cursive wagon
I bought my HA green before I started buying smart home peripherals - I've only plugged in some esp temperature and humidity sensors so far.
I'm looking to smarten my lighting. I believe that smarting the light switches is more sensible than the bulbs.
I'm in the UK, if it makes a difference.
If you were buying kit for the first time, what would you buy? Rather than "what can I force to work with HA?"
Also interested in smarting my blinds
tough ginkgo
I bought my HA green before I started buying smart home peripherals - I've only ...
as long as you have neutrals at your switches then shelly relays behind the switches is a great way to go
i tend to use smartbulbs for "lamps" and relays behind switches for the "big lights"
shell helm
i have gone with zigbee bulbs everywhere. my house is old and the physical light switches are in impractical locations. i never use them. instead i have battery operated zigbee ones mounted on the walls where i want to switch the lights.
sudden wind
Note that smart bulbs can give you colors or tuneable whites, which are pretty nice. I find I don't use full color nearly at all, but tuneable white in a bathroom is very nice over night
rapid sinew
i have gone with zigbee bulbs everywhere. my house is old and the physical light...
Pretty much the same here. I have a few (two) relays where I want to use a type of light you can’t buy smart, like in my office I have a super bright (10W?) light, and another in the Mrs’s art room which is “different” for similar reasons. And then in the lounge I have a SAMOTECH dimmer, which is wired to 2 lots of 3 standard dimmable LED “gulf ball” bulbs. That works very well indeed. Even has power monitoring. Part number available if you want me to dig it up.
There is no one solution for smart lighting for sure, but there are patterns. And I absolutely agree with the point about dimming: you will want dimmable lighting nearly everywhere. The IKEA GU10s in my bathroom are dimmable and it’s useful. The relays are a fine solution, but IMO they should be used sparingly. Colour temp is another thing you don’t have if you go that way, but it’s a minor thing compared to dimming for me.
cursive wagon
The previous owner put halogen-shape lights everywhere in this house. Swapping every bulb for smart will be expensive
rapid sinew
I did mine over time. Took about six months to get it all done. But yup smartphone gadgets aren’t necessarily cheap. However a typical room in this house has one zigbee bulb from Ikea (£8), one zigbee dimmer (£7) and a 3D printed mount. I don’t think that’s particularly awful for the functionality you get.
shell helm
i had a search on a classifieds site running. i got a bix box of unused osram bulbs of various types along with osram and hue wall switches, all zigbee, for a very nice price. surplus from some large automation install.
i found that deal while i was still contemplating how to deal with my tuya wifi bulbs. so i replaced them all and got rid of a headache