Smart light switches for smart bulbs

Hardware
1

Hey folks,
Just dipping my toes into the waters at the moment - first house, and wanting to make it somewhat smart!
I currently have a mixture of lighting solutions in the house (pre-existing from the previous owner) - four nice, simple 1-way circuits with a single lamp, one 2-way circuit with a single lamp, and a number of 2-way circuits with “fancy” lamps - ie ones that can’t be replaced with smart bulbs.

What I’m looking for is the following:

  • For the simple 1- and 2-way circuits, a smart switch that would keep the circuit permanently energised (note that the switches only have the incoming live and the live returning to the lamp, along with an earth, no neutral) and connect to HA - ideally using Matter over wifi, but that’s not a hard requirement. My reasoning for using smart bulbs on these circuits are to make use of their native dimming and colour shifting capabilities.
  • For the “fancy” lights, I’d be looking for a similar smart switch, but which has a relay inside to operate the lighting circuit, as I can’t fit smart bulbs.

Note that I’m in the UK, so the switches would have to fit UK-style square back boxes.

Any suggestions you may have would be most welcome!

2

For no neutral there’s Shelly relays, I’m not sure if the latest shelly mini can still work without neutral though.
You can enable detached mode on the settings

Another option if you can’t fit the relays behind the switch. You can install sonoff basic r4 on the light fixture for the 2 way wiring or normal 1 way switches and use the magic switch mode.

3

Looking at Shelly, it looks like only the old L1 works without a neutral, and it’s been discontinued… and I would prefer to avoid rewiring at the light fixture if I can possibly help it - I’ll bear the option in mind though.

While looking at Sonoff though I noticed their M5 Matter… which was perfect, and I thought I was done… until I noticed the requirement for a neutral wire! Why does UK lighting wiring have to be so weird…

4

You can check for aqara h1 or the new z1 pro that can work with/without neutral.

I wouldn’t recommend the M5 matter since it doesn’t have a detached mode. And for it to be matter certified, sonoff has locked the bootloader so you can’t even flash custom firmware on it.

There’s also this simple no neutral hack if you’re up for that

5

I’ve been trying to find an affordable no-neutral Zigbee based Dimmer switch/module for a while now, haven’t had any luck unfortunatly. Might just have to settle for a battery powered remote with smart bulbs. :frowning:

6

Done a bit more searching actually, and discovered the Sonoff ZBMINI-L2 - it’s a live only single switch relay which can be decoupled… annoyingly no 2-way option though

7

Also, it’s just a regular switch not Dimmer.

Trust me, I been around the route before. If you don’t mind spending a bit, try ‘Candeo’.

8

Any confirmation on that? I don’t see decouple listed on the z2m page

And yes, you can use it for 2 way

9

That’s all I need realistically - for those circuits that aren’t going to have smart bulbs in them, I’m honestly not too concerned about dimming - just about being able to control them from something other than the wall switch

10

I’ve actually ordered one to experiment with - worst case, I’ll make use of Amazon’s generous returns policy.

I know it allows for 2 way switching - ie dual switches for a single circuit - I meant it doesn’t support dual switches on a single outlet, which I have a couple of.

Edit - done a bit more thinking regarding the decoupling capability… I’m guessing it’s not too big of a deal if this isn’t possible - from a user’s perspective, it doesn’t matter if you switch the smart bulbs off locally or by cutting the power… and when turning it on, just turn it on at the power and the bulb should illuminate - and when it’s powered on I have the full control of colours and dimming etc. which I don’t need when it’s off anyway