"Best" Lighting Solution

Thank you for the help! I had SmartThings in my last house and had GE/Jasco Switches and dimmers everywhere. They worked fine except I’d have to reconnect them every once in a while (not sure if switch or hub fault... I suspect hub). Looks like I will follow a similar plan or maybe switch to the HS WD200s to get the additional status lights.

I'll make the case for Lutron RadioRA 2. It uses the same reliable communication that Caseta uses - there is no tracing of mesh issues. Reliability and time not spent troubleshooting is worth a lot. I replaced most Z-wave dimmers with RadioRA 2 and am very satisfied.

It's a step up in many ways from Caseta. A few important differences: 1) it uses Maestro style controls. No ugly 4-5 button controls. 2) there is a lot more control over how dimmers work. Default power levels no problem. 3) there are more controls that be added. Most useful are multi-button keypads. 4) no reliance on 3rd party hubs for base functionality (Hubitat can make the system work better than the base level, though)

(Note that there are 2 levels of RA2. Select and full. Select is easy to buy and set up through a phone app. To get full system control, you have to take a fairly easy, but technical, on-line course. The full is worth the effort. With the full level, you program the base system on a Windows PC. Some features - full control of default dimmers, keypads, are only available in the full system.)

The only downside is cost. The controls will be about 2x the price (street level) than Caseta. If you have the budget, it's worth it IMO.

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No question if I could afford an RA2 system, that would be my choice as well. However, I think the RA2 Select does not allow keypads, just Pico if I’m not mistaken.

Thanks for the thoughts. I ruled out Lutron due to the training and typically professional installation. I did not look close enough and was not aware of the Select line. Very interesting. How accurate do you think the square footage limitation is? Found a good write up (here) I didn’t see any option to increase the size of coverage...

I would guess that Lutron's numbers are pretty accurate. Probably conservative, but stretching it wouldn't be something you'll be able to find out until your there doing it. Keep in mind that you can use multiple Caséta Smart Bridge Pros with Hubitat. Not possible without Hubitat. RA2 Select has repeaters, so you can have the main repeater and up to 4 auxiliary repeaters for up to 100 devices. However, I believe that Hubitat can also handle multiple RA2 Main Repeaters, so you can have potentially hundreds of devices.

But check with @bravenel about that. I'm not 100% confident that's correct.

That article is mostly a recap of http://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocumentLibrary/3682773_RA2_HWQS_comparison.pdf

The square footage numbers are not technical limits, they're a combination of estimated distances and number of devices that one would want for a house of a particular size. The technical limit for all 3 systems is a distance of 30 ft to the controller. My furthest is about 30 ft, I have no problems. According to others, the specs are conservative. You can add repeaters to all 3 systems to extend the distances.

I went through the same considerations when choosing my system. I went with the full RadioRA 2. I'm glad I did. You save at best a couple hundred dollars and some learning time with Select. But with full you get access to keypads. I now have three and they work great. If you think you want keypads, go full. You can move from Select to full and use the same dimmers (about the only Lutron upgrade possible in their entire line). You have to buy the new controller(s) and re-program the system.

Also, I don't believe (but I am not sure) that the default dim level can be changed for Select. I think it's like Caseta - goes to 100. Hubitat can help to mitigate that, though.

Note for the full RadioRA 2 system there are 2 levels: Essentials and Inclusive. Essentials training is free and on-line. You get 100 devices on the system. Inclusive is a step up and requires paid, live training. You get access to 200 devices with some additional device types. The software is the same. It is actually pretty good, better than most HA programs. It is easy to use.

The wiring installation is pretty much exactly the same for all the Lutron systems. All have dimmers that do and don't require neutrals. But dimmers with neutrals avoid many low-load and other light issues.

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I have had good luck with Zooz Zen23 Toggle switches on Smarthings. I just ordered by Hubitat hub so I cannot confirm they are compatible yet, but they work great with 3 way setups and you don't have to replace the other switch in the 3-way setup. You retain the normal non-automated functionality, keep the toggle look and feel and they are pretty simple to install.

It is quite possible to do RadioRA 2 on your own, speaking from experience. There is some learning curve, but Lutron's online training is good (and free). RA2 has the most designer choices when it comes to colors for wall plates, keypads, etc. Engraving for keypad buttons is included in the price. All of Lutron's range specs are super conservative, and the actual devices exceed the stated range. Repeaters are available for greater distances. This is by far the best radio technology available for home automation (fixed repeater on licensed frequency vs mesh network subject to lots of interference on unlicensed frequencies). This same technology, Lutron Clear Connect, is also used in Caséta and RA2 Select. You can't go wrong with this product.

