19 Nov2018
How to control outdoor Christmas lights without getting cold
I enjoy sharing technological solutions to common problems on my blog and I hope this one makes someone’s holidays a little better. I remember the moment inspiration came to me. It was late at night and I was ready for bed. The temperature was frigid and it may have been snowing. My wife reminded me that the Christmas lights in front of our house were still on. As I grudgingly put on my coat, boots and gloves before venturing outside, I thought to myself, “there must be a better way!” I already had smart plugs inside my home to turn on or off lamps with a phone app or Amazon Echo (my smart plug of choice is the WeMo Mini, though there are many others that operate similarly). So why not use one of these to control my outdoor lights? Well, these smart plugs aren’t waterproof and designed for outdoor use, so I needed an enclosure. I did some searching and found a SOCKiTBOX weatherproof electrical box which was big enough to hold a smart plug along with a small outlet adapter. With the smart plug in the middle, between the chord providing power from the wall and each set of lights connected to the outlet adapter, I’m able to control all the lights from a single smart plug.
Now I’m able to have some fun with the Christmas lights. With the WeMo app, I can automate turning them on and off with a set schedule. Or, when I have no desire to go outside and freeze, I just say, “Alexa, turn on the Christmas lights.”
After I set up the outdoor lights this way, I plugged the Christmas tree into a smart plug as well. The kids get a kick out of asking Alexa to turn the tree’s lights on or off, which is great as long as they don’t get carried away. Treating Alexa with respect is an important part of staying off the naughty list.