Smart Light Switches - Wago Box?

[jonwestuk]

Going to be installing some smart switches. For some of my light circuits it is going to be easier to connect them in the ceiling attached to the 'master' downlight which has the switch attached to it. Right now my downlights all have quick connectors attached to them, which has no room for a smarts witch. Given the smart switches typically do not have any way to secure the wires from being pulled nor are fully isolated I was thinking of putting them into Wago boxes or similar.

Has anyone done the same, any other top tips or magic products that make this job easier / cheaper / better?

 

[ericmark]

I in hind sight made an error, the light was large enough to take the relay so I put the relay in the lamp, but the lamp is not easy to assess so when the relay started to play up, it was too big of a job to access it again, it works A1 with the zigbee, but it should also work with the light switch, and this is intermittent, some days it will, some days it will not, but saying hey google turn on landing lights always works so not that worried.

However learn from my error, put the relay where you can assess it.

The other thing is it is seen as a relay not a light, with bulbs we can program a remote control to work them, but it does not work with the relay. Also general commands like hey google turn off all lights does not turn it off, as not seen as a light.

It also does not dim the lights, I have found bulbs vary a lot in what they can do, the Wiz bulb can be programmed to fade out first when switched off, I find this good as not suddenly plunged into darkness, however it does not seem to have a timed off, the other bulbs all have timers built in, so outside lights have two off times, so if I forget to turn them off the turn off anyway twice a day, not all the same time, so not plunged into darkness.

Wife seems to be loosing use of fingers now, what did you say love, gets answer I was talking to google not you. Yes getting into bed or out of bed and using a remote or voice to turn lights on/off is good. But not so sure with living room lights, I just get lazy, and sit with just cabinet lights on, as they have voice control. The stairs light shown yes good with two cups of coffee one in each hand to be able to turn on lights. Mainly as the light switch is not at bottom of stairs but other end of hall.

However with smart bulbs there is no need to rewire, and in hind sight would have been better to use 5 smart bulbs instead of relay. Centre one is smart anyway so I can get nice effects so not so sure really needed a relay, the advantage should have been with relay the existing light switches switch lights in same way as two way switches, change state of switch, and light changes state, but switches don't always work, and need to remember switches now extra low voltage not at low voltage (mains).

As said though if had to do it again I would simply use smart bulbs.

 

[jonwestuk]

I in hind sight made an error, the light was large enough to take the relay View attachment 297272 so I put the relay View attachment 297273 in the lamp, but the lamp is not easy to assess View attachment 297274 so when the relay started to play up, it was too big of a job to access it again, it works A1 with the zigbee, but it should also work with the light switch, and this is intermittent, some days it will, some days it will not, but saying hey google turn on landing lights always works so not that worried.

However learn from my error, put the relay where you can assess it.

The other thing is it is seen as a relay not a light, with bulbs we can program a remote control to work them, but it does not work with the relay. Also general commands like hey google turn off all lights does not turn it off, as not seen as a light.

It also does not dim the lights, I have found bulbs vary a lot in what they can do, the Wiz bulb can be programmed to fade out first when switched off, I find this good as not suddenly plunged into darkness, however it does not seem to have a timed off, the other bulbs all have timers built in, so outside lights have two off times, so if I forget to turn them off the turn off anyway twice a day, not all the same time, so not plunged into darkness.

Wife seems to be loosing use of fingers now, what did you say love, gets answer I was talking to google not you. Yes getting into bed or out of bed and using a remote or voice to turn lights on/off is good. But not so sure with living room lights, I just get lazy, and sit with just cabinet lights on, as they have voice control. The stairs light shown yes good with two cups of coffee one in each hand to be able to turn on lights. Mainly as the light switch is not at bottom of stairs but other end of hall.

However with smart bulbs there is no need to rewire, and in hind sight would have been better to use 5 smart bulbs instead of relay. Centre one is smart anyway so I can get nice effects View attachment 297276 so not so sure really needed a relay, the advantage should have been with relay the existing light switches switch lights in same way as two way switches, change state of switch, and light changes state, but switches don't always work, and need to remember switches now extra low voltage not at low voltage (mains).

As said though if had to do it again I would simply use smart bulbs.

Thanks for the info - and quick access is a consideration but not always practical and the cost of replacing 50 LED downlights with smart versions isnt realistic. So really right now my consideration is ensuring electrical safety and reg compliance - the switch will be relatively accessible from the master downlight.

 

[ericmark]

It was the cost of 5 x GU10 smart lights why I use a relay, and I have the same with my living room, with 8 x E14 bulbs, using a smart light switch is cheaper. But of course gives one less control, I have looked at my sons kitchen which seems to have loads of GU10 down lights, which are very little better than the two fluorescent tubes I had when I lived in that house, and they use more power to the fluorescent, but to convert back is a lot of work.

Typical GU10 lamp has capacitor/s in it to stop flicker,

this is one which failed so I opened to see what was inside, the result is there will be some inrush when turning on, so you need to limit how many on each switch or relay, to stop overload on switch on. I would say no more than 10 bulbs on one switch/relay.

To my mind the problem is we have no idea what is in the bulbs, some are really simple, some are complex, and we get problems with them not switching off, and a shimmer when switched on, and I know the latter is often worse with electronic switches, seems likely some interaction between switch and bulb, but no idea how to cure it other than swapping the bulb.

I had it with G9 bulbs, the large one has a smoothing capacitor nearly as big as the whole of the small bulb, in general E14, E27, and BA22d bulbs don't seem to present a problem, G9 are a big problem, and GU10 some where between the two, I have had GU10's which have work without a problem for a year develop a flicker, move them to a different room, and flicker has gone. Replace one of five bulbs with a quartz halogen and again flicker on all bulbs has gone.

I hate this problem with LED bulbs, but only way around the problem seems to be use smart bulbs, where all the control is designed to work together. I do have a problem with 8 x E14 bulbs, they cause my daughter to have a headache, but not my wife and myself, so not a clue why, or how to cure it.