Intermatic’s new Ascend Smart isn’t your ordinary Wi-Fi programmable light switch. It has one little feature especially for contractors: It doesn’t require a network to configure – no router, no Internet, nothing but a smart phone.
That means pros can configure the switch during construction in peer-to-peer mode, before there’s anything to connect to it, and then hand off the settings to the new home buyer.
The STW700W is a 7-day programmable timer that includes a random mode for turning on/off within 15 minutes of a scheduled event. Location-specific dusk and dawn times can provide astronomic lighting schedules on request.
Settings are kept indefinitely in non-volatile memory, and a built-in battery maintains programming information for up to three days in the event of a power loss.
Ascend Smart works with Amazon Alexa currently, but Intermatic says it will work with other third-party services in the future.
In the meantime, it makes sense for production homes and construction sites where scheduled lighting makes sense for security and energy efficiency, even before networks have yet to be installed.
Retail price is $75.
