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:
- Wireless switches, you don’t integrate in the electricity network and control smart lights over ZIgbee/Z_wave/Wifi. Ugly confusing solution IMO.
- 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!