by ericmark »
Mon Jul 15, 2024 8:33 am
Looking at your switch, there is one supply to all three switches, with link wires, so you can use a smart switch that uses a single supply, however the smart switches I have used seem to be limited to two gang not three gang.
There are two ways to get a smart switch to work without a neutral, one is to pass a small current through the bulbs, This can cause the bulbs to stay on dim, it can also cause a shimmer on the bulbs, I fitted 5 Energenie light switches, which do not need a neutral, one I had to use a load capacitor on, as lights would not go out completely, and I had to experiment with bulbs, as some makes would not work, three of the switches failed after around 3 years of use, and I moved over to option two, and now fit TP-Link (Tapo) switches, which use a pair of batteries.
Switches which don't use a neutral to keep power use down, use a hub, the power needed to work direct with a router is too high, over the years I have ended up with 4 hubs, one for Energenie, one for ZigBee, and two for TP-link, the latter now only needs one, Kasa (TRV heads) and Tapo now use the same hub, and they double as a doorbell for me.
I have needed to use spacers on some switches, and not all my lighting is controlled by light switches. Varilight seems to have a good name, but never used them. My landing light is controlled with a relay in the light, I have a lot of smart bulbs, And I have been slowly removing smart sockets and replacing them with smart socket adaptors, mainly so if they go wrong, easy to replace.
I also have some strip lights where the smart bit built into the lights.
Consider a power cut, with battery powered light switches, they stay as they were, and you could still switch on or off during a power cut, although you will not know if on or off by looking at them. A non battery switch, will auto switch off, a smart bulb will auto switch on, there are exceptions, but a power cut auto switches on all my outside lights but one, which are all smart bulbs, except one with is a Tapo switch. Has to be Tapo as the lamp has a PIR so does not draw enough current to work any other switch without a neutral.
The different methods to manually switch can be a problem, so we have no terrestrial radio here is Wales, so we got Google Nest Mini's to get radio, and these use voice commands, so are also used to turn lights on/off. The Google Home app is also handy as it works it seems with all makes we are using. Alexa does the same, but costs more.
Smart bulbs can be turned on by turning the old light switch off and then on again. With an 8 bulb chandelier, smart bulbs become expensive, So I use a smart switch, but with single bulb lighting, smart bulbs also allow dimming, colour temperature changing and colour changing, so in the main smart bulbs are the way to go.
The problem is the features are not advertised, and they change make to make, Tapo has dust and dawn settings both bulbs and switches, Wiz has a gradual switch on and off which can be set with their bulbs, handy when a timed off is used, as you have a warning it is going to switch off.
