Almond+ is paying for itself

[tt4me]

So, I’ve been playing with this thing for some time now, and have had some fun with it, but it wasn’t until last night that it began paying for itself.

First off, I must say that I have had very few issues overall with my A+, and look forward to each new update to see what it brings. When Rules finally arrived, things really started to change.

OK, so last summer we did a big deck project at home. In doing so, we installed lights, outlets, and a ceiling fan. The problem was that all of this ran off of a single circuit and a single switch inside the house. So if I wanted to plug in a blower to an outlet, I had to turn everything on. Granted the ceiling fan has a remote, but the lights would be on. Or, if I wanted to use the ceiling fan during the day, I couldn’t turn the lights off. (Lights are the rope style lights that plug into an outlet that is mounted up high)

So, in comes the A+ and Rules.

Last night, I installed a Z-Wave outlet for the lights. Wired the light switch straight through so that everything was on all the time, and then replaced the old switch with a Z-Wave switch. So now, the outlets are always on. The fan works based off of its remote all the time. And now, with the use of the A+ and Rules, the outdoor lights work via the light switch and/or my phone. The Rules also allow me to keep the switch and lights in sync in case I decide to control the lights (outlet) directly from my phone, rather than hitting the light switch toggle on the phone.

These are the products that I used:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035YRCR2/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013V8K3O/

I also have various other things set up around my house, but this was the first project that actually saved us time and money by preventing the hiring of an electrician to rewire everything.

Thank you Securifi!!

[dbuttke]

Don't know where you live, but I doubt that is to code.
What you are describing means that however many watts your z wave switch is rated for is all you can use in this whole area.
I personally wouldn't plug in a blower hooked up to a light switch. Especially with the fan/light and whatever else you have plugged in out there.
Remember that even if you feel it's safe that if you have a fire the insurance company will likely find that and not pay your claim.

[tt4me]

Guessing that I didn't explain this properly.  The switch itself isn't doing anything other than sending a signal to the A+ to turn on the outlet that's controlling the lights, and the lights are well under the rating of the outlet.

I didn't like the outlets and everything else were on a switch, and it no longer is, as it's all wired straight through.

Hope that makes sense.

[dbuttke]

Okay I misunderstood.
Good deal.