Question
I’ve received new color bulbs to replace single color smart bulbs.
Question 1: How do I easily replace the entity names throughout HA and Node Red?
Question 2: Is there a way to make this easier in the future?
Current Setup
I’ve been using HA for a few months and have 6 smart bulbs and received 7 more as a gift. I’d like to replace two single color bulbs with RGB bulbs I received. I’ve not yet added the new bulbs to HA.
The two ‘old’ bulbs are named:
- light.living_room_lamp_left
- light.living_room_lamp_right
I’ve used a similar schema for all devices.
Question 1 - Replacing those bulbs
What is the easiest way to replace the single color bulbs with the RGB bulbs?
Option 1
Delete the old bulbs from HA and add the new devices. Give the new devices the same name.
Option 2
Add the new bulbs with their own name and find+replace the old device names through automations, scripts, Groups, Alexa integration, and NodeRed.
Option 3
Is there a better way?
Question 2 - Making it easier in the future
I’m willing to completely redo my setup for device naming to make the future easier…
Option 1 - Using Groups as a variable template?
I’ve considered putting each bulb in it’s own group by itself. Providing an abstraction layer between the friendly name used in automations, scripts, and NodeRed. This way I could change the actual device name without having to change any automation or NodeRed flow.
Is there any downside to this?
Example:
light:
- platform: group
name: Living Room Left Lamp
entities:
- light.rgb_bulb_1
- platform: group
name: Living Room Left Right
entities:
- light.rgb_bulb_2
Option 2
I’m at a loss… Any ideas?
Or, is it even necessary to attempt this because Question 1 - Option 1 (see first part of this post) is really the easiest way?