Is this a very common problem and is there a workaround for this?

[opal fox]

This is the first time using Home Assistant and wanted so start with babysteps. My first automation was trying to change my lightbulb. During the day it should turn on normal and bright. During the night is should turn on slowly and more warm. The problem is that this lightbulb is connected to a normal physical switch. So everytime this switch is turn of power is lost to this lightbulb losing connection with Home Assistant. This is, I think, bugging me.

[gentle sigil]

You need a switch module behind the switch. Or replace it with a smart one.

[candid blade]

Or cover the physical switch with a battery powered dimmer. This is my preferred solution for various reasons. I have a 3D printed ABS mount on many light switches (UK) and Ikea Zigbee dimmers. All lights are controllable from HA at all times and obviously automations link the dimmer to the lights, in whatever way I want. So I could have one dimmer that dims every light in the house, if I wanted. If you want help with this kind of setup let me know.

[jaunty ginkgo]

Could you post a picture of that 3D printed cover? Thanks in advance

[candid blade]

At the time I wasn’t setup for printing ABS. And the designs are not publically available anyway unfortunately. I bought them off a guy on eBay who has a little business designing, printing and selling them. TBH that’s fine with me; I’m happy to support a small business. The seller is gal_unique; it looks like he is still at it.

You can see they attach to the original screw holes in the back box but you need longer screws. Those are Ikea Tradfri dimmers. Annoyingly Ikea depreciated them and replaced them with, IMO, ugly ones. I bought a stash before they did so as one thing I hate is inconstancy. I have maybe 10 of the singles. The battery life is great amazingly; I get 2 years out of the CR2032s.

That single one is the dimmer near the front door in the hall and covers two hard switches, one (of 3 other) is wired into the hall lights and one is wired into the porch. A long press on the dimmer will control the outside porch light, showing the flexibility of the solution. The double one is for the bottom of the stairs and dims the lights in the hall and the landing with a long press like you’d expect.

And of course you can pluck the dimmer off and get at the switches as it attaches with a magnet if you have to for some reason.

I have a few IKEA Styrbar four ways mounted infront of switches in a similar way. Eg in the living room the left and right buttons (which can’t be used for dimming annoyingly) control a couple of tabletop lamps. The compromise in dimming is to go up or down 25% on each tap.

[jaunty ginkgo]

Very nice design and very nice solution

I do prefer the new Ikea remote design because of the batteries, now it uses AAA instead of coin type, so I use the Ikea rechargeable battery

[idle mango]

Yeah, I have a very similar setup. 3d-printed covers that "disable" the physical switch and offer a surface to mount Ikea switches

works like a charm, I just sometimes wish switches were more standardized, because we have several different styles in this house and every single one requires an entirely different different design for the cover

[candid blade]

The “mini Styrbars” aren’t bad (I have a couple but not in “production”) and the reason Ikea retired the old ones was because you can’t use rechargeable batteries in the old design, but still. I just don’t like the look of them as much as the square ones. I was surprised at the long life from just a CR2032 but yup, not being able to use rechargeables is a drag.

[candid blade]

What country are you in? In the UK it’s not so bad. Most people opt for those plastic plates over a metal (brick wall) or plastic backbox (stud wall). But for the mounts it doesn’t matter, though the plastic boxes are much easier to get the screws back into! I have one 4 gang on a wide backbox. Everything else is standard as per those pictures. I asked gal_unique to design me a double Styrbar mount for the 4 gang and amazingly he obliged. Dead pleased with that, not that anyone uses the switch much as it’s all motion controlled, but they look nice. Is it too much work to normalise the switch plates around the house and THEN add a dimmer mount?

[opal fox]

i was just thinking. before i oblige to use extra switches. Can i use the switch to unkown state to connected as triggers in my automation. i was thinking like if lamp turns to unkown state aka power is physically disconnected then turn lamp virtually off. if lamp is connected aka lamp is physically back on power then start up via my automation.... ?

[candid blade]

My own opinion is that removing power from a smart bulbs is not the right approach. Just leave them on. The power draw on them is minute, like less than a Watt when not emitting light. I have done my own measurements and it’s simply not worthwhile to turn them “hard off”.

[idle mango]

big issue with that is that the swith to "unknown" isn't instant, it might take some 15 minutes for HA to consider a lamp missing. However, most zigbee lamps have a feature called "Turn on state", where you can tell them to automatically start lighting up when they are connected to power, which allows them to be used with "dumb" switches to some degree. On the other hand, smart bulbs are the ideal backbone of a zigbee mesh, disconnecting them from power kinda ruins that

[candid blade]

I don’t see the point in turning them off. Nothing is gained except a few pennies. According to my own measurements a soft off Ikea bulb uses 400mW. That equates to 3.5kWh a year. At UK electricity prices that’s 87 pence about per bulb PER YEAR. It’s absurd to worry about that.