I have to laugh at this ABC AU article. Apparently having an aircon system that is controlled differently depending on grid and solar availability is a recent Australian first…
“The air-conditioner in the home can talk to the electricity grid and will be geared up to allow automated pre-cooling — yet to be seen in Australia.”
Except for the many HA users who have done it for quite some time…
Reading further, it looks like these homeowners have ceded control over their homes to the energy companies. Welcome to the dystopian future!
Rockets
The trouble is that we are snookered into accepting the rules laid down by the distributors. I have a situation where the lines to 7 lots in my local area have a transformer capable of accepting 5kw from each of the 7 homes as grid feed in. I am an early adopter and was the first to feed in but could not export more than 5kw which was limited by the distributor.
I argued that the lines could accept 35kw so why not let me punch in whatever my system could.
Computer said no.
I am trying to get some form of local swapping but again hampered by large power companies.
Will be going batteries in the next 12 months and telling energy company to go … Themselves.
I did this recently with Telstra after having installed Starlink and it was so satisfying.
I like telling the man to go … themselves too, but it’s worth reading this first on the battery subject.
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/battery-testing-final-report/?
Need some help with choosing smart globes. Suggestions welcome.
B22 fittings (bayonet), regular LED smart globes 8-10 W. Don’t need colours (but could be fun if they were).
For use outside in the patio light fittings which surround the house. I need about a dozen of them.
I tried the Bunnings Arlec Tuya globes which sort of worked for a while but the wifi signal just isn’t reliable enough despite having wifi extenders throughout. They work perfectly fine indoors.
Thinking Zigbee perhaps (I don’t have any Zigbee kit yet), just wanting something that will maintain reliable comms outside/around the house and be able to work with my Home Assistant.
Rural area so no issues with neighbouring signal interference.
Would prefer local network control, no cloud. I have the Tuya ones operating with LocalTuya in HA but ultimately they still need a cloud account to work.
Installing smart switches (e.g. Shelly) while it would be great, is not feasible option for us, hence looking for smart globes.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Madness.
I stopped buying Tuya stuff after I couldn’t do the OTA hack to ESPHome. I have a back stock of some of the old Kogan smart plugs in a box for this reason.
Tuya really need to offer some local only option (local Tuya doesn’t count!). I found that Shelly has the C-Tick and works amazing. I have my exiting light switches connected to Shellys in the roof and it all works perfect. Super cheap and cheerful.
I am keen to try this though, off to Bunnings this weekend =) If it works, I might be able to buy Kogan smart power boards again, they are so cheap!
I managed to flash a Deta triple light switch using OpenBK and it works fine, I just haven’t had it installed yet because I don’t have any neutrals handy at the switch.
There’s also some Tuya kit using chips that aren’t supported. For example, I bought a Brilliant smart PIR sensor at Bunnings but no luck with that one because the underlying chip isn’t yet supported by OpenBK.
It’ll be good when we can just use Tuya-cloudcutter instead.
Unfortunately, smart switches for my lights are just not a feasible option. It’s a function of the way this 50 year old home is constructed.
Hence looking for suggestions on smart globes.
I use Philips Hue but be patient and buy them on Gumtree.
Hue prices have come off a bit these days and you can get super bright ones. As you only have B22 there really aren’t any other easily available zigbee options)
Colour will novel for a while but eventually you’ll not use them (I no longer have any colour bulbs as TBH they don’t really serve any functional purpose on a day to day basis)
If you go the zigbee route the B22 fitting will limited you to Mercator or Hue as far as I know.
Will this connect to a Hue Bridge?
Thanks. Something like these:
And with those I need a Mercator Hub as well - does this easily integrate with Home Assistant?
https://www.lightingillusions.com.au/product/zigbee/mercator-smart-zigbee-pro-hub--25557
I don’t believe so.
Yeah those are them you don’t need their hub but do need to use a zigbee integration.
They work with zigbee2mqtt but I’m not sure about ZHA.
https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/supported-devices/#v=Mercator,Mercator%20Ikuü
Zigbee2mqtt being a different hub I take it.
I have one device integrated via MQTT, and been learning a bit more about it (prompted by attempts to learn how to use Node Red).
Was thinking of going through all 4416 replies in this thread but will take some time, so just asking again. I am after no-neutral certified light switches, 1,2 and 3 gang. Any suggestions?
It’s a different HA integration to the ZHA integration. You would generally choose one or the other to run on your zigbee device. I have a Conbee USB stick which is pretty common choice for HA users - based on my reading on here.
What is the limitation you are facing?
Both the Shelly 1L and Shelly Dimmer 2 can be wired without a neutral connection and are certified in Aus.
You would put these behind your existing switches to make them ‘smart’.
Prices start at around $20 for the 1L