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Lighting Plan – Zero-UI Home Automation (2025)

Purpose

Design lighting that feels human, instant, and calm. Physical controls always work; automations assist without fighting the user.

Desired Outcomes

  • Instant on via hardwired triggers; low-impact night paths
  • Conservative, predictable offs; manual control wins with cooldown
  • Silence by default; alerts only for rare operator cases
  • Safe degradation when sensors/cloud inputs fail

Grouping (automation sets)

  • Entry/foyer/hall paths — door + motion driven
  • Kitchen/living — high-occupancy, assist-on, conservative off
  • Bedrooms — gentle night paths, avoid aggressive off when occupied
  • Bathrooms/laundry — motion-based, longer timers, night dim
  • Stairs/garage/mudroom — safety-first, quick on, gentle off
  • Outdoor/perimeter — sunset/sunrise schedule + door boosts

Signals

  • Primary: hardwired motion, door contacts, sunrise/sunset, optional lux
  • Secondary (cautious): network/phone presence as hints only; never sole triggers
  • Manual override: any switch/dimmer press starts a cooldown where automations yield

Core Automations (per group)

  • Arrival: door opens after sunset → entry/hall on (fast), suppress off after manual press
  • Motion assist: motion on; off only with no-motion + door closed + timer (room-specific)
  • Night mode: reduced brightness and limited fixtures for paths (hall/bed/bath)
  • Safety: stairs/garage/mudroom on immediately; long idle before off
  • Outdoor: sunset on, late-night dim, sunrise off; door open can boost brightness briefly

Fixture Startup / Flicker Guard

  • When turning on dimmable LEDs on legacy Lutron dimmers, always:
    1. Set to minimum level to let the driver latch cleanly
    2. After a short delay, raise to target brightness
  • If a light reports rapid state flaps or suspected flicker, back off to minimum level and retry once; otherwise yield to manual control.

Off Logic

  • Never aggressive; require strong evidence of vacancy
  • Respect manual adjustments; cooldown before any auto-off/brightness change
  • High-use rooms: prefer on-assist only; offs need clear vacancy (no motion + door closed + timer)

Night Behavior

  • Lower brightness scenes
  • Pathway-only fixtures (avoid floods/center cans)
  • No color/novelty

Fail-Safes

  • Sensor stale/offline → do nothing (leave lights as-is)
  • MQTT down → no actions; no flicker retries
  • HA restart → physical switches unaffected; automations resume cleanly
  • Cloud inputs missing → ignore them; rely on physics inputs

Notifications (rare, operator-only)

  • Default: no alerts for lights left on
  • Optional: garage/porch on long after sunrise; bulk all-off failed when arming away
  • Always rate-limit; only if actionable

Rollout / Testing

  1. Observe: log triggers/offs only
  2. Assist: on-only with manual override respected
  3. Full: on + conservative off + night dim paths
  4. Optimize: tune timers per room after usage data

Naming & Structure (one job per automation)

  • lighting.entry.auto_on_after_sunset
  • lighting.kitchen.assist_on_motion
  • lighting.kitchen.conservative_off_idle
  • lighting.hall.night_path_dim
  • lighting.garage.safety_on_door_open

Each automation header: one-line intent, failure mode, cooldown/override notes.