I’m looking for a smart home solution use two switches in my living room (EU), in order to make them just smart enough so I can control some devices. The setup isn’t very complex in itself, and I’m pretty sure it’s doable - I’m just unsure what I’d need in order to use these switches in a ‘smart’ capacity…
This is what I had in mind:
On-off switch, connected to a single light with three Hue filament bulbs. I’d like this one to always be powered, as to make them always controllable
On-off switch, which should be connected to a light which isn’t in use at all. Once this one is ‘smart’, I could control all other smart devices in the living room like a ‘turn off everything’-button.
I have a Hue bridge and a Home Assistant instance running in my home.
With regards to wife-approval-factor, I’d rather leave the original switches in place, but I’m open to suggestions. I hope one of you can steer me in the right direction.
Edit: if this isn’t the right community for the question, I’d understand, but I wasn’t sure where to put it otherwise… I’d be open to suggestions to that too.
One of the features you might look for is, I don’t remember what it’s called, but direct pairing? I’m a big fan of Inovelli switches here in the US and this is one of the features I love, even though I don’t use it yet. You can configure the switch to always pass power, but act as a Zigbee/zwaveJS button, depending on which switch, then you can set up automation at your hub to take some action. However this goes a step further in that you can directly pair it with the smart bulbs, to control them directly.
I’ve come across Shelly relays as well, they seem like a viable option to me. I’d probably prefer a separated network like Zigbee, but that should be doable. Thanks!
You can get zigbee 3.0 relays on aliexpress. I got the GIRIER store ones, but while I’ve done a test with a bulb and a switch on a board, I haven’t gotten them properly installed yet. Seems promising tho.
You don’t need to ground your Shelly if the circuit is otherwise properly grounded. The Shelly will fail open if something internal shorts.
Per the rest of the discussion re: hot wire loops to switches with no neutral or ground, just put the Shelly into the upstream junction box. (Wherever the switch wire branches from the circuit. Usually that’s where the light is.)
There’s nothing for a ground pin to be connected to, the case is plastic.
The bigger issue is that a lot of light switches also lack a neutral connection. They have live, and switched live. You can get devices to allow them to scavenge power, but they can also cause led bulbs to glow dimly.
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One of the features you might look for is, I don’t remember what it’s called, but direct pairing? I’m a big fan of Inovelli switches here in the US and this is one of the features I love, even though I don’t use it yet. You can configure the switch to always pass power, but act as a Zigbee/zwaveJS button, depending on which switch, then you can set up automation at your hub to take some action. However this goes a step further in that you can directly pair it with the smart bulbs, to control them directly.
I bought Shelly relays. These fit behind existing switches so you can keep the originals. They can tie into Home Assistant.
I’ve come across Shelly relays as well, they seem like a viable option to me. I’d probably prefer a separated network like Zigbee, but that should be doable. Thanks!
You can get zigbee 3.0 relays on aliexpress. I got the GIRIER store ones, but while I’ve done a test with a bulb and a switch on a board, I haven’t gotten them properly installed yet. Seems promising tho.
How do you deal with grounding? None of them seem to have ground pins which is rather concerning
You don’t need to ground your Shelly if the circuit is otherwise properly grounded. The Shelly will fail open if something internal shorts.
Per the rest of the discussion re: hot wire loops to switches with no neutral or ground, just put the Shelly into the upstream junction box. (Wherever the switch wire branches from the circuit. Usually that’s where the light is.)
There’s nothing for a ground pin to be connected to, the case is plastic.
The bigger issue is that a lot of light switches also lack a neutral connection. They have live, and switched live. You can get devices to allow them to scavenge power, but they can also cause led bulbs to glow dimly.