Hello guys,
Since I’ve started with all this home automation stuff I’ve always wondered the same: how to create the best (available) lighting setup.
I bought a Philips Hue pack and totally hated that when turning off the wall switch I couldn’t control the lights anymore. You know, sometimes it’s just easier and quicker to hit that switch instead of turn them on by your phone, your watch or even your voice.
So I bought a few Aqara Wall Switches (Zigbee). That way I was able to control the lights from HA, my phone, my watch or my voice and also directly from the wall! A great and seamless experience. But this setup had some limitations as I couldn’t tweak the temperature to follow circadian rhythm… something I really want to (see diagram below)
I could control my lights from wherever I wanted but as they were just normal lights temperature, colours or effects were out in the equation.
The I added some smart bulbs, a few are Yeelight and a few Domitech (Z-wave bulbs). This way I could control both the power on/off state and also colour, temperature or other characteristics the bulb could have (see diagram below)
BUT this is not perfect, for example the Yeelight bulbs take a little bit to turn on when using the wall switch… it’s like 0.5 seconds but it feels weird. Also you are not able to control them (change colour, effect, temp, brightness) until they connect to the wifi. As for the Z-wave light, these turn on almost immediately but when you cut electricity on a Z-wave bulb HA shows like it’s turned on, when you turn on electricity again sometimes the bulb will turn off. In general weird behaviour.
So far Yeelight shows best behaviour, but they are a bit on the poor side when referring to lumens so I feel like they’re better suited for accent light (coming to my way it’s the new Philips ceiling lamp, btw!)
I would love to hear your thoughts, just please have in mind that I do really need to have physical control by using a smart wall switch for guest-proof and non-geeky-proof people around the house!
PD: I know this is currently not a “project” but 1) I don’t think there’s a better place to post it and 2) it might become a project?