On our latest IoT Podcast episode, we take a question that Tommy left on our IoT Voicemail Hotline. Tommy is looking for a new house and he has “a ton of smart home stuff” including Philips Hue lights, other bulbs and more. He wants to know what approach he should take in the new home to fully integrate everything and what to look for to do this. Tommy is willing to include smart fixtures, switches and more in the future.
Obviously, just about any home can handle smart bulbs, such as the Philip Hue lights Tommy is already using. They’re easy to install and they typically work well.
The downside of these and other smart bulbs is that they need to be powered on for voice or app control. And if you have automations for those lights, they need power for your smart home to run those automations.
That’s why we generally recommend buying and wiring up smart switches. These provide constant power to any bulbs or fixtures, so automations will run even if the switch has been flipped to an off position. And if you’re worried that they’re too difficult to install: Trust me, they’re not. You’ll also gain valuable skills by learning to wire up connected devices.
Stacey and I are big fans of Lutron switches, which offer rock-solid reliability. These work with standard, non-connected bulbs; you don’t want to mix smart switches with smart bulbs.
If Tommy wants to stick with his Hue bulbs then, Philips Hue wireless switches are an option for the new home. He also needs to remember that one Hue bridge only supports up to 50 lights. You can add another bridge for more lights but the bridges don’t communicate to each other. So there’s a little more device management involved in that scenario.
The Philips Hue switches can be placed anywhere since they’re wireless. You could put them next to the standard switches in any home, for example. And to ensure power to the bulbs, you might want to cover the wired switches so the lights always have power.
Lutron does make a wireless dimmer knob called the Aurora that costs around $41. It fits over an existing switch so the power is always on to the bulbs.
Generally, Stacey and I both use Lutron switches for lighting fixtures because we want power to those on all the time. For our lamps, we use smart bulbs, often made by Philips Hue. We just leave the power switches on to them for automations and control. So you can create a hybrid solution in any home with this approach.
To hear Tommy’s question, and our discussion in full on the topic, tune in to the IoT Podcast below:
I really like both Hue and Lutron, and use both in my own home. There are a couple of additional options that you didn’t mention, so I’ll just throw those in there as well.
First, we should say that if you want to use a single switch or handheld remote or scene in an app and have a combination of Lutron controlled dumb bulbs and hue smart bulbs come on at the same time you have to be using an app/platform that supports that. Fortunately, both Lutron and Hue work with a lot of different platforms, so this is very doable with Apple’s HomeKit, Samsung smartthings, hubitat, IFTTT, and several more home automation platforms.
(It’s not doable just with Alexa routines because you can’t at present use a switch as the trigger for a routine in the Alexa app, but you can certainly combine both your devices and Lutron devices into a voice control group for voice control.)
So there are a lot of options when it comes down to what app you want to use to create rules and schedules.
Ok, now as far as the physical Switches… It is absolutely true that you should not use a smart bulb with a dumb switch which controls the circuit branch for that smart bulb. But in just the last two years we have seen a lot of device options come on the market which will allow you to have a smart switch which is specifically designed to control smart bulbs. In fact, the Lutron Aurora dimmer which Stacey mentioned is exactly that kind of device: a battery-powered smart switch designed to control smart bulbs. And as Kevin mentioned, this works because you do keep constant power to the bulbs so that they can hear the next “on“ radio command from your home automation system. The smart switch is also using radio to get a message to the bulbs to tell them to get brighter or dimmer, rather than directly controlling the current to them.
So these days, smart wall switches for smart bulbs fall into several different categories
1) smart switches which depend on a rule created in a home automation system. For example, if you use Apple HomeKit, you can have your Lutron light switch not only turn on the dumb bulbs in the ceiling fixture, but also turn on the table lamps with hue bulbs in the same room. Or turn on the porch light and the interior entry lights at the same time.
You do this by creating an automation which says when the Lutron switch turns on, also turn on these particular hue bulbs. We use this in our family room, which is quite a large room with both table lamps and ceiling fixtures. The one wall switch where you enter the room is a Lutron switch, but turning it on will turn on both the ceiling fixtures and the table lamps that have hue bulbs.
