I’m setting up with HA and zigbee smart bulbs. I’ve got a few automations already set up, such as turning on a bunch of lights in the morning and turning most of them off again at night.
All these lights still have physical switches. I don’t want to take those switches out for lots of reasons, and putting smart switches there seems like overkill when the bulbs are already smart. What are people doing with their physical light switches to ensure that they don’t get flipped?
Ideas I’ve had:
- some kind of physical plastic covering that fits snugly around it. I’d probably do this if I had a 3d printer, but I don’t. Maybe someone sells a thing like this? More just a reminder not to touch them.
- Carefully paint the switches a different color (perhaps the HA color scheme?). Again, basically just a reminder. This especially makes sense with a few multi-switch plates where some of the connected lights are automated and some are intentionally left manual.
- Entirely replace the plate with a smart switch? Besides incurring a nontrivial cost and being a bunch of work to install, this won’t even help me with the aforementioned multiswitch plates. I don’t want all my lights automated.
Other ideas?
I make the switches smart, not the bulbs… Retains normal functionality, is cheaper and more reliable.
Cheaper? :O This is the super-deluxe splurge option compared to some cheap IKEA ZigBee bulbs
Got any recommendations? ZigBee, Zwave, or something else?
One nice thing about having the bulbs smart is changing the color temperature. Is there any way of doing that from the wall-switch? It’s kinda what’s been stopping me from upgrading from smart bulbs to smart switches
Cheaper? :O This is the super-deluxe splurge option compared to some cheap IKEA ZigBee bulbs
Depends how many bulbs are on each switch, in my home it is typically 4 to 1 at a minimum and the switch will outlive the bulbs. Color is about the only reason to use a smart bulb.
There are, but frankly it’s more expensive that way. You basically need an LCD display to make color selection feel useful.
If you have the money to go this route, I recommend having a single smart panel that controls groups of devices throughout the house
Color temperature is actually quite OK with simple remotes. Like the IKEA remote control used left and right arrows to change between stark white, warm yellow and happy medium.
Problem is non-smart bulbs with smart wall-switch can’t change color temperature. Theoretically I suppose there could be a switch/bulb combo, where the switch is Zwave/ZigBee enabled, and somehow communicate with the bulb. But I don’t think anything like that exists. It’d probably be very expensive if it did
My mistake, I read that as just color, not temp
They do have zigbee switches that can be programmed to specific devices, but I don’t know of any that have temp selectors on them.
All you people spending money on switch covers. I rent this place so I’m not messing with the switches at all so I’ve just put a piece of white tape on the switches. Simple.
99 percent of the time we don’t have visitors. So the tape is there to stop my kids switching. We’ve had a smart home since 2021 so they’ve got used to it and don’t use them anymore.
Guests sometimes still do it but it’s rare and when it happens I just switch the light back on.
The only wifi bulbs I have are in lights that don’t need manual interaction, eg. floor lamps, bedside lamps, desk lamps, etc. Fixed lights get a Shelly relay behind the switch, so I can get the best of both worlds.
Most of my switches are smart, bulbs are dumb. Any smart bulbs are on non switched lights and are controlled by automations.
That said, I do have a smart RGBW bulb in our master bathroom fan that’s also on a smart switch. The switch doesn’t actually control the power, rather it works more like a button (via a setting configuration on the switch). That allows me to control normal lighting with the on/off toggle, and I can also factor in other elements, like time of the day. For example, turn on the light at 6:00 AM and the bulb is set to 100% brightness and a cool white color temperature. At 10:00 PM, a warm white at 40% brightness. After 11:00 PM it sets to red and 10% brightness for overnight restroom needs. Definitely not the cheapest route, it definitely the most control. Might be worth considering for your highest traffic areas.
I’m using Philips hue wall switch modules. They’re not cheap, but they allow me to use the switch as a normal switch and even program them to turn on different scenes depending on how I use them. It’s so much nicer to have than the taped down light switch I had at first.
leave the switches in the wall but bridge the cable so it stays on irrespective of the switch position. or join the cables behind it with some terminal block
And then you can’t easily cut power from the fixture if you need to replace the bulb or change the whole lamp altogether. I wouldn’t recommend doing this, especially if you don’t have a socket on the ceiling to remove the fixture.
