by ericmark »
Sun Jan 12, 2020 12:49 pm
Although the MiHome Energenie light switch works without a neutral, I can confirm this as have 5 of them, some power has to go through the bulb when off, so bulbs must be dimmable even through not dimming and even then some times bulbs will flash when switches off and a 4 uF capacitor has to be added, or they pulse when on, only cure I have found is to swap bulbs. Plus the Energenie needs a hub so can work out expensive.
Of the 5, one temporary removed and wife lost it, my bedroom some times gets a flicker, wife's bedroom had to add capacitor and slight flicker at times, office A1 no faults, living room some times plays up to extent where have to turn off lights at consumer unit to get it to work again.
As well as at switch, PC, tablet, phone plus a remote control will work them, in the main use remote control, they should work with google mini, however they only every seem to switch off with that when not wanting them to switch off, never got it to switch them on.
I will say hello google switch off music to which it replies switching off 5 switches and plunges us into darkness. Maybe my Welsh accent?
In spite of flicker every so often the bedroom lights satisfied with, the remote makes it like a two way switch so can switch lights off/on in bed, rest to be frank an unnecessary gimmick, idea was to turn on lights from in car so lights in rooms lit the drive up a bit, but PIR LED solar lights work far better.
So much depends on if there is a neutral and how you will mount it, for many of my light switches and sockets I needed spacers to give just a little more room.
However I would not expect many people use two makes, once you select a make then one tends to stick with it, I got Energenie because the TRV heads were claimed to work with Nest, and the Nest wall thermostat uses just 2 wires between it and heat link to send all info and power. Google Nest has now withdrawn support, but once I got one make, does not make sense to change. So it is unlikely some one has used both, I see good reports on Sonoff but not seen anything about Shelly and if I read what is on internet well I am only doing what you could do yourself.
