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PARTLY

As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly automate your lights to come on at sunset.

Most people should do this themselves; the prompt is on this page.

Can you do it?

5 minutesto a draft.

30 minutesto something you’d act on.

Cost, all in£0

Skill neededchat-fluent

Who has to check ityou

What the alternative costsThe supplied data gives no price for a smart-home installer or other human alternative.

If this goes wrong: the lights fail to follow the schedule or stay on unexpectedly, and you can disable the automation in the app.

What to actually do

  1. Do it yourself

    The route this page recommends

    A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

    How to actually do it

    1. Open the app that controls the lights and record the light brand, model, hub, current room name and the platform used for automations.
    2. Check that every light is online and that the app has the correct UK home location or postcode area set for local sunset calculations.
    3. Paste the equipment and platform details into the prompt, then ask the chatbot for instructions only for that platform.
    4. Open the suggested automation screen and create a routine triggered by local sunset, selecting the required lights and their on state.
    5. Add an optional off time, then compare the drafted settings with the options and device names actually shown in your app.
    6. Set a temporary test trigger a few minutes ahead, confirm the lights respond, and then replace it with sunset before saving the final automation.
    7. Check the saved routine after the next sunset and disable it in the app if the lights use the wrong time, wrong room or wrong behaviour.

    Prompt

    Help me set up my smart lights to turn on at local sunset in the UK. My equipment and app are: [brand, model, hub if any, and app name]. My location or postcode area is: [location]. I use: [Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Home Assistant, or another platform].

Give me exact steps for the platform I named. First identify any compatibility or account-permission gaps. Do not claim to access my account, change settings, or know details I have not supplied. Explain how to use the correct UK local sunset time, whether daylight-saving changes are handled automatically, and how to set an optional off time. Include a safe test using a temporary time before relying on the sunset schedule, and explain how to disable or edit the automation if it behaves incorrectly. If my equipment cannot do this directly, give the simplest compatible alternative and say what extra hub or device would be needed.

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

  2. Use a tool built for this

    Second choice

  3. Hand it to a person

    The distant third

    A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

What it gets wrong

  • AI cannot see which lights, hubs and permissions are present in your home, so it can give the wrong menu path for your setup.
  • AI cannot sign in to your smart-home account or apply the automation for you.
  • AI cannot confirm that a particular bulb, bridge or app supports local sunset triggers until you check the manufacturer's current documentation or the app itself.
  • AI cannot test wireless range, power, pairing or internet failures at the physical location of the lights.

What caps this at PARTLY: private data access, context depth and physical presence.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output1
Inputs1
Verification2
Liability2
Effort delta1
Total7 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT set my lights to turn on at sunset?
It can give you platform-specific instructions or draft the automation, but it cannot sign in and change your smart-home account. You still need to create the routine in your lighting app and test it.
Do smart lights know when sunset is?
Some apps and hubs can trigger a routine using your home's location and local sunset time. Whether yours can do this depends on the light, hub and platform, so check the automation options in the app.
Can I make my lights come on at sunset all year?
A local-sunset trigger is designed to follow the changing sunset time, but the result depends on the app's location settings and its handling of UK daylight-saving changes. Test the routine and check its schedule after saving it.
What do I need to automate my lights at sunset?
You need compatible smart lights, a controlling app or hub, an account with the necessary permissions, and a correctly configured home location. If the lights are not smart or the app has no sunset trigger, you may need a compatible hub, smart switch or another control method.

Nearby answers

All Smart home rulings

Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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