So I moved into a new house (from a rental) and I am interested in starting to move some of the smart home brains from my bulbs (Zigbee/Sengled) and into the switches themselves.
I currently have over 100 Zigbee devices (Only Sengled bulbs, a bunch of buttons and battery sensors, and about 10 Zooz outlet repeaters strategically placed throughout the house).
Does anyone have any recommendations for what switches to use?
I have looked into Lutron and don't mind investing in the Pro hub if it's the best solution, but I'm not too keen on locking in to their $60 switches, etc.
I am thinking I should use Z-Wave Plus switches since I only have 3 Z-Wave devices currently, but I don't know what brand.
I have used GE/Jasco, Leviton and Inovelli. I have had a couple GE switches fail, not completely sold on Leviton, my choice right now would be Inovelli.
They are priced right, seem reliable and are packed with features.
How about another type of suggestion? Out of the box?
I have a client that refuses to accept the standard zwave or zigbee switches.
So, if your wife is like that, then I suggest getting "in-wall" switches.
If you're zwave: aeotec nano, or dual nano, or fibaro, or rgb genie
If you're zigbee: rgb genie, tuya(zigbee), sunricher, etc.
Then you can keep existing wall switches.
I have a Lutron Pro-hub, a strong zwave mesh, and a strong zigbee mesh. I use all three protocols. I find they all have strengths in different areas. Generally this means zigbee for battery powered devices and locks, zwave plus for mains powered switches, outlets, thermostat, and Lutron for switches and button devices (picos).
In regards to your comments on which switches to buy, I would suggest the following:
Lutron - Upside: Very reliable, simple to set-up and pair to the hub, no mesh to deal with (each device talks directly to the Lutron hub) Downside: Minimal selection, if you go with caseta the switches look like they do (some people like it, some people don't), somewhat expensive, and in rare and unique circumstances there is a significant delay to the automations (Lutron to Hubitat to Lutron Integration Delay)
GE/Jasco zwave plus: Upside: the switches/dimmers look like a standard non-smart switch, they make a switch/dimmer that includes a motion sensor. Downside: some users have experienced zwave device/mesh issues, especially with the new c-7 hub YMMV.
Inovelli zwave plus: Upside: the switches/dimmers have a light bar that can be used for notifications. (I find this fantastic and is a great addition to a few locations, waf through the roof on this one), dimmers do not require a neutral wire, and last but not least they are the only viable solution for a light/fan switch when you only have one wire running from the switch to the light. Downside: some users have experienced zwave device/mesh issues, especially with the new c-7 hub YMMV.
Regardless of what you choose, I would be purchasing the Lutron Pro-Hub if for no other reason then to integrate pico's. They are by far the best device in this regard. From my post you can probably tell I use Inovelli where I want a switch with a light bar and for my fans, I use GE/Jasco where I also need a motion sensor, and I use a combination of GE/Jasco and Lutron for the rest of my switches.
This is a good idea but can be a pain to install/fit inside the outlet box. I have slowly migrated away from using the behind the switch relays but they do work well. The only real trouble I've had is with dual switch relays and "power only" no-load setups.
I really like the Inovelli LZW30-SN Red Series switches for their LED notification capabilities. I use the notifications to show when the alarm system is armed, mail has arrived, an outside door is left open, water leak is detected, or the alarm has been activated. The switches work great too. I also have a few of their LZW36 Red Series Fan + Light Switch's which work great and also have the notification capabilities.
I'll second Zooz (The Smartest House's in-house brand). I've always had good luck with them, Their support has been great the few times I've needed them and @agnes.zooz posts to the community frequently to answer questions. Their new 700 series switches are marked as Sold Out but they're having a great sale ($19.95 each) on their 500 series switches.
I’m very happy with the Lutron Caseta dimmers and switches. They are rock solid in my experience. They are a little pricey, but worth it for the reliability in my opinion.
The Pico remotes, part of the Lutron Caseta system, are great and can be used to control anything connected to Hubitat. The Pico can be mounted directly on the wall without cutting drywall, and they match the Caseta dimmers. Also there is a Pico pedestal for tabletop usage. The Pico remote battery lasts a really long time, and the Pico only costs about $15.
Are any of the switches 3-way? If so, Zooz or Innovelli have products that you can just replace one of the switches and continue to use dumb switches in the other locations.
If your switches are in gangs of two or three, try to plan so you aren't putting two smart switches next to one another. To do that, you have to remove some tabs to make the switches narrower which reduces the wattage capacity.
You might want to remove at least one existing switch far enough to verify that your house has relatively deep switch boxes. Smart switches are deeper than regular switches,
Both are very active in our and other communities.
Both have firmware updates to fix bugs and introduce new features.
They are affordable.
They have lots more features in their devices. LED indicators, night light function, 3-way with a dumb switch, and lots more things you cannot find on other products.
A close second to the above are the GE. With community drivers, they work good. But I don't like their policy of not doing firmware updates even with known bugs. They also have had some pretty high fail rates with past devices, apparently they have bad capacitors just like almost all 2000 era electronics.
Wildcard option is Lutron, I like the Pico a LOT. The Caseta switches are OK, they are very reliable, but lack features like double tap, press/hold, scenes and so on. They are also about double the price of the Zooz and Inovelli for just a switch. But they are reliable and just work.
I have about 20 Zooz and recently added four inovelli reds plus the fan switch. The fan switch is slow turning in the light with the 700ms delay to allow scene controls. That time delay should be configurable instead of just on/off. Yes I have the ramp rates set to zero and it helped but it’s still slow.
Side note: I find the inovelli’s have more route changes on my C7. No poor behaviour, just a note.
I have one Leviton zwave plus. Not FW upgradable and no scene control. Don’t know if this has changed recently.
I also have one ge dimmer - it’s reports plus but I doubt it. I had three and two died for some reason. I would toss the third but it works where I have it talking only at 9.6 for absolutely no reason. Lol. No FW upgradability and no scene control.
One more comment about Zooz and inovelli. They are smaller companies and local. I like that.
One dig at Zooz. They don’t ship to Canada from their website (inovelli does) and Zooz doesn’t have any authorized distributors in Canada either. Amazon is the only way to get them and they don’t go on sale like they do on their site.
You can flash the firmware on the Red Series switches to the latest beta firmware at http://files.inovelli.com/firmware/ to allow the 700ms lag to be disabled making them respond almost as fast as mechanical switches.
[Edit ... what Terk said] ...I don't think I've heard about this for other devices as yet, but might be worth jumping on their forum and inquiring. They're good people over there and may be responsive.
You can eliminate the delay, the switch will be fast. Mine feels no different than a dumb switch. I believe you will loose some double-tap abilities of the switch when you enable the setting to remove the delay, but you will still have some scene control.
It’s been about a month since I have checked for nee FW. Thanks for the reminder and I will check again.
I see this only with the fan switch. The red dimmers are fine.
I have tested with the delay on and off, but I loose the double tap when I turn it off and I have that hooked up to toggle the bedside table lights so I’m not willing to give up that function.
My actual complaint is that the delay is not adjustable. It’s just on or off.
But you are right. I will post on the inovelli site.
I'm a big fan of the latest generation of Jasco/Enbrighten/GE in-wall Z-wave Plus switches. They are shallow depth, easy to install, and work extremely well. Inclusion has always worked 100% with S2 auth and included network wide in the final install location.
