Hello,
I am new to Home Assistant and this is my first post.
One of my goals to use HA is to add switches to our home. We have a pretty new house with switches from legrand (Radiant series). We have some rooms where only one switch is installed until now and I want to add one more switch in each of these rooms.
In our hallway we have 3 switches and I want to add 3 more switches. My understanding is that I have to replace one of these 3 switches or install a receiver in one of these switches and then install wireless switches on the wall.
If I have to replace switches then I need to find switches that are similar to the legrand Radiant switches. What matches our current switches?
The company legrand offers some wireless switches, but they are very expansive and they use a proprietary protocol (Netatmo). For this I would need an expansive module if I understand it correctly.
I hope the community can help me.
@Papa-Echo Your question is a little confusing…
But i can help if i understanded it more.
If you are looking for good wall switches that are conencted to wires in the wall and connect well to H.A. - i recommend Tapo (they make even wireless buttons)
If you’re Legrand then that means Northamerica power (include that next time location matters…)
That said if you like Legrand. They support matter in that line..
HA supports Matter natively.
I don’t have additional wires in the wall. That’s why I want to add wireless switches. I will look at Tapo.
Yes, I am in North America. It is not about liking legrand. The electrician installed it without asking us. And at the time when our house was built I didn’t know anything about home automation.
Alternatively to Narhan’s most native suggestion, and if you don’t want to or cannot pull through more wires for more switches, install new switches from your current range with more gangs with a Shelly i4 behind it. At your light fittings, install Shelly relays. You can bypass HA in this setup by configuring the i4 to toggle the relay directly via an HTTP call, which I would argue is a good thing in this case (it means your only dependency for this to work is your network, but you can control it from HA in addition). I have some switches wired like this for the reasons mentioned.
Found this thread by accident and was wondering if any of the recommendations work without cloud. Tapo usually needs internet access.
Matter is relatively cloud free (beyond initial setup)
At the end of the day (this is for you too op)
If you don’t have a preference on brand and you’re in NA. Then those are generally referred to as ‘decora style’ they aren’t any different than any other decor style fixture other than Legrand doesnt have the trademark on Decora. So that means to stay ‘similar’ find ‘Decora style’ switching and outlets. That covers how they ‘look’
If your electrician just put THOSE in that means Northamerica post y2k means I can almost guarantee you have neutral. Which means I can assume I can put almost any smarts witch in that gang slot that I want as long as you don’t have shallow boxes.
Fine so next. Technology.
WiFi requires internet in most cases. Cloud providers like Tuya and Tapo etc - you need an app and don’t work without internet I’m not using it.
Ok so that leaves Bluetooth. (full stop Bluetooth lighting In NA generally blows. I’d avoid it.)
And Zigbee, ZWave and Matter.
Of those three matter is usually offline and offline operating capable. ZWave and Zigbee are GUARANTEED offline and HA supports all three with the right antenna / coordinator hardware.
I cannot tell you which of the three to pick that depends on are you in a saturated rf environment like apartments or tech heavy home. The zigbee may not be the right choice. ZWave is more expensive in general per unit, matter is new and cool but has warts. All three will work. All three have extensive vendor support in the US. All three should now have decent function and color options in your chosen tech.
So go find Decora style (technology) single gang smart switch or smart outlet.
Eg. Decora ZWave single gang 15a smart outlet
My system has a ZWave antenna so ZWave… That device is from Ge/Jasco (a Major manufacturer) Is an outlet (I personally need an outlet) and has full ZWave support. I’m good (get good at this once you picked your radio tech.)
Mine does. It makes local network calls. Shelly devices don’t require the cloud.
I found a list of devices supported by esphome. Unfortunately, almost none have built in power monitoring.
If you want/need additional switches in a room but don’t have wires going to where you need them, you might have to use something like this:
I just bought two and am in the process of installing them, so I can’t really provide a recommendation for this product yet, but I’ll keep working on it.
This is an excellent reply, it contains all the information you need. For those new to home automation you may need to read it more than once and do some googling. But it’s all there.
I did some more research today and learned the following:
I could install a relay behind our original Legrand switches. Something like the SONOFF ZBMINIR2 should work.
Because the HA server acts like a bridge I could use a remote switch with another protocol. I couldn’t find a remote switch with Zigbee that is flat and rectangular like the Legrand switches. The SONOFF Smart Zigbee Wireless Switch SNZB-01P would be technically great, but I don’t like the form.
Maybe the switch that chairstacker suggested could work. What do you think?
I like the idea and would recommend those relay modules behind the switches also.
Maybe you can look into Shelly’s fleet of relay modules - they have big and small ones, and covers all kinds of use cases you can think of.
They also have wall buttons that are wireless where you can expand.
And this is the kind of companies that focus on relay modules.
Tapo is local according to Tapo - Home Assistant (Its IoT class is Local Polling)
Nathan: Thank you. I just found the Leviton Decora Smart Switch Anywhere Companion DAWSC-1RW. That’s a very good switch for what I want. The only thing that I don’t understand is the Wi-Fi part. Does this switch work with HA? Do I need a connection over the Internet? Can I use HA as a bridge from this DAWSC-1RW to a relay from SONOFF or Shelly with Zigbee?
That’s a leviton wifi. It may require thier wifi bridge to be able to connect.
@Papa-Echo Please bear in mind that in Canada and the US any relay switches you put behind your actual switches should be UL/Interteck/etc certified, Shelly has a line of US relays. Considering the widespread usage of behind-the-switch relays I have no doubt that they’re safe, and I think it’s a great idea. But if your actual switch ever breaks down and starts a fire and the fire Marshall finds a non listed relay between it and your mains your insurance company will drop you in a heartbeat… they look for it.
Personally I go with TP-Link switches and plugs, either Kasa or Tapo depending on the use case. As far as local only I think that this is the relevant paragraph from the integration page.