Definitely agree on the random schedules—super handy for vacations. Another thing I've found useful is setting up scenes for different activities. Like, I've got a "movie night" scene that dims everything just right, and one for reading that's brighter but still cozy. Took a bit of tweaking to get perfect, but now it's just one tap or voice command and done. Have you tried grouping bulbs by room yet? Makes managing multiple lights way easier, especially if you've got a bigger space.
Grouping bulbs by room sounds handy, but does it ever get confusing if you have overlapping spaces? Like, my kitchen and dining area are kinda open-plan...wondering if that's tricky to manage or if there's a workaround.
I've run into this exact issue with open-plan spaces. A couple things I've found helpful:
- Don't just group by room, but also by function—like "cooking lights" vs. "dining lights." Makes it easier to control the mood or brightness depending on what you're doing.
- Consider overlapping groups. You can have bulbs in multiple groups, so your dining area bulbs could be in both "kitchen" and "dining" groups.
Takes a bit of tweaking at first, but once set up, it's pretty intuitive...and saves you from accidentally setting mood lighting while chopping veggies.
"Don't just group by room, but also by function—like 'cooking lights' vs. 'dining lights.'"
Good point on function-based grouping, but honestly, I've found that too many overlapping groups can actually get confusing over time. Simpler setups—like clearly labeled zones—might save headaches down the road...just my two cents.
I get what you're saying about overlapping groups getting messy. When I first set mine up, I went a bit overboard—had one called "movie mode," another for "reading nook," and even one just labeled "chill." After a few weeks, I couldn't remember what half of them did. Ended up simplifying everything down to just a few clear zones, and life's been easier since. Sometimes less really is more...
