It's nearly the longest day, and once again I find myself having to adjust control of our hall lighting - so what's my problem?
Our hall is in the centre of the house with no direct natural lighting; when it is light outside it gets plenty of light from the surrounding rooms and also a skylight onto the landing above. During the winter months, when it may be relatively dark outside, we may need to have the wall lights come on by mid-afternoon - I have that working reasonably well. But at this time of year, when it remains relatively light outside until well into the evening, we hardly need the hall lights to come on at all - there is enough residual light to see clearly, but the lights still come on in the early evening.
My difficulty seems to come from the sensitivity of the light sensors at low-light levels - there is a significant difference between switching at 1% and 2% light level, even with zero hysteresis. And using a combination of internal and external sensors doesn't seem to work well for this particular application.
So my question is this: Is it somehow possible to have more granularity across a light sensor range of say 0% to 4%.
Or is there an alternative way of addressing this? We have a motion sensor in the hall, but when it's dark we really need the lights on to enter the hall.
On a separate, but related topic: Is there a clever way to set a light so it will not come on if it's (say) within 30 minutes before the end of its operating period?
Any help much appreciated.
Martin
Our hall is in the centre of the house with no direct natural lighting; when it is light outside it gets plenty of light from the surrounding rooms and also a skylight onto the landing above. During the winter months, when it may be relatively dark outside, we may need to have the wall lights come on by mid-afternoon - I have that working reasonably well. But at this time of year, when it remains relatively light outside until well into the evening, we hardly need the hall lights to come on at all - there is enough residual light to see clearly, but the lights still come on in the early evening.
My difficulty seems to come from the sensitivity of the light sensors at low-light levels - there is a significant difference between switching at 1% and 2% light level, even with zero hysteresis. And using a combination of internal and external sensors doesn't seem to work well for this particular application.
So my question is this: Is it somehow possible to have more granularity across a light sensor range of say 0% to 4%.
Or is there an alternative way of addressing this? We have a motion sensor in the hall, but when it's dark we really need the lights on to enter the hall.
On a separate, but related topic: Is there a clever way to set a light so it will not come on if it's (say) within 30 minutes before the end of its operating period?
Any help much appreciated.
Martin
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