My wife and I have been having a battle for years over home automation. She hates pretty much all modern home automation switches. She keeps saying "why can't I just have a regular light switch?" (e.g. the old flip on/off toggle switches). I've been looking for years for a solution but haven't found anything. Does anyone have any creative ideas on how I could automate an old school light switch?
One use case that would make my life much better: My basement lights are currently activated by a Innovelli blue switch hooked up to a resistor that I simply use as a trigger for hubitat - is there any device that I could connect to an old school light switch that when power is applied it could send an event to hubitat, and when power is cut, send another event such that I could control these lights? It would be so helpful to domestic tranquility if I could come up with a solution for even just this use case
Yeah I was just looking at that again. I actually have one of these elsewhere in my house to control a ceiling light where there is no switch. If I can cram it in the US electrical box with the toggle switch that could work. I think the cramming it in the box is where I ran into a dead end before on this but I'll maybe take another look. Thanks for the suggestion!
I thought of that too back in the day but I think the issue is it needs separate circuits to the switch and the power to be able to be powered all the time plus detect the switch state and the only place I can do both is in the switch box.
Sadly I forgot to mention the other hand tied behind my back - no neutral That rules out the Shelly and Zooz options. This is another reason I was looking at the Sonoff previously.
If there is no neutral in the switch box, then the neutral must be at the light fixture. Thus, at the light fixture 'box', you will have Hot+Neutral+Ground coming from the electrical panel. You will also have a pair of wires that goes to the 'wall switch' electrical box. Thus, you should have everything you need to install an embedded relay device to allow your existing switch to work.
This cannot be correct, as you mentioned not having a neutral in the wall box. The neutral must be in either the light fixture box, or the wall box. It must exist somewhere or else your lights will not work.
Your lighting circuit should be one of the two following designs, assuming there is only one light switch for this lighting circuit.
I see! Super helpful - let me dig into this today. Thanks so much for the detail, this totally makes sense. I believe I am the latter which, if true, would mean I should be able to stick the relay in the ceiling box which definitely has lots more room. Thank you!
I have a Sonoff no neutral fitted in my Kitchen Light Switch where there is just enough room to fit it.
In my garage, where there isn't enough room in the switch, I've fitted a Fibaro Switch Module that does need a neutral above the light.
Where there's a will there's a way......
It probably does, and there are few other similar devices that manually toggle the physical switch, but all of them are unlikely to reconcile well with OP’s need to prioritize WAF:
I can’t imagine she’ll be that interested in a DIY device that sits on top of the regular light switch.
If a smart relay either in the wall box or ceiling is an option, it’s far and away a better one.
The main downside of using the ceiling box is it’s more of a PITA to install than a wall box. But sometimes that’s where the only neutral wires are in the circuit.
OMG, that's hilarious. Unfortunately defeats the purpose in my case as the solve is my wife wants to be able to use the switch per its original function
Thanks everyone, this has been super helpful, I've been chasing this for a few years off and on. I am going to try a relay. The aha moment around the neutral being available in the fixture was the unlock I needed. Thanks so much!
That rules out the Shelly and Zooz options. This is another reason I was looking at the Sonoff previously.
