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by blake1 1096 days ago
I saw a Wi-Fi enabled lightbulb today. I cannot think what the use case is for such a device.
1 comments

They're super common.

For instance, you can adjust the color instead of the brightness as needed. You can set them to a different color at night - like red - or to match the content you're watching. You can have it turn off automatically when you leave home, and come back on when you return. You can tie it to sensors, like a door ajar sensor to automatically turn on when you open a closet and back off after.

I generally don't turn lights on or off, but do have RunLessWire passive switches to override.

It's great - we're finally getting to the point of ubiquitous computing where the devices around you meet your needs without you having to engage with them at all.

It's all incredibly reliable if you stick to Philips and Lutron.

> You can tie it to sensors, like a door ajar sensor to automatically turn on when you open a closet and back off after.

This is very simple to do without wifi. Refrigerators have been doing it a long time.

Well when I can stack my coats in a refrigerator, I'll be sure to let you know. The nice thing is that as an individual you can do everything with a screwdriver on a weekend.
I just put my closet lights on a motion sensor, it was like $10 to do once. No wifi needed.
Nobody said it was necessary. It's significantly more challenging to get the light to turn on based on time of day, or darkness outside, or to dim by changing color temperature without WiFi/Bluetooth/Zigbee/Thread though. Not to mention fun stuff like getting your bathroom exhaust to turn on when you enter the bathroom then off 10 minutes later.

None of this is strictly necessary, of course. But it is a lot of fun.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Enerlites-Dual-Tech-Humidity-Sensor...

$60, no wifi, it'll do lights and fan, and it'll trigger on humidity as well as person in room.

I'll take that any day over something that needs to rely on MQTT and home assistant.