I'm setting up with HA and zigbee smart bulbs. I've got a few automations already set up, such as turning on a bunch of lights in the morning and turning most of them off again at night.
All these lights still have physical switches. I don't want to take those switches out for lots of reasons, and putting smart switches there seems like overkill when the bulbs are already smart. What are people doing with their physical light switches to ensure that they don't get flipped?
Ideas I've had:
- some kind of physical plastic covering that fits snugly around it. I'd probably do this if I had a 3d printer, but I don't. Maybe someone sells a thing like this? More just a reminder not to touch them.
- Carefully paint the switches a different color (perhaps the HA color scheme?). Again, basically just a reminder. This especially makes sense with a few multi-switch plates where some of the connected lights are automated and some are intentionally left manual.
- Entirely replace the plate with a smart switch? Besides incurring a nontrivial cost and being a bunch of work to install, this won't even help me with the aforementioned multiswitch plates. I don't want all my lights automated.
Other ideas?
I make the switches smart, not the bulbs.. Retains normal functionality, is cheaper and more reliable.
Cheaper? :O This is the super-deluxe splurge option compared to some cheap IKEA ZigBee bulbs
Got any recommendations? ZigBee, Zwave, or something else?
One nice thing about having the bulbs smart is changing the color temperature. Is there any way of doing that from the wall-switch? It's kinda what's been stopping me from upgrading from smart bulbs to smart switches
Depends how many bulbs are on each switch, in my home it is typically 4 to 1 at a minimum and the switch will outlive the bulbs. Color is about the only reason to use a smart bulb.
There are, but frankly it's more expensive that way. You basically need an LCD display to make color selection feel useful.
If you have the money to go this route, I recommend having a single smart panel that controls groups of devices throughout the house
Color temperature is actually quite OK with simple remotes. Like the IKEA remote control used left and right arrows to change between stark white, warm yellow and happy medium.
Problem is non-smart bulbs with smart wall-switch can't change color temperature. Theoretically I suppose there could be a switch/bulb combo, where the switch is Zwave/ZigBee enabled, and somehow communicate with the bulb. But I don't think anything like that exists. It'd probably be very expensive if it did
My mistake, I read that as just color, not temp
They do have zigbee switches that can be programmed to specific devices, but I don't know of any that have temp selectors on them.
This is my preferred solution. I like the option that I can use the switch as normal and still get benefits of automations. Switches should outlast any bulb on the market and with other family members around there's no way to guarantee that they stay in place. Plus with that I can change the lamp itself to self-contained LED without bulb or something else and it'll still be 'smart'.
But if I absolutely had to go that route I'd get white tape (assuming the faceplate is white) and use that to hold rockers in place. It's still easy to switch off if needed but that would give a pretty strong indication that it shouldn't be operated normally. Preventing access to a switch or jamming them with something doesn't seem like an safe option and it may be against the code depending on where you live.
Downside of switches though is that they often require a neutral wire. If all you have is "Hot", "Not" and ground, your kinda dead in the water. Rewiring an old house can get pricey.
There are a variety of Zigbee switches and relay dukes that support “no neutral” wiring. SONOFF and Aqara both make them, there are even a few generic/Tuya ones I’ve seen.
They often don’t function as Zigbee routers, only end devices though despite being mains powered.
I also favour smart switches instead of smart bulbs. It avoids the problems of accidentally turning off the smart bulb with the dumb switch, and provides a fallback control method if part of the smart home stack is not working.
The main downside to this method is not being able to change the light colour and temperature of the bulbs. I have seen there are some smart switches and bulbs that can work combined but I haven’t tried them myself.