Switches, plugs, relays oh my!

So I’m reasonably new to this. Projects going around in my head, but never certain what’s the right hardware. I can do much of the same thing with switches or plugs or relays.

How do you make your decision? What are the important factors?

did you mean how to pick the plugs and switch brands?
if this is what you mean.
first, you need to choose a protocol (wifi, Zwave, Zigbee).
and then, it really depends on what you need, your budget, and the availability of hardware in your country.

No, I mean which method. For instance of o want to turn lights on a nighttable on or off, I can put on a smart plug, put in a smart switch or put in a regular switch with a relay. Not sure what the pros and cons are.

for me, I will go with the easier way,
so for your example (if I understand), I will go with a smart plug. no need for an expensive one because it is just a light.

My choices are driven by use case.

Number 1above all else. Core function and life safety items Must operate without Internet connection - I include the main lights in any room in core functions

A close #2 - a person should never need to ask HOW do I operate this? (thing, light, switch etc.)

For that reason I default to smart switches in every case because I don’t have to explain to someone how to turn on or off a light and I don’t have to warn someone to never turn off a switch else it messes up the (smart bulb/other repeating device)

Third cardinal rule of my install, no weird workarounds

And

Fourth: asthehetic matters

Means I’m not installing a stupid awful looking cover over my switches to prevent on/off.

For freestanding lamps I go to an appropriate smart bulb that works on a local protocol such as ZWave or Zigbee or soon Matter (in most cases linked with a room wall switch in some way) of I need color bulbs.

Yes that means usually no color bulbs in the main fixtures (you can work around that with switches or relays that support smart bulb mode, but for my use it’s unnecessary)

Then it becomes what can I find that matches the power requirements, use case and protocol. Usually results in one or two devices and then I double check those (by model number - it matters) tk see if anyone is reporting issues connecting said device to HA.

Once I’m through all that I usually know what device I want to use.

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That was a great answer, thank you.

:100:

And sometimes one thing leads to another.

Recently I wanted to smartify this type of lamp here to be able to toggle it from my wall switches :point_down:

As one might see that looks already a bit challenging because of the manual (AC) switch. The safe and simple solution (smart plug) was already out ruled because of this.

To “see” what else is possible I open the thing up (no tools just two plastic screws :nut_and_bolt:) and at this point the thing already screamed for a “proper” upgrade.

Long story short short: this thing now is a smartified RGBWW dim-able :bulb: and addressable light :rainbow: with sunrise :sunrise_over_mountains:, nightlight :flashlight: and alarm :rotating_light: feature :boom: It is not only controllable from the wall switch but also directly on the lamp itself via a touch button (which is more convenient for it’s location as the old manual switch was always “hiding”/“missing”).

BTW: No relay is involved here. The “magic” is handled by a (MOS)FET :raised_hands:

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Totally overdoing it. I like it:-)

The best answer is “it depends.” It really depends on your use case for each application. I have smart switches, some smart bulbs, and some smart plugs.

For most “standard” lights, I use a smart switch. It operates like a normal switch, so anybody can control the lights with the switch, yet it can be automated and controlled. For example, in my kitchen I have 5 LED disk lights. (The only “smart” version of LED disk lights I have found so far are Tuya-based, and I try to avoid that as much as possible.) Installing a single $50 smart dimmer is more economical than replacing all 5 lights, even at Tuya pricing. And frankly, I would likely get in trouble with my wife if these lights started changing colors while she was preparing dinner.

For my front lights, I went with smart bulbs because I like to change the color for the seasons. They will be red & green at Christmas, pink for Valentines Day, red white and blue on patriotic holidays, etc. These bulbs are also on an automation to come on at sunset and turn off at 10 PM. They still have a switch inside the house to turn them on and off, but the switch is connected to a Shelly relay. The Shelly tells HA the switch position, which triggers an automation to turn the bulbs on or off. But since the bulbs like to be constantly powered to stay on my WiFi, they don’t have the power cut to them. (One exception, if one of the bulbs becomes unavailable, I have an automation to turn off the Shelly relay, wait 30 seconds, then turn on the Shelly relay. This reboots the bulbs so that they reconnect to my WiFi.)

I have a smart plug on my HRV (which draws in air from outside to keep the inside air fresh). If it’s too cold outside (less than 25F, I believe) or if the air quality is bad (AQI over 100 for 2 hours), then the smart plug turns off; I don’t need to be making the indoor air quality bad, or force my HVAC system to work harder to heat the extra cold air. Once the temperature is high enough and the air quality is good, the smart plug gets turned back on and the HRV starts bringing outside air into the house again.

So, it depends what you are trying to do. There are 3 different things that I am doing today to accomplish 3 different tasks with 3 different types of products.

@NathanCu nailed it.

A couple of things to consider: To me, smart bulbs are a last resort. As mentioned, to work best they need constant power, and every bulb socket in my house is already controlled by a switch, either on the lamp or in the wall. I should add that I don’t use color-changing bulbs, so YMMV if that’s important to you.

Smart switches are great, but they generally need mains power (neutral and hot.) Some switches don’t have that. There are workarounds, but at that point you’re making things more complicated.

You also need to pick the protocol for each. I started out a big fan of WiFi devices but have evolved to prefer Zigbee. The biggest reason was that Zigbee (like Z-Wave and, maybe some day, Matter) is a standard. The Zigbee devices I’ve used (again, no color-changing bulbs) have been straight plug-and-play, no configuration and they just keep working.

Each WiFi vendor has their own standard on top of the actual protocol, and they all want you to connect to their “cloud.” Sure, there are some integrations to HA, but you’re still dependent on the vendor (1) staying in business, (2) not shutting off their cloud servers, and (3) not pushing an OTA firmware update which breaks the integration. All three have happened to me. That said, local WiFi solutions like ESPHome work fine, although they do require some network configuration and maintenance knowledge.

Beside you can buy ready made (pre flashed) esphome base devices (from athom.tech for example) which come ready to run out of the box :package::tada: .

I wonder what this network configuration could be? :thinking:

Regarding maintenance a homogen esphome based smart home is probably the easiest one to manage which exists. I tell this with over 100 esphome nodes floating around and making regular use of the “update all” button :coffee:

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On the other hand I kind of doubt managing 100+ zigbee devices (from different manufactures) is as painless as described. First some will obviously never receive any updates (even when they have bugs or vulnerabilities) and for the ones that get bug fixes they might need various ways of rolling them out. In the best case HA can send the update (after uploading it?) to a zigbee device. In other cases a vendor bridge might be necessary and further special setups and/or software. :hammer_and_wrench:

Extending already bought devices with new functions is mostly not possible with zigbee or even z-wave devices to my knowledge. On the other hand I regularly do this with my esphome based devices because they allow full control and ownership which includes rolling out new functionalities without the manufacture :rocket: