Looking to light up your home the moment you enter your home or garage? I’m going to show you four ways you can have your home lights automatically turn on when you arrive home.

In order to do this, you’ll need at least a smart light bulb, a smart light switch or lights connected to a smart plug. You’ll also need at least one of the following 4 products:

- Apple Home Setup w/ Apple TV or iPad
- A Elgato Eve Motion or iHome Home Sensor
- A Elgato Door & Window
- A D-Link Omna

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Each one of the products listed above will act as the trigger for the automated lights and each has it’s own strengths and weaknesses which I’ll cover. I personally prefer the plain Apple Home Setup with a TV or iPad but you might have a circumstance in your home where the others might be better. Before I get started, the outcome of these automations results in either smart lights turning on, or a smart light switch or lights connected via a smart plug. I’ve got a ton of reviews for those products as well so if you need more info, check out those videos.

Let’s start with the Dlink Omna setup. This is probably the most expensive solution out of the four but is one of the more accurate. Why? Because you can pick and choose what parts of the video to detect motion in. All you have to do is set the right quadrant and create an Apple Home automation that triggers when a sensor detects something.

My problem with this setup are the false triggers you might get which might be annoying. The Omna will trigger on sunlight changes in a room but this issue can be overcome by ensuring that the automation you create is only active after sunset. The only other issue I have with using the Dlink Omna as a motion sensor is that you have to plug it in so it’s not as portable. Like the Elgato Eve motion.

The Elgato Eve Motion is just a motion sensor which is slightly weather resistant so you can mount it outside. You basically create the same automation as the Dlink Omna. Select the trigger automation and make sure you’re selecting the “after sunset” option if you don’t want your lights to turn on during the day.

I’ll be honest with you, I have a hard time trying to figure out where to use this smart home gadget. Why? Because it has such a wide FOV so it’s always firing. I would only use this in a location where I needed to know if anything was going on in a low traffic area. Even then, I can see the Eve motion triggering on a leaf or a branch during a wind storm which makes the automation unusable. If you need more help with automations, check out my intro video where I explain all the different automations you can use with Apple Home.

Next up is the Elgato Door & Window. Unlike the previous two products, this sensor is very finite. The sensor is either closed or open which is handy. You won’t have a blowing leaf triggering the sensor but unlike the motion sensors, you can’t monitor a wide area. I personally would use this on the door to my garage. Any time I open the door, the lights are going to come on after sunset.

The automation used for this setup is different than the previous two as you’re going to use the “an accessory is controlled” automation. If the door is open, the lights turn on and like the other two, you want to ensure it triggers after sunset.

The best way to have your lights turn on automatically in your house is using a full blown Apple Home using an Apple TV or iPad setup. Assuming that you’ve used an iPad or Apple TV, this method is going to be cheapest out of the four that I’m talking about. And the most accurate.

Basically, the moment Apple Home detects your iPhone is within the GeoFence that you set, the lights will come on. This solution is the best as you won’t encounter any false readings like you would with the Omna, a cat running across your lawn isn’t going to set it off like the Eve motion would and you can set this for any sort of entrance way to your house unlike the Door & Window.

The GPS feature of HomeKit is something that Apple Home does quite well. I’m quite impressed with the feature and have a hard time finding a similar feature that works consistently with other platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Home.