I have an old spotlight above my drive way that we never use because the switch is in the garage and it is not on a motion sensor. I have always planned to replace it with a motion sensor light but it is about 25 feet above the ground and I really don't like working on ladders that high anymore. It also uses 100 watt incandescent bulbs which are extremely inefficient so I was hoping to switch to LED technology.
As I was looking through Philips Hue product lines I found that they have some outdoor rated LED spotlights that are only 13 Watts so that solves the efficiency issue. I was hoping I could build an Amazon Alexa routine that triggered off motion on my Arlo security cameras which is possible but I could not find a way to have the lights trigger only at night.
Fortunately Philips Hue sells an outdoor motion sensor that does exactly what I need. Setup was fairly easy as it is with all hue products. The only confusing thing is I needed to setup the scene for turning the light on and off based on motion through the motion detector itself, not the lights. Once I had that figured out it was pretty easy. The only thing I am not sure about is I needed to set a time for nighttime behavior but I want the light to come on only when it is dark and that will change throughout the year I am not sure if that will need adjusting. The motion sensor is set to only trigger when it is actually dark out so the time range seems to be redundant. Just something to keep an eye on throughout the year. So far they have been working flawlessly.
The only complaint I have heard about the motion sensor is that you cannot or it is very difficult to replace that battery. That is pretty unfortunate for a $50 product, hopefully it lasts at least a couple years and by then they may have a new motion sensor with additional features. The sensor does have a thermostat built in which I am not too sure what to do with. I guess you could run some automations based on temperature but I can't think of a good use case for it. The weird thing is I can't find the temperature anywhere in the Hue app. It only shows in Apple Home, which I rarely use. Apple Home may be something I need to dig in and learn about at some point as it seems some smart products only integrate there.
Overall I am pretty happy with this solution. It is a bit pricey but that is what you get when you go with Hue products
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