Christmas lights pushed my smart plugs hard and now I see lag

[Dailan_Xaldin]

My smart plugs are doing overtime right now with all the Christmas lights and displays and I swear the whole system feels a little slower because of it. Automations that were instant last month now take a beat. A couple of lights miss their cues. Even my voice assistant hesitates more than usual.

Nothing changed in my setup except the extra holiday load. Same router. Same mesh. Same routines. The only new thing is that half the house is glowing red and green.

Does your smart home lag more in December when you add all the holiday stuff or is this something I should dig into? Curious if this is normal seasonal chaos or a sign that I need to reorganize a few devices.

 

[CherenBianca]

Yeah I get that every December. It’s not the power draw, it’s the network chatter. All those plugs checking in at once slows down the whole routine. Mine cleaned up a bit when I moved the holiday stuff onto a separate group so they’re not firing scenes at the same time.

 

[Alan]

Holiday setups tend to stress systems in ways we don’t notice the rest of the year. When everything worked fine last month and suddenly hesitates, it definitely gets your attention.

Did the lag show up right after adding the Christmas plugs, or did it creep in over time?