Hi guys, I’m currently in the process of designing my new house. I’ve been using HA for a while on my current home right now, but not a lot of devices integrated right now.
I’m planning on using the new Ikea Tradfri lights in my new house. I’m just wondering what kind of light switches I should use? I noticed the WeMo Light Switches don’t support 2 switches for the same light. Ikea and Hue both don’t have conventional ‘push’ button switches. Are there any switches that do support this? For example I want to be able to control the lights in the living room from the hall, but also from the kitchen (other side of the living room).
Ideally solutions which replace the regular switches would be best, also switches that don’t work on batteries, if possible.
In the coming months I might post some more questions but this one is the top of my list atm.
Thanks all!
EDIT, I just noticed this other post, will look there as well, but still, suggestions are most welcome
If you’re talking about light fixtures, I’d strongly recommend going with smart switches, rather than smart bulbs. If you have more than three bulbs in a fixture, it’ll be cheaper, and you get the benefit of ease-of-use. With smart bulbs, you have to keep power supplied in order to remotely control the bulbs. If you have guests over and someone kindly turns the lights off on their way out of a room, you’ve lost control there.
Just as a counter thought, I do like bulbs for some scenarios. For instance, a living room that has MANY lights on one switch. Bulbs give me a level of granularity that I wouldn’t have with switches.
Kitchen is another area. I often just tune the sink light on or fridge light (cans above those areas).
I’m in Europa, I looked into smart switches a bit really fast, guess I’ll need to do some more reading.
I like the idea of scenes as well, which wouldn’t be easy (or doable?) with the switches, but then again, I’m guessing it can eventually be used both together, no?
I use the Cooper Aspire zwave dimmers and am happy with them. I think having automation without the loss of normal (expected) functionality is key. I suggest going with smart lights/smart plugin switches on items that are not on a wall switch and have permanent power like lamps, ambient lighting, floor fans etc.
Scenes work perfectly with smart wall switches/dimmers.
Basically in my opinion using your phone is always going to be harder than using a switch, and is more for fun than daily usability. Voice control helps along with permanent wall tablets for items that don’t have a standard wall switch.
if you want just on and off for multiple bulbs in one circuit, get smart switch.
if you want more control like dimming and RGB (for area like bedroom, living room and entertainment room) or simply places with one bulb (such as store room and walking wardrobe) then get smart bulb.
if i would have to built my house from scratch now i wouldnt place any switches at all.
instead i would place small tablets on every place i normally would place a switch.
I almost want to do this but my better judgment as a General Contractor tells me NO! I would still place switches but at every room place a Cat6 for a POE tablet or Other solution. Also I really like having Echos around the house I have really stopped using switches and tablets for control. I almost never use my phone, I just speak out my commands.
So my point is the controls and solutions will evolve so Zwave switches today controlled via voice works great but if you don’t know the command or just want a simple tap for guest then no big deal. Doing it this way also boast wife approval factor! Nothing new to memorize but the convenience is there if wanted.
good automations also
i havent used a switch in the areas that i automated since started a year ago.
so i would rather save the money for all the switches and the extra wire and use that for backup power and backup automation devices.
i guess i have more faith
Well, in the future I’m planning to get automations working ofc.
But in the beginning our money will be spend and we’ll slowly add more stuff to our home that we can integrate.
So in the beginning we’ll certainly need switches
I’ve read up on smart switches a bit, it seems this’ll be the best way to go right now. I’ll add dimmer’s where needed and RGB smart bulbs later on.
It seems that most of the smart switches I found online are only US standard though, quite hard to find EU standard ones, any ideas on this?
And for resale value, I think you also want to stay a little more traditional. Nothing worse than looking at a house with 1980’s intercom equipment built into it. Tech changes fast so you need a traditional route for buyers who might not want to keep up with it.
thats an example of wrong automation
a) is server or lan goes down, there should be a backup
b) if you get the chance (and with building new you got that) never let a whole house depend upon 1 server (not even with backup) but get a device for each room, and then connect them.
Oh boy, good luck getting that back up after an outage. A battery backup for each room and redundant modem/router/switch/server yikes, you’ll need to hire a team to keep that all running. haha
I actually run enterprise grade hardware in a 25U rack in my house with a 2U UPS and still have outages… More stuff to go wrong… Lets put it this way I like the concept of the pad at each switch location, but feel like unless you can get it to 100% uptime (like a switch) its not worth eliminating the switch.
If you ever get around to doing that let me know I’d love to know how it works out
you still have outages?
i have hardly any (only when i must restart) and i have just a simple RPI.
you talk about a UPS, so i must think you are thinking of a power outage? i havent got that in years.
but lets say my RPI hangs for some reason, then the second RPI knows that seconds later and restarts that RPI.
does that fail it starts automaticly a backup version from HA on the backup RPI.
if you got a device for each room, you dont need backup, because they can backup each other.
whats the problem with a backup router?
2 identical routers with the same settings. 1 without power, 1 with power.
if 1 goes down just power up the backup.
if you talk about a power outage (if you dont have any of those you dont need UPS) you dont have 100% uptime with a switch either.
you have the idea that its more difficult to maintain a lot of simple setups then 1 for the whole house, but its actually the other way around.
if you have 1 system in a room and in that room are 3 switches/lights, a heater and some sensors, the HA setup is very simple. almost no risk for problems.
if you have a house with 20 rooms and a lot of outside area and all those rooms have a heater, some sensors, some switches, etc. and you try to maintain that from 1 system you are asking for a problem.
but this one is the top of my list atm.
A battery backup for each room and redundant modem/router/switch/server yikes, you’ll need to hire a team to keep that all running. haha