Non-smart LEDs + smart switches + optional(!) Home Assistant integration possible?

Hardware
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Hello everyone,

I’m brand new here and to the smart home field, so I’m looking for a little help and advice on planning the lighting for a renovation. I’m about to start a renovation and have a few ideas, but I’m not sure how to go about it or which companies to work with.

Based on my research and experience so far, I would like to meet the following criteria:

  • "Normal"-looking but "smart" switches and rotary dimmers distributed throughout the rooms
  • Light bulbs: Philips WarmGlow, various sockets, no "smart" bulbs
  • Optional(!) integration of the switches and dimmers into Home Assistant, so I can control the switches through it if needed
  • However, the switches should also work via "traditional" operation even without integration (i.e., before setting up HA or in the event of a failure)

The entire electrical system is being redone completely, so I’m still flexible in that regard.

Does anyone have any experience with this, or is it even possible? Which companies or systems (ZigBee, Z-Wave, Matter, etc.) should I look into, and what should I keep in mind?

Thanks in advance!

UPDATE 1/6/2026

  • I’m tech-savvy and willing to tinker and learn how things work.
  • The dimmers should be compatible with Philips WarmGlow lights (which doesn't always seem to be according to this)
  • If possible, some of the switches should be rotary dimmers, and there should be several of them distributed throughout the room for a single light. Is it even possible to have multiple rotary dimmers for a single light without them being part of a network?
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Welcome.

A few points to note.

Normal looking light switches are available from a lot of companies, if you are in the UK and getting the wiring redone, having a neutral line into the back boxes will make the choice of switch mush easier. I wont recommend any switches as I don't have a lot of experience of them. All i can offer is to check here to see if the brand the choose has an integration

All switches especially for ceiling lights should be able to be used as normal switches, this just make sense as there is nothing worse than explaining to great Aunt Maude that you can only switch the light on if you install this app :slight_smile:

The next point may be the killer, HA is a complex program and can take some learning. If you are the sort to want to tinker and learn this stuff there is nothing better, if you are a typical computer user who can browse the net and open word docs you may find the setup and use a difficult process. It is getting easier to use every month, but if you are not a tinkerer something like Alexa or google may be easier to setup.

All that being said there are a great bunch of people here who will go out of their way to help you out if you get stuck. Read the installation page, and install a trial setup on any piece of kit you already have before committing to buy something.

.

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A few comments:

You should re-think the use of smart bulbs. They are an all-around better solution for one reason: you can control each bulb, and you can control color temperature.

If you like standard-looking switches, then use standard switches with Shelly devices behind the switch. The Shelly is very programmable and can be told to set the light to match the switch position or to toggle the light state if the switch is toggled. Or if you decide to go with smart bulbs to keep the power on and only send the switch state to the server. Place one of these with every switch.

With smart switches, you need not install “traveler” wire between the switches, so it is easier to have several switches on one room that control the same lights.

Once you install motion sensors or “human presence sensors” and get them dialed in, you will only very rarely touch the switches. I almost never use them.

Build in some flexibility because some months after setting this up, you will find you want to change it. It is very rare that someone gets it right the first time. Motion sensor placement and if the sensor needs power are hard to know in advance. I just re-did a bath and laundry room and placed some electrical outlets near the ceiling. They look silly because no one can reach them. But they will supply 5-volt power to mmWave sensors. I did not like the look of wires going down and then running on the floor to the phone charger. So the outlets near the ceiling have USB-C and 5V.

You can never get this right on the first try, so plan for change. In 20 years, the technology will all be different.

Summary: Shelly + dumb switch can do what you asked for, but you are best off with smart bulbs and sensors.

Two systems are both very reliable, basically “install and forget”. Lutron Casita and Philips Hue and they both work well with Hone Assistant.

Lastly: If starting from scratch, Matter over Thread is the future. Use Matter over Thread in places where it can be used.

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Placing a Shelly behind a normal switch makes it look like a normal switch, but even this has a small problem. What if the toggle is in the “off” position but someone turns the lights on with an app, voice, or a motion detector? Now the question is: how does your guest turn off the light?

Solution: don’t use normal switches but rather normal “dumb” hallway and stairway switches that are not marked on and off. People are used to these and know that changing the switch changes the light.

But I have been experimenting: what is it that people can use?

A large round button that clicks if placed where a normal light switch goes is easy for anyone to figure out. Pressing it makes the light go on or off. But I had to tell people that holding the button down dims the lights. No one thought to try that.

The Hue Smart dimmer was very easy too, but no one tried to use the bottom button because it is not obvious what it would do. But the on/off/dimmer functions were very clear.

I got some 2-inch x 3-inch touch screens and made three large buttons with red, yellow, green traffic light colors and then placed text on the buttons for bright, medium, off. Off is the red button, green for “on”. These covered the space where a normal light switch was before. This required zero explanation. But if you know, there is a feature to get to other screens, you can control it in more detail. But once I added the “medium” setting that was enough, no one uses the other screens.

Voice commands seem to not be used. I can say “Siri, set the front room lights to 40% brightness.” but no one at our house does that. But in someone else’s house where I installed Hue lights, the owner is very confused by phones and computers but wanted the lights to be pink for a baby shower party, and she is happy to use voice “Siri, make the lights pink” as she’d never be able to figure out the app. It depends on the person.

