Bright Idea - Warm Up the Great Room

Speaking of the holiday season approaching, we have had a few Insteon community members share how they use Insteon devices to regulate the environment inside their homes as temperatures start to cool down.

One use case is that when a fire is lit in the fireplace, the voice command of “Alexa, the fireplace is on” will trigger a routine where the smart thermostat heat is adjusted down, the lights in the great room dim to 25%, and the ceiling fan turns on to circulate the warm air throughout the room.

Here are the steps to do so in your home:

• Enable the Insteon skill in your Alexa or Google home control app. For this example, we will use Alexa, but the process is similar with Google Home.
• Create a routine for the fireplace scene
• In the routine, have the Alexa-compatible thermostat (e.g., Ecobee) turn down heat, dim the Insteon light scene to 25%, and turn on the ceiling fan
• Create a second routine to reset the thermostat to nighttime settings and turn off the lights and ceiling when the fire burns out and it is time to go to bed

Many of us make this part of a larger routine called “Goodnight” that adjusts the entire home to desired settings at the end of the day.

If you are not comfortable with the process listed in a Bright Idea’s solution, please do not attempt to do it yourself and contact an appropriate installer.