[freddie_mercury]

> Philips Hue has routines for turning on lamps 30 minutes before sunset

FWIW, mechanical timers have been able to do this for decades.

20+ years ago I had a mechanical timer that turned on my porch lights at sunset and off at 11pm. You just needed to configure your latitude so it knew when sunset was.

[maccard]

I found a honeywell timer on amazon, which requires being hard wired. There is no way my landlord would have let me do electrical work in my previous property, and getting an electrician out for a "simple" job like that is ~$80 plus $75 for the timer. A hue bridge + bulb is ~$75 and I can use my existing lamps too.

> You just needed to configure your latitude so it knew when sunset was.

Having an electrician hard wire an extra switch for each lamp, configuring latitude and individual timers (presumably they don't all work off the same trigger so if you want to change them from 30m before to an hour before, or 15m after you have to update them all), managing DST... That doesn't sound massively simple to be be honest.

> mechanical timers have been able to do this for decades.

I don't think people are claiming that smart homes are allowing for things that were never physically possible before; I'm certainly not, but it is definitely more convenient.

[mikestew]

You just needed to configure your latitude so it knew when sunset was.

Mechanical timers have never "been able to do this". Sunset time changes on a daily basis. In Seattle that can be anywhere from 4:15 to 9:30 p. m. That's fine if one finds +/- 2.5 hours acceptable. Others have more precise needs.

[theshrike79]

I'd love to see one of these work in Finland :)

Our sunset times vary from "sun never comes up" to "sun never goes down".

Practically any kind of sunset-based automation is completely useless for anything over here except maybe for some decorative outdoor lights.

[JshWright]

Wouldn't it also need to know the date? Around here sunset ranges from 4:30pm to 9pm, depending on the time of year.