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have alexa turn off lights.

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evansmb

have alexa turn off lights.
« on: November 16, 2019, 11:44:37 pm »
We don't tend to use the back our your house very often, so I would like to have alexa ask if we would like to turn the lights off in a certain area of the house after the  lights have been on for an hour.  Is this possible?

Re: have alexa turn off lights.
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2019, 09:00:23 am »
We don't tend to use the back our your house very often, so I would like to have alexa ask if we would like to turn the lights off in a certain area of the house after the  lights have been on for an hour.  Is this possible?

I'm not aware of anything like that, however I might go with a motion sensor (Hue Branded works really well... but need a bridge to use it properly), and set up timers for to turn off lights after motion stops for a predetermined time limit. You can also set up other types of scenarios, but this one seems the easiest to accomplish a simple "turn 'em off when not in use" thing...
2 Echo Dots 2nd gen
2 echo dots gen 3 (no clock) -2 Echo Dot 3rd gen with Clock
1 echo dot Gen 4 with clock
1 Echo Spot
4 10" Fire Tablets
1 15' Echo show
23 Hue Lights 1 Hue bridge - 1 Amazon Smart plug outlet
One Ring Doorbell Pro
4 cell phones with Alexa app installed!
You should see My Apple Device List!

Offline jwlv

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Re: have alexa turn off lights.
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2019, 04:58:50 pm »
All of my smart switches are Wemo. Even without using Alexa, Wemo devices can define its own rules. One of those rules can be "if light (or device) has been on for ### minutes (or hours), turn off."

I use a combination of these rules to turn on certain lights and devices at dusk, and turn off after a certain number of hours. A couple of my lights are set to turn off a certain number of hours before dawn.

Not every smart switch has these features. Most of the well-known name brands do, such as Wemo, Hue, etc.

Offline kenf

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Re: have alexa turn off lights.
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2019, 08:44:34 am »
A timer solutiuon may require a smart hub like Wemo or Smart Things which has more advanced scripting.

Otherwise an Alexa Routine can be made like "Lights Out" and you can assign all lights you want to it and set them to off.

Because I have SmartThings, I can make Scenes, so I have one called Red Alert and another called Lights Out.  When a security event happens, the Red Alert scene is called, turning on all my lights.  I've also made a Alexa Routines of the same names, and when I say "Good Night", it activates the Lights Out scene.

So I have several ways of getting the lights out, but since I say Good Night, every night, I know Alexa will get all the lights and whatever else I want done at bed time.

Alexa can recognize Scenes, but I don't recall if it can make them.  For me, it's something I import from SmartThings when I sync, so I manage it there, and then wire up additional Alexa behaviors in the Alexa app.