Around Christmas time every year we like to set up our Christmas trees and decorations, both inside and out. If those decorations include lights it can be a pain to remember to turn them all on and off every night, and we definitely know leaving them on all the time isn't cost effective!
What you'll need
- Nero Gateway
- Nero Plug
- Your Christmas tree and fairy lights!
Setting everything up
We're going to focus on your Christmas tree's fairy lights in this article, but the same could be applied to any Christmas lights in your home.
- Connect your Nero Plug to your Nero Gateway if it isn't already pair. If you need help pairing it, refer to these steps.
- Plug your lights into the Nero Plug and then plug it into your power point. You can press the button on the front of the plug to test that the lights turn on and off correctly.
- Open your My Nero app or web interface and select Scenes from the side menu.
- Create a new scene with a time based trigger. Decide when you want your lights to turn on, whether that is a set time, at sunset, only on certain days. Once you are happy with your selection click Next.
- Select your Nero Plug from the list of devices and set it to turn on. Click Next.
- Name your scene and save it.
- Create a second scene to turn the lights off at a set time. Follow steps 4-6 but select the off time (midnight for example) and set the plug state to off instead of on.
Now your lights will automatically turn on and off every day! Throughout the Christmas period your smart home will automatically cheer the place up with fairy lights.
Extended the scene
Do you have RGBW lights in your system as well? With Nero you can connect your Philips Hue and LIFX bulbs to the system and make them part of the scene as well. You can turn the tree lights on and set your RGBW lights to Christmas colours, making an even more cheery scene!