I have an old house (built in 1970s) so I am guessing my light switches don’t have modern wiring. I need to check when I get home. I don’t know if/how this impacts which route I should go.
I don’t necessarily care about the ability to change the colors of my light bulbs (although being able to change the temperature between 2700k-6500k would be nice).
I primarily want the ability to turn my lights on/off/dimmed without having to walk to the switch. My house has the light switches in not very convenient places which requires one to walk through dark rooms to turn them on/off which is annoying.
If I do just get light switches, is there a general recommendation? Is Caseta by Lutron a good option or is there something else that is generally recommended?
Lastly, if I wanted to add some sort of TV backlighting, would this potentially require me to get some sort of hub or can this also be controlled through smart switches?
Thanks
My standard take on this is every room that will be occupied should have a switch that will turn on the overhead light no matter what happens to the network in case of an emergency. First responders need an easily understandable switch in case a room fills with smoke or worse.
Smart bulbs are great for secondary lighting like lamps and such, but the main room light should be on a switch.
Any time I hear “wired in the 70’s” I cringe a little. Have you had a really good inspection of your wiring? It’s super common in the 70’s that they used aluminum wire and if that’s the case I’d look into upgrading that before I did anything else.
Copper coated Aluminum house wire is fine though. It is actually a better conductor than pure copper wiring. It doesn’t expand and contract like plain aluminum wire. It was added to the National Electric Code in 1971.
I’ve had a few electricians out here as I had solar panels installed which required me to install a new more modern electrical panel.
None of them mentioned my wiring but I plan to take a look when I get a chance to see what the wiring behind the switches look like.
Whoever was here before me installed like GFCI outlets I don’t know if that matters.
But yes, I was hoping to find someone to marry and have kids with here and then eventually move when I have more money lol. So, I ideally won’t move in the next 5 years. Especially since I have a 30 year mortgage on 3.2% interest.
Just ordered a GE CYNC smart dimmer. No neutral. I have 8 led on the circuit so I hope they are not dimly lit. It comes today. Wish me luck. No hub. Figure I will try out 1 switch first.
I do have other lights that are on smart plugs and those work well.
My approach is:
Switches replaced with Smart Switches where possible. Especially for overhead lights.
Lamps that are not controlled by a switch get a smart bulb. Hue white ambiance mostly. They just work, plus Hue has remotes that can be used to turn them on/off either from a table or you can usually surface mount them.
I have some of both. Started building a hue collection when I was a renter, now I own and I still use hue but also some zigbee switches from Inovelli. I use home assistant and zigbee2mqtt so I don’t need a hue hub at all, and my smart switches and hue bulbs all join the same zigbee mesh. The inovelli switches do not require neutral wires, but they may require you to wire in a dummy load if the switch is only connected to one or two bulbs (this is a tiny $15 gadget that you wire in behind your light fixture) the smart switch was especially great for my dining room chandelier because it would have been like $250 to buy all the little hue candelabra bulbs whereas with the inovelli switch I can just use regular dimmable LED bulbs from Home Depot.
Smart bulbs are superior in every way if price is no issue. You can avoid the physical switch issue with battery operated switches that go over the old switch (lutron aurora as one example)
If you want to change color temperature, a smart bulb is the only real practical way. But still a compromise in usability.
If you don’t, then smart switches on a proper mesh protocol (thread, zigbee, zwave; not wifi) is the only answer. That way everything just works as everyone expects. There is no user training. You don’t have to worry about your automation not working because somebody turned the switch off. Everything just works like you are used to, but now they are also smart.