Geeking out in the tub
If you have been following my blog for a while, you’ll be familiar with my love of automation.
It is not necessarily a passion my immediate family shares, but working with them, we have a situation we can all see the benefit of and all have equal control. (If you are in such a position, that really helps).
I cannot get Alexa or Google home to work with my voice, but in the evening, the TV and lounge lights all come on with my press on my home screen or my husband’s, so we are enjoying living in the 21st Century.
While casually noticing my favourite brand has ceased to be replaced by “Tapo”, I noticed some GU10 bulbs…
Oh no, I feel for your family, where are you going with this?
Eh! Actually, my beloved helped me swapped the four LED GU10s in the bathroom for the “smart” Tapo L610s. We did them one at a time to get them paired with the network and updated and correctly labelled but I now have four bulbs which will always switch on with the light switch (or off with the fan) but can be individually dimmed or switched off through my phone – if I have a bath late afternoon, I can have the lights come on automatically as the sunsets…
Yawn, so what?
Like many households in the UK, ours was built with the light switch automatically turning on both the lights and an extractor fan in our bathroom.
Which is great, unless, like me, you do bathing marathons. In the daylight. Or at dusk. Four lots of 4.5W of bulb sitting there shining when you don’t need them is a bit heartbreaking. These Tapo bulbs are 2.2W each.
I can now turn the lighting down or off while the light from the window pours in and the fan will keep turning as long as I need it.
I can dim when my head hurts after a hypo or a hyper.
I have the power to have it as I want. What’s not to love?
Posted: September 7th, 2024 under 42, Driving off the grid.