But all of this is rarely used because the sensors work well enough; everyone expects the light to follow them. The only time anyone reaches for a switch is if the sensor gets it wrong, and over time, I have been fixing those issues.

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We use these. They are rather pricey, but have a TON of options and they have been rock solid for months and months now.

You can get auxiliary switches for multiway. Of course, I am pretty sure it is US-only.

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Unless a switch looks like a switch and acts like a switch there is always going to be some explaining to do, your visitor is unlikely to understand anything else without guidance.

A relay can be used behind a switch giving very similar results to a switch, and with programing these can be set to work with smart bulbs, there is nothing wrong with that, until whatever method you have used to connect that smart bulb to the switch / relay fails. If your HA is down how do you switch the bulb on? You could use the app I suppose? But in my mind if the smart switch just works like a switch it won't be tricky switching the light on.

But anyhow all this is irrelevant as once you have presence detection and timed automations set up you probably never touch a switch again, I rarely use any switches here.

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Thank you so much for you input!

Yes I am willing to tinker with all that stuff, so HA in general should be no problem.

I know that smart bulbs have more features, but it's all a trade-off and I would like to prioritize robustness and "old-school" usability. I don't need colors, only dim-to-warm light, which is what the Philips WarmGlow bulbs do. Therefore, I want "dumb" bulbs and switches or actually rotary dimmers, which work without any network.

Is it actually possible to use multiple rotary dimmers for one light (or group of lights)?

Does anybody know which dimmers actuall work with Philips WarmGlow bulbs?

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How 1990!

Good decision. Smart bulbs are a dumb choice when a dumb bulb and a smart switch give more options, and cheaper.

Every smart switch I have used works this way.
However- I don't know that Matter devices work this way. IMHO- Matter is not ready for prime-time.

In my home I use WiFi (over 100 clients), Ethernet (about 2-dozen devices), Z-Wave (only four Z-wave switches installed before I started using Zigbee), Zigbee (about 30 Zigbee devices around the house). But not one Matter device.

You can control one light from many switches- Home Assistant is that versatile. I haven't seen a "rotary switch" this century, so I can't say if a smart rotary switch exists. But rereading your question, you can NOT make traditional dimmers work as 2- 3- or 4-way switches with dimming at each location. You can have one conventional dimmer and unlimited on/off switches.

Which network? If you mean devices that require a connection to the Internet just to function, then you are in good company. No one on these forums that I am familiar with would ever purchase or install any device that requires an Internet connection just to run basic functions. There are some that require a one-time connection to a phone app in order to get a unique device token that a Home Assistant integration can use locally.

Tips:

  1. Ethernet. You can never have too much Ethernet.
  2. You NEVER, EVER have to buy the manufacturer's "hub", no matter what the box says. With the right dongle, Home Assistant becomes the hub. Except for Matter.
  3. Use an upgrade router. The router provided by the ISP is crap. Provided by the lowest bidder. They usually only have enough RAM for 40-50 clients around the house.

Matter. I don't see the fascination with Matter. Matter devices must provide basic functions out of the box. Switches can turn lights on/off or dim. Outlets can be on or off. Any additional features require the manufacturers hub or app. I have not seen any Matter device that a similar Zigbee or WiFi device can't do cheaper.

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IKEA's new Matter devices do more than what you describe without any manufacturer app or hub.

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You trot this response out at every opportunity you get because it suits your way of thinking but it's only relevant if you don't want colour and/or you don't want control of colour temperature of white lights. If either of those things are a requirement, your assertion is invalid.

You don't say where you are located. This will dictate the options available to you. If you are based in a country served by Schneider Electrical, or one of its subsidiaries, they offer Zigbee switches and dimmers which function as normal switches and are easily integrated with HA for smart control.

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Why rotary? I don't think that I have seen a smart, rotary dimmer. Push button, smart dimmers exist though.

Zigbee will give you the most choice. Matter is still very immature and should, IMO, be avoided.

Wifi devices are also off the table unless you are going to go with a prosumer/professional router/AP setup because the standard ISP routers flake out once more than about 20 or so devices are connected.

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Location is Germany.

Yes, I prefer rotary over touch or press-and-hold for my own reasons (faster dimming, no touch-detection errors) :wink:

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Here you go mate. Normal looking, rotary dimmers which support wired up to 3-way (with companion dimmers) & up to 3 gangs per switch https://candeo.io/product-category/smart-dimmer-switches/protocolsearch-zigbee/

They're zigbee & they seem to be aimed at the UK market, but you should be able to get the base smart dimmer on its own & add your own faceplate. They posted about it here, so I suggest you reach out to them because those dimmers aren't cheap.

There's plenty of other rotary dimmers listed on the Z2M device page, though I have no clue if they support 2-way. At least now you know that these things exist despite what others say :slight_smile:

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@ShadowFist Thank you for mentioning us.
@proposal.recollect I'd be happy to help if you'd like to know anything about our C-ZB-RD1 or RD1-Pro dimmers. We are UK based but do ship to Germany, and provide our own blueprints, and firmware updates.

If you want to look into them a bit further, you can find more details in our guides and see the full range:

Meet the Candeo RD1 and the “3-in-1” RD1-Pro

[C-ZB-RD1 Family] Getting Started

RD1 and RD1-Pro

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