I’m a relatively new home automator in a bit of an unusual situation. Hopefully a fellow UK user can help me out as my Google-foo has failed me.
In my living room there is a single pendant light in the ceiling controlled by a traditional rocker switch in the wall. It has no-neutral wire in the switch box. There are also 2 separate standing lamps with WiFi plugs added that make them remote controllable. What I want is replace the single traditional wall switch with a 2-gang unit which can both control the top light with one switch and the two lamps with the second switch, locally through Home Assistant.
Can somebody suggest some hardware. Do I just need a two gang WiFi/ZigBee light switch, or maybe a relay? If a relay, how would I wire up the second light switch to control the lamps when there is only one set of actual wires going to the ceiling light?
Hope that all makes sense. I look forward to your replies;
I have a couple of 1-gang (no neutral) switches which are supplied with a “capacitor” loop that you need to install at the light, the loop completes the circuit allowing the “smart” switch to remain powered even with the bulb turned off.
I would imagine that the 2-gang version (something like this VREY Zigbee Switch) would require a loop at each light (so would not work for you) BUT I haven’t actually seen one to know for sure.
Another option would be to get something like a Sonoff switch (Link) and flash Tasmota on it. Then you can have “long press” do something else, like turn on your standing lamps. The only draw back is the switch becomes “lazy”. It doesn’t know if you are short pressing or long pressing so has to wait before triggering short or long.
Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of using a long press on a 1-gang button to control a separate set of lights, it’s definitely something I’ll consider.
I’ve just come across the Shelly 1L relay. It can operate with no neutral wire using a ‘Bypass’ capacitor (similar to your example) and it has connections for 2 switches. So I could install a 2-gang switch and have the second in ‘decoupled’ mode and have that toggle my floor lamps.
The Shelly 1L are out of stock everywhere (or at least the Bypass capacitor is) so I’ll will be a wait to get buy one in.