somber skiff
Hi, I have a toddler who can reach his light switch from his cot. He turns it on and leaves it on in the middle of the night sometimes.
The current goal is to replace the switch with a ZigBee switch so that I can disallow a change of state between certain timeframes.
I'm UK based and haven't used a ZigBee switch before so I'm looking for hardware recommendations or alternative solutions.
smoky pike
I picked up a couple of Innr zigbee switches (UK) during amazon's black friday (though it was only £5 cheaper). You'll be able to switch off the power at the switch (assuming the kid can't reach the wall too).
I quite like them, and they're a good size.
somber skiff
Hey, thanks for the response. Is it a wall switch replacement? It's the basic wall switch he can reach just now.
smoky laurel
Well, the problem is that the physical switch will still work with most cheap switches. You need a switch that has smart bulb mode. Then, you'll need to set up automations to turn said mode off before you actually want the light on, and then turn the mode back on so it can't be changed by the physical switch.
It's also called "detached relay" mode. Basically, it disables the switch from turning the power on or off. But, tbh, the usual use case for this is to keep it always on. But I would assume you could also use it to keep power always off until that mode is turned off, but I don't know for sure.
The non-smart way is just to get a childproof switch cover.
somber skiff
This other type of switch you've mentioned that would allow for the use case, do you have any links or know certain brands that do it? Alternatively, are there certain keywords I should look for, or is it a case of reading through descriptions?
The non-smart way is what I already have set up. Unfortunately, my toddler has outsmarted it...
smoky laurel
Well, I'm in the US market, so I'm not sure what's available over there, but here, I know inovelli is typically the best option for a switch with a detachable relay. Although I know Shelly makes a wifi relay that could go behind your switch, and I'm pretty sure they also have detachable relay mode.
somber skiff
I'll have a look into both, thanks for the info
spiral laurel
I've loved my Inovelli blue switches and they have whats called "Local Protection" where you can actually disable the physical switch from working: https://inovelli.com/collections/inovelli-blue-series
