for my usage.
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