(Since both Lutron and Philips have announced future support for Matter, it’s also possible that there will be even more apps/platforms to choose from once matter is released, but that’s a future feature. You can do this right now as long as the specific app/platform you choose has the ability to set up this kind of rule.)
2) smart switch covers. This is a design which fits over the top of the existing dumb switch. Some of them physically move the switch underneath. Some of them, as Stacey mentioned with the Lutron Aurora, keep the switch underneath locked into the on position but give you buttons or knobs on top of it. These are available for both toggle and rocker designs. These tend to be very intuitive for guests.
Typically the ones that don’t move the physical switch underneath are designed to only work with smart bulbs on the same network as the smart switch cover, but again, you may be able to combine it with the kind of automation I described in the first category so that using the smart switch cover can be made to also turn on some of your other smart devices through an automation/rule.
The ones that do move the physical switch underneath should generally not be used with smart bulbs on that same circuit branch. They’re just a way of making an existing dumb switch smart without having to do any wiring.
3) in-wall modules that fit behind the existing dumb switch. These are interesting, and are mostly marketed to people who have a really strong aesthetic investment in their existing dumb switches.
There are several different brands of these depending on what home automation platform you are using, but Hue makes one that works with their hue bridge. It’s kind of a weird device. It’s battery operated and you leave the power wired to the fixture that has the smart bulbs. And then the battery is used for the radio to send radio requests to have the smart bulbs turn themselves brighter or dimmer. These work OK, but they are weird. And as you probably figured out already, you can use the same kind of rule/automation from category one so that the same existing dumb switch could be used to control a mix of other smart devices.
Philips calls theirs the “Philips hue wall switch module.” Once it’s installed, you don’t see it at all, it’s inside the wall. I haven’t had any reason to use these, but I’ve talked with people who have and they seem to work fine. so if you spent six weeks picking out the perfect ornamental light switches for your kitchen or your entryway and now you want to use hue smart bulbs or the hue ceiling fixtures that Stacey mentioned but still have your existing wall switch, yes, you can do that.
4) parallel means of control. These kinds of devices are sometimes called “remotes“ or “accessory switches“ even if they are usually mounted on the wall in place of a wall switch. Most are battery powered. Some use zigbee green energy to capture the kinetic energy when you press the switch to power the radio and may be called “batteryfree“ devices.
These devices don’t control the current to the lights. They just send a radio message. And most of them can’t be turned on or off themselves by an app. It’s just when you physically press it, a message gets sent which then causes other things to happen in your home automation setup.
There are lots of these now. Hue has their rectangular dimmer switch and a brand new dial model which just came out this week. There are also “friends of hue” batteryfree designs.
In the kind of setup the audience member was asking about, you would have two choices for remotes. First, Just use them with a hue bridge to control other devices connected to that hue bridge. Or, again, use the kind of rule/automation described in one above and you can then use a Hue battery operated switch to control a bunch of Lutron switches if you want. Or again create a group of devices from different brands.
As was mentioned on the podcast you can just put a babylock on the existing dumb switch and stick the smart remote next to it on the wall. Or if you go on Etsy you can find a lot of nice 3-D printed holders for these devices which are intended to fit over the existing dumb switch and then you put the remote on top of that. These basically turn the remote into a smart switch cover. there are some really clever designs, including some that will let you put two or three of the remotes next to each other or that have different kinds of graphics or decorations.
Samotech also sells these holders on Amazon for either rocker or toggle formats, typically for less than $10 each. Look for “Hue switch cover” to find these. (The holder itself doesn’t have a radio or a battery, it’s just a cover plate to stick the remote into.)
I used to use a childlock on the original switch and stuck the remote on the wall next to it, but now I usually go ahead and spend the money to get the cover plate just so it looks nicer and it’s less confusing.
