Best solution for home lighting
I have Hue bulbs throughout the house, with most rooms having their light switch covered by a Hue dimmer and Samotech cover Samotech® Light Switch Cover for Philips Hue Dimmer - Adapter - Converter (SM200): Amazon.co.uk: DIY & ToolsThis works fine for the most part, but some problems, no MR16/GU5.3 compatible bulb (bathroom), it's expensive (kitchen still to do, lots of GU10's), light switch is bulky.
I've been looking at LightwaveRF and Z-Wave. LightwaveRF seems straight-forward but i'm not sure if it can handle dimmable mains powered lamp shades, anyone know? Z-Wave seems like a minefield and very expensive.
Are they any new/other solutions? Hi
Look at Control4 lighting with an inexpensive CA-1 controller. Awesome for retrofit lighting especially if you can have or can fit 35mm back boxes for keypads I have to disagree. Unless you have deep pockets stay well clear of C4 it is a money pit and you require an installer to make most system changes for you, which is generally a couple of hundred quid a pop. I have worked with a couple of C4 installers on jobs. Look at the Shelly devices. Wireless and keep use of the existing switch, but allow you to control the lights without the switch (timers, away from home activity, remote control etc.) just like Hue. They have recently announced the release of their dimmer module so the only other benefit of Hue is the ability to change the white colour temperature and/or colour. But for many that isn't an issue or widely used.
I have a mixture of Hive, Hue, Shelly and wireless replacement switches in my house as I wanted to try out which system I preferred. I had Hue to start, then added the Hive thermostats (which gave the ability for light control as well). I then added the wireless switches like this in a couple of rooms (Light Switch, YANF WiFi Smart Light Switches Touch Switch Wall Panel Compatible with Alexa and Google Home, APP Remote Control and Timing Function with Tempered Glass Touch Screen(1 Way 2 Gang): Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools) but then I found Shelly1 and 2.5. These work really well and hide in the back box of the existing switch. Shelly 1 Open Source - Shelly Cloud They have lots of options available so I'm pretty sure when we move I will be ditching the aftermarket switches, keeping the Hue (for colours) and some of the Hive lights, but will be mainly using Shelly. Thanks, will do. I think the main reason for me looking at alternatives is the ease of use, eg I want to be able to dim the lights from the wall, the other half isn't very tech savvy and the mother-in-law talks to Alexa like it's her best friend, so I need something simple.
At the moment i'm thinking LightwaveRF switches are the way to go and keep Hue bulbs for the mains lamps, I'd need to keep the Hue hub for the lightstrip anyway. The amount of hue bulbs/dimmers I have would probably cover the cost of Lightwave once sold on ebay! With the new Shelly dimmer you can use cheap dimming type switch similar to the look of the Lightwave units I believe (but a lot cheaper).
I have enquired about using a typical rotary dimmer switch with one and apparently it could do that, but would require some software changes they are considering. Ah, so I can use a normal dimmer with one of these behind? Shelly Dimmer - Shelly Cloud
I don't fully understand this Shelly stuff, if the wall switch is off can the lights be turned on from the app? Yes I believe so. They aren't released yet (pre-order) so I haven't used one but that's what they say. The Dimmer SL also doesn't need a neutral (which the other Shelly and many other smart switches require).
That's right, the device replaces the switch in regards to the lighting circuit (with a neutral connection unless using a Dimmer SL) and it has a terminal for adding a regular physical switch which activates the Shelly device instead of the light directly. Here is an example of the switches you an use called "retractive" switches. The same type used with a Control4/Fibaro setup I believe.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/.../ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i... You can use the single switch. Short press on/off and long presses for brighter/darker.
Of you could use a 2 gang version, 1 switch for on/brighten, 1 switch of off/darken. https://www.amazon.co.uk/.../ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i... The switch position is just that, a position, its neither on nor off, the unit just detects a change in position and changes its state accordingly. hence you can turn the lights on with the switch and off with the app, but when you change the switch position it will turn on again. If you use a retractive switch, it can then be used to dim on a long press or on/off on a quick flick.
My ZWave Fibaro modules behave in exactly the same way. Shelly / Fibaro are ideal as there are no new learned behaviors to operate the light switch, its business as usual, but then you get all of the smart operability as an additional layer of control / automation. It allows the wife and kids to use traditional light switches, but also have automated routines (that they miss when they stop working - Thanks HUE!!!)