Ambient lights too weak? Here’s the dimmer automation that made my wife happy (and the living room brighter)

In my living room I use some very pleasant HUE ambient lights: perfect for creating atmosphere, but not strong enough when it comes to reading, writing, or any kind of work that needs good lighting at the table.

That’s why there’s a floor lamp, connected to a Hue smart plug (Hue switch), which is the one that really lights things up… but it had to be managed separately,.

The result: two lights to control, two separate remote devices, and annoyed huffs from my wife, accompanied by serious threats to force me back to “analog lighting”.

That’s where the idea came from: creating an automation that automatically turns on the floor lamp when the brightness of the ambient lights reaches maximum through the dimmer, and turns it off again when the brightness goes back down.
A small automation that brought back peace, light… and has so far avoided my wife’s ultimatum.

alias: Ambient lights + floor lamp
mode: restart

trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: light.ambient_lights
    attribute: brightness

condition: []

action:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: numeric_state
            entity_id: light.ambient_lights
            attribute: brightness
            above: 254
        sequence:
          - service: switch.turn_on
            target:
              entity_id: switch.floor_lamp
    default:
      - service: switch.turn_off
        target:
          entity_id: switch.floor_lamp
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