Smart light switches

[Bobbybingham08]

hello

Does anyone know the best set up for controlling your lighting switches remotely connected to the internet ? So u can turn lights on randomly when you are out ? Do you have to have a hub or can you buy ones that link straight to your router ?

Many thanks

Bob

 

[Iggifer]

There's a myriad out there. You're probably better off posting in the Home Automation section (if it's all that active)

I have some philips Hue lamps (require a hub) and you can get the touch dimmer or tap switch. Neither of which replaces a conventional switch unfortunately. You would need to mount them next to the existing switch/blank the old switch and fit them onto the blanking plate.

I only went with Hue because they're HomeKit compatible, my plan is to only use HomeKit compatible automation stuff so I can use the one app/Siri to do everything. Home automation for me is pointless if it takes more effort to do something than it would to do it normally. I also don't want to clog my phone up with apps to do specific tasks.

IFTTT is very useful, you can set anything to do almost anything you could want whenever you can imagine you want.

 

[endecotp]

Matthew Garrett has reviewed some of these "Internet of ****" devices and they are mostly awful.
He did seem to find the IKEA Tradfri "surprisingly competent", though I don't think it is available here yet.
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/47803.html

 

[cjard]

Best is a subjective term with home automation, but I'm very happy with my Fibaro system of dimmer modules. They accept commands from normal light switches, so grandma can turn the lights on. They accept commands via a webpage, so any kind of browser can turn the lights on. They accept commands from the fibaro app on iOS and android, so my iPad can turn the lights on and they apparently accept commands via HomeKit (a homebridge adapter is required) so Siri could turn the lights on.

Fibaro lighting control is via a matchbox sized module that sits in series with the lightbulb. It can be placed inside a switch back box or the ceiling depending on how your house is wired. It can work with normal flip flop switches but works better if you swap the switches for retroactive ones (ones that let go when you stop pressing, like a doorbell)

There is a hub in my system; fibaro home centre lite, it has some programming capabilities so it could e.g. Dim the lights and roll the blinds down when I hit play on a movie in Kodi.. the same hub can have a program for random lighting.
The hub is necessary for controlling the lights via wifi/internet. The modules that do the dimming must be paired with it and then the hub will emit the zwave control commands when interacted with over a network. Newer fibaro dimmers also track power consumption of the connected lights, if you care about that sort of thing. Older dimmers calculated it; you told the dimmer how many watts of lighting you had connected and it reported consumption based on the output percentage duty cycle multiplied by declared wattage connected..

Would I get a smart lighting system so I could turn some lights on randomly when on holiday..? No. There are timers with random functions available from the pound shop(virtually) for that. Would I get a smart lighting system so I can climb into bed, think "*******s, I forgot to turn the kitchen lights off" and a single swipe of a thumb/ask Siri to do it/triple click the bedroom light switch to turn all the house lights off? Yes. It also simplifies multi switch control. I can have ten switches controlling one bulb, and only need one bit of 2core cable

 

[rsgaz]

So u can turn lights on randomly when you are out ?

If that's the only feature you are after, then it doesn't need to be 'smart', there are cheaper and easier solutions...

 

[ericmark]

I am using MiHome Energenie mainly because also wanted some eTRV's and sockets, which use the same hub. Since I have not used anything else I can't compare. Using phone or PC easy to turn on or off, there is no feed back to say if it has worked, I also have three remote controls, and use timers, the latter there are only three times which can be programmed in you can select which days of the week the three times are used on. My light is programmed to switch on at 9:30 am off at 9:40 am which ensures it is off during the day. The bank if ITTT apps will allow you to have it switch on or off with all sorts of events like bad weather. You can't program my sockets or light without the hub, the hub is hard wired to router, you can turn them on/off with remote without the hub.