Tips for wired wall switches

Hello community,

I would like to ask you for tips for wall switches, mostly to operate lights. I believe the best approach for smart home is that a wall switch signals a PLC (I consider Unipi Axon), which tells Home Assistant the switch is ON/OFF and based on automation rule Home Assistant tells the PLC to switch lights and/or do some other action (via relay).

I would prefer wired options over WiFi stuff.

I´d be grateful for tips or experiences.

PLC approach in new construction is much easier than retrofitting.

I use Zwave switches in my retrofitted installation.

Yes, I’m talking about new construction.

Thanks

What happens if you sell the house and the next person doesn’t want to or doesn’t know how to run a PLC?

I think it makes more sense to leave everything as a standard house would and just use smart zwave, zigbee, wifi, etc in wall switches. That would just require that you run a neutral to every switch box to power the smart switch. Then if you decide to sell (or you decide you don’t want./need smart switches) the everything will still be backwards compatible with the usual way house wiring is done.

That’s a very American way of viewing it :grinning:
Most Europeans would not consider selling their house to move somewhere else under regular circumstances. That’s the exception for sure.

1 Like

Fair enough.

But are you saying that Europeans (almost…) never move? That (almost…) everyone buys a house and lives in it until they die? I never realized the housing markets in Europe were so stagnant.

Not to say that’s not uncommon here either (I’ve lived in my house for 18 years) but we defintely are more “fluid” than that.

But I have to ask…I assume you lived somewhere else before the new house…? :thinking:

And I assume that not every house someone ever moves into is brand new so there must be a secondary market for used houses. :thinking:

My advice still stands.

Actually yes.
I bought a flat and my next move will be to the graveyard. But yes before that I rented a flat.

Anyhow: I replaced all my light switches to zigbee ones and made the bulbs always on, mounted on top of the dead empty cable boxes.
If I happen to move out, I just mount the original Switches again.

Considering house loans run easily for 30 years, it is not easy to move out :slight_smile:

1 Like

Is there a rule that says you can’t sell your house before the loan is paid off?

Here we (most of the time…) just make sure we have equity in the house before we sell it and then the bank loan gets paid off from the proceeds of the sale first before the balance of the proceeds is taken by the seller.

My last house loan was a 30 year loan and I sold it after only 7 years without any issue.

Fact is : the house market crashed in 2008, and still has not fully recovered. You simply loose money at the moment.

well, that sucks.

1 Like