kellys_eye wrote: ↑Wed Jul 28, 2021 7:11 am
Ohhh noes...... how did we ever survive without a smart switch facility.
In the main two way switching, and table lamps, there is nothing to stop one having a lamp at the size of your bed, traditionally the candle. The problem with the candle was house fires, so it was replaced with the torch/flash light, which was in turn replaced by the two way switch, but once a two way switch is fitted, it means very hard to rearrange the room, I spent the time and effort of fitting two wall lights either side of the bed head, and two 2 gang intermediate and two way switches, either side of the bed, and a 3 gang switch at the door, so on entering the room either bed side or main light could be switched on, and in bed one could turn off the main light or bed side lamp on your side, however this was a lot of work, and using smart lights means there is a lot less work involved.
I have three ways of working smart lights, the smart bulb, the smart switch, and the smart relay. I will compare them.
1) The smart relay, can connect to existing wiring, so the wall switch or remote/phone can turn lights on/off, disadvantage is it does not dim the lights, or change the colour of the lights, and it needs room to mount it,
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seen here against a GU10 bulb holder being tested in a chandelier, and here
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finished job, which brings me to.
2) Smart bulb, the centre bulb of the chandelier is a smart bulb, allowing both dimming and colour changing, so the one chandelier has both a smart relay, and a smart bulb, both have a small problem, to control from a PC it need an emulator smart life used to work the bulbs and relay is designed for phone and tablet, not computer, you see some thing like this
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on your phone.
3) Smart switch, these work better with a neutral, without the neutral some bulbs will flash, and some switches need a neutral, however the smart switch I use was designed to be controlled by a computer, so will work both with a computer or phone, this
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shows the one I use, Energenie MiHome the phone looks slightly different to the PC, but both work OK. However both the relay and the switch to fit and remove takes a lot more work than the smart bulb.
The control can be direct, or using a hub, I have two hubs, one for energenie the other zigbee, the energenie remote controls work direct to switch, up to three remote controls can work one switch, it does not matter if internet fails, or you have no hub, they will still work, the zigbee remote works through the zigbee hub and I found it would not link to the relay, only smart bulbs. Since don't really want my phone at bed site, the energenie works better for bedroom.
As well as remote switching, there is also the option of timed switching, energenie would allow three on/off slots, and the on/off are tied together, you can get more by using IFTTT (If this then that) but it needs internet to work. The Smart life groups all together, items needing hub and items working direct, and you can set multi off's or multi on's without setting the other, so I can set my landing light to switch outer off at 12:30 am, and centre off at 1:30 am and hour latter, in case I forget, or turn an alarm on without first switching it off.
I find timed outside lights, which can also use the app, better than a PIR, they do not come on in windy weather, but some of the features will only work with some bulbs, so the app shows
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but not all bulbs will work with all those options.
As to voice commands, I use Nest Mini's, so hey google and the command, you want at least two words to activate voice control, or a single word sounding like Alexa can activate the unit in error. And they can be like mischief little boys, turning things off then claiming they can't turn it back on, so careful what you allow to use voice control. My landing lights have at least 4 names, hey google turn on outer switch, or inner switch, or landing lights, Light centre all with turn on/off, some selective and one can set amount dimmed, trying to remember what name you gave it can be a problem, and I have had replies like turning off 5 switches when I don't have 5 wall switches any more.
As to geofencing, found more trouble than worth, with Nest Gen 3 turning off the heating because the local EE mast was knocked out in high winds, using the phone to manually do things when away, I do use the TRV heads to show how hot the living room is, and I will manually turn on the AC before return on a really hot day, not had one this year yet, my problem is there is a limit to how much water the bottle will hold, and if running too long, it can over flow, so I can't leave running or on a timer, the heating simply use a timer.
Since the hubs are not cheap, you need to consider all smart devices, not just the lights, I even check how my home brew is doing, or the car battery charger, except for energy monitors the energenie range does not show if some thing switched on or off, the zigbee however does, the on/off button shows green when on.
As to
kellys_eye wrote: ↑Wed Jul 28, 2021 7:11 am
....oh yes, I know. We got off our fat arses and pressed the switch.
well does not really work, when I park my car, by time I have got out, walked to the house to reach the switch, it is a bit late, using the phone means the lights are not left on when not required, or when the wind blows the trees. I could of course use the light built into my smart phone, however that's using a smart device, so can't count that.
I remember in 1981 my Chevy Blazer had a head light switch which would leave the head lights on long enough for me to reach the door and use key and switch on lights, but in the UK back then we had street lights on all night, so didn't need it, but today street lights switch off after midnight, they have it seems smart street lights, so we are forced to also use smart lights so star gazers can have a dark sky.
If gloom had a voice, it would be me.
