Some HA scenarios for the experts.

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(This is a cross post to an alt.home.automation that I have not
received any responses to.)


Howdy from Texas!

This is my first post to a HA news group, although I have been trolling

heavily since deciding on doing HA for the house I am building.


I have some scenarios I want to run past those here with experience.


1)      I have a long living room (15'x30') that will be divided into
two logical sections. There is a front door in the middle of the 30
foot side. In the other long wall are two doors near the corners (one
each into the kitchen and dining). So with this logical separation, I
want to be able to come in the front door and turn on both sections'
lights. Coming in from the kitchen or dining, I only want to have a
switch for that section's light. But when I leave each section (say
for the evening), I want to have a HA controller that will turn off
both of the lights. From what I have read, this should be no problem.
Say I use the six button room controller, I could program button A to
turn off both fans and both lights (assuming they are all on
controllable switches). Specifically using HAI Omni II/Omni Pro and
it's corresponding switches, is it possible to program the light
switch so that a double tap to the off position does the same thing?
2)      In the kids bedrooms, I really like the idea of the 'go to the
bathroom' lighting scene. Basically, you get up in the middle of the
night and need to go to the bathroom. You have an HA switch that turns
on your bedroom, hall and bathroom lights to 20%. You return and press
off, and all the lights turn off. My 'logic' question is concerning
two children and this function. This same single switch would turn off
the main room light when going to bed initially at night. So here's
the scenario...the system knows it's dark outside, the bedroom light
is on full. The kid goes to bed and they press this switch right next
to their bed and it turns off their bedroom light. Later they wake up,
press the switch on, the lights rise to 20% in the places listed above.

The conflict I see is where one kid goes to bed before the other. So
one is in the bathroom showering or whatever before bed. The little one

gets up, activates the 20% function, then returns to bed. Just before
getting back in bed, they hit the off button. Can the system (again,
HAI Omni) be programmed to NOT dim the bathroom or hall light to 20% if

they are already on NOR turn off the bathroom or hall light if it
queries the switch and sees that it is not set to 20%. In other words,
turn on any of the appropriate lights to 20% if they are off, and also
turn off the bedroom light regardless of dim level, but never turn off
the bath and hall, unless they are at 20%.
3)      I also have this dilemma of a wrap around porch and lighting
control
for it. I will have normal porch lights mounted on the house on all
four sides, plus flood lights on the outside of the porch on all four
sides as well. Obviously, I do not have a door leading out of the house

in all four directions. I have decided on one room controllers for each

of the sets of lights at the front and back doors only. I can control
each of the four directions with the four buttons and have a master
on/off for security reasons. Does this seem like a viable solution? Is
there an inline module to power all this remote lighting? How reliable
are they? I do not have an attic in this house (structural insulated
panels), so will need to put these devices where they are field
serviceable.
4)      Does anyone know what the laser engraving costs for their
switches?


Sorry for the diatribe. I am neck deep in high-voltage wiring at the
moment and want to get everything in place before I call the sheetrock
guys.