Hybrid switch solution (operating smart lights in ceiling and standing lights via original switch electric box)?

So my original Smart Home journey started, like probably many others of you, with some Hue lights. No I have so much more and want a smoother integration of everything.

So I have rooms where the Hue lights are only in standing lights fed via a wall socket and other rooms where they are both in the original ceiling lights and in standing lights. For the ceiling light I keep the original switch to ON all the time and Hass takes over the on/off control of the lights.

Now I would like to use my original switches to control all smart lights in a room. So both the ones in the standing lights and the ones in the ceiling. And no, a dumb light in the ceiling is not an option if I want to make use of Hue Sync etc. However I can only find following solutions:

  1. Wireless switches, you don’t integrate in the electricity network and control smart lights over ZIgbee/Z_wave/Wifi. Ugly confusing solution IMO.
  2. Switchboxes you integrate in the original electric wall boxes and can be controlled by a physical button or a wireless protocol. However they are used to make dumb lights smart. E.g. Shelly.

I expect the switches of type 2, to still physically connect/disconnect the lights from the power source. So these can not be used in combination with smart lights, that require to be powered constantly. Or do they provide some sort of “short cut” feature in case you’re using smart lights?

So is there a solution where I can upgrade existing wall switches to operate all smart lights in an area independently whether they’re in existing ceiling lights or standing lights powered via a wall socket? Preferably using Zigbee protocol.

Thanks!

You could use Switches that are designed to control dump lights but not connect the light to it. That way you have a switch that reports its state to HA but does not disconnect the lamp.

Still a challenge if i want to re-use the existing wall box. I’ll have to short the original circuit then (or put some load in there, if the original switch would introduce load)?

What do you mean with reuse the existing wallbox. You have to clamp the two wires that are now going into your switch together and connect L and N to the smart switch

something like this

Mmm, I’ll have to study this a bit more. Thanks!!

Bonjour,
personellement j’ai procedé comme suit :les lampes sont branchées en direct.
Le switch est remplacé par un bouton poussoir.
Je branche le bouton poussoir sur un esp8266.
J’utilise ESPHOME et je programme pour nommer le bouton poussoir .
Ensuite je fait une automatisation sur hassio pour “toggle” la lumiere en cas d’appui sur le bouton poussoir

exemple :esphome puis automatisation hassio

j’espère que cela vous aide
gilles