- Posted on
Mon Aug 14, 2017 7:55 am
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Different Computers
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- Posts: 2579
- Joined: Jan 02, 2016
- Location: East Coast
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I'm still thinking about this, but my first thought about it is Actions are better than virtual device groups because they're easier to tune or change. Doesn't mean I don't use some VDGs, but going forward I'll probably use Actions.
Having tried a bunch of ways to get my lights to react to sunrise/sunset, I'm finding the most satisfying one is to use a Luminance sensor. I'm still tuning the sensor itself and fixing some rules that keep exterior lights from coming on too soon, but this works best for me--better than a python script that counts up/down a value for "darkness" around sunset/sunrise, or trying to set long ramp up values based on the same.
Not an answer that's necessarily generalizable--but maybe it is: Maybe the Best Practice is to, whenever possible, have automations react to real world changes rather than set schedules or scripts.
Sonoma on a Mac Mini M1 running Airfoil Pro, Bond Home, Camect, Roku Network Remote, Hue Lights, DomoPad, Adapters, Home Assistant Agent, HomeKitLinkSiri, EPS Smart Dimmer, Fantastic Weather, Nanoleaf, LED Simple Effects, Grafana. UnifiAP