My Approach to Automated Lighting

I’ve experimented with the concept that I can introspect and break down my preference of specific lighting scenes based on a typical day/night, along with a prescriptive framework set on protecting and promoting a healthy circadian rhythm (how your body tracks its natural daily cycle).

My intention is to dive deeper into the future home and how automated lighting should behave/react to contexts, but in this part I will lay out my methods for determining the best schedule/type of lighting leading to a home that is lit perfectly almost 24/7.

Planning Stage

It’s important to reduce the amount of modifications you’ll make in the long run so as not to get lost in the minutiae, which is why I recommend starting with a wide scope of extremely fair assumptions.

This process involves two steps of approach:

Testing Your Assumptions

Using the Smart Lighting App (Philips Hue in my case) and experimenting with scenes I could create that I could confidently say I’d be content with as a default for certain times of the day.

Note: this may take some time because a true understanding of the color and brightness needed at different hours will likely need to be tested at those actual times of day. Defining The Perfect Schedule

Using a calendar or writing out a columned list of key times, mapping out the day to know how many different lighting scenes need to be made, how many transitions their will be and their ideal duration.

Considerations and Constraints

Know the Limits of Your Smart Lighting Platforms/Apps

I’m constrained by the control given in the Philips Hue system and chose to use this instead of my other automation program (Tasker for android) because it can continue to automate without the presence of my phone on the wifi network.

Color Temperature and Brightness is a Tool; Not a Toy

New research around the color temperature of light and its impact on our circadian rhythm has been a huge factor in why I’ve steered away from using the multi-color aspect of my hue bulbs for anything other than adhering to these two modes:

Warm (Red Shifted) Light drives melatonin production in your brain, making you more sleepy and relaxed.

(Red Shifted) drives melatonin production in your brain, making you more sleepy and relaxed. Cool (Blue Shifted) Light drives serotonin production, leading to wakefulness and energy.

My recommendation is to use scientific information to your advantage and instead of creating a skittles rainbow future spaceship experience, to instead focus on how these lights, pushing certain colors and brightness at different times, can help to wake you up in the morning to encourage a healthy and structured retirement to bed.

Not only should your colors/brightness be driven by this formula, but your schedule should help you wake at the perfect time and go to bed on a regular schedule.

Smart Lighting (and other IOT Products) Are Still In Their Infancy

I think the true smart home and smart products of the future will likely map all of these preferences either from intuitive algorithms or simply from your active usage and just start to build out a structured schedule. The goal for an advanced smart home is to understand occupancy, personal preference and perhaps even contexts like weather to produce the perfect light for any given situation.