Wow shame, that’s quite the unfortunate series of events!
Yeah, these things are solid. So are the fittings and the lightbulb holder (old school ceramic). I’d say the wires and the plastic boxes in the roof too, but because these used to run 100W filament bulbs, the heat was quite hectic so the wires and the plastic boxes above usually ended up quite brittle. That being said, the house is also 30+ years old, so could just be time too.
Thank goodness for LEDs.
With me, the plan was to always add functionality without removing any. So for me, I replaced all switches with smart switches, bulbs are all dumb. While automation takes care of 99% of the lighting events I still like to be able to press switches also great if you working on the motion detectors.
In addition, what’s nice is programming the other gangs for non-lighting functions. So the last gang on the light switch isn’t connected to anything but it sends an MQTT command to open and close the garage door.
What smart wall switches do you use for lights?
I haven’t actually done this yet, but I’m planning to combine Shelly switches with wifi bulbs, probably Shelly again. That way push & release can be on-off, while double-tap can be full / half-bright.
I don’t really like dimmers personally, they’re too difficult to get right, so I’d prefer to pre-configure dimming to what I’d like usually, and then just have half/off/full.
Shelly also have the i4 which is just the input part of the relay. You configure it to talk to other devices.
Sonoff T1’s
This is a good idea!
I have done something similar. I have a Sonoff Mini in a lightbox, connected to the momentary light switch.
I still need to do something more fun with double-press and even tripple-press.
Is the dimming controlled by Sonoff/Shelly?? (I can’t envisage this in my head…)
To me thinking, this combo is twice the cost for the same function. My switches are dumb, but can reset the lights if need be. It can switch em on or off if really needed and the lights will start at a preset level, or last used level when switched on. Some of em will go full bright when switch toggled twice.
Most of em, except bedrooms are on Pir detectors and some on Pir with light level detectors, so presence detection with timers. They all switch on and off automatically, and don’t when it is bright enough. So cloudy days or rainy days taken care of.
The rest of the control is via the dedicated app or HA app. But mostly, automation in HA does it for me. If do have a few wifi and Philips switches deployed that does the rest. Automation is ‘free’ so a no cost option, and there is no need to use switches 99% of the time. If the wall switch is switched of, the bulbs consume no power and the circuit is safe as well.
Groetnis
You play with the app, getting it where you want it, then look at the app’s display percentage. When you setup the button, you tell it to take the bulb to 43% or whatever.
You can also setup scenes in most ecosystems where you setup the brightness, the white balance or other colour and then save & recall as needed. (Most let you do this with more than one bulb / thing at a time.)
How good is the motion / presence detectors which you put in rooms for the lights?
How do you set them up that you don’t have to for example wave your arms from time to time to get the light back on if say sitting still behind a computer or sitting on the couch watching TV?
For my system, the normal functions of light on or off etc I use my HA app or the manual Philips switches to just turn lights on or off. When the lights are triggered by PIR sense that is done via HA. This allows me to set timers for when the PIR triggered the light before they switch off. We found that mostly between 20 and 30 minutes is enough that there is movement, standing up or something to re-trigger. Otherwise just wave a hand, but that tend to almost never happen.
So the timer only triggers if the lights were switched on by the PIR.
Groetnis
Me again.
Looking at Shelly stuff, main idea is to control a aircon based on room temperature, but I see there is a couple of options.
Shelly H&T which is straight temperature and humidity, this is the obvious one to go for. Shelly H&T | Shelly Shop Europe
Shelly Flood for the same price, though I don’t really see the water detection part being of any use in this application with the sensor stuck against the ceiling or wall. Shelly Flood | Shelly Shop Europe
Then there’s the Shelly Door Window 2 which does temperature as well as open close, illumination, vibration and it’s a bit cheaper as well. I however don’t know if the best place to measure temperature will be at a door or window which will make that part useless to me for this application. Shelly Door Window | Shelly Shop Europe
So which do I go for, is my thinking correct that such a sensor for measuring the most consistent temperature should be placed in the middle of a room so probably against the ceiling then?
HI @JN.V , you can check here what I did with Shelly one with the temp hat add on your get. You can run then 3 temp probes from it. New bigger mix setup MLT/Victron - #20 by Gman
Can anyone recommend a local Shelly supplier with excellent pricing?
Seeing prices here and there on local websites, it doesn’t seam like importing directly will be worth it.
@JN.V It’s actually cheaper to import. What we usually do is we get a group together and do one bulk order, then we split the shipping and everyone pays their import tax.
There some Shelly stuff up for sale on Takealot to.
I have an account with Nology - https://nology.co.za/products/connected-home/iot
PM me and I will send you pricing - dont want to post on public forum.
What are you guys doing with your 2, 3 and 4 gang light switches, what works best in your experience? Do you put in a single relay like a Shelly 1 for each light / switch, or do you use 2 channel ones like the Shelly 2.5?
And what about ceiling fans? I have quite a few of them?
I try and use the Shelly 2.5 where I can simply because it is more space effective, and saves on wifi-devices.
I only have 2 gang switches, sometimes in 2 boxes next to one another, so I get away with the 2.5. I have one box where I have 2x Sonoff Minis in and man, what a tight fit. But that’s probably what I would do if I had a 3-gang: 1x Shelly 2.5 and 1 Sonoff mini/Shelly 1.
Having worked with Shelly a bit lately, and seeing the effort they went to have a consistent RESTful http interface as well as the CoAP protocol support, I have to say I’m beginning to like Shelly over Sonoff. I’ll still take Sonoff over anything Tuya though.
I’m don’t have either but have read that Sonoff switches can’t switch geyser elements. It’s the dilemma of what the specs claim but in practice it doesn’t fly.
But you can be sure that CBI device (from the 80’s) sure as hell can do the job!