How to set up a Goodbye scene that secures the house

Nine times out of ten when a customer rings us about “making the house a bit smarter”, what they really want is one simple thing: a single button they can press on the way out the door that switches everything off and locks the place up. No walking the house, no wondering whether the garage light is still on, no “did I arm the alarm?” texts halfway down the freeway.

That’s exactly what a Goodbye scene does. It’s one of the most useful bits of automation we set up on a Control4 system, and the good news is that on OS 3.4 and newer it’s easy to build and even easier to live with. Here’s how it works and how we put one together.

What a Goodbye scene actually does

A scene in Control4 is just a saved set of actions that all fire together when you trigger it. A Goodbye (or “Leaving Home”) scene bundles up everything you’d normally do manually on your way out:

• Turns all the lights off across the house so nothing’s left burning.
• Locks the doors if you’ve got smart locks fitted.
• Arms the security alarm in away mode.
• Sets back the heating and cooling so you’re not climate-controlling an empty house.
• Optionally pauses music and video, drops the blinds, or sends you a confirmation.

You fire the whole lot from a keypad button by the door, the Control4 app on your phone, a Halo or Neeo remote, or a T3/T4 touchscreen. One press, done.

Before you start

A Goodbye scene only does as much as your system is wired and configured to do. To get the full effect you’ll want:

• Your lighting set up in Control4 (whether that’s Control4 dimmers, keypads, or integrated DALI/circuit lighting).
• Compatible smart door locks bound into the system, if you want auto-locking.
• Your alarm panel integrated. Most common panels (Bosch, DSC, NX, etc.) talk to Control4 over a serial or IP connection that we install and commission for you.
• A supported thermostat or HVAC integration.

How to build the Goodbye scene

Most homeowners on a DUKE system already have a Goodbye scene set up at handover, but if you want to create or tweak one yourself, you can do a lot from the Control4 app and the on-screen menus. Here’s the typical flow.

1. Open the Control4 app on your phone or tablet (or use a T3/T4 touchscreen) and make sure you’re connected to your system.
2. Go to the Scenes or Lighting section. In OS 3, lighting scenes live under the Lighting experience; broader scenes that touch multiple systems are managed under Comfort/Scenes or set up by us in Composer.
3. Create a new scene and name it clearly ” “Goodbye” or “Leaving Home” so it’s obvious to everyone in the household.
4. Add the lighting action: set all the rooms (or your “All Lights” group) to off. You can leave a single porch or entry light on a short timer if you like ” just toggle that light to stay on.
5. Walk the rest of the house in the scene and confirm everything you want is captured ” outdoor lights, garage, alfresco.
6. Save the scene and give it a test from the app before you rely on it.

Adding the lock, alarm and thermostat actions to the same scene is where Composer (our programming tool) comes in. Those device types need to be bound and programmed properly, so if you want locks, alarm and HVAC all rolled into the one button, that’s a quick job for us. More on that below.

Locking the doors

If your smart locks are integrated, we’ll add a “Lock” command to the Goodbye scene for each door. We almost always build in a small delay ” the scene locks the doors a few seconds after you trigger it, giving you time to actually get out and pull the door shut behind you. Nothing worse than locking yourself in.

Arming the alarm

The alarm gets armed in away mode as part of the scene. Because alarm panels have entry/exit delays of their own, we make sure the Control4 arming command lines up with how your panel is programmed, so you get a sensible exit time to leave without setting it off. If your alarm needs a code to arm, we configure that securely in the background ” you won’t be typing it in every time.

Setting back the thermostat

There’s no sense heating or cooling an empty house. The Goodbye scene drops your thermostat into an energy-saving setback ” say, easing the heating target down a few degrees in winter or letting the cooling drift up in summer. You’re not switching the system off entirely (that can let the house get uncomfortably far out of range), just relaxing the targets so the gear isn’t working hard for nobody. The matching Welcome Home scene brings it back to comfort as you return.

Choosing how you trigger it

This is the bit our customers enjoy most ” deciding where the button lives. Common options:

• A keypad button by the door. Our favourite. A dedicated engraved “Goodbye” or “Away” button on the keypad nearest your main exit is dead simple and works for everyone in the house, including guests and kids who don’t have the app.
• The Control4 app. One tap on your phone as you walk out, handy if you forgot and you’re already in the car.
• A Halo or Neeo remote. If you’re sitting watching telly and decide to head out, a custom button on the remote can trigger it.
• A T3 or T4 touchscreen. A big, obvious tile on the wall-mounted screen.
• Automatically. With geofencing through the app, or a “last person leaves” rule, the scene can fire on its own. We usually recommend keeping a manual button as well, because automatic triggers depend on phones and signal.

A few things we’ve learned

• Keep it predictable. A Goodbye scene people trust gets used. If it does something surprising once, folks stop pressing it.
• Leave a path lit. If you’re heading out at night, a short-timed porch or hallway light makes the exit safer.
• Test it as a household. We’ll run through it with you at handover so everyone knows what the button does.

If you’d like a Goodbye scene built (or your existing one tidied up to include locks, alarm and thermostat), we can usually sort it remotely over Control4 Connect/4Sight or pop out as part of a service visit. While we’re in there we often set up a Welcome Home and a Goodnight scene too ” have a look at our automation guides for more ideas, or check Control4’s own overview of whole-home automation.

Set up well, the Goodbye button becomes one of those things you stop thinking about ” you just press it on the way out and trust the house to look after itself. If you’d like a hand getting yours sorted, give us a yell. Cheers, Adam and the DUKE team.