The motion sensors that Stacey mentioned also fall into this category of “parallel means of control.“ The point is that you don’t activate the motion sensor or the battery remote from the app. Or by voice. It gets activated by physical movement in the room or physically pressing the device. That’s the “parallel“ part. But once it is activated, it can send a radio message to your home automation system which then can cause a lot of other things to happen. Which is a good thing.
5) finally, there are some wired devices which are specifically designed to control smart bulbs by sending radio instructions rather than by varying the current. A lot of these have either multiple buttons or allow for double tap and triple tap, so they are often called “scene controllers.“
If you happen to have a zwave-based system, both Inovelli and Zooz make wired Z wave switches that have a “smart bulb” mode for this purpose.
And Leviton just this week announced a new mains powered 4 button WiFi scene switch which would replace an existing light switch and give you 3 scene buttons which could then turn on hue bulbs or Lutron switches or any other HomeKit device you had. As well as one regular button for the circuit branch connected to the switch. Comes in six different colors and you can even get custom engraving on the buttons.
This also works with Ifttt for people who are not using HomeKit.
Leviton calls it “ the Decora Smart Wi-Fi 2nd Gen Scene Controller Switch”, model D2SCS.
Leviton historically has made a bunch of these multi button scene controllers for different protocols and while they’ve all been expensive, they’ve also always been popular. Having one button that turns on all your outside lights at once, or activates your “movie time“ scene or turns off all the downstairs lights is just useful. They’re also great for big kitchens which have multiple zones, like one light fixture right over the sink, one over the workspace on the counters, one over the dining area, etc. Or bathrooms with two lighting zones and a fan.
And again depending on the app/platform you use to create rules for your home automation system, this could work really well in a house that also has both Lutron switches and hue bulbs.
We’re planning to get one of these and use it in a location by the back door where we currently have a Lutron switch controlling the outdoor lights. We’d like to be able to have one button that turns on just the lights in that yard, another button that turns on the Backyard lights and the side yard lights, a third button that turns on the interior lights in that entry area, And we haven’t even decided what to do with the fourth button yet.
So it looks like at our house we will probably end up with a mix of Lutron switches with dumb bulbs, hue smart bulbs with various remotes/switch covers, and one or two of the Leviton multi button scene controllers.
Choice is good. 😎
I recently discovered Go Control’s Scene Controller. Its a cross between a Lutron Aurora and a Third Reality/Switchmate. Its a two button Zwave controller that you can mount over an existing switch. It keeps the switch from being used. Pair it with your smart home system to control the bulbs. Home assistant is quite slow with it. But the price of these are $16 bucks each. A drop in the bucket compared to $40 for the Auroras.
The Zooz devices are really nice, but do require that you have a zwave hub of some kind. So definitely a candidate for those with SmartThings or Hubitat or Homeseer, but so far nothing zwave had been mentioned for this particular project. While the cost of the individual device is lower, the cost of adding a new protocol with a new hub could definitely add up.
The Lutron Aurora smart switch cover works directly with a Hue bridge, so if you already have hue bulbs they just add into that network. No additional hub or app required.
So as always, different things will work for different people.
I am currently in a rental so I can’t replaced all my switches. The bulbs give me the benefit of RGBW lighting.
While the Auroras just work with Bulbs on a hue bridge (brand doesn’t matter) this process kills home kit support for any non Hue bulbs. They are a non-invasive way to cover up dumb switches.
Since this is for a whole house project, I also wanted to mention that while Stacey is of course correct that each Hue bridge has a limit of about 50 devices, iOS users have several options for integrating multiple Hue bridges pretty seamlessly. Apple’s HomeKit does this. So does a popular thirdparty iOS app, iConnectHue.
The official Hue app now lets you have multiple bridges, but you have to switch back and forth between them: unlike HomeKit or iConnectHue you can’t combine devices from two bridges into one room or group. And I think that’s all Android users have available unless someone knows of a thirdparty android app with better multiple Hue bridge management.
There’s a small possibility that handling multiple Hue bridges in an android app will work better once Matter arrives, but I haven’t seen anything specific on this yet.