LED Dimmer UK/EU

Hardware
1

Hi Everyone,
I’m looking to extend me home assistant system to include some lighting dimmers. I would like to find a solution that is “Wife friendly” so for me that means something with controls on the wall.
I was looking to start with something fairly cheap / simple like a couple of these wifi based dimmers:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09DT2JF83?th=1

but I’m concerned the details / Q&A seems to show these as leading edge dimmers, and not trailing edge. I’m using LED bulbs everywhere now for energy savings, and the ones I have currently installed state they support trailing edge dimming only.

I’ve read some articles in the community about using e.g. shelly dimmer 2 units, as these are switchable for leading / trailing edge, but I don’t understand if / how these would work in conjunction with a physical control on the wall?

Can anyone recommend any products that would work?

Thanks in advance!

2

Tuya/SmartLife would work, but requires cloud usage.
It can be used local too (with TuyaLocal), but is a hassle and question is, for how long…???

Shelly works like a charm for me…bit more expensive, but fully supported out-of-the-box.
Can even be re-flashed with ESPHome without hassles

I use my existing switches, just placed a foam under it on one side, so they work now as a pulse switch :wink:

3

Thanks for replying @aceindy

I’m using Tuya / TuyaLocal for some smart sockets already, so I’m definitely happy with going that direction. I don’t understand how a leading edge dimmer can work properly with trailing edge bulbs, and that concerns me. Even dumb LED bulbs are expensive, so I wouldn’t want to shorten the lifespan unnecessarily.

I’ve looked at the link you provided about using existing switches, but I don’t understand how that would work with a dimmer? My existing dimmers are like this one:

So a single rotary control with a push button. I wouldn’t know how to link this to a smart dimmer?

Thanks again,

4

My switches work with long/short press:

  • short press → turn on (or off).
  • long press → dim up/down (long press again to reverse direction)
  • keep pressed → continously cycle up/down
5

ahh, ok.

So you replace a physical dimmer with a physical switch plus a smart dimmer? That’s certainly a possibility.

I guess it depends on the construction of the physical switch how easy is is to change it to press / release.

6

Hehe, that would have been an option, if there was a dimmer…

But, no, I added the dimmer, and re-used the existing switch :wink: