I have an early 2000s house and they went wild with a) the sheer number of wall switches and b) the number of 3-way switches. I want to replace a good number of them while accepting my wife’s requirement that they look and function as dumb paddle switches when necessary.

I’ve looked around and these seem to be the best at fitting all of my requirements but Mama Mia, the price 😭 😭 😭 😭

https://www.amazon.com/Inovelli-2-1-Smart-Switch-Dimmer/dp/B0BG329SH3

Anyone have some suggestions?

  • a1studmuffinEnglish
    4•1 day ago

    Just to play devil’s advocate, why do you want to automate your lighting? I’d consider myself an advanced HA user (been using it since 2019 and have coded several custom integrations and built custom hardware) and never bothered with automating my home lighting. I’m always walking past the light switch as I enter or exit a room anyway, so it’s not a big inconvenience.

    The real wins I’ve gotten from HA are smarter home security (door locks/sensors/cameras etc), climate control, energy management, garden irrigation, and remote control of “dumb” devices like my garage door and motorised front gate.

    Edit: thanks for the insights all! Seems having kids and older houses are common reasons for automating lighting.

    • @myplacedkEnglish
      8•1 day ago

      That’s fine, but I’m opposite. When I moved to a different house, smart lighting was the first thing I did, requested by everyone in the family.

      Just the fact the light switches are wireless and can be positioned wherever I want then is gold, specially in an older house where things has been moved around so much that the switches locations doesn’t make sense anymore.

      Specially in the bedrooms, kids and adults like that the magnetic buttons are movable.

      Also, the family in the car leaving the house and I notice a light is on - I can just continue driving while we turn it off. And this is just remote control. Even smarter is when the house recognized that everybody left, and I get a notification that some stuff is still in, with a button to turn it off.

      The hallway connecting almost every room on the floor has two switches. None of them are near a bedroom or a bathroom. Or in use. A motion sensor and schedule switches the lights between “almost off”, “day” and “night”. Nobody ever thinks about the light switches, nobody walks around in the darkness or gets blinded at night.

      In the living room I have scenes for the TV area.

      • Teatime: Slightly dimmed light on the table, brighter light on the wall decorations.
      • Board games: Bright light on the table, slightly dimmed light on the walls.
      • Movie: No light on the table, very dim light on the walls. Increase brightness when the movie is paused.
      • Night: A single bulb on lowest setting, so that one kid can see that there’s no monsters while walking by at night.

      …etc

    • @afk_stratsOPEnglish
      4•1 day ago

      Tldr this house was wired funny

      Here are some reasons:

      1. automatic lights which follow us from bed to the toilet and back with minimal disturbance of each other and which return to pure dark without flipping a switch.

      2. A hallway which have terrible switch placement. It has a 4-way switch and it leads to a room with another 3-way. 5 switches which should have been 3 can be consolidated using automation

      3. I want automatic motion lights on stairs. Another annoying 3-way to get rid of

      4. Kitchen has 9 light switches. I don’t want to explain why, but it’s not that big

      5. TV area where scenes are important/want integratiom with other stuff

      6.I want on/off automation on a few interior and all exterior lights for safety/security