How Homes, Rooms, and Zones work in HomeKit

[amjustice]

Not sure how many of you have dug deep into the intricacies of Homes, Rooms and Zones in HomeKit so I thought I would share a video I put together:

There are a lot of really powerful things you can do once you set up all your devices and put them into rooms and zones. Homes probably doesn't apply to most people unless you have a vacation home or something like that.

Happy to answer any questions that come up.

 

[FreeState]

Can you do overlapping zones? For example my dining room is separated from the kitchen by a standing bar. Can/is there a way to add the bar lights to both the dining room zone and the kitchen zone?

 

[amjustice]

I think the best way to do this would be to create rooms for each and then a zone that encompasses both of these and call it whatever makes sense. There is no limit to the number of zones you can make so you can go wild here in whatever makes sense.

The other way to address this could also be by making a scene.

 

[FreeState]

Thanks, still learning the lay of the land on how this all works. Some of it doesn't make a lot of sense until you start playing with it and seeing how it interacts.

 

[amjustice]

Thanks @FreeState I agree it definitely takes putting some of this in to make it click.