The garage ceiling light in my (rented) home is using normal E26 light bulbs, and I’d like to control it from HA. I know the best way is to change the switch to something like Kasa smart switch, yet the landlord doesn’t allow us to modify the electrical wiring. Therefore the alternative is to control the light bulb directly and keep the switch always on.
I can probably use the outlet nearby with smart outlet switch and add another light bulb socket, but before that just want to know if anyone has used a more integrated smart E26 light bulb base that works with HA? I’ve been doing some searching but didn’t find a good one.
I bought some cheap ones from aliexpress. All seem to be the same and using Tuya, Zigbee, etc but I only wanted to use locally in HA. Easy to dismantle and using Bekin chips so converted using openbekin. Couldn’t update OTA unfortunately so needed to solder some wires and use a usb-ttl adaptor.
Pretty much every “smart” bulb you can buy in the US is going to be E26 or the candelabra E12 size, so your question is very broadly ‘what bulbs work with HA’, and the answer is most of them. I happened to pick up a Tradfri bulb from the As-Is section of Ikea yesterday, and it was super easy to add to HA through Zigbee. The best answer for you depends on whether you already have Zwave or Zigbee or a hub from some other brand or a good wifi signal in the garage.
For me, there’s no single bulb that’s going to make a garage well-lit. I got two LED tube fixtures from Costco (they look like two flourescent tubes and hang from chains) and plugged them into a smart outlet switch. Overhead lights are frustrating because any time you are trying to look at something, you are inevitably also casting a shadow where you are trying to look.
Ah, if that’s the goal, then get a hanging lamp cord from somewhere like Ikea (one end is a 2-prong AC power plug, and the other has a lamp base socket) and plug that into a smart outlet. HAVSRIS cord set with switch, white, 15'5" - IKEA