All of these Lutron systems are fully integrated locally with Hubitat Elevation, using your LAN. It is possible in each case to get beyond Lutron's arbitrary device count limitations by adding additional Main Repeaters, or RA 2 Select bridges, or Caséta bridges (SmartBridge Pro), and doing the integration of these in Hubitat. They remain distinct systems on the Lutron side, but fully integrated on the Hubitat side. For example, a Caséta Pico in one Lutron system can control a Lutron device (or Z-Wave/Zigbee) in another system via Hubitat.

I have a mix of RA2 and Z-Wave lighting in my house, all seamless through Hubitat. I use RA2 motion sensors (called Occupancy Sensors), as they offer 10 year battery life. There is never a glitch with Lutron stuff, which cannot be said of Z-Wave or Zigbee.

There are a couple of built-in apps specifically to support RA2 keypads. Also, Scenes allow integration with Lutron Scenes. Lutron Scenes can be setup on the Lutron system (for RA2, RA2 Select and Caséta), and then controlled from Hubitat and combined into a hybrid Scene in Hubitat with other devices.

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Thank you for all of your responses. It appears I need to do more research on this. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction

@csteele ... I just pulled the trigger on a Qubino ZMNHAD3, will PoC it on a little-used light switch. What's the current driver recommendation btw?

That's a single relay, so just a Generic Zwave Switch should be fine. :slight_smile:

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There are two types of dimmers for the Caseta line. One has four buttons, and as I understand it, starts at 100% if you hit the top button. The other (sometimes described as "pro," and designed to control electronic low voltage lighting) is more expensive but looks exactly like a Pico remote, with a round button in the middle. If you push the round button instead of the top button, the light turns on to your programmed favorite dimness.

That Lutron model is PD-5NE - you can see the models here: Caséta Wireless - System Design

Lutron calls it a "favorite" button.

I looked at those so they would match the picos....they're $100 each. I didn't get them. :slight_smile:

Does seem a little expensive . . .

I read most of this thread. I could have missed it but hoping someone can give suggestion with these requirements:

  • Must work if hub or internet is down (no compromise for WAF on this one)
  • Need to be able to control dimmers at the switch (might be able to get away without this one if the dim level remains )
  • Right now we have the just the toggle switches no decora style ones. So they gotta match. Might be able to switch out to decora style
  • 2 different places I would like to use 3 ways and no change out the dumb switch from the 3 way.

Thanks for suggestions

Most in-wall switches will still work if the hub (with physical control only, of course) or Internet (not a problem at all for Hubitat unless for some reason your automation needs to go out to the cloud, and even then...) is down, except in the rare event you have a switch that supports disabling the relay and chose to do that for some reason (most don't, and you probably wouldn't anyway unless you were controlling smart bulbs or something where you wanted the load to stay "on" in the electrical sense).

If you have three-way switches and don't want to swap out the third, Inovelli (unfortunately currently mostly/all out of stock but well-reviewed) and ZooZ are two brands I'm aware of that allow you to keep an existing, second three-way switch (GE, HomeSeer, and others require an add-on/companion switch, though in some cases you may get more functionality like mutli-tap features available then; Lutron has some that can keep the second switch, but I've only used ones in their Maestro line and am not sure if it's true for Caséta, where they just recommend you replace the second switch entirely with a mounted Pico remote--an option no matter what you use, by the way).

Most smart switches and dimmers are the rocker/paddle/decora variety, but there are some toggle ones out there. Inovelli and ZooZ both have some, as does GE and probably others. ZooZ is probably the only one in stock right now that meets your requirements. I'm assuming your preference for matching is purely aesthetic and that you're aware that you can get wall plates in pretty much any toggle and/or decora combination (personally, I did end up swapping a lot of toggles out for decorator switches because I'm using Eaton screwless wallplates and they don't seem to make ones with one toggle and one decora, but regular, visible-screw plates are out there in pretty much any combination).

Good luck!

Energy Avenue has them for $80, still too much, but if you want several the savings could be serious.

how does this work? Do I have to add the scenes from the lutron integrator first?

Lutron supports scenes in their app. First you set those up. Then you include the SmartBridge in the Lutron Integration as a keypad (it has Id 1). From the integration report in the Lutron app, you can see the "phantom" button assigned to each scene. There are 100 phantom buttons available. This will guide how you use the "keypad" to activate these scenes.

Now, in the Scenes app there is an option to press a button upon Scene activation. That can be one of those Lutron phantom buttons. This is how you include a Lutron scene in a Hubitat Scene.

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