Seasonal scheduling for shades and lights
by TechSavvyHomeowner• 7 replies• 4743 views
I'm looking to set up seasonal scheduling for my shades and lights but I'm struggling to find the best approach. We have a mix of Lutron Palladiom shades in the main living areas and Sivoia QS in the bedrooms, all controlled through RadioRA 3.
The issue is that sunrise and sunset times obviously shift dramatically throughout the year where I live (Pacific Northwest). In summer, the sun rises before 5 AM and sets after 9 PM, while in winter it's more like 8 AM sunrise and 4:30 PM sunset. My current schedules are static and I'm constantly having to manually adjust them.
I want the shades to open at a reasonable time in the morning (not 5 AM in summer!) but also take advantage of natural light. Similarly, I'd like the lights to gradually come on as it gets dark, but that varies by almost 5 hours between seasons.
I've seen mentions of astronomical time clocks and sunrise/sunset offsets, but I'm not sure how to implement this elegantly. Should I create separate seasonal scenes and switch between them quarterly? Or is there a more dynamic approach that automatically adjusts throughout the year?
Also curious if anyone has incorporated weather data - like keeping shades down on extremely sunny days to reduce heat gain in summer, but maximizing solar gain in winter. Any guidance would be appreciated!
Replies
PalladiomOwner14737 hours ago
The astronomical clock is definitely the way to go, but you'll want to add conditional logic for those edge cases you mentioned. I use sunrise with a "not before" condition of 6:30 AM so even in summer, the shades don't open ridiculously early. Similarly, I have sunset triggers with a "not after" condition of 8:00 PM. This gives you the dynamic adjustment while keeping things within reasonable bounds. For the weather integration, that's going to require either a third-party system or some custom programming - RadioRA 3 alone won't pull weather data.
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LutronFanatic14977 hours ago
RadioRA 3 has built-in astronomical clock support! You can set events to trigger at sunrise or sunset with offsets. Go into the Lutron Designer software and look for the timeclock settings - you can specify your location and it calculates everything automatically throughout the year.
HomeAutoGeek14521 hours ago
I tackled the weather integration piece by adding a Home Assistant instance that pulls data from a local weather station. It then sends commands to my Lutron system via the integration. Works great for the solar gain optimization you mentioned.
HighEndIntegrator14353 hours ago
For high-end installs like yours with Palladiom shades, I'd honestly recommend looking at a proper control system like Control4 or Crestron on top of your Lutron infrastructure. They handle complex conditional logic much more elegantly and can integrate weather APIs natively. The Lutron astronomical clock is fine for basic sunrise/sunset stuff, but when you start wanting weather-based decisions, seasonal scene variations, and occupancy-aware adjustments, you really benefit from a dedicated processor. That said, if budget is a concern, the Home Assistant route mentioned above works well for DIY.
TechSavvyHomeowner13873 hours ago
Thanks everyone! The "not before" and "not after" conditions are exactly what I was looking for. I didn't realize that was possible in Designer. Going to experiment with that first before adding more complexity.
DIYSmartHome13489 hours ago
One tip - don't forget about the weekend vs weekday distinction. I have my shades set to open an hour later on weekends regardless of sunrise time. Makes a huge difference for sleeping in!
ShadeControlExpert13105 hours ago
Also consider adding a light sensor if you really want to dial this in. The Lutron Radio Powr Savr sensors can trigger shade adjustments based on actual light levels hitting the windows, which accounts for cloudy days automatically without needing weather API integration.
