Best practices for naming lights and switches with Alexa?

[sfhutchi]

I have an Echo Dot in each of a few rooms.

I chose one room to connect to Alexa as an initial test.  The interface allows you to enter multiple spoken names.  Not knowing how helpful this was, I entered multiple for a few:  (e.g.  Kid's bedroom light & Kid's light:  Kid's bathroom fan & kid's bathroom exhaust fan, etc.).  Some are lights, and some are switches (ceiling fan, bathroom exhaust, etc.).

When importing these from the Alexa app, it seemed to import every version of spoken names as a separate device.  Now when telling Alexa to turn on a device, it gets confused between two different similar names.  In Alexa I assigned all the lights and switches to 'Kid's Room' in Alexa, so if I say turn off the lights in Kid's room, it turns off all lights and switches.  Is this normal?  Since Alexa now has these categorized in 'Kid's Room', can I simply change the names of the devices to bedroom light, bathroom light, bathroom fan, etc.?

[lilyoyo1]

Yes that's normal as voice assistants don't know like sounding names. If you want separate control don't add the word lights to the end or the room name. Just say fan, lamp, etc

I don't try to control everything. I've found doing so makes things harder as you have to come up with specific words that do not match something else. 

Whatever light is used most often, that is the one I control for that room. My off will turn off the whole room. 

Edited December 1, 2019 by lilyoyo1

[sfhutchi]

Thanks for this feedback.  I am still a bit confused.

Can anyone provide some actual examples of their setup that is working well?  For example, should I only assign a single 'spoken' name for each device?

What would you do with this specific setup:

1 echo dot in a room with 4 devices to be controlled:

- Bedroom light

- Bedroom fan

- Bathroom light

- Bathroom fan

[lilyoyo1]

I don't try and control everything in my house. I control what we use most of the time. For example, in our bedroom we have a fan, fan light, can lights, scones, and lamps.

We only control the can lights, lamps and fan in regards to turning on. 

Telling Alexa (used to be Google home) to turn on the lights will turn on the can lights. Telling Alexa to turn on the fan will turn on the fan. Ditto for the lamps. Telling Alexa to turn off the lights results in any light being on to turn off.

They are simply labeled fan, lights, and lamps and placed in the room. Nothing fancy or difficult to remember. 

For your setup I would control the light and fan. For the bath, I would create a scene to turn the lights and fan off. I don't see the point in turning on either one via voice but to each their own

I use sensors to turn on/off), I could see telling Alexa to turn a light/fan off should they be left on. 

Edited December 6, 2019 by lilyoyo1

[sanders2222]

On 12/6/2019 at 10:18 AM, lilyoyo1 said:

I don't try and control everything in my house. I control what we use most of the time.

I don't put all devices  on my Alexa either.  However, now I want to add "Holiday" lighting, how do I add a device?  I have the device showing on the Portal now, but when I ask Alexa to discover new devices, she can't find any,  Hmmmm, I must be missing a step!