Need advice for college apartment esp on bulbs

I need to automate lighting in college apartment with 5 students and looking for advice. Don’t have to do the setup for a few weeks, but won’t know the details of the layout ahead of time. (i.e. number of bulbs needed, number in each room, lamp vs wall switch, etc) Initial thought is a bulb in each of the 5 bedrooms, and a few in the kitchen / living area. Perhaps Alexa (echo dots) in each room to do voice control. Separate wyze accounts for each user and one of them shares the kitchen / living area bulbs. I do not expect to add any cameras due to privacy concerns… don’t even know if they are allowed in the apartment.
Any advice would be appreciated.

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If using the wyze solution…
You will need at least one camera and at least one Sense starter pack [Includes a bridge, motion sensor and 2 contact sensors (The bridge is not sold separately at this time)].
The bridge is what the bulbs would talk to in order to accomplish the task.
The Bridge uses the cameras wifi signal to talk to the internet/LAN/HALexa.

The camera can be configured and then turned off for privacy (bulbs and sensors would still communicate), although I might install the cam at an entrance to utilize it and add a layer of security to said apartment.

PS. the sensors can be used to turn the lights on automagically!

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If you don’t plan on using any sensors to automatically turn on/off bulbs you don’t need them or a camera or a bridge for the bulbs to function.
If you do want sensors to automatically turn on/off bulbs , like said above you will need a camera and a bridge
The bulbs with Alexa and echo dots work great with my bulbs

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If you truly want to “automate” then I’m assuming you would use door and/or motion sensors? This would allow you to set it up through the app to have the bulbs on/off by door or motion trigger. You can use IFTTT but there’s significant lag in my experience at least so I’d recommend the app. Someone living in an apartment mentioned to me they were allowed to install a camera outside if pointed only at their door. That might be something to ask but obviously that’s limited as someone can just come up and rip it down from behind. Inside pointed at the door makes more sense to me personally. If you’re trying to do this on a budget and they have speakers try the Echo Input. Don’t forget Facebook and Craigslist. I picked up a brand new first gen Echo Show for $30 recently and a second gen last year for $100 on Craigslist. I see really cheap dots all the time.

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You are absolutely correct… sometimes I get one track minded (in this case… automation).
I wasn’t at all thinking of making work simply with HALexa at all.

Yes just dots and bulbs.

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So much worry about security and the wyze camera… A simple piece of tape over the lens is a logical and cost effective solution

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Thinking about it further…

When automated, The signal travels to the bridge, then to the bulb making the action near immediate…

You can still use HALexa with a slight delay (as it needs to go out to the interweb where HALexa lives), which is perfect when feeling lazy… which I do… a lot.

I really feel like it’s more than slight through echo devices and IFTTT but will admit to being impatient. Customer service at August Lock would probably testify to the same feeling about me lol.
Walking into a dark room and waiting four to six seconds for the lights to come on doesn’t really work for me personally. It’s on par for everything that doesn’t happen locally. I use the Wyze app automation and find the lights come on as quickly as my SmartThings lighting automations almost instantaneous.

Agreed on all accounts, so I only use motion sensors through IFTTT for “auto off” functions and to turn on/off notifications (using Life360) as they do not need to be immediate.

IFTTT to smartthings to webcore…
All “on” functions are tied through the bridge for local execution.

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I use Alexa to control hue lights at home and there’s about a one second delay. Is the delay with a Wyze bulb + Alexa longer than that?

The delay is probably insignificant to most people. I’ve got a SmartThings motion sensor that triggers a TP-Link light switch through SmartThings automation. I set up an alexa routine to use the same ST motion sensor to turn on a Wyze bulb. You can see the slight delay in this vid but it varies. The automation through SmartThings is fast and consistent with no time to even reach for the light. Same thing with the Wyze sensor and Wyze bulb through the app shortcut.