Could a few people sugest some away or vacation lighting scenes that vary by day and time without. I like to have several lights come on and off instead of just stay on for several hours. Also since you can't tell a Compose SCENE to turn ON for a given amount, I need to tell it a specific time to turn on. The problem arises with sunset which changes all year by several hours and you can't tell a light to turn on more than 120 minutes past sunset.     I know I sound like I'm whining, but thought I'd ask. Thanks

One generic suggestion I'll make is to pick some specific lights (I have a large porch and use those lights) and let them ramp down over a long period.  I also have some "front facing" rooms that we don't occupy often so ramp those up and down slowly.

I don't have the code here but the idea is to come on (ramp up over a few minutes) starting 25 to 45 minutes or so after sunset.  Night technically starts at the "end of civil twilight", which is 24 minutes after sunset.  Between sunset changing and the ramp most people can't determine an exact pattern for "on".

I leave them on until maybe 10pm, then start ramping down over 45 minutes or an hour.  I use 90% to 95% as "on" to conserve bulb life.

By the way, those programs don't change times.  When I say "25 to 45 minutes", pick a number and go with it.  No need to vary it when you ramp slowly.

Most people can't tell when the lights "went off" or "came on" because they just ramp down so slowly.  That routine is on full time, whether I'm home or not.  Since we have some rooms on this program, we have a "button" to bypass those rooms when we are using them (in our case it means when we have visitors).

Even good friends won't be able to tell whether you're home<g>.

Dan

Another good suggestion I saw on the forum (I wish I could give credit where due) was to roll the actions so they're not the same every day. By using flags and having the code blocks turn certain flags on and off you can make the pattern seem suitably random.

Below is an example with three flags, you can get more complex with more flags and getting creative about which flags turn which blocks of flags on and off.

TIMED 8:01 PM MTWTFSS
   AND IF FLAG 1 CURRENT VALUE IS 1
         THEN SET FLAG 1 TO 0
         THEN SET FLAG 2 TO 1
         THEN UNIT 1 ON

TIMED 9:01 PM MTWTFSS
   AND IF FLAG 2 CURRENT VALUE IS 1
         THEN SET FLAG 1 TO 1
         THEN SET FLAG 2 TO 0
         THEN SET FLAG 3 TO 1
         THEN UNIT 2 ON

TIMED 10:01 PM MTWTFSS
   AND IF FLAG 3 CURRENT VALUE IS 1
         THEN SET FLAG 3 TO 0
         THEN UNIT 3 ON

On day 1 it will turn on light 1 at 8pm. On day 2 it will turn on light 2 at 9pm. On day 3 it will turn on light 1 at 8pm and light 3 at 10pm. You will, of course, need blocks to turn off lights. The following examples will vary your "bed time". I have a failsafe all off late at night on mine as a safety net incase my complex logic fails at some point due to a weird flag state.

TIMED 11:01 PM MTWTFSS
   AND IF FLAG 1 CURRENT VALUE IS 1
         THEN ALL UNITS OFF

TIMED 11:21 PM MTWTFSS
   AND IF FLAG 2 CURRENT VALUE IS 1
         THEN ALL UNITS OFF

TIMED 12:21 AM MTWTFSS
         THEN ALL UNITS OFF