"home false sense of security" :P

[Apoc]

Turning the lights on at night and off in the morning is just something I've always done as a ritual. I don't even feel comfortable hooking our garage door up to the internet (in terms of being able to open and close it, we have a sensor on it from FP to remind me if it's not closed).

What do you do when you're traveling? We travel quite a bit and it's nice to have a house that looks lived in. Seattle is fairly crime free, but property crime is something we deal with so I also like the idea of lights turning on if someone breaks a window. It's also nice to have lights turn on when you open a door when we have your hands full of kid crap.

I replaced a few outlets with these for night lights: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://amzn.to/2f1t6h3">http://amzn.to/2f1t6h3</a><!-- m -->

It's nice because you don't have to worry about losing an outlet or a kid ripping the night light out of the wall.

I elected to keep our new jackshaft opener off the internet so it's less easy to hack. I'll probably add a sensor to it so I can be notified if the door is left open. I had to add a the battery backup because the only access to our garage is through the door itself. Our generator is in there, so we'd be hosed if the power ever went out.

I wanna get a couple of those outdoor zwave outlets for use with our Christmas decorations in the next week or so. Any issues linking it to your FP Chris?

Adding them is easy, although being in range isn't always simple. ZWave is a mesh network, so you can add switches/outlets/lights to extend range. I have coverage in my garage, but I've been frustrated by getting coverage in my backyard to add our bistro lights to the system. To add, you have to call FP to enable the EmPower tab in your account and they'll walk you through adding a device. After that, it's just a few steps to add others.

1) Hold the star button for 10 sec to enter power device menu
2) Hold the 1 button for 10 sec to enter learn mode
3) Power up the device; they will detect each other if in range
4) Hold # for 10 seconds to exit power device menu
5) Go into web portal to rename device, create rules, etc.

One programmed, you can freely move devices. It might save you some angst if you're able to add devices near the panel (panel can be moved) and then place them accordingly. Best I can tell, the basic panel can only learn eight devices. This probably isn't a problem for most people, unless you get carried away.