I’m setting up with HA and zigbee smart bulbs. I’ve got a few automations already set up, such as turning on a bunch of lights in the morning and turning most of them off again at night.
All these lights still have physical switches. I don’t want to take those switches out for lots of reasons, and putting smart switches there seems like overkill when the bulbs are already smart. What are people doing with their physical light switches to ensure that they don’t get flipped?
Ideas I’ve had:
- some kind of physical plastic covering that fits snugly around it. I’d probably do this if I had a 3d printer, but I don’t. Maybe someone sells a thing like this? More just a reminder not to touch them.
- Carefully paint the switches a different color (perhaps the HA color scheme?). Again, basically just a reminder. This especially makes sense with a few multi-switch plates where some of the connected lights are automated and some are intentionally left manual.
- Entirely replace the plate with a smart switch? Besides incurring a nontrivial cost and being a bunch of work to install, this won’t even help me with the aforementioned multiswitch plates. I don’t want all my lights automated.
Other ideas?
Cheaper? :O This is the super-deluxe splurge option compared to some cheap IKEA ZigBee bulbs
Got any recommendations? ZigBee, Zwave, or something else?
One nice thing about having the bulbs smart is changing the color temperature. Is there any way of doing that from the wall-switch? It’s kinda what’s been stopping me from upgrading from smart bulbs to smart switches
Depends how many bulbs are on each switch, in my home it is typically 4 to 1 at a minimum and the switch will outlive the bulbs. Color is about the only reason to use a smart bulb.