I’m looking to expand my HA setup to include some light switches. Currently I’ve got HA running on a raspberry pi, with a rf transmitter and receiver connected to control a few plug sockets (I set this up following the bruh automation YouTube video).
I live in the UK and it seems the most popular brand for home automation light switches is LightwaveRF. From what I’ve read I’d need to get a lightwaverf WiFi link to go with the sockets and then use custom bash scripts (from here: Lightwaverf via Wifi link) to control everything through HA. This seems a little complicated and I was wondering if anyone knows of a better solution?
I’ve looked at zwave and Energenie as well, but with zwave I’m struggling to find chrome sockets (the mrs has already said no to white plastic) and Energenie seems to be quite complicated to set up as well (based on what I’ve read here: Energenie MiHome component) and I’m not sure if it would support dimmers.
the nice thing about zwave is that you can use whatever socket you want if you put for example a Aeon Labs‘s Micro Smart Dimmer or Fibaro switch or dimmer behind your existing switches to make them HA controllable.
These do seem like an interesting option, but I think they may cause me a couple of issues. Firstly, I don’t think there’s much room in the back box behind my light switches, so I’d need to put in some sort of spacer to fit in this extra device (which I don’t think the mrs will go for). Secondly, it doesn’t look like many of them work on a 2 wire system (which is very common in the uk).
Also, if I’m correct, doesn’t this create the situation where you essentially have two switches which need to be in the “on” position for the light to work? (i.e. if someone turns the light on at the switch, but it’s turned off through HA, then it won’t turn on)
I don’t know exactly about the 2 wire system in the uk but according to this article there is a workaround.
If I remember correctly the switch will trigger the zwave component, so its position is irrelevant. This might be a little counter intuitive but it’s the same as when you have two switches at either end of a hallway and turn on/off the lights.
I’m not an zwave expert and have yet to install components myself (will be moving soon) but I’m gathering such information for exactly that scenarios.
The energenie sockets you mention are just 433MHz receivers, so will work with your existing RF setup. However, you are correct in that there is no dimming available.
The problem with z-wave switches in the outlets is that you get the problem that you mention, if someone shuts off the switch on the cord the light will stay off even though you set the z-wave switch to on.
If you connect it behind the light switch on the wall you connect the light switch to the z-wave switch and in that way control the z-wave switch with the button. The button does not control the light anymore just the z-wave switch that controls the power to the light.
What you can do with floor lights and outlets is either remove the button/swich on the cord or just cut the button off the cord and connect to it the z-wave switch. None of these options are good looking. Or just tell people not to turn the floor lamps off with the switch. Put som white or black electrical tape on them so that they can not be switched off.
And I think that the Fibaro Dimmer 2 works with 2 wire systems.
With the zwave switches, it said on fibaro’s website for example, that you should get someone qualified to fit it, do people put these in themselves or would I need to get an electrician out? And if people do fit it themselves, does anyone know if it’s legal in the UK to add a relay/switch on to the light switch yourself or does it need to be signed off by an electrician? Also, one other question, if my HA went down for a bit, does that mean the light would stop working because the manual light switch is just calling the zwave switch behind it?
With regards to the Energenie sockets, if they are just receivers, does that mean HA will go out of sync if someone turns on the light manually?
With regards to the links for the ebay switches, would I just be able to use my existing 433 transmitter and receiver to control these?
In Sweden all fixed electrical installations should be made by certified electricians for the insurance to be valid.
That said I do it myself. Just use the right tools and not electrical tape to connect wires.
And no, if your HA goes down it will not affect the light as the button controls the z-wave switch, and then the switch reports it’s state to HA. It will continue to function as regular.
In theory yes you can control them with your 433 transmitter but in practice I have yet to find any software that does that. I use Telldus Live to control mine and am looking to change to either pilight or rflink but I can’t get pilight to control them atm. I haven’t invested in an rflink yet so don’t know if it’s compatible without more investigation.
@gpbenton, That that is not necessarily the case if Home Assistant is using RFLink, as it will listen out for the manual wireless remote control if used to switch the socket. It will only lose sync if the button on the Energenie socket is used.
@keithh666, your Byron (Also known as HOME-EASY HE206EU) light pendants, I got a few the other day and was very disappointed that even though they have the neutral wired, they rely on passing current through the bulb and do not use the neutral wire. This makes them basically unusable with LED lighting, even “dimmable” LED’s are not run at full brightness.
I found the HE 206’s very good and it does say that they do not work with LED’s, I can control them via pilight and they dim very nicely with halogen bulbs, they use a switched live system that’s pretty common in the UK. I have found that HE 107 and HE 109G don’t work with pilight, so for those I use Telldus Live.
I know this is an old thread but I have several LWRF light switches and they work really well with HA and an RFXTrx. I do not own a LWRF Wifi hub.
Only issue was adding the switches to HA: they don’t transmit so HA can’t receive a signal and auto add them.
What you can do however is to set your switch into pair mode, then use RFXmngr to send a command to the switch and that will generate an entry in HA
I found having actual switches better for the few times I had to manually override or when my server was down for maintenance etc (so no automation)