I now have Smart Bulbs all around the house and can control them in HA which works well for me
However, if other people are here they tend to switch the switch which doesn’t do much other than turn the bulbs off and on. Id love to cover them up and have them blanked off but for safety Im not sure its a good idea
Whats the best way to control bulbs for “normal” people without the HA app etc and just want to turn a bathroom light on but with smart bulbs?
Is it best to get “smart” switches to toggle the room when pressed to put in place of the traditional light switches?
Seriously, this is a general problem in “home automation” which leads to decreased acceptability for many wifes…
I have left them as they are - and I am quite happy about that, because there are circumstances where “smart” does not work and you’ll use these switches as fallbacks again (been there, done that - especially when an HA update breaks my instance).
You can get covers for dumb switches, even ones that are made for Hue dimmers. 3D-printing is also a possible approach. Probably not ideal for your situation but some also use smart wall switches and dumb bulbs.
I have seen the covers, it is only really for the “hallways” so it is either a motion sensor to switch the lights on for 5 minutes if people go the toilet in the hours its dark and then go off again?
I was thinking about those that “blank out” the dumb switches, so that they are hidden under the cover and aren’t available to use. Nothing I use my self so no experience with it.
You just need a switch with decoupled mode/smart bulb mode
For wifi:
That can be enabled on any switch/relay that can be flashed with esphome.
For example this config which includes fallback to toggle relay if wifi/ha is offline
For zigbee:
Few switch like innovelli includes smart bulb mode and you can bind to zigbee light bulbs.
I’ve designed and created some matrix switches with which I replaced the wallsockts where the light switches used to be. Allowing for multiple (coloured when lit) buttons with single, double and tripple click for a wide array of light, heating, roller shutter automations
